Thank you so much to the team and to the many wonderful people who are supporting us on this challenge – you can see a few of the other team members on their sites as follows:
Wendy, Lou and Carol pose proudly at the top of Scafell Pike
Sat 8th / Sun 9th Aug: pink pants team training weekend – Scafell Pike! My final mountain before the big challenge…
On Saturday, three of the team (Wendy, Lou and I) have an early start as we head off for an epic drive to the Lake District. This is a long way to go for a weekend! We have an 8+ hour journey dodging some of the holiday traffic on the M6 and enjoy getting to know each other better before our big team challenge. We arrive late in the afternoon and check into our hotel (a bit like Fawlty Towers…) before investigating the route to Scafell Pike (quite a scary drive along a single lane!) and checking out the local pub for dinner. We retire to bed early ready for an early start the next day.
We start the climb shortly after 7am – wow this is early! The air is so fresh and beautiful, it’s really invigorating. The view of the lake and mountains is also really stunning, even though the weather is quite dull at this point. The route starts off gently and quickly becomes a series of steps to climb, crossing over a wonderful mountain stream. We see a lot of three peaks challengers coming down – they are not very impressed by the mountain but I guess it’s hard to feel positive about being on any cold and blustery summit at 5am in the morning! How will we fare in two weeks time when we face our own long days with tired feet? This is the smallest of all the peaks we will climb but it is no mean feat to climb this. As we leave the steps, the route becomes harder to follow and for a while, we are climbing amongst big rocks. It is really enjoyable and quite varied terrain. We head into cloud and lose the view. A fell runner (these people are remarkable!) helps point out the route and very soon we are clambering up to the top. I get so excited to see the summit that I topple over (yes, really!) but no harm done.
Hurrah, we are at the top!! We have a short rest at the summit, enough time to take a few photos and have a drink, before setting off back down. This is the first mountain on which I’ve experienced heavy rain – but Lou and I leave it too late to put waterproof trousers on! Wendy’s words of wisdom have proved correct (well done Wendy!) and Lou and I continue to clamber down somewhat soaked! On the way down, we spot the mountain rescue team who are heading up the mountain to refresh their kit – I have another wobble here (Wendy thinks I have been distracted by the team of hunks heading up towards us…I suspect she is correct!) and we stop to have a chat with them. We get a bit lost at the bottom but eventually find our way to another pub for a very well deserved lunch! This has been a great weekend and lovely to spend some training time together with these two special ladies.
Paula
On Saturday, three of the team (Wendy, Lou and I) have an early start as we head off for an epic drive to the Lake District. This is a long way to go for a weekend! We have an 8+ hour journey dodging some of the holiday traffic on the M6 and enjoy getting to know each other better before our big team challenge. We arrive late in the afternoon and check into our hotel (a bit like Fawlty Towers…) before investigating the route to Scafell Pike (quite a scary drive along a single lane!) and checking out the local pub for dinner. We retire to bed early ready for an early start the next day.