On approaching the hill, I was immediately struck by the amount of snow still on the ground, I climbed the hill recently with Geoff in the snow, although we had not had as much snow and it was daylight.
The car park had just about enough grip to risk using it alone, so I parked at the foot of the hill facing the exit.
The normal route that we use comprises of a very steep ascent upto the summit followed by a moderate decent and finally a long moderate ascent back towards the car park. As I started up the summit climb my chest felt very tight,(ManFlu) and I felt a little nervous about making it to the summit, I was surprised at how easy it was on my lungs but even more surprised at how hard it was on my legs, the snow had become so compacted with all of the snowboards, sledges, tea trays and what ever else people had used to launch themselves down the slope of the newest winter sports resort in West Berkshire, that it was not possible to walk up it without super powers.
With this in mind, I decided to walk at the very edge where the snow had drifted, this was ok but very tiring due to the depth of snow, on reaching the summit I had a sudden realisation that something was missing, Snow!, instead of a scene akin to that of a "Christmas Card" , I was confronted by a dark and intimidating land resembling something out of Aliens.
It then started to snow heavily and I suddenly thought of the car park, oh shit, was I going to be stuck here for the night??
I decided that more haste was required but with the wind numbing my face and the snow drifts of upto 40+ inches, progress back to the car very slow and painful, having said that, I really enjoyed it and managed to complete the circuit in 55 minutes, as a bonus, it had not snowed since I had been gone...
Heres to the next one in a couple of days.
f47boy
http://twitter.com/f47boy
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