Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

ARTICLETHE BOB GRAHAM ROUNDPikes meant we stayed right on plan, meanwhile wewere wrapped in clag all the way. Visibility was justabout good enough so as to allow us to lookslightly ahead, but when the darkness fell away at0630 it was the extra light we needed to stay thecourse. We dispatched the out and back up Fairfieldin 15 minutes less than it had taken me last time.Over Seat Sandal and down to the crew point atDunmail we were bang on schedule and in thespace of literally 2 minutes on that descent, thecloud just lifted away to leave the Lakes visible allaround us, the last smouldering remnants hangingon to the fell tops.Bill had emailed me a couple of days before theattempt and told me he didn't want to see me atDunmail before 0900. Save the energy and beconsistent throughout, don't try to bank minutesearly on. When I arrived at 0858 it seemed to be agood start. 25 minutes I was at Dunmail last time, 7minutes this time.Leg 3:Bill led the way up Steel Fell and Drew jumped in aspacer carrying a lot of gear with us for the circa 6 - 7hr leg that is the crux of the round in more waysthan one.Steel Fell is short and steep but we were up in goodtime and on to the first plateau with no issues. Thisis where the magic of Bill's mountain craft began toshine. Without pausing to stop or seemingly even tothink he picked out the most even terrain and thefastest possible line between the tops, without eversacrificing an inch of elevation gain. Chatting awayten to the dozen he gave me total confidence thatthis leg would be quite different to the twoprevious times. Every single top came and wentbetween 2 - 7 minutes faster than ever before. I wasrunning where you can actually run and we didn'tpause for anything. Overall we worked hard, it wasalways at an effort, but I was eating enough prior toevery climb to allow me to take them in striderather than the stop start effect of previousattempts. It sounds a bit presumptious but by HighRaise at the very centre of the Lakes, I knew wewere going to make it in time.This was a great day to be out on the fells.Over the rough stuff at the top of Leg three towardsGreat End we began to take some much more directlines and the savings kept coming.The bit I was really looking forward to was Bill's lineoff of Scafell Pike and up on to Scafell. There's noeasy option here, we took Lord's Rake as before butducked off left and made our way up the West WallTraverse. It was a grind up there with plenty of useof hands to haul up the gully but when we poppedout on top, we were within reach of the summitrather than way below it as Lord's Rake spits youout.The descent off of the top was 36 minutes, downfrom 50 previously and came via the best scree run I'veever seen.We came in to crew point 3 at Wasdale in 14hrsdead as opposed to 16hrs30 the last 2 times. Legswere good, energy was good, weather was good,time was in hand. And to help matters, my wife andson together with mum and dad had slogged itround to Wasdale in the car to say hi. It was time toenjoy the best of the lakes, leg four.Leg 4:Always looming over the Bob Graham aspirant isYewbarrow. It's steep. Rob Woodall led Natalie,Aidan and I up and took a great line and we climbedit in one swift move pausing for water only onceand topped out in 42 minutes, a time I would havetaken even if I'd been fresh. We rolled straight on tothe higher part of the leg around to Red Pike and Ireduced my previous effort of 74 minutes, to 45 flat.It was clear to me now that I just needed to keepmoving to get it done. I didn't feel any pressure andreally began to take in where were. Leg four really issensational. It's only around 11 miles, but with6000ft of climb it's steep ups and downs mean thatthe leg time is between 4 and 6hrs dependent onhow smashed you are. You can see out over thewest coast and the Irish sea, down in to the best ofthe Lakeland valleys - Ennerdale, Buttermere andWasdale. But most of all the fells there stand asindividuals, behemoths standing sentry in a ringaround Wasdale Head. Yewbarrow is a classic 1 in 2167 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://