After Saturday's fabulous run around the 4 lakeland passes in almost warm alpine sunshine (I even got a tan) yesterday me, Hester, Harry, Andrew and Stef went up higher onto the Helvellyn ridge line from Threlkeld and gave ourselves a damned good icy wind thrashing.
We were originally planning to follow the leg 2 BGR route out to Helvellyn or even Nethermost Pike, before returning the same way we went up, but it was darn tooting cold up there exposed to a fairly unremitting wind, with the snow not making the running/trudging any easier, so we decided to turn back at Stybarrow Dodd. It was still a great outing though, totting up to 12 miles and about 3,500 feet of climb. It was also a grand climax to what turned out to be a 237mile and 39,000 ft month for me.
It was also me, H and H's first weekend's camping of the year...... and yes it was fricking cold, maybe down to -10˚
* on the second night, with Harry's water bowl freezing solid in the tent over night! All part of the fun though.
*Edit: I checked back with the Keswick Weather Station and the temperature only dropped to a 'mere' -5.4˚ overnight on Saturday, and -4.8˚ the night before that. So I was clearly exaggerating saying -10˚. Either way it felt much f-f-frigging colder!
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| Hester bog dodging with Blencathra behind |
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| Harry and again Blencathra |
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| Looking south east(ish) from White Pike |
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| Heading towards the top of Clough Head |
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| Me at the wind shelter on Great Dodd |
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| Looking south from Great Dodd |
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| Stef, Andrew and Harry heading towards Watson's Dodd |
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| Skiddaw and Blencathra on the far horizon from Watson's Dodd |
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| Hester doing her Bedouin thing with her buff and hat |
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| Our frozen tipi |
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