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.
David Waide
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