A Day of Two Halves

5 Dallam, 2 COLT

Route: Stonethwaite to High Raise then Legs 3 + 4

A very early start had us stopping at every filling station trying to find one that was open, should have prepared earlier, we messed around a bit driving around Keswick because of the road closures but we arrived at Stonethwaite on time, ready for our 7:30 start, this was to be a gentle warm up. As we climbed, we had thoughts of the chap who was doing an attempt, would we see him? First summit done we pressed on to Thunacar, in the dip we looked across to Sergeant Man and there they where the BG attempt party, just topping out and we seemed to keep that sort of gap from them until Scafell Pike.

Having struggled with food the week before I needed to get it right this week and have a good run out. I had some ham, cheese, malt loaf and flapjack wrapped up in small parcels along with an isotonic drink which I was trying to take on board every 40 -50 mins or whenever we had a small climb to do, this was working well I was feeling good. Each summit came and went on time, we where chatting and joking as we went, which passes the time and summits very quickly, we still had the BG attempt man behind us. Before long we reached Rossett and time to say goodbye to Baz and Mike S, they were turning back down the Borrowdale Valley. Bowfell was again pretty good we seem to have found a good line up, before we started the final climb we passed 3 lads also out on a recci, they quizzed us about our route up, they were well ahead of us and were pretty surprised at how quickly we caught them, maybe they were just slow climbers? We came to Great End, could I find that good line again? Maybe I should have built some cairns last time, this week we did build a few cairns, that’s goner make life easier next time we go that way.

Scafell Pike done and we started the descent we kept on the main path this week, last time we headed too far left of the summit causing us to traverse over some tricky rocks towards Broad Stand, this time we turned a wee bit later which seemed ok but I think we lost some time by doing it. Broad Stand was in front of us all roped up ready for the chap on his attempt. Mick P was first up using the ropes next it was Stuart then Andrew, he was not a happy man, he had fear all over his face but he had little option but to go up so with a few words from the rope men and lot of pushing from me and Tom up he went, that left me and Tom at the bottom but we had to wait, we didn’t want to hold up this chap on his attempt in anyway. Then in a flash up he came onto the rope and a few extra hands from me and Tom, he was gone followed by his two pacers, one was a bit of a girl on the ropes but he got up, that left me and Tom to climb up, pretty easy with a rope in place. We regrouped before topping out allowing the BG lad to get well away from us before the big descent into Wasdale and lunch, pasta, homemade protein shake washed down with a caffeine drink. The skies were closing in and we had a few drops of rain as we started up Yewbarrow.

Yewbarrow is a monster it’s an endless climb so steep it hurts your neck to keep looking up so its head down and think of some thing else like fish and chip in Keswick later or maybe this week I’ll try a pie and peas, no I’ll leave the peas and I’ll have gravy, then before you know it your almost there and just about on time, which depends on where you start from. On Red Pike it started to rain so the coats came out and they stayed on for the rest of the day, we made good time through the next few summits but the weather was grim, we were all getting cold, I just wanted to get back to the car as quickly as I could but we had two big climbs and two small ones to do then as we climbed Kirk Fell the rain stopped but the wind was still around us, we polished off our peaches and pears on Gable before heading down, the last three summits came very quickly before we knew it we were dropping into Honister. We turned right just before the slate mine then headed down the road and back to the car.

Overall a good testing day on the fells, we had good warm weather at the start of the day then it quickly turned wet and cold, was Bob testing us again with the weather? He’s running out of weekends to test us!

Totals: 31 miles, 12100ft ascent, 11hrs 35mins 3.0mph ave speed

The BG attempt chap finished his round touching the doors of Moot hall in 20:59 well done