The St Sunday Blast!

Hello there Dear Reader,

As promised, I attempted the monster 25 miles, 15 peaks marathon on Wednesday 17th April, with Karl, who is doing the 6 peak challenge with me in June. The walk was originally intended for Friday having warmed up for the challenge with a couple of more gentle treks. Also, the weather for Friday is looking really good, with bright, unbroken, warm sunshine. However, Wednesday is due to be wet, cold and more significantly, very windy, with gusts up to 70 mph at ground level. Hmm......

Before I start to recount my epic trek, I need to apologise for the lack of photos. This is on account of the weather we encountered, and the fact, not only was it wet, well, more a deluge, but also foggy, and with a wind so strong, I couldn't stand upright, and mostly anything not tied down, was simply blown away, including trousers! More of that later...

We set off at 06.20 in the morning, and the plan was to walk to Threlkeld, via 15 peaks over 23 miles, with important diversions to ensure we ascended to summit ridges, and descended to ground level on as many occasions as possible to maximise the energy output. We hiked from Ambleside to Rydal in overcast conditions and arrived at the familiar cottage owned by my cousins from where I based myself when completing the majority of the Wainwright peaks in my youth. To date, I reckon I have done circa 190 of the 214 recognised Lakeland peaks.

I used to just call my Auntie and book ahead, and was able to stay free of charge in one of the most scenic locations in England.

We carried on past Rydal Mount, next door, the former home of Wordsworth, and climbed up the long path to the initial summit. By the time we were to the first style on Nab Scar, at the start of the Fairfield range, the rain was starting to fall, but as yet, the wind was not present.

I took the opportunity to get a snap in looking back at the classic Windermere view, not realising this might be the last opportunity to take a shot in relative calm.

Rufus not playing ball to pose for the camera!

 Just to remind you, the plan for the day was to climb over Nab Scar, Heron Pike, Great Rigg, then descend down to Grizedale before climbing Seat Sandal. Then to descend back to Grizedale and ascend the treacherous St Sunday Crag before descending to Patterdale via Birks where we would drop off Rufus to spare his aching limbs.

We would then climb up Striding Edge to Helvellyn, before collecting a further 8 peaks on the way to threlkeld.  I reckoned the walk to Patterdale would be 9  - 10 miles, so I  told Karen to meet us at 10.30 to give us 4 hours at a leisurely pace to make it to the first stop.

Here is the itinerary for the day again:

1. Nab Scar 1,477 ft
2. Heron Pike 2,009 ft
3. Great Rigg 2,514 ft
4. Seat Sandal 2,416 ft
5. Fairfield 2,865 ft
6. St Sunday Crag 2,760 ft Descend to Patterdale to Climb Striding Edge
7. Birks 2,041 ft
8. Helvellyn 3,118 ft (second highest mountain in England)
9. Nethermost Pike 2,954 ft
10. Dollywaggon Pike 2,861 ft
11. Whiteside 2,832 ft
12. Raise 2,898 ft
13. Stybarrow Dodd 2,767 ft
14. Watson's Dodd 2,589 ft
15. Great Dodd 2,813 ft
16. Clough Head 2,383 ft

As I mentioned, by the time we got to Nab Scar, the rain was pouring down and it was starting to get blustery. It was tough going fighting against the wind and rain but to our advantage, it was coming at us from the west so into our left side and manageable. Here you can still see quite far into the near distance, though not to the surrounding mountains or lakes.

By the time we curved eastwards to reach Fairfield we had the wind and rain at our backs, so were being pushed at a cantor towards the summit cairn and shelter.

Karl and Rufus being pushed to the summit of Fairfield

Karl's face tells the story of how bad the conditions were getting

We now had to descend sharply about 1,000 ft to Grizedale Tarn and this meant walking into the now bitter and very strong wind. Little did we know, the weather was about to turn even worse. Karl had forgotten his poles, and I did not want to take my pack off to get mine out, as our clothes were soaked through and it was too windy. Our gloves were just blocks of soggy ice cold water and our fingers were getting stiff with the cold. The time was now 09.30 and it was obvious we had absolutely no chance of making it to Patterdale for 10.30. I therefore had to get my dripping wet iphone out of my pocket and try to speed dial Karen to say we would be late. I couldn't get my soggy gloves to connect with Karen, so reluctantly, I had to remove my gloves which I knew meant I would struggle to get them back on. I told Karen we would be at least another 2 hours so we would meet about Midday. Karen, worryingly said she was already at Kitrkstone, and even there, the winds were so fierce, she did not dare return to Ambleside, and would simply wait for us at Patterdale.

