accompany the rest of the party over Black Sails and we next saw him at the top of Swirl How.  Here we stopped for an early lunch.  A couple approached from the direction of Coniston Old Man.  “Which hill is this?” asked the man.  “Swirl How.”  “Is that Coniston Old Man?”  “No, that’s Wetherlam.  The Old Man is over there, behind you.  You’re not heading for Helvellyn, are you?”  If he recognised the gentle dig he didn’t betray it.  “No, we’re going back down there, to the car,” pointing into Little Langdale.

 

We ambled along the ridge via Great How and Brim Fell to the Old Man.  Here it was almost warm and the low sun shone on the Scafells to great scenic effect.  It was quite a long stop, with a second instalment of lunch and more photographs taken.

 

Nobody wanted to descend early so we carried on via Goat’s Hause to Dow Crag, getting quite strung out across the fellside.  I ended up as back-marker when I took the wrong side of an iced section and had to retrace my steps.  At the Hause Dave MacGregor and Pete Kelly were waiting for me and we carried on over Dow, eventually meeting prospective members  Graham and  Gemma with Jake the collie near the top of Great Gully.  They were waiting for John Harrison, Roger Mellen and Mhairi Cameron who had gone to do the E Buttress scramble.  After a while Dave decided to go ahead and when Mhairi appeared by the summit I followed him.  The rest of the party passed us before Brown Pike but I was quite happy to go at Dave’s pace and we eventually met the rest of the party at the cottage and were greeted with a freshly-brewed pot of tea.           Steve Nelson

Mharie snoozing