BB1446 : Two Left Gloves and Too Small Boots

Sunday 28th December 2014

Has anyone got a spare pair of size thirteen boots and a right hand ski glove?

The forecast was for a bright sunny day, little wind, good visibility and snow above 400 metres.  The objective was to take advantage of the snow and finish reasonably early. The dilemma was that to hit the snow (and inevitably ice) we would need crampons or at least Grivel Spiders.  Unfortunately, although Ian's son George was organised and had brought his, son Harry couldn't find his Grivels, and Ian had forgotten to look. Don sadly bailed out at the eleventh hour with a nasty stomach bug (but sensitively spared us the detail), came to the rescue, and left two sets outside his back door.

So, fully equipped, or so we thought (it turned out that Harry had brought two left ski gloves but no right glove!), we set off for Dunmail with the aim of reaching Grizedale Tarn and then making a decision on which route to take.

It was a fantastic day as we climbed Raise Beck, with super visibility and sun streaming from behind Fairfield.  By the time we reached the Tarn we were in bright sunshine and decided to take the to path to Dollywagon Pike.

Shortly after this, George stopped to examine his ankle and announced that he'd twisted it during a drinking session the week before Christmas (he's a first year student at Newcastle University) but that was the extent of the explanation.  George said he was OK and would soldier on so we slowly plodded to the top of Dollywagon and continued along the ridge to Nethermost Pike.

Although photographs were taken, neither they nor words are adequate for the stunning scenery all around us.  However, when we reached the col above Nethermost Cove mist was descending rapidly around the summit of Helvellyn and our slow progress meant that we were behind schedule.   To add to this, George announced that it wasn't his ankle that was bothering him after all but his boots, new this summer, which at size twelve and a half were too small!  

So we headed down the path towards Comb Crag and Wythburn, which was noticeably more icy, being northern facing, than the previous paths.  When we reached the woods we followed the forest track back to Dunmail.

Frustratingly, traffic was gridlocked back to Ambleside and beyond so we were considerably later than planned but this didn't detract from a super day on the fells to finish the year.

Stan, Sunday 28th December 2014

Editor's Afternote: If anyone does have a pair of size thirteen boots and a right hand ski glove surplus to requirements, do let George know.

End of Year Report

It's been an eventful year with a joint record number of outings: 46 and a record number of participants: 24

The miles covered, 441, is back up with the "glory" years of 2007 / 2010 and the average, at 9.4, was the fourth highest since records began.

The height climbed just fell short of 100,000 feet, again placing the year in fourth place. Average height climbed was also in fourth place at 2,119.

The average number of participants per outing was a record 4.63 and the total BOYdays was also a record at 214 .

You can find the index page for this year's adventures at BOOTboys 2014 .

Here's hoping that 2015 is kind to all BOOTboys and members of The BOOTboys Inter-Galactic Fan Club.

Happy New Year !

Don              

Windermere vanished under temerature inversion cloud on Monday- sadly only phone camera available

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading bb1446 .

To discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing - although it may not be that up to date - see: Which Wainwright When?

For the totals of the mileages and heights (ditto) see: BB Log.

Photos have been gleaned from many sources although mostly from me!
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