Undeterred by the weather forecast and official meet cancellation Sarah and Ian travelled up on Friday night with little traffic and in dry weather to arrive at the Lakes in only 5½ hours. Margaret now lives up there making three. Scott and Kate were also there making five, however, not knowing what each looked like and having no organiser reliance on text messages in an area of bad reception resulted in crossed messages and missing each other.

Saturday On Saturday it was a slightly breezy morning as predicted by the met office and about two hours blustery rain in the middle of the day, but dry otherwise. On leaving the campsite, it was a little overcast, but this did not seem to deter the hoards of climbers heading in various directions. Margaret, Ian and Sarah made an ascent of High Spy, then onto Maiden Moor and round the lake and as the day wore on were in almost continual sunshine. Still missing Scott and Kate they had a very pleasant dinner in the Swinside Inn.

On sunday we awoke to and breakfasted in glorious sunshine. This did not last and the weather clouded in during the morning. Driving to Buttermere, there was even a little drizzle. However, this was short lived and had stopped by the time that we made our circuit of the lake and our tour of Haystacks and Fleetwith Pike, (in unbroken sunshine.) Texts sent to Matt asking which factor sun tan cream he was using remained unanswered. Visibility was good; as far as Scotland across the Solway Firth.

A dull and damp start, but once the car was packed the sun was out again. Ian wanted to lead Sarah and Margaret up Troutdale Pinnacle but having been told that this was going to be a weekend of “torrential rain and gale force winds,” sadly Ian and Sarah had not brought their climbing gear. A shorter walk as it was quite hot.

It was a great weekend despite sorely missing the rest of the club and the journey home was almost as easy as the journey up.