Date: Weekend 22nd to 24th November 2024
Book a weekend away in the Lakes in November and you never know what you’re gonna get. Well, we got Bert! The forecast building up from 10 days away was almost perfect then rumours of a storm coming through started to appear on the MetOffice forecast (how many times a day can this be checked hoping for the symbols to improve). Sadly ours got worse and worse. Beautiful Friday with clear skies, cold and crisp moved to light rain, sleet, snow then heavy rain with winds gusting at ridiculous mph. Not surprisingly, quite quickly 16 participants became 9.
The hardy 9 met up throughout Friday evening. Phil and I were the recce team, having gone up Thursday to stay with the Landlord (my Dad). Friday morning involved a very precarious drive over to Ennerdale YHA with very icy roads followed by a 7 miler over Bowness Knott, Great Borne, Starling Dodd, Little Dodd and onto Red Pike before descending back to Ennerdale YHA. It was beautiful out there on the Friday
Black Sail is the remotest YHA in the country with a 6 mile hike in from Bowness Knott car park. We were fortunate that Ennerdale YHA was closed for the weekend so we could park there. This meant it was only a 3.5 mile hike in with everything you needed for the weekend: food, clothing and most importantly alcohol! There was much discussion about what gave the best punch per ml but was also tolerable and not going to end up messy.
Phil and I got there just before darkness, meaning everyone else had to hike in in the dark. Every time the hostel door opened and someone stumbled over the threshold, there was a huge cheer. There was also an interesting comparison regarding essentials for the weekend with Dan carrying a 70 litre rucksack on his back and a 30 litre on his front whilst Connor turned up with just a 20 litre bag for the weekend. Dan had a jar of English Mustard and a bottle of HP. Funnily, Connor did not!
Friday night was a discussion about Saturday, Bert and our impending doom. What educated risks should we take? As the alcohol intake increased, so did our plans for tomorrow. Daylight dawned and we’d had a nice bit of snow:
Not a bad morning view!
However, the snow soon turned to sleet, then torrential rain. But hey, we’re Striders and intrepid fell runners. This won’t stop us. We all put our kit on and decided to go for a plod up to Great Gable and around the valley to Haystacks before coming back down.
As it lashed it down and the snow turned to slush and the wind picked up, off we trotted. There was no way to keep our feet dry, except for those clever people who had brought waterproof socks so toes started to numb quite quickly, shortly followed by both feet. After 45 minutes, Josie was done. She’d be the first to admit she can’t cope with the cold too well and she’d had enough. Meanwhile, Laura in her usual way was complaining she was too hot! How can bodies be so different. Phil had iceblocks for feet as did I. A reassessment of our situation led to 4 of us returning and 5 carrying on. As we walked back and waded the streams we commented on how the stream water seemed warmer to our feet. I think we were cold!
We were back by midday. Not quite the 15 mile Bob Graham leg 4 recce that we had originally planned. Only 10 hours till bedtime. What shall we do? Charlotte had ordered a box of red wine but then couldn’t make it to the weekend so that was consumed as well as plenty more beers, cakes, soups, pasta sauces (with copious amounts of HP by Dan much to chef Laura’s disgust). We played scrabble, chess, shithead, Cards against Humanity (yes,Dan had brought the full box), listened to music, Phil watched the Blades – and complained, it might be remote but we had wifi – and Josie showed us all how to do proper pull ups using the beam. We laughed alot. It was mentioned it felt like a very relaxing Boxing Day
The storm raged whilst the woodburning stove did not. Phil started the attempts on Friday by burning all the kindling and small bits of wood. Throughout the next 24 hours, Josie had a go, Will had a go and several others also had a go at getting it lit. With the wet wood we were left with, it was never going to happen. Good job the central heating was working. We slowly retired one by one to our dorms from about 9pm onwards. Being the old man that I am, I had to get up for a wee in the night. I tried as hard as I could to avoid this, but not too hard as we had to finish the beers off or carry them out the next day. 1am came and it had to be done. This involved going outside, walking 5 metres to the lounge door, going through the building and out to the outside loo round the back. I’m convinced there was someone standing with a bucket of water waiting for the dorm door to open because as I began my toilet mission and stepped outside, I was hit by an unbelieveable quantity of water and almost blown off my feet. The weather was nuts. We could hear the wind coming up the valley and then the hut would shake. Good job it’s made of strong stuff.
Sunday morning was the end of an interesting and fun packed 36 hours. We split in different directions. The rain had stopped but the wind was still a bit crazy. Michael, Will and Connor went up Black Sail Pass and onto Pillar to make their way out. The rest of us trudged the 3.5 miles back to the car. Dan trudged more than us as he took his mustard and HP back home too.
Laura kindly chauffered Dan and I to Threlkeld where we ran leg 2 of the Bob Graham. Blustery is a word I could use. First time I’ve ever been blown off my feet. We commando crawled to the Helvellyn trig to touch it before scuttling back down the ridge. it was invigorating to say the least. Laura then kindly picked us up from Dunmail Raise and drove us to Sheffield – what a star!
All it all, it was a fantastic weekend away with a bunch of likeminded friends. We never quite got to do what we wanted to do, activity wise, but we adpted and overcame. Everyone who went said they would do it again next year, so we’ll be doing it again!
The fell group runs every Tuesday from a different venue each week. We have an active and supportive WhatsApp group with the aim of encouraging runners to try trail and fell. Drop me a message if you’re interested in having a different running experience.
