Birks

While scouting around Ullswater yesterday I noticed the hills around Helvellyn still had snow.
The weather was forecast good today so the option today was get into the hills or head back to Brampton for more house decorating.. Jess didn't need much persuasion.
There is a Wainwright "Birks" which we missed the summit of in 2015 when descending from a loop around Helvellyn, the idea today was to tick Birks off on the way up to St Sunday Crag. 
We decided to take a direct route straight over Birks and the on to St Sunday Crag and down to Grisedale Tarn for a loop of about 8 miles.
This way if I ran out of power and we needed to turn back hopefully I would be able to make Birks at least. In the event we summited Birks and then made it to St Sunday Crag before detouring to bag Gavel Pike before cutting short. It was a hard climb in the snow, Yaktrax took care of the icy sections but when we went through the crust the snow was knee deep in places and made for difficult going. The temperature in the wind was sub zero,  I could only uncover my fingers for a few seconds before they were seriously painful and unusable so photography was limited.
A tough day but pleased I could make it : 6.6miles & 2500ft ascent
Blip is the view from St Sunday Crag looking towards Cofa Pike on the left and Dollywagon Pike on the right. 
Extra, looking back on the ascent up from Birks, our tracks on the snowy crust.