Ralph Battle's trip report

The meeting at Churchill for the Coniston trip was strangely spread out - the cars were all leaving at different times so we didn't have the usual large gathering (what's the best word to describe a group of hillwalkers?) of outdoorsy dressed people with big backpacks waiting on the street, instead just the 4 of us setting off in a single car. The other difference of course is that now it's May most of the driving is during daylight which makes a nice change. As we arrived the hills were silhouetted against the twilight sky, unusually for the Lakes a completely cloudless sky. I'd borrowed some 10x50 binoculars from CUAS for this trip which I put to good use looking at some star clusters, and gave a group of enthusiastic hillwalkers a tour of the constellations. After the evening briefing, me, Dan and Isabelle were keen for a bit of exercise and some more stargazing, so we walked off into the darkness up the track towards Lever's water for about 45 minutes and got a view of the Milky Way for our efforts.

The club has just recently purchased some new scrambling equipment, and me and Nick having done the scrambling course last year had come to try it out in the hills for the first time. We warmed up with an unroped grade 1 scramble up the Bell, which I'd done last year but was new to Nick, then traversed across to Lever's water and climbed up to the base of Raven Tor. At this point we roped up and started to make out way slowly upwards, Nick leading and placing gear for protection and me following. At the bottom we had identified where the grade 1 and grade 3+ lines went, but as we got higher up we lost track of that and found there weren't nearly as many places to place protection as we'd hoped, and that the rock was quite loose and with a lot of loose vegetation. We began to feel slighlty concerned as we were straying onto the grade 3 territory we hadn't initially planned to be on, and decided the best course of action was to retreat. After a careful downclimb we were back on firm ground and could finally have some lunch, it was only 5pm! We spotted Dan, Chloe and Saffron on their scrambling course group so sped down the track to join them for the final 20 minutes back to the bunkhouse.

The fun didn't stop for me after getting back - we got straight to work on the now customary bangers and mash, which was succesfully completed thanks to the good cooking facilities at this particular bunkhouse. Dinner eaten, there was one group yet to return from their route in Borrowdale, and while Nick, Dan, Grace and Thomas went into Coniston to get phone signal, I joined Ranga for a shower beneath a waterfall and a swim in the river. Ranga thought it was warm, but I wasn't so sure. Shortly after that I joined a car heading down to the pub in Coniston, we stayed for a couple of hours before I challenged the car to a race back to the bunkhouse. Unfortunately for the car, the sudden flood of oncoming traffic on the narrow dirt track slowed them down substantially and although Jamie had ample oppurtunities to pass he chose to stick behind and allow me to get back first. We finished the night with a late singing, keeping the volume down because of the neighbours next door and our fellow hillwalkers trying to sleep. It was however a very long singing, only ending when Oliver composed a new version of voulez-vous (ask Grace for the video) which brought the night to a fitting close - all I'll say is I've never laughed so much while brushing my teeth.

Me and Nick elected not to wake up for dawn to climb Old Man once we realised how early dawn was, instead setting off at the much more sociable hour of 08:15. We attempted to surprise Dan, Chloe and Saffron's scrambling group on the path up Old Man by hiding behind a ruined building but neither me nor Nick are particularly good at hiding so we were less scary than we intended. We made good time to the top of Old Man, summiting at 10:10 after a leisurely walk up. We waited at the top until the pre-agreed time of 10:30, when I was to cooee and see if Isabelle and Grace at the bunkhouse and Coniston Water could hear me - unfortunately it was windier and foggier than Saturday so only Dan on the nearby Brim Fell heard and responded (at least I assume it was Dan who responded). I'll have to try again with better weather. We returned to the bunkhouse for lunch, and planned a quick afternoon scramble up Long Crag, a grade 1 we'd both done last year but were keen to practice gear placement and abseiling on. We almost called it off, due to first what appeared to be the beginnings of a rain shower, and then Nick realising he didn't have his phone, but on the assumption that it wouldn't rain any further and that Nick's phone was in the bunkouse we pushed on up. I was glad to get my first time placing protection without an instructor watching, and we both made it back in one piece so it must've gone well.

Our drive home was delayed by a flat tyre, so we didn't leave Keele services just outside Stoke until midnight. All in all though, this was a thouroughly enjoyable and varied trip!