Catstye Cam North West Ridge

An early start hoping to make the best of a deteriorating forecast.
We were delayed out of the high car park by the presence of 20 Mountain Rescue Search Dogs on a training exercise - awesome to see & be around.

Our target for the day was the North West ridge of Catsye Cam - here on the left of the picture - but even starting early this was to be the last of the blue sky we saw today - by the time we were at the foot of the ridge proper the sun had gone & icy snow showers (graupel to those who like to know these things) were blasting us as the wind gusted to 40mph. Progress was slow - the first proper winter outing of the year for Matt combined with the lack of consolidation in the snowpack meant that each step upwards was hard won - odd for a route which would normally be a jolly outing - but in Winter conditions are everything.
We stopped around the 800m contour for an early lunch & to try & sit out the worst of the squalls - once again the 2 man superlight shelter proved its worth - refreshed & rewarmed we blasted on to the top. By now Hellvelyn had disappeared from view totally & the wind was really picking up - so all that was left was to commiserate with the young lads that had just dropped their group rucksack down the gully they'd climbed & head back to the car.