Encouraged by our previous expedition to Whernside, Verdes decided to make best use of the snowy weather this weekend and traipsed back to the Dales to tackle PyG. 
Adventurers on this excursion were Tommo, Mad Dog, Bolt-on and Dicko. Sadly Speirsy, Queen of the desert couldn't make the return match as he was 'on call'. We weren't quite sure what this meant but presumably he made some money at it in spite of the bad weather and the lack of shelter behind the bus station.
Our sherpa, Bod Beag, couldn't make it either as he had chipped a nail and couldn't get a baby sitter, so we had to carry our own gear.
The roads over to Horton in Ribblesdale were ok, but the high winds were causing the white stuff to drift; no problem for the adventure wagon though and, giving the middle digit to the greenies, Tommo skillfully carved out a route to get us safely on site.
As we climbed ever higher, the wind got ever stronger and it was really blasting into your face across the moors. As we got on to PyG proper and started on the scrambly bit, the wind combined with icy conditions underfoot to make the ascent both arduous and dangerous.
The aforementioned wind must have been gusting at around 60mph and with temperatures of -6 degrees, it made for a cool trip to the top.
Ginger is probably reading this and saying either:
'ice, -6 degrees, 60mph winds... it was a viking day Davie..go for it!' or...
'bloody morons....I had nothing to do with training him'
...hopefully the former!
We didn't take any snaps at the top (too cold) and decided to beat a hasty retreat via the west side of the mountain. But now we had the full effect of the wind on our right hand side and it was threatening to blow us over.
Time for a Verdes solution.
To our left was a steep slope with a good runout that looked like it would be good to slide on. Emboldened by last weeks tactics on Whernside, it was decided to launch ourselves down this slope and 'see what happened'.
All very technical stuff.
Ensuring we all had a breaking mechanism (Davie's walking poles...and its still broken Dicko!) we took the plunge over the edge and sledged on our rear ends for a good 50m down the steep west face.
A quick(ish) jaunt through thigh deep snow brought us to the path and we used this to get back to Horton.
The cafe was open and the bacon butties and mugs of tea very therapeutic.
A classic Verdes day out; adventure and therapy all in one package.
Davie
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