Running - Trail long (Joss Naylor Challenge) 13:17:43 [5] 71.42 km (11:10 / km) +5549m 8:03 / km
ahr:118 max:192 (injured) shoes: Mudclaw G260
A bit epic.
Dropped off car at Greendale and halfway bag at Dummail the day before - 6 Clif bars and 4 packs of shot bloks (started with 4 of each as well) and a litre of SIS'd water. Cheap night in pub room backfired due to presence of live band...
Leg 1
Started from pooley bridge at 6am. Fairly confident on this leg. Took the campsite route from the bridge which starts off on a confusingly labelled private road which I missed last time - think this is marginally shorter. Good conditions up to #1, and took right path to Loadpot this time (due S). Other than not noticing Wether Hill (tiny cairn on path), and remembering Stoney Cove is much further than it feels like it should be, no problems with this leg.
Target was 2:45 and came in 2:54. Could've run faster up the first hill; no real savings to be made.
Leg 2
Red Scree climb didn't feel too bad. Path all the way to Dove was fine. Potential saving in future - at 374513ish, cross immediately and contour around Dove, rather than up and down. Maybe a few mins. No other time to be saved.
Target 4:45, came in 4:52, so gained back 2mins on this leg.
Leg 3
5mins stopped refilling water, getting more food packed, changing maps, but off again asap. Long climb up Steel Fell, but not too bad. Path following wall all the way to Birks Gill - diagonal from path junc and then followed leftmost stream, compass bearing at top. Worked well. There's a prominent cairn on the fenceline which can be ignored, actual summit is further across a flat bit - stay on original bearing. Ground past Birks is a bit moist and slightly uphill, so a fast walk.think definitely faster than going around.
From High raise trod goes all the way to stream and meets, then down stream. This is much further north than mapped, but is fine.ensure to cut up onto ridge. Skiing
Along ridge to Rosset, can stay on trod right until last minute as highest cairn (I think!) really is the last one on the ridge. Rosset keeps being obscured by other peaks which lure you left. We went back to a cairn which turned out to be a smaller one. In the most (It's misty now. Amazing views from High Raise, though). Maybe 5 mins here.
Correctly did the first bit of the Bowfell route, contouring round to the spring and then going along the first step. Went up the scree a bit, but too far - N said we needed to contour again but had missed it. There was another opportunity to contour just below a steep gully, but I suggested we give the gully a go and N agreed. Bad decision, it was much steeper than it looked, a proper climb, full of wet slippery moss and very dangerous. I had to force myself not to look down or I think I'd have frozen and would probably still be out there. Or at the bottom. Anyway once at the top we headed S over the rocks. We should've carried on west until hitting the path and we'd have had a much easier time. After the horrible rocky windy summit, we headed too far left in search of a grassy line. From Maps it looks like need to stay on main path until big left-right kink just after a steep section a bit of a way from the summit, then bear off slightly left but only just off the line of the main path. Should then come out at Ore Gap. We were a bit low and on a rubbish line. Esk and off Esk were fine (although getting very windy and clag getting thicker). Great End pretty grim (although always is) due to massive rocks. Tempted to consider going all the way around path to the South then due North on this one? As much less rocky that way.
Elected to leave Great End same way as wet didn't fancy unknown route down The band in the conditions. Cut a bit of the corner, but there would be been a faster line down just to the north of a very steep bit (rather than down the steep bit) just after it turned grassy. But would like to recce the band.
Target 8:00, actual 8:53 (!!). We were 7 down plus the 5 faffing =12, so 41 mins lost on this leg. I believe that maybe as many as 25 of those could be avoided...
Leg 4
Climb up Gable goes on for ever but isn't hard. Getting off to the NW is terrible, though. Looking at Maps, none of the ways look any good, so might have to accept it's just always going to be slow.
Fell over a few times in the wind and cut my hand but nothing serious.
Minor nav issue at Beckhead tarn (ie we couldn't see it in the clag) but quickly solved by compass.
Easy to kirkfell since same as on one of the Classics race routes (ie, it's neither of the first two summits it looks like it should be). Bit worried off kirkfell since it looked totally different to the race, but ended up in the same gully so was fine. Southern path S of Looking Stead picked up successfully.
Failed to pick up best (southern) path to Pillar AGAIN because every time I think 'it can't be that one, it's too low'. It starts around 178118 and rejoins ridge path 172120 and is largely parallel to ridge path, but much less rocky. Easy to find from the top!
Pillar to a Little Scoat I'm used to contouring around, but the route to steeple is from the top anyway so I think best just to follow the wall. After crossing wall and doing out and back to steeple, can just come back to cairns across flat bit, cut diagonally to wall and stay on N side of wall as that's where tiny cairn is for Great Scoat. We lost some time assuming there would be a path to Steeple as mapped.
It's still very claggy and windy. Went through a bad patch down to Haycock, started to feel really tough. Easy to Haycock, though.
Route off Haycock could've been better, after S summit cairn needed to be a touch more E than we were, ie basically SE from cairn and then due S. We might have hit a trod sooner that way. So a bit rocky, but not too bad. Raining now, getting heavier. Vis good though, since we're lower. Picked up trod eventually which is a good one, from Pots of Ashness to summit.
Direct from summit to obvious trod line(saddle at 465m) boggy but fine.middle fell ascent + descent easy on good trods.
Target: 12:00, actual 13:18
Another 25 mins lost on this leg - could be 5 on Pillar route, 5 on Steeple; no more than a few elsewhere.
Finished on a bit of a second wind; felt ok. Knees starting to feel it on the downhills.
Overall - I think there's potential for 12:45. I want another go! Just need to convince N that he does too.