Home for the night

The Eastern Fells of the Lake District are a special place - wilder & less glamorous than the central fells - its possible to head IntotheHills (see what I did there, lol) on a glorious weekend and see barely a soul.
Heading out with Young Matt, today's destination was Mosedale Cottage - a remote (by Lake District standards) bothy - in this picture its tucked into the trees in the top right corner. Carrying full winter assessment packs, plus 5kg of fuel for the stove each it was slow & hard work - but with views like this for 360degrees it was worth the effort. We got into the bothy in about 4 hours - dropped packs from our aching backs & put a brew on.
Then refreshed we headed out to practise contour only navigation in the snow - hard going as it was deep - but not consolidated enough to support our weight - so counting paces, aiming off & taking back bearings - all the while looking our for the streams, tarns & marsh hidden under the snow meant that by the time we made it back into the bothy we were shattered. Which made it even nicer that the team that had come in after us already had the stove roaring & the kettle on - as Matt is often heard to say when we're in the hills, "good times".