Here is a little piece on the brasher outdoor day last week from David Newell, who works in customer services:

"Last week, a bunch of us from brasher do what we like to do best, and got ourselves free from the office on our regular quarterly outdoor day.

And as you can see from the photographs, what a day it was, as we experienced all the splendour and adventure of the Via Ferrata at Honister slate mines near Keswick in the Lake District

We set off on a cold day but the wet weather held out until after we completed the climb.

Honisters Via Ferrata is an adventure climbing system that uses permanently fixed cable for safety and protection up the rock face, (which was used by the Victorian miners.)

Via Ferrata is Italian for “iron way” and it is England’s first such structure, but of course, there are many found in the Dolomites and the Alps as a quick scan of Google will confirm.

The owner of Via Ferrata, Mark Weir says: “Honister Via Ferrata is not just a first for the Lake District but the first in England. Not only will this be popular with those looking to make hill walking more exciting and challenging, but it will also introduce people of all abilities to try out hill walking in a completely secure environment with the success of achievement at the end.”

On our trip, the team got clipped onto the cable and started the amazing climb and trek through disused mines and over bridges.

Relaxing over a well earned and much-needed pit at the end of the day, the whole team agreed that this had been a great day, and an outing, (if you've got a head for heights), that we would highly recommend."

Here are some photos of the day from out ever-growing flickr sets: