Carrock Fell

David Kaye

23 June 2018

Following months of meticulous preparation, both Jacqueline and David failed a late fitness test for the Lakes Adventure. Jacqueline decided, wisely, to stay at home. David decided it would be better to feel like sh-t in beautiful surroundings rather than feeling like sh-t in his bedroom.

So it was that Sue, John, Marion, Jim, Fiona, Russell and David foregathered in Mosedale at 10am on a bright but blustery morning. Russell, Fiona and David had done a reccy of the hill by car (code for overshooting the meeting point). Just prior to the brutal ascent of Carrock Fell David made a long bursting sprint of five meters to the front. As overtaking on the narrow vertiginous path was out of the question, he thus guaranteed himself some company for the first half of the climb.

At last the climb levelled out and the main party reached the trig point in about an hour, with Marion and David savouring the views to Blencathra, Skiddaw and Scafell, arriving a few minutes later.

  All too soon, the high level traverse to High Pike, the day’s second Wainwright, beckoned. If anything, the views improved along the way. High Pike must be one the very few summits in the world to boast a finely constructed slate bench, which the Team felt obliged to utilise.

Wainwright had waxed lyrical about the pink granite in Carrock Beck, so the Team were led a merry dance through the surrounding jungle in search of the legendary rock. Several stones with a pinkish tinge were unearthed, alas none of which are deemed suitable for publication.

Dinner was arranged in The George in Keswick where all duly assembled that evening, except David who wandered the highways and byways of Keswick in search of the venue. Finally, he conceded defeat and phoned for help. A search party located our drookit leader outside his hotel, twenty three meters from The George!

It was still raining the following morning so a (sub-)summit meeting was called. David, who isn’t counting his Wainwrights, but has 54, was tempted to stick to plan. Russell suggested going up to Skiddaw with the option of turning back if it stayed in cloud. Wiser council prevailed and a low level walk to the Castlerigg Stone Circle was deemed to be a safer option as it was below the cloud, and a popular tourist attraction, well sign posted, so we couldn’t get lost.

Note that we had morphed into 5 humans and two rabbits.

In summary, the Great Lakes Adventure was a pronounced success (s-u-c-c-e-s-s pronounced “success”). We will revisit the Lakes later in the year.

And so to July. Jim has offered to lead us on an outing to Deuchary Hill near Loch Ordie, just north of Dunkeld. Deuchary Hill is only 510m / 1,511 feet at the top but it gives great views over Perthshire. The planned walk is 18km, 500m of ascent, and should take us around 5 hours. The date for your diaries is Wednesday 11th July. Jim will advise the best meeting point, somewhere near Dunkeld, and start time. Perhaps we can allow the Edinburgh contingent a departure time that minimises the delights of rush hour. We will arrange transport once we know who plans to attend. Jim and Marion kindly invite all attendees back to their stately home for a Farewell to Chesterhill sticky bun party.

Cheers,  David.