Scafell Pike (978m)

This mountain is worrying me the most. It is by all accounts, the most difficult to navigate. It is, as you may recall 'steep and unrelenting'. And we are already knackered before we begin. However, as we start the ascent I am becoming more positive. We are pretty much right time at 0430 a.m. and there is plenty of light to see by. It is cold and slightly eerie and the air has that fresh morning crispness to it. It seems like we have the whole place to ourselves.

As we curve around the lower slopes, Wastwater stretches out beneath us and a few other walkers come into view. We join the river and the slope becomes more steep and less relenting, but having started at a steadier pace then Ben Nevis, we make steadier progress and the metres are eaten away. Then we round a shoulder of hill and Pike's Crag looms into view.

Pike's Crag

Pike's Crag is one of the most spectacular sights on the Pike and 'looms' is probably the only way to describe it. You are tired after having been climbing for an hour when this sheer and craggy cliff face appears in front of you blocking your path. Now, lacking pulleys, crampons, or a 100m ladder, we have to go round and either way is an option. Our gen states that "the route via Mickledore is subject to serious erosion and should be avoided for this challenge." But we can clearly see a few adventurous types balanced precariously on the loose scree. Being almost normal, we elect to take the sensible option via Lingmell Gill. The cloud swirls in and out and views range from spectacular to next to nothing.

It is still only 6ish but the path is busier up here as we are joined by walkers from the Seathwaite side of the mountain. Where we are recognized by a pair from Ben Nevis! They are doing a 4 Peaks Challenge which involves the highest peak in Northern Ireland and has a 48 hr time limit. "We recognized you by your sticks", they said. "That's a fine and natural walking aid you have there, not like this expensive artificial nonsense. Which are more for cosmetic value than anything else, being only 3 feet long. How can you pole vault over a river with a stick only 3 feet long?" And even though I made that last bit up, they were probably thinking it.

The last stretch to the top is really unrelenting and when I say unrelenting, I mean it doesn't stop. So we do, on occasion, and we finally make the summit plateau. With cloud all around us, the way forward is not clear and we pass a party of confused walkers asking how to get to the top. "Keep going up until there's no more up", I suggest to general laughter except from from their navigator who thinks I'm taking the p*ss out of him. Which I suppose I am to be fair. As it happens, there are a series of cairns leading the way to the summit marker so we follow these, and eventually arrive 15 mins ahead of our scheduled 0700 arrival, good work.

Woo-hoo! Second mountain climbed! I may have mentioned that one of the things about standing still, in a cloud, a kilometre above sea level, is that you tend to get cold very quickly so our high spirits don't last long. We take proof of achievement photos for ourselves and some more for other climbers and huddle in the lee of the summit marker to scoff down chocolate / Scottish Tablet / high energy gel. Dale has brought a scotch egg. As you do. Then says I "there's a biting wind and no more soup so let's get off this f*cking mountain".

As we emerge from the shadow world and back into the world of man, I am feeling very pleased with myself. We are over half way through the challenge and we are right on schedule. We navigated the difficult one without a hitch and everyone is in good shape. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. Isn't it a beautiful day.

Let's get off this f*cking mountain.

And the thing about times like these is that there is a protocol. When one person is going "This is great! We're doing so well!" there's really only one way things are going to go. And that is, aha, downhill.

Now one would imagine that going downhill is the easy bit! This is where the laughing and joking begins! A period of relenting after all that unrelenting hardship. Well you have four walkers here who can assure you it is not. Gentle downhill is good, but we are finding that steep downhill for over an hour at a time puts a lot of shock on the knees. And we all start experiencing these difficulties within about 20 minutes of each other. It starts as just the odd twinge which is more annoying than anything else. But pretty soon, MORT is going slowly and Baylis has a grimace on his face we will come to know well. "You lot are mad!" he moans. "It's eight o'clock on a Sunday morning - I should be in bed with my girlfriend, not stuck halfway up some bleeding mountain!" We can only nod in agreement. And to dishearten us further, we are swiftly overtaken by some truly mad people (who presumably don't have girlfriends) jogging past us. We adopt a number of awkward and unusual gaits as we descend in order to lessen the impact on our knees and it's Dale that seems to be coping the best. A valiant effort and we arrive back at the car for some much needed rest bang on time except for MORT who is 15 seconds late. :p