Not quite what I expected!

A couple of days ago the leader of one of the U3A walking groups sent an email asking if anyone was available to help recce a walk she was planning for mid April. Given that the group are almost all over 60 I thought this would be a fairly benign experience and volunteered. We headed up the copper mines valley, past Levers Water to Swirl Hawse from where the adventure began. We scrambled up Prison Band in the snow with no discernible path to the summit of Swirl How, waded through up to 2 feet of snow in zero visibility as we progressed over the ridge to Brim Fell Rake and then the summit of Coniston Old Man before finally strapping on the crampons to descend via a very icy quarry route to Coniston. Suffice to say they breed those 3rd agers tough up here.