Gumpy and H picked Sudders up from work at 4pm, just as Dimitri was being given a tour of the Fountains Cottage in Keswick.
We headed up a quieter than expected M6 and hit the snow. It started to get a bit tricky as we headed up to the Shap summit, and the A66 from Penrith to Keswick was pretty dodgy. We were grateful to arrive and slip/slide our way to the cottage. We were straight out again for a snowball fight (H's legendary arm proved invaluable!) and straight into the nearest pub for beers and food - until the French waiter refused to serve us food (too late apparently).
We headed onto the next pub for some very interesting live music / miming "in the club style" and very enjoyable Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer.
We finished the evening with a brief visit to a "choc-a-bloc" Loft nightclub and a visit to Pizza Panorama.
The next morning was a struggle for us all, but Gumpy's breakfast certainly helped, as did the fantastic looking snow outside.
We all donned our winter gear with Sudders particularly proud of his new bib tights....
....and Gumpy very pleased with his free mbr snood!
After much faffing, we were away on the road around Derwent Water and soon enough heading steeply uphill towards Watendlath. The first climb was really hard but all ridable thanks to some 4x4s that had made it up before us.
We were soon rewarded with some fantastic views back towards Keswick....
....and we eventually found a snowy viewpoint with amazing views over Derwent Water.
The snow got deeper and deeper as we climbed, and Dimitri took a nasty tumble over a cattle grid....
....He was a bit more cautious as we passed the next one!
We soon reached Watendlath, and briefly stopped on the stone bridge for a breather before heading offroad for the first time on the snowy bridleway.
After a bit of pushing, we were soon descending - and it was tricky to say the least with Gumpy the first to take a tumble....
....followed by Sudders....
....then Dimitri!
We soon got the hang of it though, by getting our weight a bit further back we could get over the obstacles that we couldn't see under the snow. The descent was awesome and we were soon bottoming out at Rosthwaite.
Next was the Honister Pass climb which was even tougher than usual in the snow. We were passed by a landrover that was flying up, and that had most of us off and walking for a spell.
Eventually we reached a cattle grid, with Sudders clearly in need of a rest. A snow plough came flying down the hill towards us as we rested, and the driver stopped to apologise for flying past in the landrover earlier - it was the only way he was going to get up apparently.
Gumpy arrived, and we were soon on our way again. The next offroad section was covered in the deepest snow we'd encountered and we were having to pedal hard to go downhill and push on flat / uphill ground.
Spirits remained high though because the scenery was absolutely stunning!
We eventually reached Castle Crag, and the view opened up over Derwent Water. After a brief chat with some lads out walking and calling us mad, we were descending again towards Grange. This was a fantastic descent, we were all getting the hang of riding on the snow and there were some great sections to enjoy before we reached the river at the bottom of the valley.
After some road riding, we were off road again beneath Cat Bells with more fantastic views over Derwent Water.
After a last bit of road riding, we were back at the cottage. A 3 hour ride had taken us 6 hours in the snow and we were all totally knakkered. It had been a great day - a proper adventure.
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