if you succeed at everything, you are not trying hard enough.

Main event this week was Mark Smith's winter round on friday night and saturday. I was scheduled to

1. Rope up Broadstand for an abseil descent (anticlock wise round) with my 100m caving rope.
2. Do leg 5 (Skiddaw and friends)

A rapid thaw on friday left just about as good a set of conditions as you could hope for in winter. As with supporting any round there are many other threads to the Mark Smith winter 2010 BGR story, but they are not my story to tell.

Roping Broadstand went well, apart from pulling a rock down on my face as I put a guide runner just above Broadstand. I should have spent 2 minutes clearing the rocks above. Still, I was not beautiful before hand. One of the support runners who was going to run leg 3 with Mark started an abseil and could make no progress, the rope was too tight. This made no sense to me at the time, but we made the call to take Mark down Foxes Tarn instead, as the abseil would be very slow if the rope was that tight. When I abseiled down about 10 minutes later to get the gear I left in place to guide the rope it was easy, I did the 80m in about 2 minutes, rope was loose. It appears 2 walkers use it to go hand over hand down the tricky bottom bit of Broadstand which is why Ian found it tight. Did they ask? No! Could we have choosen at any time to untie it and let it sliver down? Yes! I shall say no more as it did not effect the outcome of getting Mark round in under 24 hours, but I was not a happy Clive.

On Dollywagon Pike [ about 17 hours in ], Mark was only a couple of minute down on a 23 hours schedule, so going very well. At this point he tore a calf muscle and had to struggle back down to Dummail.. I really felt for Mark, after being so close last year. He was obviously disappointed. With a small person on the way, he felt it was his last chance for a while. Few people have been as encouraging in my rather less ambitious summer BGR objective than Mark, so if/when he wants to have an other go, he can be assured of my support. A winter BGR a big step up from a summer round in terms of commitment.

In the early 1990's I organized talks in the University in Aberystwyth by some well known mountaineers(if you were a mountaineer yourself). All were great, the most memorable being Simon Yates, Mick Fowler and Andy Perkins (in the days when he had a beard and worked for Troll). Andy came to Aber at least twice. One talk was about an 1993 expedition to Gasherbrum 4 where they did not complete the whole line. While talking about the expedition over a beer, he made a comment along the lines of

if you succeed at everything, you are not trying hard enough.

That statement has well has stuck with me over the years. If you attempt a winter BGR, you defiantly are trying hard enough.

So for my 1st week of training, only about 3000ft. These were a quality 3000ft carrying with 3 of us taking turns to carry 40 pound plus sacks up Scarfell. Sunday was taken up with hosting a 7 year old girls birthday part and taking a small buy to a cinema party which left little scope to make up for not doing leg 5.

Next week is pacing Jim Mann's winter BGR and it appears at least an other 4 groups are going over the weekend. Must remember to avoid the falling rocks from now on.