A great day out with some friends I went to the Himalaya with from the previous November in 2008, Ian and Lorraine Brookes. Sue Jeffrey, whom I'd met at the Adventure Peaks meet 2 weeks previously also joined from Dumfries for the day. I walked into Keswick to meet Sue, from the youth hostel at Derwentwater (Barrow House Bay) which is now no longer a YHA hostel sadly. Anyway, me and Sue met up at Booth's supermarket and then headed out to Braithwaite at the high car park just outside of the village. Ian and Lorraine joined us there, and we were soon out and up on Grisedale Pike, enjoying the crisp and clear conditions with a touch of frost underfoot. Great views down over Keswick and out east toward Blencathra and Skiddaw, and the Helvellyn Ridge......It was sunny for pretty much the whole day, a little bit of wind to chill us out a bit on the tops, but nothing too noteworthy to mention. From Grisedale Pike we took the natural line of the ridge to Hopegill Head, and from there went down and over Sail, past Coledale Hause and up the valley towards Grasmoor where we had lunch at the top behind the shelter. The views down to Buttermere were superb, but we didn't hang about too much because it was still quite cold after sitting down for 10 minutes or so. So from there we pushed on back down the same route and then back up the motorway of a path to the top of Crag Hill. Crag Hill is also a great viewpoint, and its quite atmospheric especially when viewing the elegant ridge leading across Sail - the ridge itself is not too scary unless its covered in ice and you dn't have crampons on of course, but it does also offer another very good and well recommended place to stop and take in the Newlands fells. Usually I would go on towards Causey Pike after Sail, but Ian and Lorraine didn't have too much time to spare, so instead we took the lower level route across Stile End and High Moss, which lead quite conveniently straight down to the church in Braithwaite. Another very memorable and beautiful day out in the Lakes.
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