Dec
3
Posted by:
host
03/12/2009 15:05
Every autumn, before heading out onto Greenland’s Inland Ice the following spring, the Pirhuk icecap crossing teams get together to train and run through the details of the coming months. This year we reckoned on the Lakes, N. England to offer some good training and beautiful scenery. The storms and subsequent flooding that have hit the region in the past 2 weeks even made the news in Switzerland so it was with a bit of trepidation that we set off. The drive to Borrowdale ended up going fairly smoothly, with one long diversion in place to by-pass a bridge damaged by the high water. The floods must have been fearsome to experience.
Everyone having arrived safely, the plan for Saturday was to ascend onto Red Pike and then follow the ridge-line towards Great Gable. I think everyone was prepared for a proper UK-style soaking so the stunning winter’s day we had was an unexpected delight and a day I’ll remember for a long time. As the clouds thinned and we made a single line of footsteps in the new, ankle-deep snow, views extended across the fells and out over the sea to the Isle of Mann.
The sun disappearing at 4.30pm and the temps dropping fast, a nice bivvy spot was found on Haystack and we settled in to a long night’s lie-down . Midnight brought a warm front, shaking the tents down with the accompanying gales. A return to wet weather on Sunday made for a very different walk back to our start point, but the pub was all the comfier for it! After covering a load of info, watching a slideshow of James’s 09 Nansen crossing trip (seriously impressive! NB. Will try to get them up on the gallery soon) and sampling some excellent jam roly-poly (with custard!) we all headed our separate ways.
Thanks to everyone who was able to attend – it looks like we’ve got some strong teams for ‘10.
Ps. After spending 10 days in 2009 with Colin S. on our East Greenland polar training course, it was great that his wife Ally and their young son John were able to join us – a skier-in-the-making for sure!