The mountains in the Lake District of Northern England may be small, but they’ve got attitude. Claire and I spent a few days over Christmas doing a few hikes in fresh snow and great weather.

We did a couple of lovely loops, both ridge traverses. The first started and finished at a tiny village called Little Langdale, and took us around the cirque beneath Wetherlam, Swirl How, and the Great Carrs. The second was at a village called Buttermere (by the lake of the same name), up Red Pike, over High Stile and High Crag, and back down to the village.

I do like the names they give to mountains and hills in the UK. Very poetic.