The ascent of Seat Sandal was very steep and by now, visibility was down to only 10 yards at most. We were not celebrating any peaks attained by now, just marching on past. This was a new one for Karl, and I had to persuade him to even divert to the summit cairn, the weather was that bad. We wanted to get back out of the wind down at Grizedale Tarn if we could, so set off as fast as we could.

You can see from this image that visibility by now was very bad, and we had to ensure we stuck together.

Look closely, we are walking along the shore of Grizedale Tarn. it is there, I promise you!

There was absolutely no evidence of the minor path from Grizedale to St Sunday Crag, so we had to revert to the sat navs to pin point the relevant point to strike off up the hill into nothingness. By now, we were increasingly often coming upon large patches of snow across the paths. You had to divert around these, because they were incredibly unstable. As the snow melts, it does so from underneath, and in places, the snow may only be 12 inches deep, with a space up to 3 foot deep below, where you could twist an ankle or worse. This meant we often had to climb, and scramble over rocks to circumnavigate the ice. 

However, Rufus on the other hand loved the snow patches, and was happy digging away, with no danger of him falling through.

Rufus digs away.

The climb up the steep side of St Sunday Crag was absolutely endless. Once we got onto the summit ridge it was like we were in the Antarctic in terms of the weather conditions. The entire ridge, which is only about 20 feet wide at most, was covered in a perilous crust of snow sometimes up to 3 feet deep.

You can see Karl's footprints leading out of the snow.

If the wind was blowing at 70 mph down at ground level (as reported in the news), it was easily up to 100 mph on the top of St Sunday Crag. You could hear it coming as it roared up both sides of the knife edge ridge of the crag. As it hit, you had no idea if it would come from the left or the right, from straight on, or from behind, so there was no way to brace yourself. Each time it hit you were battered off in the direction you were hit, stumbling up to 20 yards towards the sheer drop either side. Often, the wind was so violent, you simply were blown over. I also found that my waterproof trousers simply acted like a kite, and meant I sometime literally was lifted off the ground and dumped several feet further away. I even had to suffer the indignity of my over-trousers being blown down to my knees on occasion! Poor Rufus simply ran with the wind until it stopped and then trooped on back to my side. He looked so miserable.

It was such a struggle to keep upright, and we were involuntarily having to run a lot with the wind, so when we were not straining to stand upright, we were springing off in one direction after another. We were getting exhausted, and then Karl got cramp in his thigh. He had to sit and extract a chcolate bar to get some energy in him

As we were absolutely soaked through, Karl had asked if he could put his iphone into my map case as this was probably the only thing about us that was dry. I too put my phone in the case which was around my neck. However, along with all my backpack straps, this appendage simply kept slapping me in my face top add to my woes. Then disaster! I got blown over again and the map case was literally ripped from me, and we both saw the case, along with our phones, and only means of communication sailing off into nothingness!!!!!! I know I looked as arse, as Karl said so, but I sprinted after the tumbling case shouting, " the phones are in there, the phones"!!! I saw it wedged between 2 rocks and pounced to ensure it didn't set off into the sky again. However, I fell into snow up to my waist and twisted around onto my back swearing, "You bastard, you f****** bastard". At the same time, Karl came crashing over, skidding on ice, and cracked his knee on a rock as he sank into the snow. he let out a yelp, and further choice words about the weather.

I got out my soggy iphone and managed to call Karen, and rather over dramatically said, " We are in a bad way up here Babes, we are trapped and can't move on". We were so far behind schedule now, it was ridiculous. I think it was about 12.30 already and we had been on the go for 6 hours. We set off, fighting the wind, but desperate to get down off the top of the ridge to get out of the wind. however, we had literally been blown off course, and ended up on Gavel Pike which was a new one for Karl, so he was delighted! However, this meant we were about 2 miles off course. We had to trudge across pathless heather to get back on to the path, but we had difficult scrambling ahead as we were coming down via Birks now, and not the gentler slope down to Patterdale.

Here at last, we got our first sight of Ullswater with Patterdale at its head. There was clearly no chance on earth we could go on any further. We were absolutely spent.

Our first sight of Ullwater!

We staggered on down to Patterdale to the White Horse where Karen had been waiting in the car for over 2½ hours! We arrived at 3.40pm for a stage we predicted would be done by 10.30 am. In all, it has taken us over 8 hours to walk 12 miles (of which at least 2 miles were diversions caused by the wind up there).

We opted for a nice pub lunch and a pint instead of torturing ourselves any more. I don't feel bad in any way we did not tackle the other half of the walk. The conditions were atrocious, and we far exceeded what could be expected of ourselves in these circumstances. It  was a feat of navigation that we managed to get back at all.

Roll on the next challenge training walk, and see if I can get better weather next time!