All was quite at The Mill Inn when I passed, well it was still only 7am!

Looking back along the road towards the village, it was still a bit too dark for photos

But the eastern sky was brightening quickly

The first hint of orange on the distant clouds meant it wouldn't before the sun would be appearing

I still needed the flash for a Tim photo though

The sun just about to break over the top of the clouds

At last the sun, just as I was about on top of Souther Fell

The first rays of the morning sun catching the upper slopes of The Tongue

What a wonderful view of Blencathra

I could have sat there for ages looking at it, but it was freezing cold, so I kept walking to keep warm

But there were loads of photo stops along the way, it was far to nice not to take them

The one thing these photos don't show is how strong the wind was early yesterday, it was so strong that it blew my tripod over!

Bannerdale Crag and Blencathra from the cairn on Souther Fell. This isn't the highest point on Souther Fell, but what a beautiful spot for a cairn. The wind had started to ease off a bit by now so I had the first coffee stop of the day here.

Sorry, the view was just far too nice!

My ascent route up onto Blencathra would be over Scales Fell, the ridge on the left in this photo, it's a nice steady climb

Though Sharp Edge did look very tempting

Looking back at Souther Fell as I started the climb up Scales Fell

On the ridge of Scales Fell proper now, and I had it all to myself today

it's a very popular route so I was surprised only to met a couple of fell runners, who were on their way down!

Looking across at Sharp Edge

and at Bannerdale Crags with Bowscale Fell behind it

The visibility was really good today, I could easily pick out the snowy capped peaks of the Pennines in the distance

A glimpse of Scales Tarn

Approaching the final zig zags, lots more snow here, which Tim was enjoying!

On the summit path, looking across to Atkinson Pike

A rather cold looking summit of Blencathra, where's the sun gone?

Looking back down onto Scales Fell

Well at least the distant Skiddaw was getting the sun even if we weren't

Looking south across the snowy Lakeland peaks

and the view to the west

Skiddaw from the frozen tarn as we headed for Atkinson Pike

and from the white memorial cross, not so distinct today with all the snow

Skiddaw from the first cairn on Atkinson Pike

Tim leading the way to the second cairn, where we would start making our descent

There were some great ice formations on the cairn

Looking back up at Atkinson Pike, coming down this section had been no fun,  plenty of frozen scree and snow to cope with

Another view of Skiddaw, with some snow topped Scottish hill in the distance on the right

Heading towards the col between Bowscale Fell and Bannerdale Crags

Looking back at Atkinson Pike and Foule Crag

Footprints in the snow

Heading along the path around the top of Bannerdale

I had planned to go over Bowscale Fell before descending to Mungrisdale village. But by now I starting to lose the feeling in my feet so I decided to cut the walk sort a wee bit and headed down into Bannerdale

Looking back up at path that I used for my descent

Finally back at the village hall in Mungrisdale after another great walk, lets hope for another few like this during the winter?