David Waide (M60) - 03 June 2017

Andy and I trotted away from Pooley Bridge in the clear morning light. A few campers stirred as we ran quietly through the campsite and up onto the fell. The air was fresh and I felt the warmth of the sun balance the cool breeze as we climbed the ridge leading to Arthurs Pike. Ranks of fells progressively appeared as we climbed the long ridge to High Street. The mountains looked magnificent in the sun with clouds slowly building, creating dappled shades on the surrounding hills. The pace felt good and I stayed within plus or minus a couple of minutes of schedule all the way to Kirkstone.

I had a very brief stop, grabbed a banana, and chomped my way up the start of Red Screes. Andy swapped empty energy drink bottles for full, and climbed rapidly after me. Leg 2 went very smoothly, landing spot on the planned contour round Dove Crag. I lost a couple of minutes on the Leg and arrived at Dunmail 4 hours 37 minutes after setting out, and five minutes behind my challenging schedule.

Another brief stop, banana grab and hello/goodbye to the support team, saw me climbing steadily up the pronounced trod to Steel Fell. Stewart followed a couple of minutes later having collected the spare gear from Andy. Clouds now filled most of the sky but only kissed the highest summits. Clearly little rain had fallen for some weeks and only the wettest areas were still squelchy underfoot. I still felt good but could feel the fatigue starting to build and having caught back a few minutes to High Raise I lost them again on the climb to Bowfell. The weather stayed dry all day, giving the great benefit of dry rock and helping to regain valuable minutes on each rocky descent through to Scoat Fell. The convoluted descent off Great End was exciting as I was using a five year old memory and a Rob Woodall GPX track. The combination worked well and I gained another minute arriving at Sty Head still five minutes behind schedule.

We then had four minutes of panic. Chris was not to be seen and I had almost finished the energy drink. We started down the path to Wasdale, met Rucha who had walked up to meet Stewart, raided her supplies, and set off up Great Gable stopping to collect more water. It transpired that Yvette had had a very slow road journey and had not managed to rendezvous with Chris. Chris eventually managed to get phone signal and agreed to set off with what food he had. He managed to catch us on the climb up Gable, bringing some of his own energy drink and sustenance. To complete a fantastic recovery by the support team, when Andy arrived at Wasdale Head with Yvette, he set off again, carrying more supplies. He went up Black Sail pass and arrived in time to see us ascending Pillar, heroically catching us by Scoat Fell.

My energy dropped a little more on Leg 4, though I largely compensated by pushing harder with Greendale bridge in mental sight. The conditions continued to be near perfect with only moderate wind, good visibility with the cloud drifting off each summit in turn as we arrived. Compared to 5 years earlier, I lost 4 minutes to Haycock and caught 3 back to Greendale arriving in 11 hours 8 minutes, just 10 minutes slower than in 2012.

Yvette and Rucha were waiting with Joss and we had a great chat, then finished a fabulous mountain day with a pub meal with the brilliant support team.

Enormous thanks to Andy, Stewart, Chris, Rucha and Yvette.