PPPPPP

Dry days- 9
Days of rain- 17

Ah yes, Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. As ably demonsatrated yesterday, by the lack thereof.

The forecast wasn't great, so I had a look at MWIS which also said gales in the Lakes with wet weather and "significant" windchill. So obviously I opted to go there to walk up some hills. I settled on Kirkstone Pass, plotting to walk over Red Screes, Middle Dodd, Little Hart Crag and High Hartsopp Dodd- a good way forward to the 10 Wainwrights in 2012 aim.


Lovely day for it:




I arrived at Kirkstone Pass in the pissing rain. Cloud base was at around 500m (ie not much above the pass) and the cloud was whizzing by at a rate of knotts. Now, being Summer (?!) I had brought my light waterproofs and forgotten my gloves. Luckily I had some old motorbike gloves in the car boot. I stomped up Red Screes pretty quickly, although the path is nicely rocky and had water pouring down it. This made going interesting as the path was steep and slippery and the wind didn't help. You'd be unlucky to die from a slip, but you'd certainly be likely to injure yourself enough to be a bit Joe Simpsoned.

The summit of Red Screes appears out of nowhere, or at least it did yesterday since visibility was consistently below 10 metres. I then headed off towards Middle Dodd. After five minutes I absent mindedly added my location as a waypoint on the GPS- which later turned out to be fortuitous.

From Middle Dodd, I contoured around to try to get to Scandale Pass. This proved to be interesting as I couldn't see a thing. I finally arrived at a wall and a path which I presumed was the path down to the Pass. I headed down, scrubbing off height, for ten minutes. Before getting to the col I realised I was cold, and rather wet as the waterproofs and boots were leaking. I made the executive decision to turn for home, something unusual for a stubborn bugger like me. So, I turned around and headed up the hill towards red Screes, now needing to walk a kilometer and gain 300m of height.

Where the hill levelled off near the summit, one path went straight on, and another left. Not wanting to go back to Middle Dodd I went straight on. I didn't bother looking at the map as the wind and rain was so bad I couldn't be arsed stopping to get it out. After another 10 minutes of going downhill I realised the wind was in my face and I hadn't come to the craggy path yet. So I bit the bullet and checked my position. Needless to say I was half way down Snarker Pike on my way to Ambleside. Fuck it.

So another about turn and another kilometer and 300m ascent. I was annoyed now, which diffused the beginnings of a feeling that I couldn't be arsed walking. Heading towards my waypoint I kept passing small tarns, which all looked the same in a Scooby Doo running scene where the background keeps repeating. I think the cloud and mist banks were messing with my brain. I found the correct path and stumbled my way back to the car. 2:30 round trip in some pretty challenging conditions.

Last night we made a Jamie Oliver home made Haggis and drank a dram to Rabbie. I was so tired I could hardly wait for sleep!!