The Lake District: Gold Mixed Mode in the Mountains
The Lake District, the best place in England for lakes and mountains. Where better to do your Gold Qualifier mixed mode?
The acclimatisation day was where the teams took on their first challenge of the trip – tackling Britian’s railway network to make the journey from Gloucester to Cumbria. Everyone made it, but not without a casualty: a pair of boots left on the train making their way up to Glasgow! Despite this loss, the teams cracked on, setting up camp and planning their routes for the following day.
It was an early rise the next morning, with their sights set on conquering Windermere. At a whopping 18km long and the largest lake in England, as well as being a sizeable walk from their campsite this meant that the team’s first day was truly mixed mode. Walking from the campsite to the jetty on Windermere and then transitioning with triathlon-style efficiency to paddling, before adventuring across the water on their way to Low Wray.
Day two posed an unwelcome but predictable challenge – rain. But before that could dampen spirits, one of our teams needed to make a quick stop in Ambleside. Fortunately, if there’s anywhere in the UK you can get a pair of boots it’s there and with Mountain Warehouse having an unexpected sale, they were quickly back in business! Mountain footwear sorted and waterproofs on, the teams began their ascent of their first Wainwright’s of the expedition. Enduring bravely up ‘the struggle’ through cloud, fog and persistent rain proved a challenge for everyone, the teams had to navigate closely across the mountain plateaus, before making the descent back into the valley for camp, where finally the rain eased and spirits brightened.
With the weather far more amenable, mostly sunny with the odd shower here and there, the third day turned out to be perfect for a mountain adventure. The morning began with a scenic, but steep start to the day walking up Hayeswater Gill, leaving legs tired yet spirits high. Upon reaching the summit of The Knott, a brilliant view greeted them – making up for the sea of white the previous day. The rest of the day was spent ticking off summits, from Rampsgill Head, to High Raise, to Red Crag to Load Pot hill, they did a truly scenic tour of the Wainwrights. As the day drew on, they descended back into the valley once more to camp on the shore of Ullswater, the very lake they’d been looking at from 800 metres above earlier in the day.
On the final day, windspeeds were gathering on Ullswater. This meant the teams had to come up with a plan to make progress across the lake. Paddling as individual canoes was proving slow and exhausting, and so they used the skills they had practiced on their training day to create a solution – rafting up. Now making progress, the teams pushed on before the lake meandered so that the wind turned to be behind them. As if to make up for the morning of challenging paddling, this gave the teams a chance to use their sails – and they did! Sailing across the lake like an armada to their finish location and completing their Gold DofE award in style.
This mixed mode expedition was brilliant to witness and partake in. We thoroughly enjoyed taking these groups through some of the best terrain our country has to offer, seeing the challenge and enjoyment it posed for the participants and the strength of their characters. We hope to continue to run more expeditions like this one in the future. Do you feel up to the task…?
