After eating at the Dog and Gun in Keswick we drove to the Seathwaite hut near the end of Borrowdale. We were the last to arrive after being held up by roadworks on the journey. It was good to see everyone again and we all took part in a quiz that Gill had organised to raise funds for her school. This was fun and we managed to work out all the answers, though there was a bit of debate as to which ones were right.
On Saturday, Nick and Jonathan climbed Green Gable while we headed up the valley to climb Scafell Pike. From the end of the valley we could see all the way down it until we walked into the cloud. Then, we couldn't see anything. After having lunch we headed across some boulder fields and scrambled the last bit to the top. There wasn't much of a view as we were still in very thick cloud. On the way down the fog cleared which was just as well because if it hadn't we would have ended up in the wrong valley. We walked past a tarn and down the side of the valley back to the hut. For dinner we had stir fry and afterwards we celebrated Lucy and Sarah's recent birthdays with champagne and did the crossword in the Daily Telegraph.
On Sunday morning, after our cooked breakfast, we played cricket in a field in the valley. It was fun but very tiring. Then we sat about and had lunch in the garden. After lunch we decided to go for a walk, and walked up Sourmilk Gill. At the top we did some great scrambling. We walked down past the old graphite mines and found some graphite in the spoilheaps. We ate an ice lolly from the farm tea shop before driving home.
Jessica Pumphrey
Photo below is Wasdale from the Corridor route on Scafell Pike, taken on the Saturday afternoon
And now for the latest episode of
For those of you who don't know already know (because I haven't told you yet) and who might consider making a visit, St Cergue is a small 'family' ski resort at 1,000+m with (apparently) excellent cross country skiing and good downhill runs for beginners and intermediates, plus a few black runs for the more proficient. It also has a night-ski run so I'm looking forward to getting home from school and getting on the piste on a regular basis! It's a 25 minute drive from school (which seems to be regarded as excessive for commuting there) but the location seems to be worth it. It's about the same from the airport for meeting people. There is a frequent (half hourly) mountain railway service down to the charming lakeside (Lake Geneva) and well-serviced town of Nyon! , which is also linked to the frequent train service between Montreux and Geneva. Car hire isn't excessively expensive. Summer sports and trekking from the area seem to be very well regarded.
It's a few minutes from the French border where things like nights out are a bit cheaper. There are cheap flights from a number of UK and continental airports.
All the best,
Frank
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Lucy and Hugh Pumphrey Last modified: Sat Apr 5 17:28:22 BST 2003