On a weekend when it seemed like summer had finally arrived, CUHWC returned to the George Starkey Hut in Patterdale. The last time we were here, it was unseasonably snowy, so the warmth and the sun this time made quite a change to the scenery! Most trip participants were in the hut, with some people camping nearby. Saturday saw glorious weather, which everyone took full advantage of. Folks on the scrambling course headed up Pinnacle Ridge (though they couldn't have been paying too much attention to their route, because they failed to find it again the next day...), while another group headed for a grade-4 scramble, and a third decided to get their feet (and sometimes their entire bodies) wet by going gill-scrambling! Others opted for less rocky walks of greater and lesser lengths.
On Sunday, the weather was still warm but a bit more overcast. A fair proportion of the group lounged around the bunkhouse for much of the morning drinking tea, before deciding to spend a lazy day on the lake, exploring islands via canoes and rowboats. Some significantly more energetic people awoke early and went swimming in a nearby tarn before heading out on their walks. Indeed, swimming was a popular activity this weekend, with some people diving in to Ullswater and various tarns at least 3 times! The Trip Leader, having thin Californian blood, preferred to just dip her feet in.
Joe Hobbs, Becky Howard, Tom Leach, Peter Kirkwood, Kerrie Taylor-Jones, Paul Fox, Tom Owen, Andrena Ball, Greg Chadwick, Lucy Wright, Daumilas Ardickas, Mike Simpson, Fiona Petersen, Alex Elliott, Tom Dobra, Katherine Bond, Dave Mackenzie, Eleri Cousins (Trip Leader), Reuben Newsome, Laura Imperatori, Pete Florence, Matt Hickford, Jo Smith, Dave Farrow, Partha Patil, Laurent Michaux, Katie Atkinson, Franziska Rupprecht, Paul Brookes, Antonia Cuff, Valerie Ashton and Tom Ashton