w/e 11/7 – The Storm Will Come and The Rains Will Fall…And Remove Their Hopes and Dreams Once Again to the Waters That Surround Them…..

Mountains are inherently dangerous and unpredictable places. The language used in modern-day outdoors speak is so inappropriate. The common term used is that someone has “conquered” a mountain. Never! A person is allowed to reach the summit and get back down again safely, having relished the experience and having been granted a safe passage in that instance. On another day, in different circumstances, that same person can be caught out by winds, cloud, storms, darkness…and fall victim to it.

We do well to remember at all times that we are but small, insignificant beings in this powerful universe.

The settled good weather this spring and early summer has lulled us into a false sense of security I suspect. Long sunny days, clear conditions, dry grippy rocks. The percentage success rate for the BG must have soared.

And so to July, and a definite change in the prevailing conditions. The rain, so noticeable by its absence over the last three months, has returned with a vengeance, and the winds have suddenly appeared. They were a feature of the previous 2 winters, and I remember several days battling into gale force winds on the high fells last spring.

Is this a longer-term change for the summer? We’ll have to see, but it shows no sign of abating yet. Perhaps I will regret not going on 19^th June as I originally planned….it was a perfect day! (not that I do “regrets”!).

Certainly Andy Kitts didn’t have the weather on his side last weekend. The rain had started by the time he set off from the Moot Hall at 7pm ,although there was no sign of the winds to come.

He had a good leg 1, ably navigated by Bob Wightman on good lines. He came down to Threlkeld on schedule and feeling good.

Six of us set off on Leg 2, as the darkness descended and the rain increased in intensity. Progress up Clough Head was ok, and we found the trod in the darkness. But once we got to the summit, the wind started to hit us.

The climb out to Great Dodd went ok as well, and we found the summit with relative ease despite the gloom. Somehow though, after taking a correct bearing off the summit, then waiting for the other 4 to catch us, we headed off track. Having downloaded the garmin, I can now see we were on a perfect line for Watsons Dodd…and then headed off right from some reason L We had to “relocate” several times…including passing straight over the path without recognizing it. The conditions were awful…wet, windy and low visibility, but I still shouldn’t have got that wrong.

In the end, we realized we’d dropped too low to the right, plotted where we were and took a line pretty directly back up and to the summit…having lost 20 minutes.

From there though, the navigation was back on track, taking surer but slightly longer options a couple of times. But the weather was getting tough. The wind and rain was straight into our faces, the visibility was dreadful. Andy and I touched the top of Helvellyn, but the other 4 had disappeared somewhere behind us. Usually, the rule would be keep going and let them fend for themselves. But in conditions like these, it was out of the question. Safety was paramount. So we headed to the relative calm of the shelter and waited for several minutes for their headtorches to appear.

From there, Nethermost’s cairn proved most elusive even though we were stood right by it, the wind threatened to knock us off Dollywagon, then I almost ran us straight off the edge J before we made a good descent down by the fence post and around to the hause.

Going up Fairfield, the wind really kicked in. Progress was slow, being knocked off our stride regularly. The rain was more like being in a car wash. Time was slipping away and the new day was beginning to dawn as we arrived at the top. Andy was still going well though, in the circumstances. If the weather would just improve, he was going strongly enough to make up the time and still complete.

He climbed superbly up Seat Sandal, we took a reasonable line off there in the clag and down to the reeds, before dropping steeply down to Dunmail and the waiting cars, some 55 minutes over schedule.

I’ll be honest, I’d already spoken to Andy on the way up Seat Sandal and suggested it may be wise to call it a day and come back in a couple of weeks. Not because he was lacking in any way, far from it. I have so much respect for how he kept grinding out the miles, his spirits remaining high despite the weather.

But, down at Dunmail, the leg 3 crew were ready and waiting and he was driven on! We stood in the torrential rain, eating bacon and sausage sarnies (thanks Stef, Kirsten and Dave!), before Kirsten got me into the car and drove us back to the tent, me shivering with cold. I got the wet clothes off and climbed into my sleeping bag…and promptly slept until 10am!

The weather didn’t relent. Andy battled on bravely until the decision was made at Great End to head down and call it a day. A wise decision I think. That’s a great training run, and I’m pleased he’s decided to do it all again in a few weeks time. He deserves that chance, he will do it given decent conditions.

Me? I’m praying to the weather gods and keeping everything crossed that the conditions are going to turn better by a week on Saturday!

TOTAL for the week – 15mls & 6,000ft