I'm only into my third walk of 2018 and all three walks are already contenders for walks of the year already experiencing almost every different aspect that walking on the Lakeland fells in Winter can throw at you, I feel like I've won the lottery to some degree.

Walking the fells in January is very hit and miss yet 2018 so far for me has been everything I could ask for after my first walk on Skiddaw where we experienced a bright Winter sun from start to finish to last weekends walk when the severe windchill forced us to abandon our original route and then came up with a even better one, yeah I know it doesn't sound that thrilling but you had to have been on therel to fully understand what I mean.

Then there's todays walk, a route that Rod came up with mid week although the original plan was to visit both Great Carrs and Grey Friar but after drudging through knee deep snow for the best part of the morning, sadly time wasn't on our side. The forecasters predicted another fine bright day which fell through at the death leading to what you expect for a bleak January on the hill, low cloud, limited visibility and snow but boy was we rewarded once we gained our first summit.

Coniston is a very popular village providing access to the ever popular Coniston Fells, below is a list of car parks found within the village with exceptions of the roadside parking that I tend to use close to Ruskin Museum where parking is free.

Coniston Tourist Information Centre (Pay and Display) Ruskin Avenue Coniston LA21 8EH SD 303 597 ~ Car Park (Pay and Display) Old Furness Road, Coniston LA21 8HU SD 299 897 ~ Lake Road Car Park (Pay and Display) Lake Road, Coniston LA21 8EW SD 307 097 ~ Roadside Parking, Ruskin Museum, Coniston, Parking is Free LA2 18DW SD 301 597 ~ Car Park, Coniston Sports and Social Centre, Charges Apply LA21 8AL SD 305 397

We had arranged to meet at Coniston Sports and Social Club in the centre of the Coniston, a car park that I had never used before which was suggested by Rod after his last visit where he failed to park alongside the Ruskin Museum some time last year due to the lane being coned of completley. Parking here only adds around a ten minute walk through the village so it was no hardship only having to pay £3.00 for all day parking. I arrived early and started to kit up behind my car noting strangly, the three Heron's on the football pitch behind me. Despite the low morning temperature it feels quite mild but I add hat and gloves if only to save time de-shoudering my pack later. Soon Rod and David arrived and we greet as normal with handshakes. The good news is the snowline is low at around 1,000ft the not so good news is it's murky and grey but that's no hardship either, at least it's dry

£3.00 each lighter we leave the car park, turn left and head into a sleepy Coniston.

Within minutes we are in the village where we were greeted by a waft of cooked bacon, the smell of which was enough to stop us in our tracks, we figured it best not try and find where it was coming from, next Sara's Indian is passed where we glance at the menu in the window, I'm sure I can vouch for David and Rod when I say this but I could never eat a Indian so early in the morning so why right now am I craving one after reading that menu!

Up ahead we head left at the village store just where you can see the red car.

We left the village behind soon passing the Ruskin Museum and to our amazement rows of cars are parked whose owners are kitting up for a day on the fells, this was good news and confirmed that the lane is still open to parking in the future, it's highly likely that when Rod was last here the lane was closed to parking possibly for repairs or an event, either way it was worth the few extra minutes walking for the smell of bacon alone!

The track steadily rises after leaving the road behind and shortly after passing over the familiar cattle grid we found at dead sheep lying at the side of the road, we couldn't see how it had died but figured it had been hit by a car possibly through the night, the poor thing just looked asleep. Miners Bridge is reached where we are overtaken by two fell runners who cross the bridge and head right towards Crowberry Haws.

We had reached the snow line close to the footbridge over Levers Water Beck where we are able to access conditions up ahead. Even here at the footbridge we were stood in a couple of centimeters of soft snow which would only deepen with more height gained. The couple you see in the last photo catch us up here but it's their dog who gets all the attention, they appear to be kitted out for the cold, but not generally the hill if that makes sense.

With Levers Water Beck crossed we begin the steady climb alongside Levers Water Beck, the stone path is completely covered by fresh snow ranging between just a couple of centimeters to sixty - I blaze a trail making sure I keep into the hillside while avoiding the few patches of cornice where I could, I guess it was here I knew we'd be in for a hard, but enjoyable day on the fell.

In only the way that three friends would, I am sarcastically thanked for my hard work!

I mentioned the crossing of Levers Water Beck at the outflow further ahead and the possibility of it being a tad risky with so much water and snow around so instead we cross below the Waterfalls at a narrowing of the Beck, but just prior we also decided to add our crampons owing to my slight slip where David had to recover me by a well timed grab at my back pack, this wouldn't be the last time I would be requiring the swiftness of David's actions!

