Ralph Battle's trip report
The drive for my car was a suprprisingly smooth one - not so much for others apparently as we arrived at the bunkhouse 1st despite leaving Cambridge half an hour later than the 1st car, allowing us to claim prime spots in a small room - no snoring! We made the AMAZING surprise discovery that 60 pints of local beer and a huge pile of Grasmere gingerbread had been left for us to enjoy over the weekened. I was fast asleep by the time the last cars arrived for once.
There were 3 navigation courses running on the Saturday, none of which I was doing, so I grouped up with Thom and Hannah to do a walk on the southern side of the valley, up Steeple, then along the ridge to Pillar, Kirk Fell and (optimistically) Great Gable. Twice before I've come to the Lakes with Great Gable on my to-climb list and twice I'd been denied, so I was hoping it would be 3rd time lucky.
The weather this weekend was unseasonable for the Lakes in February, so much so that for the 1st hour I was walking only in shorts and a T shirt. It was sadly a little foggy and soon started to rain a bit more than the forecast suggested, which made for an atmospheric journey along Long Crag on the way up Steeple. We began to realise at this point that not only was there no way we would make Great Gable, but that we may not even make Kirk Fell! We knew Paul, who had set off shortly before us to ascend the ridge at a more westerley point may catch up with us, and indeed shortly before the summit of Pillar we saw an orange clad figure emerge out of the mist. After a short debate on whether this could indeed be Paul, Hannah went out on a limb and shouted out - it was. As the rest of our routes coincided we saw no sense in walking separately so we decided to merge into a group of 4 while eating our lunch. The scramble up Kirk Fell was surprisingly fun and adventurous, with no obvious path it was choose your own adventure. After spending much time debating how huge Kirk Fell was, it actually didn't take that long to climb. We finished the walk off with a long grassy slope back down into Ennerdale, followed by marching along the forestry track, where we encountered a 3 headed, 12 legged panther (it may possibly have been 3 sheep) and a concerned trip safety officer in a car (sorry).
Due to the navigation courses all including night navigation, and the presence of a forestry track along the whole valley floor, almost everyone got back in the dark. This meant that dinner was very late by trip standards, and everyone was so tired they went straight to bed without singing, despite my best efforts to drum up support.
On the Sunday the weather was massively better, fantastic visibility although a little breezy. I joined one of 2 groups doing a Haycocks Horseshoe, mine in the anticlockwise direction, the other clockwise. This meant that towards the top, we were able to see the other group. The view from the top was the furthest I've ever seen, with a huge swathe of the Southern Uplands of Scotland to the north, Snaefell Mountain on the Isle of Man to the west and in the far distance the lumps and bumps of Snowdonia and Anglesey, a full 100 miles away. Shortly after the summit we encountered the other group, who kindly warned us of boggy ground ahead. We improvised a little on the way back by dropping down into the valley early and walking along the river rather than following the top of the ridge, in what turned out to be an inspired choice when we came across a couple of waterfalls. Unfortunately we were late back (sorry again).
The drive home was one of those rare drives that actually passes really quickly, with an amazing sunset behind us on the A66 past Keswick and a 10 minute dinner stop for 2 Greggs Sausage rolls each (except one unnamed individual, who shocked the lady in the shop with his request for only a single sausage roll). I missed out on Great Gable for a 3rd time, but that doesn't matter when you have 2 walks both so fantastic and with good company.