At Great End I opted for the direct line keeping more to the left than previous days, think I got it spot on today I found a nice little path to the summit but it would be hard to follow in the clag. As we passed over Ill Crag and Broad Crag the number of walkers was increasing. We reached Scafell Pike, for the first time this year, to around two hundred people it was truly unbelievable to see so many people up there. We dropped to Mickledore looking across towards Broad stand, not an option today, to the right Lords Rake covered in snow ,so that was out, our only route to Scafell was to the left and the Foxes tarn route. We refuelled at the mountain rescue box chatting to some Essex boy’s who asked if we were doing the 3 peaks ‘no the Bob Graham’ we said, being southerners they didn’t know what this was, Mickey P soon had them told what we were up to, ‘42 peaks’ they said looking at us in disbelieve.
Foxes Tarn route is a total nightmare, you lose so much height and the climb back up is steep and the rocks are loose, we only lost about 14 mins, but still way too much for a BG attempt, we dropped into Wasdale having lunch next to the footbridge, pasta, rice pudding and a foot spar in the Icy beck, we stopped too long but what the hell it’s a recci day. The thought of climbing Yewbarrow had been praying on my mind for some time and it was as hard as I had imagined, a 50 minute climb followed by another 50 minutes to Red Pike. I started to question my ability to do the Bob Graham, I was finding it tough and my head was spinning, as we climbed I noticed that everyone was feeling it there were big sighs come from all directions, I looked at Mickey, he had his head phones in, the dancing queen was feeling it too, then bingo we reached Red Pike summit and we had picked up around 15 minutes on the two climbs, happy days were here again, I was back on track and I was feeling good again I could have kept on going running , Keswick didn’t seem that far away right now.
Time was ticking on and we were running out of day with still lots to do. I got the map out to see about a different route back to the car. We pushed on through Steeple towards Pillar, the dancing queen had got a new lease of life; he was up front enjoying the climbs and his music. I followed close by pointing out to Andrew some little short cuts that need to be done when I caught a stone sending me hurtling towards the rocky path, a quick dip of the shoulder and into a roll before stopping in a seated position and just a small scratch to the knee. At the base of Great Gable I finished off my last sports drink and downed some flapjack before the last big climb of the day. We kept to the zig zag path until about half way before hanging a left over some large rocks then on to a small path which leads to the summit, a great route up, we climbed Green Gable before turning right down toward Seathwaite, then the gentle run through the valley back to the car before driving into Keswick for fish and chips. As we pulled out of Keswick the daylight was going I never thought we’d been out for so long, sorry to the other halves.
Overall another good day on the fells, with three great lads for company. I think Bob Graham training would be very hard without them. It turned out to be a longer day then I had planned but good to get loads of climbing and time on your feet under my belt. Our pace may have been a little slow but we had way too long for lunch (30min ).
Total: 32miles 12600ft ascent 11hours 25mins 2.6mph ave speed
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