Despite the snow still being soft underfoot adding the crampons earlier just seemed the right thing to do. On reaching Levers Water we again could access conditions which were deteriorating rapidly with height gained. Back at the YHA Coppermines we could clearly see the summits from the Old Man through to Brim Fell but now we found the cloud was lowing and with it came snow showers.

Our path now follows the east shoreline of Levers Water which as you can see is quite rocky to say the least, it's the type of place you just can't rush especially with snow under foot.

With the cloud at its lowest visibility dropped and we found ourselves in a world of black and white, with only a light breeze and snow falling the whole drama of the walk started to change from here on in, it may look bleak but this is what makes my senses come alive.

Rod spots movement around Cove Beck (seen lower right) two walkers were making slow progress on an alternative ascent of Raven Tor, their jackets just seemed to blend into the background despite their bright colours.

We had only gained around 1,400ft since leaving Levers Water which was hard work sometimes having to trudge through knee height snow for much of the way but with fresh legs it was more entertaining than a challenge (well for now anyway) All three of us would often break through the snow dragging the contents of the bog below with our outward steps but for me I was about to take it one step further.

The snow depth was now between 30 to 60 centimeters, it wasn't uncommon for us to break away 'off path' if only to find patches of grass which for a while took the strain away, in doing this with such deep snow underfoot you don't always know what you are walking over as I found out when my left leg punched through the snow pack right to the top of my thigh leaving my upper body leaning over to the right, I had only fallen into a snow covered stream...all that was left was to pull myself out which I couldn't do because this meant putting hand pressure on top of the snow which still covered the stream, by-eck.

David quickly runs over and once again grabs my pack back while shouting for Rod to grab my right hand, it was over in seconds and despite never being in any danger the worst I would have got would have been a complete soaking which would have probably put an end to my walk.

I sincerely hoped that's the last time I have to call on anyone for help for the rest of the day.

We gathered ourselves still in good stead on reaching the top of Swirl Hawse no doubt helped on by the advancing cloud inversion, at this point we just wanted to reach Swirl How summit where hopefully we would find ourselves above the cloud, but with the swiftness of the advancing cloud we would have to climb like mountain goats and that posed a problem in this snow.

We agreed to ascend Prison Band from the left it being the easier, less rocky route and with this we encountered snow drift amounting to around 60 centimeters in depth which no doubt slowed the whole process of ascent, we would sometimes take turns to lead/blaze trails and each would follow and at other times we found our own 'routes' and soon four fell walkers who we had seen at the summit from Swirl Hawse are passed.

The inversion has now caught up with us leaving us in mother natures hands whether we top out of the cloud or find ourselves within it on reaching Swirl How summit.

We were elated to find that we had climbed through the cloud which infact had started to retreat back into the coves leaving for now, the ridge clear. We at first had to wait for the cloud to clear but this didn't take long which was when we agreed to have a break and maybe break out some lunch. It was a wise decision and with little to no wind the cloud continued to break halting between 500-600ft below. There might have been a severe windchill but the mood was certainly joyful.

We ate lunch stood up and I walloped down two chicken tika wraps which I had bought from the petrol station this morning followed by a sausage roll for afters, David was in heaven again with his oats and yoghurt lunch while the pair of us looked on as Rod sips hot chicken soup from his flask.

We were right not to judge how quickly the cloud was as once again it advances on our position after only leaving Swirl How around fifteen minutes earlier its summit is about to be engulfed by the inversion. It's soon made clear that the cloud inversion is working with air pressure rather than wind speed of which there is little to speak of.

Talking of cloud, it appears that Brim Fell, our next summit is just below it.

We were reminded of our earlier mornings work as we arrived at the shoulder of Brim Fell to be met with more snow drift, some of which was avoidable but it made sense to make a direct ascent no matter the pull on ones calfs. I had the intuition that we were just within the cloud and that just 80ft above our heads, clear skies, we all agreed, sooner or later the cloud had to clear.

We didn't have to wait long.

We arrived at the summit while an organised group of school children numbering around a dozen in total posed at the summit trig point (this photo was taken while they were stood to the left of the trig point) the reason why I couldn't wait any longer was because we had each, camera in hands waited around five minutes to get the shot I wanted so I took it anyway. I don't like to write such things but why is it we are increasingly seeing such bad practice by organised groups on the fells and I'm not referring to the wait for the summit photo but shivering kids wearing nowt but track suit bottoms and school coats while group leaders sip tea from pop up shelters

Moving on.

Okay, we all got frustrated during our not so brief summit time and if we were to save this sinking feeling in the pits of our summits we needed to leave the summit. Did reaching the Old Man tinge what a great day we had, maybe, for the few moments we were there but it was soon forgotten as the sun did its magic and came out for the remainder of the walk.