You wait 54 years for a visit to England's highest peak, and then two come along in one weekend.

In August 1968, when there was no FRA, and the inaugural Ennerdale Horseshoe fell race had just been won by a local shepherd called Joss Naylor, a group of 20 boys and 3 adults from Aspley Heath Primary School battled a SW gale and horizontal rain along the path from Esk Hause to Scafell Pike. We all survived, despite our inadequate clothing, but I didn't make another visit to Scafell Pike until last Saturday's race. I was staying at Eskdale Youth Hostel, and noticed a poster about the Charnley Way, which I knew of but had never considered doing; but I realised that the Eskdale loop of the Way roughly coincided with one of the ideas I had for a possible walk on Sunday.

The Eskdale loop starts and finishes at the YH, visiting Slight Side, Scafell, Scafell Pike (via Foxes Tarn), Esk Hause, Esk Pike, Charnley Crag and Bow Fell: 22km with 1500m of climbing, according to the poster. Conditions were more benign than 54 years ago: moderate winds, clag only on the highest summits, and light rain from Ore Gap to the finish. It took me 9 hours and 40 minutes, which must surely be a SKT (slowest known time); the previous day's exertions were telling, not that I was ever trying to move at a fast pace. This included about 3 hours 30 minutes from Bow Fell to Eskdale YH. I had a bit of fun finding the route off Bow Fell to Three Tarns [don't do the Langdale Race without a recce!], and the bog-trot down the Lingcove valley seemed interminable.

I do remember meeting Gerry Charnley at one of the events he organised, just a few months before he died on Striding Edge, so it was good to visit the cairn on the obscure little crag that has been named in his honour. But I wouldn't want to search for that in the clag!