A variety of things have kept me away until now, including the weather! Last weekend we had planned to climb Wansfell Pike with Andrea, but the forecast was dreadful, so in the end only Simon and I went up with Monty to the Lake District. We arrived at Wasdale in the early afternoon, and ate our picnic lunch at the National trust car park at Wasdale Head. While enjoying our sandwiches we noticed some people in the car park clearly waiting around for something, with all the appearances of some kind of event going on. We decided it was likely to be for some runners attempting the Bob Graham Round. Bob Graham ran a hotel in Keswick, and in 1932 decided that for his 42nd birthday he would climb 42 Lake District peaks in 24 hours. This he duly did, although no one could really believe it. It took many years (until 1960) before anyone matched the feat. The round consists of a 72 mile circuit of 42 of the highest peaks in the Lakes, and involves a total climb of 27,000 feet. It's worth visiting the site of the Bob Graham 24 hour club just to see what's involved! The link is here. Sure enough, we hadn't been there long before a very tired looking runner arrived at the car park to be sat in a deck-chair and supplied with hot tea and food! It was hard to believe he still had a significant number of peaks still to climb! We then headed off for a stroll in the hills ourselves. We weren't planning a big climb, and so just climbed up between Illgill Head 
and Scafell to find Burnmoor Tarn, before ascending Great How (523m). We then contoured around back towards Wasdale and returned to the car. After a great evening meal in the Wasdale Head Inn we found a place to camp alongside Wast Water.We got some sleep, but Monty (the dog) decided that it was better to lean up against the inner tent where I was sleeping, and also seemed to prefer to sleep essentially lying on our heads. It was interesting...
Pillar with Simon
The next morning, relatively early, we struck camp and moved the car to the
National Trust Car park at Overbeck Bridge, at the base of Yewbarrow. We jogged into Wasdale Head, and enjoyed a nice cup of tea from the Inn before starting off again! The route took us into Mosedale and up to Black Sail Pass, where we turned left to climb the ridge up to Looking Stead and then onto Pillar (853m). It was quite a climb, but worth it. The weather was perfect, and the views incredible. Scafell and Scafell Pike dominated the view beyond Kirkfell, South, with the hulk of Great Gable just to the North of them. Looking North East we had views of Haystacks and the Honister Pass, with High Crag and High Stile due North. 
From the very top we could look down into Ennerdale and Ennerdale Water, and to our West was the sea. North West we could make out the hills of Southern Scotland. We spent a cold, but happy time eating lunch on the top trying to work out which hill was which. We think we could see the Dodd's with Hellvellyn in the distance, and could make out the unmistakable shape of Blencathra. I made a short video, but some of my words are drowned out by the wind!Red Pike with Monty!
Leaving Pillar we scrambled down to Wind Gap (very interesting with the dog) and back up again heading towards Scoat Fell, but then taking the path South towards Red Pike.
It was a bit up and down, but no significant climb. When we made it to the trig point (828m), we then realised that it was an almost sheer drop down from there back down into Mosedale - not somewhere to overbalance off! I've just been told by my wife, Rachael, that people will say that doing a hill with the dog is cheating, as "he's not one of your friends!" I would dispute this! There is nothing in the rule book for this challenge that says I cannot climb a hill with my best four-legged friend! I must say that Monty had a great day. There were a number of scrambly sections we had to manage, and he did plenty of leaping up onto rocks. The most interesting section was yet to come, however, as we didn't know what was lying in wait for us at Yewbarrow. To get there we had a great little run across the top of Red Pike and down to Dore Head (486m).From there we had fully intended to climb up and over Yewbarrow, which is a terrific looking
hill. What we didn't know was that this would involve a fair bit of scrambling. This would have been fine - nothing too exposed or challenging, but with the dog, it was a different matter. After having to pick him up and lift him onto rock ledges a few times, we began to think that we should perhaps turn back. When we met a family coming down who pointed out that it was even worse getting down the other side, we retraced our steps and instead kept Yewbarrow to our left, and walked back to the car, with an ever increasing view of Wast Water ahead.Overall, this was a top walk. A challenging climb, superb views and great company (both Simon and the dog!). Simon finished the afternoon with a quick dip in Wast Water (very cold, but protected by a wetsuit). His challenge to himself for this year is to swim outside at least once each month. I think I'll stick to the hills!
Thanks Simon, and Monty for a fantastic day, and for helping me with hills 19 and 20! I'm half way there!
