Stolly's Running Blog: Second Bob Graham Round recce of the year

The third leg of the Bob Graham Round is one tough cookie, covering about 16 miles and 15 of the required 42 summits all told. Its also covers the high central boulder strewn core of the Lake District including Bowfell, Scafell Pike and Scafell. Yesterday me and a rag tag troupe of other potential Bob Grahamees and hangers on set out to run the first 9 peaks of this stretch, from Dunmail Raise to Bowfell, before dropping down into Great Langdale and the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub (of course).

The starting line up was 9 runners and 3 dogs -> me, Harry (dog 1), Simon, Bill, Simon and Bill's mate I can't remember the name of, Kev, his dog (Zing? Ing?) (dog 2), his friend Martin(?), Roy, Roy's little staffie Spot (dog 3), and Nigel and Pat. Not all were destined to make it all the way round!

Dunmail Raise is a lay-by a couple of miles north of Grasmere on the A591 to Keswick. And directly west of that was our first steep climb of the day up Steel Fell. We all managed to scoot (cough) up Steel Fell in good order and, from there, it was a lovely grassy run down to Calf Crag before another steady climb up to our third peak of the day Sergeant Man. Yesterday the weather was absolutely stunning (good enough for me to wear shorts in fact) although there was still snow showing on the high tops. It was also very cold and icy. We had no navigation issues and breezed over from Sergeant Man to High Raise, dropped down over Thunacar Knott, up Harrison Stickle and then over to Pike o'Stickle, which has a stunning, towering view over Great Langdale below.

It was at Harrison Stickle that our first problem of the day arose; we'd somehow left Spot the staffie behind... although we could soon see him half a mile back running in confused circles looking for us. The first Spot rescue mission of the day was undertaken and he was soon brought back safely into the fold. Descending from Pike o'Stickle our second problem arose with Pat turning an ankle on the rocky descent; it was decided that she should take the first available route back to Langdale and, together with Nigel her other half, they swerved off down Stake Pass as we commenced the climb up towards Rossett Pike under Black Crags. And at the top of that climb the third (but far from final) problem of the day arose with Roy pulling a hamstring! We then all made our way over Rossett Pike and dropped down to the valley beyond, only to find that Spot had gone missing again! The second Spot rescue mission was undertaken and again we got Spot safely back - the poor little cutie with his stumpy little legs obviously found it hard to keep us all in sight! Anyway Roy with his hamstring together with Spot bailed at this point, heading down the Rossett Gill track back to Langdale, and we were now down to 6 runners and 2 dogs!

All we now had to do was 'whiz' up the last climb up to Bowfell before being able to call it a day and drop down the Band (a ridge line off the east side of Bowfell) back into Langdale and the now much anticipated Old Dungeon Ghyll pub. Martin had seen us coming back with Spot and had headed off in front of us on the (then still visible) trod to Bowfell and we therefore thought that Kev and Zing/Ing(?) were doing the same, perhaps a little ahead of Martin and out of sight. 400 yards later, when we caught up with Martin, we suddenly realised that no, Kev had not gone ahead, and that he'd gone off at another tangent looking for Spot and hadn't returned. We then decided to rescue Kev by shouting loudly for him and whistleling and shortly he appeared by Rossett Pike and trotted to catch us up. Phew we thought, no more problems now....

We were about 9 miles into our run at this point at a height of about 2,000 feet. The Bowfell summit was only half a mile away but 900 feet above us and, rather than go the long way round that walkers use via Angle Tarn, the BGR route is to take a trod (aka sheep path) that takes a much more direct diagonal line below Hanging Knotts straight towards the summit. Our trod though soon disappeared under banks of ice and snow and we were therefore forced to take the best line we could find. And as we got higher the snow banks became bigger, steeper and the drop behind us sheerer, with loose rocks in places not exactly helping things. After a while we figured that we were probably taking too low a line and we decided to try going straight up, rather than diagonally, and just get to the top. This led to some real fun and games kicking out steps into the snow banks in order to climb up them. I didn't find this too bad (the grips on my fell shoes really helped) and neither did Simon and we eventually crested onto the top ridge line - unfortunately the other surviving 4 members and 2 dogs in our team had much more difficulty. Harry my collie got stuck and Kev's dog wouldn't go on either. Kev and Zing/Ing therefore decided to back track down to Rosset Gill and then there were 5..... and one stuck Harry.

Simon and I could hear the survivors struggling up and swearing (about us?) and after a while they eventually crested, with Martin in particular really shook up by the climb. Harry though was still stuck 50 yards below and out of sight. I then went on the final rescue mission of the day back down some flipping dodgy ice walls (it seemed much worse going down hill), found Harry (who was so pleased to see me) and we then climbed back to the top. Soon after we were all over Bowfell and safely trotting back to the pub. 5 runners and 1 dog surviving out of the starting line up of 9 and 3.

What a magnificent day in the hills! The pint of Yates Best Cellar wasn't bad either.