Early morning light in Newlands Valley
This weekend the majority of the ITACE team made the long drive north for a training weekend in the Lake District. The wet and windy weather of the last few weeks had given way to blue skies and sunshine - perfect conditions to train for an Antarctic crossing although we suspect Ian was happy with a dose of sunshine as he's heading south with Ran Fiennes in a couple of months for a winter Antarctic traverse as part of the Coldest Journey expedition.
Saturday saw us walking into Borrowdale over the top of Walla Crag. After an 'important meeting' at Shepherds Cafe we spent the afternoon hanging around on some string looking at crevasse rescue and abseiling. The midges eventually drove us away and we found our way up to Millican Dalton's cave in the dark for a bivi. The following morning we shouldered our loads for the climb over Cat Bells and down into Newlands Valley. Our final activity was a descent of Stoneycroft Ghyll which provided plenty of fun and a few bruises!
Ian topping out on Brown Slabs at Shepherds Crag
ITACE 2014 Team Training from Mountain Zac on Vimeo.
