Earlier in the year Linda and I took on a winter mountaineering skills day and what a great experience it was. We set off the week after “The Beast from the East” had battered Britain, so we knew we were gonna get to play in the white stuff. We went a day early to meet up with some friends and get a hike in around Hawkeshead and Windermere. After the 15 mile hike and a beautiful meal in Porta in Bowness we headed back to our guesthouse for a nice early night.
The alarm went off at 5:15am and we both got ready tripping on the big droopy bags under our eyes. We ate our choco-peanut butter overnight oats and set off over Kirkstone Pass to Glenridding to meet up with our group. After we got kitted out we started our ascent up towards Helvellyn via Catstye Cam and we didn’t have to walk far before we were met by the snow.
We continued up past Red Tarn which was totally covered with ice and snow and stopped for out first skills training which was ice axe self arrest. This was fun to learn but if it happened for real I reckon it would be pretty scary stuff. So basically if your making your way up or down a mountain in snow and ice and you fall over and start sliding this manoeuvre is how you would bring yourself to a stop before you slid to far and potentially fell to your death, good to know. We practised this for a while, first on my bum, then on my back and front and finally upside down on my back, every one had a few tries, some successful and some not so and every time we slid down the snow it got faster and faster.
After a lunch break we learnt some climbing and descent techniques using different methods of footwork and the ice axe and once we had all mastered that we set off up quite a steep grade 1 climb using our newly learnt skills all the way to the summit. The weather was awful so the views at the top were none existent but for me it made the whole experience all the more realistic, battling through the conditions with my trusty ice axe like a true adventurer. We walked a bit further before we stopped for some more skills training. This time it was how to dig a hole to sit your backside in and use your body as an anchor when belaying your friend. So if he slipped and end up sliding down the mountain you would end up stopping him but if the hole wasn’t deep enough his weight would pull you out of your hole and you’d both be sliding into the unknown. This of course happened to one of the group much to everyones amusement, he popped out of his hole like a jack in the box and landed in someone else’s hole. After we all had a go at this the clouds lifted a little and we all had a go at bum sliding, this was my favourite part of the day. We slid back down to the bottom on our bottoms, very fast, brilliant!!! We had such a great day with Joe and Dave from All Terrain Adventures and made some new friends along the way. Highly recommended.
Always be prepared in case you go low and carry some glucose tablets but this post just proves even us diabetics can do extreme things without any problems so don’t put things off or let diabetes put you off. Enjoy your life and try new things and have lots of adventures.
