I went to the Lake District this weekend with the guys and gals from Ben Lairig (the University of York Hill Walking club). Let me get this point across straight away. The weekend was amazing, it was great fun with a group I am fast considering real friends, a real challenge as well as being a complete change to the usual slog of Uni, a lot of my housemates went home for the weekend, I was away too but doing something really out there and different to the norm.
We arrived late on the Friday night as I was in the group that had late lectures and Adams car has just come back from having his tires replaced!, We had a bit of trouble getting there and the weather was already setting in on us, after finding out that the lakes town of Settle seemingly shuts down at 9pm and thus there were no takeaways to be had we finally arrived at the camp site at 10.45 pm in the pouring rain. The others had arrived a good 2 hours before us but had not set up the extra tents as they were in our car, also they had been in the pub and were about as much use as a chocolate tea pot. So Adam and I slept in his car and Trish and Bance slept in Bance’s Merc. A reasonably comfortable (but dry!) night and the weather didn’t look much better, in fact if anything it was worse…..
But the Ben Lairig catchphrase is Man Up (goes for girls as well) and Man Up we did, and climbed, and walked, and scrambled. In the torrential rain and gale force winds, and these are not Fishermans terms, the weather was bloody awful. I got soaked to the skin through 5 layers, 2 of them supposedly water proof. There were honestly times that I wanted to give up and go home, I’m a reasonably experienced walker but I’m used to doing one peak a day or so, on that day, in those conditions we did 4 peaks (not sure which ones exactly but it was in the Langdale region and one of them was Crinkle Crags) and it took us seven hours. As long as that sounds as we were up so early having deposited our wet clothes in the Campsites drying room (a great idea, you could tell it was a walkers campsite) were in the pub by half 4. And we stayed till last orders at 11.30, memory is hazy of what went on at this point but it was warm and dry and fun. Needless to say we were a bit worse for wear by closing, couldn’t set up the tents again so again I slept in the car.
Colder and stiffer came the next morning (Sunday), but with it a break in the weather and a bacon breakfast was had all-round! We drove to the region of Coniston and decided that after the day we had been subjected to before we would not push our luck and stay lower so we decided to do the horseshoe walk of Helm Crag ending up at the Lion of the Lamb. Staying lower meant that we did have good weather (for the most part when it wasn’t hailing or snowing!) And I managed to take some photos and a better day was had by all. 2 main peaks were bagged with a 5 hour walk done in all, so more flat than the day before and snow aside the weather was really with us, my bottom layer even stayed dry, making for a pleasant trip home stopping in Penrith for a fish and chips on the way home and my housemates buying me a beer when I got back for being ‘way hardcore’. After that though I ‘way hardcored’ myself to bed at 10pm and slept and slept till 11 the next day!
We arrived late on the Friday night as I was in the group that had late lectures and Adams car has just come back from having his tires replaced!, We had a bit of trouble getting there and the weather was already setting in on us, after finding out that the lakes town of Settle seemingly shuts down at 9pm and thus there were no takeaways to be had we finally arrived at the camp site at 10.45 pm in the pouring rain. The others had arrived a good 2 hours before us but had not set up the extra tents as they were in our car, also they had been in the pub and were about as much use as a chocolate tea pot. So Adam and I slept in his car and Trish and Bance slept in Bance’s Merc. A reasonably comfortable (but dry!) night and the weather didn’t look much better, in fact if anything it was worse…..
But the Ben Lairig catchphrase is Man Up (goes for girls as well) and Man Up we did, and climbed, and walked, and scrambled. In the torrential rain and gale force winds, and these are not Fishermans terms, the weather was bloody awful. I got soaked to the skin through 5 layers, 2 of them supposedly water proof. There were honestly times that I wanted to give up and go home, I’m a reasonably experienced walker but I’m used to doing one peak a day or so, on that day, in those conditions we did 4 peaks (not sure which ones exactly but it was in the Langdale region and one of them was Crinkle Crags) and it took us seven hours. As long as that sounds as we were up so early having deposited our wet clothes in the Campsites drying room (a great idea, you could tell it was a walkers campsite) were in the pub by half 4. And we stayed till last orders at 11.30, memory is hazy of what went on at this point but it was warm and dry and fun. Needless to say we were a bit worse for wear by closing, couldn’t set up the tents again so again I slept in the car.
Colder and stiffer came the next morning (Sunday), but with it a break in the weather and a bacon breakfast was had all-round! We drove to the region of Coniston and decided that after the day we had been subjected to before we would not push our luck and stay lower so we decided to do the horseshoe walk of Helm Crag ending up at the Lion of the Lamb. Staying lower meant that we did have good weather (for the most part when it wasn’t hailing or snowing!) And I managed to take some photos and a better day was had by all. 2 main peaks were bagged with a 5 hour walk done in all, so more flat than the day before and snow aside the weather was really with us, my bottom layer even stayed dry, making for a pleasant trip home stopping in Penrith for a fish and chips on the way home and my housemates buying me a beer when I got back for being ‘way hardcore’. After that though I ‘way hardcored’ myself to bed at 10pm and slept and slept till 11 the next day!
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