A Clint Eastwood of a weekend - (Play Misty for Me....) – Steve (Nov 1997) 

The club managed to muster a party of 13 for the first real winter weekend of the year.  Peter Park and Don Cameron who intend to take up membership of the club joined the regulars.

Don is adding too the ever-increasing Basingstoke team, and joined up with Carol and I for the trip to Patterdale.  The journey started quite normally by meeting up with severe congestion on the A34 south of Oxford.  This resulted in a cross-country trip via Stratford on Avon to pick up the M40 at Warwick.  From there we encountered very little in the way of Friday night traffic.  As we pulled off the A66 north of Ullswater we saw the first police car since we left Basingstoke.  About a mile down the road we noticed that they we now following with the blue lights flashing.

We continued for a while thinking that they were just celebrating Christmas early but little did I know that I was travelling with those two well known desperados, Butch Cameron and the Bloxham Kid...  Ok!  I am getting a bit carried away, but this was my first brush with the law (in a car at least).

I was not too far from the truth however, as they were on the lookout for robbers last seen in a BMW.  I suppose this is to be expected following the racy “Lakes” series.  We managed to convince them of our innocence and they left disappointed.

The rest of the journey passed uneventfully, and we found the hut at about 11.30, despite the (very) sketchy directions.

The following morning brought another challenge in the form of Mike’s scrambled egg.  We then split into 2 groups to take on the days walking.  For my part, I joined Mike, Don, Bob, Chris Abbott and Bill for a fairly uneventful ascent of Raise, Whiteside Bank, Lower Man, and Helvellyn.  The latter stages were completed in very poor visibility, especially for the spectacle wearers.  We had a go at estimating the time to complete the last two stages; we reached Lower Man within a minute of the estimated time, and were about 5 minutes faster than anticipated getting to Helvellyn.  The top was very crowded and despite the deteriorating weather we had to stand for lunch.

As it was getting quite cold by now we pressed on and eventually decided on a descent via Swirral Edge.  Initially this was quite a difficult climb down due to the slippery rocks but soon eased off.  The weather improved with the reduction in height and by the time we neared Red Tarn was quite acceptable.  The final 2Km passed without mishap and, surprise, surprise, we soon ended up in the pub. 

The crush in the local hostelry in the evening was very reminiscent of the top of Helvellyn, except that the mist was replaced with steam rising from the wet coats.  The waiter gave a remarkable display of inefficiency, by making thirteen trips to delivery thirteen sets of cutlery and placemats.  Maybe this was a Euro Pub and he, a Euro waiter.

The usual banter ensued, culminating in the almost customary science lesson by Chris and Michael.  Should I find myself at sea I now know that if I do see a lighthouse on the horizon I will know exactly where I am, assuming that I have access to lighthouse tables, fog density tables etc. etc. 

I am afraid that I didn’t last the course, but Michael reported getting into the normal swing of things, and ended up suitably off colour the following day.

On Sunday due to very threatening weather only half of the group did any walking at all.  A fairly gentle walk was planned going out via Boredale and returning along the banks of Ullswater.  The prospect of a prolonged walk along a track/road did not really appeal to Carol, Michael and myself so we split off to take on a steep climb up to Place Fell and over to the bottom end of Ullswater.  Again the summit was reached in thick mist, accompanied with an incredibly strong wind near the top, which practically blew us up the slope. 

All in all, a quite exhilarating trip well up to the club’s normal standards, and well worth the effort.