And so 2019 dawned and we decided to make our first trip to the Lakes. As a treat we also decided to overnight at the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel where we had stayed previously when tackling some of the Langdales but today we headed for Grasmere.
There were two fells in our sights today, Gibson Knott and Calf Crag. If you've read the blog on Steel Fell you will know we had thought of doing them previously as part of a circular walk but been thwarted by fatigue!
The weather forecast suggested a bit of cloud, a bit of wind but then sunshine later on. We set off... We had soon climbed to the top of Helm Crag which didn't seem as daunting as the first time we'd done it.
In many ways revisiting the Helm Crag summit and seeing the Howitzer was comforting and soon we headed past the summit to see where was next on the agenda.
The lump of rock in the middle of this photo is Gibson Knott. What you can't see is there is a drop down first before the climb back up to that rock. Now, the weather looks quite benign on this photo but let me tell you it was incredibly windy 40mph+ we found out.
I should also mention at this point it felt cold especially as we had by now discovered we only had 3 gloves between our four hands! Theo had one of his own plus one of mine whilst I just had one warm hand and one very cold one!
The route to Gibson Knott is fairly obvious. We had the odd foray off piste for a few yards before spotting the obvious path! Did I mention it was very cold and windy? At this point we also had the smallest amount of rain but at 45 mph it stung our faces.
We were soon on the final climb to the summit and we'd done it. Gibson Knott, number 47 for me and 42 for Theo had been conquered!
You can see Theo had one massive glove!
We set off towards Calf Crag but it was clear Theo was getting cold. He was layered up well but his hands were getting cold so we had a decision to make. Either carry on to Calf Crag (about another mile) or turn round and go back down.
We followed our simple rule that if one of us wants to go back we do. There are no recriminations or moaning about how close we are because, as I said to Theo Calf Crag will still be there and we will come back and knock it off the list.
So we came back down, over Gibson Knott and Helm Crag and I was soon nursing myself a cheeky beer at the hotel....Marvellous! The writing on the glass said it all!
