Elvish staircase, Lake, 59.

Cloudy start, but forecast promised a good day, so set off up the valley towards Lake Crucible, an hour over easy flat grass, then 2 river crossings, bit chilly as the water was glacier half a mile up the valley. Left turn, then very steeply up the valley side, all on tree-roots like a thousand foot Elvish staircase, through the wonderful silver beech. The leaves are tiny and thicker than our beech, the bark like a cross between cherry and silver birch when young, changing to a beech-pine cross as it matures. The normal lush mosses and sprinkling of birds. Another river crossing as we came out of the woods to a scrubby archetypal glacial valley, the morraine hiding the lake looked quite close, until we started walking up again!  A steep up, then Wow, Blue lake, small glacier (icebergs earlier in the year) and towering grey cliffs on 3 sides. We had it almost to ourselves, Chris who's been at our hut for the last couple of nights had disappeared for a swim, then came back and made tea. Watched a friendly rock wren then spent an hour photographing insects, including a bright green Alpine cicada.
Oh, and 59... skinny dipped in total privacy behind a rock as I didn't want to walk down in wet undies!