Kinder Winter White-out

I love walking in proper winter weather; not the usual winter weather we get in the UK – the drab, miserable, grey, wet and windy stuff that covers the country from October to March, but the rare Alpine winter days that are calm, clear and biting cold. We get so few of these each year that they become much sought after and remain in the memory for a long time when you do get them. Last weekends walk wasn’t one of them unfortunately, although for about 20 minutes I thought it may turn into one.

My good friend and walking companion Chris Pilgrim (@PilgrimChris and www.pilgrimchris.com) and I took a wander up onto Kinder last weekend, hoping to find a high wild camp spot for the night, to commune with the clear winter skies and to experience the first winter camp of the year. The photos below tell the story of the day and the little video below them show off Chris’s creative talents and include some of his photos into the bargain.

The morale of the story is “be prepared”. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Even with what felt like hurricane force winds, zero visibility on the summit, night falling and disappointment dragging at us, we still made some good decisions and made our way safely down the hill to comfort and beer.

Thanks to Chris for creating and sharing the video below – his YouTube channel is here

2 thoughts on “Kinder Winter White-out”

  1. Looks pretty bleak, I can see the sense in retreating for a pint in a warm pub!! Great photos and videos by the way. What camera did you use? The zoom out from the helicopter was quite surprising to see what detail you were getting from that distance away.

    1. Thanks! We had fun, despite the disappointment. The long zoom on the helicopter was done with my Pamasonic Lumix TZ27 (a variant of the TZ30, with GPS) Most of the shots were taken with that camera, except when the weather went bad and I switched to my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 inside a waterproof Aquapac case. Chris’s photos were all taken with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

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