Thursday 1 May 2014

A spell of winter...

The weather has taken a cold turn resulting in a drop of between 5 and 10 degrees C. Through the night rain fell as snow on the tops making today interesting to say the least. Thankfully Mack was on hand with his deft micro-navigation skills to find a route through the clag that was clinging to the 5 summits Dan ticked off. The weather faired up through the afternoon as did Dan's mood in general. Clearly Mack and Daz have a few stories to tell, and these have taken Dan's mind of his painful leg. The challenge is currently a walk, Dan can romp up hill but is still limited to a fast walk on the flat and descent, turning a 7 hour day into a 9 hour day.

Dan made a wise decision to leave Mount Keen until tomorrow. With that hill done and the bike ride west he's nicely set up to start his assault on the Cairngorm group. The bank holiday weekend sees the arrival of reinforcements, with a number of people (the names of whom I now forget, except Matt B and Jim) descending to give Dan a hand. He's turned the planned 2 Cairngorn days into 3 to protect his ankle and safeguard the challenge for now. The weather also looks set to be fair. And to top things off, in his absence, it sounds like his school have survived an inspection without him.

It's probably worth mentioning Ghyllside School at this stage. Not many schools, under the current pressures faced from Government, would give a teacher time away to do this sort of thing. Dan's lucky to work in a place that recognises the value of personal challenge and adventure beyond the day to day realms of academic study. I know Dan massively appreciates the support he has received from the school. This weekend a large group of 10 and 11 year olds from Ghyllside are spending the day in the Coniston group practising their expedition skills (navigating, walking over difficult terrain and camping) in preparation for a 3 day adventure later in June. This is all thanks to Dan as he started the Expedition Club at Ghyllside back in 2011.


2 comments:

  1. A good plan to split the Cairngorms over 3 days. Good luck tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Keep your chin up Dan on your amazing journey. We are all thinking about you here at Cumbria Wildlife Trust. We are sure you will make it.

    ReplyDelete