Notes
BGR leg 1 - sort of! Joseph Wheeler, Charles Hallett + I stayed with a brother-in-law from Canada who has done lots of marathons and attempted the Spine Race but had never been to the Lake District before. I think he was quite shocked by the brutality of it all! Did we start at 10pm? Wheelers renting a little cottage in Keswick.
I was quite shocked as I drove in to see snow on all the tops. Sure enough, the top of Skiddaw was quite treacherous with ice (and on top of Blencathra I slipped over completely at one point). He twisted his ankle in the heather off Skiddaw. It was also extremely boggy down there, and the river was high (he also fell over in the river). On the plus side, the stars over Blencathra were incredible. I thought we would slip off Halls Fell ridge to our deaths, so tried to find Doddick .... but missed that, so we ran all the way down the long long ridge and then picked our way past a horse, over dry stone walls, over waterfalls, mile upon mile, to arrive at Threlkeld hours later. Ho hum!