Hers in !

About to leave for Italy....

and two weeks in the Dolomites.....will post whenever possible as Luke will no doubt be armed with a huge amount of Apple gadgetry (as will I but he knows how to use it!!!) and we should be able to get a GPRS signal out there....

The Lakeland 50...

twas about a week ago but things have been very hectic indeed with an interview at York I proceeded to make a mess of and trying to get stuff sorted for the Dols trip - not to mention trying to get the roof sorted; spend time with Claire etc....

Anyway; massive thanks to Mum and Peter who came over to support and assist and that started on the fri night when they picked me up from the flat and drove down to Coniston to register. The much vaunted kit check which was supposed to resemble an MI5 investigation was nothing of the sort really - something to remember for next year...also something to remember for next year was a 6am start; drive to Coniston for the briefing and an awful coach ride back to Dalemain for the start....given that the briefing did not add to my sum of knowledge and Dalemain is about 5miles from my front door a new strategy for next year is emerging - don't go....!!!!

More to follow...

So, where we we? oh yes hot and bothered at Dalemain having endured about 90mins in a very hot coach to get us there; not much time for a warm-up and no idea about the first section of this walk at all...about to go a LONG way further than I ever have done and with a mind full of interview stuff for two days time....apart from that I was raring to go.....and then we had the first 100 yards!

The mass start for the 4 mile circuit of Dalemain is a neat idea....having a single stile that nigh on 200 people have to cross after 100 yards ain't a great idea at all - in fact it is SERIOUSLY stupid....

..to be fair its not a bad circuit of Dalemin but surely having it the other way round would be better so one starts with a gently uphill mile jog which gives the field time to settle down and thin out.....

So; having taken 15mins to go 200 yards (literally), which had already thrown my estimates of the first 10miles out (to Howtown) I plodded on. Pacing wise I seemed to go ok - gently jogging the descent to Howtown; refuelling at CP1 and keeping a good pace on the long climb up to the High Street ridge. I made a minor error at the checkpoint in putting an orange energy lozenge into the water bottle - too fizzy and it gave me hiccups :-(

Anyway; the cloud kept just high enough so one could see where you were going and I climbed well....I remain convinced that you can recce out this route to the nth degree; you can lay down 50miles on the Surrey downs for a warm up - you cannot get used to the big climbs of Lakeland (at least by English standards) without living here. It was, I must confess, gratifying to pass a lot of people who had whizzed by me on the way round Dalemain and on the endless descent to Howtown....

speaking of endless - the path along Haweswater...low on water (actually refilled at a strea)..into the wind and rain....grrr.....and that took me to CP2 at Mardale..

A very important recce...

did a pretty damp 10 miles with Mum yesterday..using 2 cars so I could check out the section of the walk from Elterwater to Tilberthwaite and a little of the last section over to Coniston.

Most of the walk was done in steady rain; not a monsoon but enough to make the paths sodden and the rocks slippery..this latter is quite alarming as its an area where I will be faster than most and I could really do with it drying out before the weekend. It is still pretty warm and humid so that will not take long if it stops raining....whether that is likely I don't know...

As it turns out, Mum's suggestion to do the climb past Tilberthwaite Quarry to look at the last section was a good idea - as the route description of this last section is HORRENDOUSLY vague....especially since most people will be tackling it at night; in cloud; whilst knackered; all the above...certainly a good thing to get it in my head as to where to go....

Now its just a question of resting; stretching and hoping the weather improves....

The benefits of reconisance....

as discovered today in the pouring rain as I walked (and overtook some riding mountain bikers!!!) up a very steep path on the far side of Brathay park in Ambleside which my pretty sodden route description assured me would take me to Elterwater......lo and behold a slate signpost loomed out of the mist a al Barry Pilton on Kinder Scout to assure that I was not in fact lost - although I would have sworn blind that the path was not going in the right direction....

today's 8 1/2 mile run will be the last before the 50 - I am going to do some more checking out of the route but that will involve walking not climbing...I want to check the (what looks very steep) ascent out of Howtown onto the High Street ridge tomorrow (am not going to go down to Mardale due to time constraints and if the forecast is right I won't be able to see anything anyway)...it has actually stopped raining and is a lovely evening in Penrith...forecast is dire for the next 3 days so we shall see what we get...its softening up the ground as well which is not so good.....

On holiday....

for about 7 weeks as school broke up yesterday....thats the good news...

........the bad news is that the 50 mile challenge event is not far off and I have no idea whether or not I am ready for it - did an 8 mile recce on Tues which felt fine (although 4 miles of it was a road jog back from Howtown to Pooley Bridge) and am going to do a little more tomorrow before I head off to Luke's in the hope of getting some climbing done.....still far from sure however what it is going to be like...

Tiptoeing on Fat Charlie.....

no don't worry; I am not about to join the coalition government and am having to pass an induction.....

Fat Charlie's Buttress is a little outcrop at the bottom of Langstrath, a lovely valley which is an offshoot of Borrowdale. I had walked under it on numerous occasions and we decided to give it a go; partly because Luke was still hungover after a night out and didn't fancy the walk up to Corvus. There was a very interesting Severe that I elected to start on; it said delicate and it was very delicate indeed. Everything was there; apart from gear which was missing for a lot of the route although a good friend does protect the crux sequence. The problem was the crux involved a very small overlap which meant that one could not see your feet - and the climbing was all in the feet.....

I wobbled a bit at first but then gave myself a bit of a talking to and got up the climb....Luke then did an extremely good job of leading up a Mild Severe (Islay Waits) in the middle of the buttress....to be honest it is more like VDiff than Mild Severe, nonetheless a very good lead....

This was followed up with a pint of tea at the cafe in Grange and a lovely evening with Claire before coming home....a great day.