A super day out with six keen beans introducing them to the delights of winter walking.
The day started off a bit damp, but thankfully as we reached Red Tarn this stopped. We managed to cover walking in crampons, walking with an axe, avalanche awareness and lots of chat about planning such a day.
Ground conditions report: The snow has pretty much disappeared from many of the north Western fells (seen when driving home) and Western facing slopes are pretty stripped.
The snow that we encountered today, probably from 450m was very wet and heavy. The paths were running with water too. The freezing level felt like it was above the summits but the windchill was certainly adding making it feel much cooler in the gusts.
If it freezes tonight (as forecast) the snow pack will become very hard, making crampons and an ice axe essential.