Scafell Pike

Congratulations to all the Scafell Pike climbers! This trip to the lakes over the bank holiday weekend was a roaring success. We had lots of enthusiastic climbers. They set off bright and early on Saturday 1st June 2010, with their trusty guides Chris and Matt Hone, on a very drizzly and overcast morning to start the climb. As is usual the group split into two, one more fuelled by Harribo sweets than the other. The first group reached the summit when the weather took a turn for the worst about 2pm, the following group through grit and determination finally made it to the summit by about 5pm!!!!

All the climbers including virgin hikers and the Snowdon climbers from last year will agree that the hike was difficult. The combination of high slippery rocks, moving shingle and almost zero visibility at some points made the adventure very grueling! At the peak of the pike very few pictures were taken due to lack of feeling in fingers and toes and despite some pop up shelters the climbers were happy to start their descent.

The first group made it down at about 4pm and of course their first stop was the pub at the foot of Scarfell, and then a welcome return to the beautiful Wasdale hostel and an open fire.

The second group did not have such an easy descent, due to very bad weather and despite Chris’s best map reading skills, half way down the mountain they were told they would have to start to climb back up again in order to locate some markers. As you can imagine the poor girls in the group found this a little bit of a challenge but through laughter, song and sheer determination finally made it down at 11pm that night after spending 13 hours on the mountain. Some of us went to greet them in the dark through a field of sheep, and from calls of “are you one of ours” we could hear hysterical laughter so only assumed it would be our girls!

The rest of the weekend was great fun and enjoyed by all despite achy limbs. We would like to thank everyone involved and also send our warm thanks to the staff at Wasdale YHA for their hospitality during our visit.

We are looking forward to our final challenge next year of climbing Ben Nevis.

Fay Shirley Event Organiser

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