Fell top conditions report - Nov 17th 2010
Went for a run after work with JP last night. Number One: to get some running done, which has been lacking greatly at the moment, number two: to have a look at the fell conditions for possiblities of climbing/skiing etc. We set off around 5.30 up Nab Scar for a Fairfield round. By the time we came up under but around the summit of Great Rigg there were signs of snow cover. Traversing the west side of the summit brought us into it proper & we were greated by a deep, hard packed snow drift, it has obviously been there for longer than a few days. I was suprised at the amount of cover there was. From then on we ran on 3 to 6" of snow, hard neve in places to the summit of Fairfield. There was a cornice build up on the back of Fairfield & Flinty Grave. The rock was just frosting, leaving it ultra slippy, where exposed, but running on the snow was perfect, being hard packed.
With how it looked on Fairfield, Hart Crag & Dove Crag, the crags on Helvellyn are likely to be holding quite a bit of snow & the top is likely to be corniced, having not been over to the Langdale Range it is hard to predict what it is like around Great End, but there is most possibly snow filling the gully's there as well. With out climbing, and we didn't hang around to test it the ground to see if it was frozen underneath as wind chill was around minus 10, not the best when your minimally dressed, it is hard to say how the conditions are, but I would hazard a guess that Helvellyn, Gable and other higher crags could be coming in condition for winter climbing by this Sunday (21st Nov) and into next week. With storms forecast for the next few days (check out MWIS & Lake District WeatherLine), and then cold dry weather coming in on Sunday & through into next week it looks set for high level ski-touring & winter climbing. A good start, to hopefully, a very good winter to come.
Charlie
