Training weekend 5: Camping and Scarfell 20th - 21st March

On 20th March, with less than 4 weeks to go, we had our final group training weekend we were staying at Wasdale Head campsite in the western lakes, on Saturday night for camping before walking on the Sunday. The campsite nestles under the Scafell mountain range at the head of beautiful Wastwater, the deepest lake in England.

Map of the Lakes  

We arrived in Wasdale head on Sunday afternoon and put tents then headed down to the local pub, the Wasdale Head Inn. Sadly the pub had no TV signal so we couldn’t watch England getting beaten, we had a good meal and a good discussion about the remaining things we needed to do for our preparations for Kilimanjaro. 

Then it was back to the tent, to try out my new sleeping bag and roll mat, which I had bought earlier in the week in Keswick. After much searching I went with a down bag and I am pleased to report it was lovely and warm, so I am very happy to take it to Kilimanjaro with me.  

  Our tents in the morning lightly frosted

Breakfast was provided by the duo that is John Anderson and Scott Elwell who we refer to as our version of the Hairy Bikers, although they don’t have bikes or big beards. They supplied us with tea & coffee and cracking bacon butties with beans. Top quality mountain climbing food. Jonathan was to be the maitre'd but sadly had to miss the trip after he bruised his foot kick boxing and was told to rest.

After breakfast we set off on our expedition up Scafell, the day was really pleasant as we set off with reasonable temperatures and even some sunshine, you would think it was spring.

 

 Setting Off 

Scafell hidden by cloud

It was scary at various times getting to the summit, including a precarious route which we called the wall of doom on the journey back to Sunderland. The trip back down was challenging too, with the rain and the mud on the stone steps, provided by the National Trust, I managed to slip at least 3 times and put a slight bend in my walking pole.  

The scramble

 The view at the top

 

Ski Sunday on the way back down

So in the space of one weekend we have camped beside the deepest lake in England and climbed the highest mountain in England, this is all good training, but Kilimanjaro is 6 times as big as Scafell, oh well at least we have 6 days to climb it.