The weather since late November had been dreadful from a backpacker’s viewpoint, only a handful of isolated good days and never more than one at a time, the rest being formidably wet, windy or both. Here at last was a sunny cold forecast and the conditions were excellent on this trek, the highlight being a fantastic pitch on Pen Llithrig y Wrach with turbulent skies at dusk and a very cold clear night of thick crunching frost beneath a gleaming moon.

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Our backpacks tailed off markedly last year due to other projects, poor weather and stuff happening, let’s hope for more in 2012. At least we started the year today with a very quick walk before the rain rattled in, just a short local outing from home on the deserted country lanes but a pleasant tonic after our voluntary incarceration over Christmas. Not much in the way of training though, the Cheshire plain near Jodrell Bank is flat as a pancake. It’s not photogenic at all and the morning was pretty gloomy, but on the right is the only picture we captured, a lake near one of the lanes.

This narrow slot of fine weather turned out to be a curious mix for November: a chilly northerly stream yet very warm in the sheltered sunshine and a much colder night than expected. The tent was stiff with thick frost and the attractive pools on Gledrffordd were frozen on the superb morning traverse in the warm calm air. The northerly flow had polished the views to excellent clarity, only to be quickly eradicated by an all-enveloping mist by afternoon.

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The clarity was excellent on the first day giving pin-sharp landscapes and distant clear views, culminating in a superb night at Moel Llyfnant, the third time I’ve pitched here. A haze developed overnight and the light breeze died completely by dawn, prompting a very swift striking of camp to mitigate a midge onslaught and a fast return to base. The area was deserted for the whole trek.

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After weeks of unseasonally wet and stormy weather in May, we seized this 3-day slot of breezy but very warm sunny conditions, ideal for backpacking the vast spacious grasslands of the Elenydd where the song of the skylark fills the air almost constantly and red kites soar overhead and glide effortlessly into the distance.

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The northern section ascends in the shadow of the southern Mamore mountains to Loch Eilde Mòr and the wild landscape north of Blackwater, descending via Loch Chiarain to Loch Treig.

The eastern section heads over to Loch Ossian and ascends to join the old Road to the Isles, a good track traversing the flanks of Carn Dearg to Loch Eigheach and Rannoch.

The southern part follows the footpath from Rannoch to Glencoe, ascending through the forest above Loch Laidon and traversing the lower flanks of the Black Corries with views over the wilderness of Lorn.

The westerly return to Kinlochleven uses the fragment of the West Highland Way (WHW) that ascends the Devil’s Staircase for a fine view of the Mamores from the old military road around the flanks of the hills above the River Leven.

Easter holiday week would not be our choice for the long journey to Scotland for a backpack, but the forecast was too good to miss. The warm dry spell had already brought out the crowds in many areas, but on this route we saw only a handful of people in the first two days and none at all on the third. Only when we met the WHW at Glencoe did they appear by the score, but we expected that!.

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The outward route heads along the Derwent valley to ascend past the osprey viewpoint in Dodd Wood and climb Skiddaw via the Ullock Pike ridge, a better and more interesting ascent than the laborious direct line up the south face of Carl Side, then leaves the multitudes to head out to Lonscale Fell and the Burnt Horse ridge.

The second day traverses the Caldbeck Fells from Great Calva to Carrock Fell and crosses the Caldew valley to ascend to the Blencathra massif via Bowscale Fell. The route ends with an excellent easy scramble up Sharp Edge to the main summits, returning to Keswick via Roughten Gill and the Cumbria Way along the flanks of the Glenderaterra valley.

A high pressure zone signalled another chance to slot in a Lake District backpack just before the Easter weekend, although the holiday had aready started for some and a few spots were relatively busy, notably Skiddaw but that’s par for the course. The conditions changed from a cold brisk wind at the start to calm, hot weather at the end with a very thick haze.

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The Coniston fells are separated from the bulkier south-western range by a high 393m col at the summit of the Wrynose Pass, and a backpack route linking them is a mouthwatering prospect that I started to plan a couple of years ago. There were several possibilities for the ascent from Coniston and the continuation after Bow Fell, but for this circular route I chose the direct ascent to the Old Man and a mainly low-level return on the Cumbria Way.

This fine weather slot was the perfect opportunity for a Lakeland backpack before the Easter invasion with a contrast of conditions: the first day was the tail end of a cold very windy spell and the remainder was calm and very warm indeed for early April, but with good clarity and fine views.

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A high pressure area established itself over southern Britain and signalled a fine weather slot for my second backpack on Dartmoor, but this time the views were very thick and hazy despite the fresh chilly wind on the high moor, the photos needing much processing to bring out the desaturated colour and detail captured in the raw images. This would be a trip to appreciate the local detail and wild atmosphere of the moor rather than the broad vistas.

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The forecast predicted a cold, dull cloudy high pressure area with the best prospect of some sunshine in north Wales, conditions that might favour an inversion with a bit of luck. It came true in splendid style: a superb inversion first seen from my frostbound pitch on the SE ridge of Carnedd Llewelyn and almost unbroken sunshine thereafter with excellent clarity above the mist.

This twilight zone between seasons presents interesting choices when packing kit: I expected to encounter Winter and Spring conditions in close proximity and so it proved to be. I needed all my layers in the windswept clag on Llewelyn and an Exped Downmat for the frozen pitch, but the sun gained real strength and warmth in the sheltered valleys and the small pools in the tracks were already liberally endowed with frogspawn.

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