Well no one can say that we don't have excitement in our lives. Our mission was to come, see and conquer, which we did however, it may go down as one of the longest summit attempts in history. We awoke at Coppermines YHA to a heavy mist and the summit completely obscured. Forecast is to improve after midday and at the very least it will be drier. We set off just before 1pm and head down to the main path leader up over the miners bridge. Youngest child immediately decides he is hungry and its a battle to get him to the point where we meet the path from Walna Scar car park - he is too tired and needs energy! Lunch duly eaten its now 2pm and its time to head towards the mine - this caused loads of distraction and the kids of course wanted to explore the area and look at literally every inch of the place. Don't get me wrong its a fab place to explore we just could not get either one to leave we also had to take videos and pictures sliding on cables and hanging on them sloth style! Another hour passes and they are eventually lured out with the promise of chocolate. Onto Low Water. Can I swim? no, Can I paddle?, please? sorry no. over half an hour passes and I manage to persuade the boys to keep their walking boots on and head on up the path. 2 turns of the switchback train and eldest child gets distracted finding an awesome stash of old shovels under a rock. Can he bring them home? nope! A last scramble and we are about 50 metres from the top - youngest child now decides he is afraid of heights the cloud has rolled in again and the view is obscured. Apparently that makes it worse! we hit the summit cairn take a couple of pics, phone battery dies due to cold and the geocache on top is duly signed. We quickly turn round and start to make our way down all thoughts of a snack on the summit abandoned as its now 5:30pm. We get down 100 metres and the sun comes out, there is a beautiful view for miles - typical well we aren't going back up so soak it in from here boys and keep moving. The wind picks up and the descent back to low water starts to get a little chilly. Once we start heading back to the abandoned mine it seems to improve and of course we can't get through the mine without playing on the makeshift slide again but oh oh youngest child somehow ends up in a pile of COLD water and he is freezing - so cold he insists its acid and can no longer walk ever again. In the end to stop someone calling out for Mountain Rescue thinking a child is getting murdered I remove his pants and put MY mac on him so it doesn't look like he is wandering around the Old Man of Coniston in the buff. By this point its probably just after 8pm. We head cross country for the footpath round the back of the quarry and the sigh of relief when our feet hit the road is immense. We then encounter a guy on a motorcycle who seems to be struggling - road bikes and quarries don't mix and after him smugly telling us he will see us on the way down we don't encounter him again till the hostel. He'd fallen off his bike but luckily it was mainly his pride that was injured and nothing physical. We walk through the hostel doors just after 9pm well deserved bottle of wine for me and 2 kids who haven't slept that well in years!