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November 2007

This is what happened in November...

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The Lake District - 16th-18th Nov. 2007
by Matt & Vince

The weekend started on a bit of a hectic note after Leeds commercial shafted us on Friday afternoon when we went to collect the vans – so no Xmas cards for them this yr. Fortunately the club is made up of very generous people and we had no problems organizing transport for everyone in people’s cars and a hastily arranged transit.

We all arrived in good time, with Martin doing his best Lewis Hamilton impression along the winding country roads and arriving first (only kidding mate – thanks for the lift). Most of us made it out to the pub once we all got there – and a fairly civilized night was on the cards with a big walk up Helvellan the next day, with some of us wondering why Paul had such a professional looking case of casino chips…

Saturday’s hard walk headed up to Helvellyn – with the clouds blowing over the hills at pace we planned to get up there early and down to the pub before the bad weather came in. We all made it the car park at Glenridding and got togged up ready for a bashing from the weather! We were soon making our way up a very steep ascent, sweating away and wondering why we had put some many layers on to start with! We stopped for a quick group photo and had some interesting conversations about sheep! We started the accent up to the bottom of Helvellyn, sweating away but all very happy.

We eventually made it up to the tarn at the bottom of Helvellyn, where we had our lunch and Chris decided to play with his rope with Martin!
On top of Fairfield
The hard walkers on Hellvelyn
Brian

It was decision time, the weather at the top of Helvellyn looked very nasty, and the clouds were down and looked very wet and windy! So we decided to split up into 2 groups; the sane and the not so sane! The sane group made their way up to Catstye Cam and then dropped down a rather steep ridge and met up with the path we had taken coming up to the tarn. The not so sane group made their way up Swirral Edge and onto the top of Helvellyn, where they later told us was not very windy and wet at all (somehow I don’t believe them!). The sane group made it down in record time so stopped off in the pub before doing a bit of shopping in Glenridding and then returning to the bunkhouse. The not so sane group made it down about 1 ½ hours after us, looking very wet and slightly battered.

The medium walk headed up Grizedale, past the tarn (with 2 foot waves) to an extremely wet and windy Fairfield. It was a long steep climb, but miraculously nobody was blown off the edge, and after a warming drink of hot blackcurrent (thanks Cathy!) we headed down the beautiful Dovedale, arriving back in Hartsop just as darkness fell. Congratulations to all who braved the harsh conditions and came out alive!

After eventually meeting everyone back at the bunkhouse and getting rain soaked clothes, boots & mobile phones into the drying room, Saturday night was all about the fantastic corn beef hash! – with lots of cries of “dog food”, “world war rationing” and “Table at the travellers rest reserved!” ringing round -the pressure was on..but me (Matt), Ben and the team cooked up a storm and the whole lot was eaten with no complaints (well none to our faces anyways..) A quiet but sociable night followed, with most people choosing to chill out around the bunkhouse after a long day.

Sunday for many was spent around Ambleside, some just shopping, others going on on a short walk led by Chris up over Loughrigg Fell.

There was only a select few who had decided to do a taxing walk on the Sunday, possible because it had rained very heavily the night before and the weather looked very grim! 7 of us set off on a walk lead by our very own mountain goat Brian, up High Street and around the horse shoe, bagging several other peaks at the same time. We soon realised this was going to be a very wet walk as rivers were flowing down the path. So we squelched away, quite happy, chatting about the previous nights excitements! We made it up to Hayeswater tarn where we saw what lay ahead of us, lots of snow!! We made our way quite slowly up the very steep ridge, called The Knott. We reached the snow line at about 600 meters, where we had a quick snow ball fight, all picking on martin as he couldn’t throw! Soon we were trudging through 5 inches or so of snow on the top of the ridge and onto High Street. We made a slight detour to find the trig point as we had gone off course due to a white out! We managed to find the trig point where we stopped for a bite to eat and commented on what a fantastic winter scene laid before us. Off we trotted into a very cold wind and started a slight ascent of the next peak Thornthwaite Crag Beacon. Still trudging through the snow we started a very steep decent down into Threshthwaite Cove. This was very very steep, people were sliding all over the place and many found the best way was to ski down on your feet! We made our way down to be greeted by a spectacular view of the valley, where Martin and Vince decided to doing a bit of bog running! We made our way down crossing many streams and rivers and back to the bunkhouse to change our clothes and set off back to Leeds. This walk was truly amazing it had it all; fantastic views, scrambling, fun in the snow, skiing, river crossings and bog walking. What more could you ask for!! 

Sunday finished with the traditional curry in Nazams with the general consensus being that it had been a fun weekend – with well organized walks and good company making up for the November rain

Marsden Brewery day walk (weekend) - 3rd November 2007

We all met at the ripe old time of 9.45am at Leeds train tickets. We all got our family day rover tickets and got on the correct train to Huddersfield. We all chatted along on the train and we soon arrived in Huddersfield where we discovered we only had two minutes to get to the connecting train! So we ran under the platforms to the platform our train was on, just managing to get everyone on in time!

We soon arrived in Marsden where we had arranged to meet another group of walkers from the club who had decided to camp over (some very mad people in the club!). However there was no one to be seen. So Vince rang up Ben (one of the crazy campers!!) who was just finishing off his cooked breakfast! All of a sudden Paul and Tom ran up to us, looking rather ill i must admit! We got the lo-down on the activities that had happened the previous night and surprise surprise had involved copious amounts of alcohol! We all trundled down to Marsden where we met all of the campers after they had all finished their breakfasts.

We eventually set off on the well know walk along the cannel path and up onto the moors. We all chatted merrily along, finding out all the gossip from the previous night and all the frolicking that had happened! Only 5 minutes later Ben and his band of Geocachers had found one of their prize caches! After much chuntering about how Geocaching is littering the countryside, we managed to set off again! We decided to leave the Geochachers to it and we quickly made our way up onto the rather windy moors. We stopped for a breather at the top of one of the moors, where we were greeted with spectacular views of the landscape for miles and miles. A small discussion started about whether or not the power station we could see was Drax or not! We were met by a rather sweaty and tired looking Paul who had run away from the Geocachers (i don’t blame him, who wouldn’t!).

We soon got to our lunch stop, where a few decided it was about time to crack a beer open! We all filled our faces with our sandwiched we had prepared and were soon off back on the trek! We stopped at one the reservoirs (i forget the name!) where some had a little paddle and played around in the sand. Martin ever eager to take some pictures decided it was time for a group picture. Off we set with a big incentive of the pub pushing us along! We all stopped for a last breather at another surprise surprise Geocache!

After which we descended into the village of Marsden and stopped off in the Marsden Brewery pub. Where many members enjoyed a cold refreshing pint after a good days walking, some enjoying more than others! We realised that we had lost 2 of the Dutch girls on our way down, so we eventually made contact with them and soon they also joined us in the pub! Those who were going back went back on the train and those who were camping stayed in the pub! A very good day out and some fantastic weather lead to a very memorable day/night!!