Well, it’s fair to say that, at my age, I was not at all sure that I could make it to the summit of Blencathra (a summit that I have never been up before) but as Louise G8CME, myself G4BLH and our two Cocker Spaniels were booked in to our usual self catering accommodation just outside Keswick for four nights, it was definitely on our agenda if we could get the right weather.
We arrived early evening on Monday May 4th with a promising weather report for the next day. However, when Tuesday morning arrived, all the surrounding hill tops were covered in lots of cloud - Helvellyn down to Clough Head via Whiteside and Stybarrow Dodd was completely covered and even High Rigg was only just visible below the canopy. In the other direction, Skiddaw and Blencathra were just as bad. So we decided to loiter in Keswick most of the day with lunch being taken at the Royal Oak in the centre of town.
On Wednesday morning, the dogs stirred us at around 6:45. A quick inspection outside showed that the hilltops were all in the clear and the mountain weather forecast indicated low wind speeds on the tops, so we decided to ‘go for it’.
Our chosen route was from the car park near the Blencathra Centre in Threlkeld via Knowe Crags (quite a slog, but not as bad as the slog up Skiddaw from the car park above Underscar). The car park had only two cars in it when we arrived and we set off at 08:00 BST taking it at my relatively slow pace. There was one other fell walker some distance in front and nobody else in sight the whole way. We arrived on the summit at 09:45 and shortly after another couple of walkers arrived from different directions.
Visibility towards the Lake District hills was absolutely superb.
Above - Thirlmere in the centre distance with Helvellyn to the left of it.
Below - Derwentwater in the distance - G8CME descending with Willow & Bramble.
Below - looking across to Skiddaw Little Man & Skiddaw with the Solway Firth in the distance.
Above - looking back towards Knowe Crag and our route back to the car park near the Blencathra Centre.
I had not put out an ‘alert’ for this activation for the simple reason that I did not want to disappoint any chasers if I failed to make it to the summit.
I attached my half wave antenna to the stub pole fastened to my rucksack and using my Yaesu FT70DE I put out a CQ call on145.500MHz. My call was answered immediately by Geoff G4WHA/A in Carlisle and we QSYd to 145.475MHz for a short conversation and Geoff kindly put up a spot for me on both SOTA and WOTA websites.
In spite of those spots and further CQ calls by me, there was silence on the band until I was ‘rescued’ by Rob G6LJE and Robbie G6KWU both mobile on the M6 heading towards Knock to do some checks on the GB3EV repeater. Contact number four was with Richard M8XGO in Whitehaven.
I made multiple CQ calls to see if I could rustle up any more stations, but, disappointingly, it was not to be, so we started our long descent back to the car park.
Everything went smoothly back towards Knowe Crag, but as the terrain became steeper, I really started to feel it in my knees and I had to stop several times and take a break. (I had the same problem last year when we went up to Skiddaw Little Man). By the time I got back to the car, I felt decidedly ‘wobbly’ (picture the chap at the end of a marathon staggering to the finish line with the assistance of two other runners !!). My descent took an hour and a half with Louise G8CME back at the car a good 15 minutes ahead of me.
We are now back at home and going up, and particularly going down the stairs, I can still feel my aching knees and thighs. I am told that trekking/walking poles can make things a lot easier so while we were still in Keswick, I invested in a pair and I will test them out shortly on Pendle Hill, my local SOTA summit.
PS - I note that Blencathra was activated a few days before me by M7TKL & M0PVC & M1TJM. Gentlemen, I wonder if any of you lost anything on the summit ???
