Winter meet

Hello guys,

I have recently been on my first winter trek and I don't think I have seen so much snow  in my life. But first lets start with the beginning of my journey which started as usual from colliers wood. I left home on that Friday at around 10.30-11am and there was barely any traffic at all. I reached Leicester at around 13.30 that day which actually was not bad at all, until I encountered this endless queue of cars on the M1. I think I had only about 60-70 miles to reach destination and I'm used to being stuck in traffic, well guess that was not just any normal traffic, the M1 had been closed because of some accident. Yup it took me nearly 10 hours to reach Pindale farm that evening, I was on the verge of a mental breakdown, thinking of turning back, but luckily I stuck with it. The relief on my face when I reached the farm and went to the pub to meet the guys. Lets get back to that winter meet, it was nice meeting up with the usual bunch again as well as meeting new hikers. That night I got the pub, I managed to get only one pint of  'Apple Juice' as some of the guys, who managed to get there earlier, had finished the whole stock, so I had to switched to the Farmer's Blonde, we got back later on and kept on chatting in the bunkhouse to catch up and as well to finalise where we were hiking the next day.

As we got there we started getting our kits ready:

Then we started our trek and as you can see there was a bit of snow, but the further we went, the more snow we saw:

 

After a while we got to the point where it was uphill, quite steep and slippery (wish I had some type of snow crampon, the trekking type of course):

 After a while of ascent, we decided to stop for lunch and as well to enjoy the fantastic view:

 

 This was my first winter trek and never had I seen so much snow, but guess what that could easily one of my most enjoyable trek. I was so beautiful and silent up there (which reminded me of the song enjoy the silence by Depeche mode). It didn't feel like I was in the Peak District, which to me seemed just as good as being trekking abroad.

All I can say is that it was worth the traffic jam, really beautiful up there with the snow and I thanks the guys that were present for having organised it, a big thank you to everyone.