Pioneers' 55@55: Another Saturday in the Clag

Last Week: 73.9 miles; 12390 feet; 15:42:33

Despite the forecast of sunny intervals and then sunshine the clag never cleared completely – the photo of the Pike shows the best there was. Even stopping to take photos on the way round and after a tougher “warm up” I was still 20 minutes quicker than last week. The wind wasn’t as strong which helps a great deal but I felt much stronger all the way round and even at the end the last 3 miles weren’t the struggle they often are. The “warm up” is a mid-winter legacy – I prefer to get out early and so usually do a few road miles to warm up, digest my porridge and allow dawn to break. I changed the route so that I get about 850 feet of climbing in order to top up a Saturday morning to 21 miles and 4000 feet.

On Sunday we went to Great Langdale to have a run round some of the “Langdale Skyline” but the wind was too strong on the summits and after about half of them Pauline headed back to the car. I decided, having been over the Langdale Pikes and dropped down to the valley floor to just go up Bowfell by Rosett Ghyll and the BG route and back down the Band. The wind was so strong on Bowfell that I had trouble standing on the summit. The ascent route is clear of snow which is encouraging as I will be able to use it on 18th April – a year ago we had a very entertaining time on the same route when it was plastered with old hard snow and being blasted by a strong icy wind. It does provide good views across the head of Great Langdale – see below.

I have now replaced Tuesday’s track session with a run up Winter Hill which gives about 12 miles and 1400 feet of climbing to add to the weekend’s climbing. This week the weather was so bad – two hours in pouring rain – I regretted the decision. In the dark and in the clag the mountain bike lights are quite spooky.