15 to 22°C. Lifting cloud on Ben Nevis, some snow, and hot sunshine on Snowdon.

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I’ve only had 3½ hours sleep since Sunday, my knee is sore occasionally, but fine the rest, (just don’t pivot on that leg).

Ben Nevis– 3½ to summit, 2½ hours down.

that decent was the most exhilarating thing I have done for a long time. Crossing the icefields was fascinating, especially when the real danger became visible through the mist. The summit is on a curving ridge, but an ice-sheet cut the corner. It had a series of cracks where the next section of the ledge was ready to break off and fall hundreds of metres below. We were equipped with rope/compass and heading to take if visibility got worse. We would then take a heading of 220° for 150m before continuing on 270° back onto the bare rock. The ice was melting from below, such that some strides plunged your leg up to the knee revealing a cavity of dark rocks.

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Descending was extreme fun, Carl was urging us two on (as a breakaway pair) aiming to beat the clock. He’s call out encouraging time targets, significant turns and pressure to speed up. When he ran out of words he’d just growl! It got faster as the minibus came into sight, the last hundred yards was a sprint for the bridge. In fact, I ran past my colleagues from the first group, over the bridge and straight for the minibus. I’d run out of water ½ before so I stabbed my finger into the 4x2l water bottle pack and dragged out a 2 litre bottle of mineral water. Then I could start relaxing and winding down. It took a very long time to come down after that.

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Scafell Pike 5½ hours (3h 05′ up with the group, 2:22′ on my own back down)

The problem one; descending this was beginning to hurt my knee, but the time lost on the ascent was enormous- the group had taken 18 stops- I felt the need for none. We could have taken an hour off that time if so many of the others had had breakfast. You just can’t take on five hours of exercise on an empty stomach- but they tried to. It was also a shame that the van was so slow- it would only do 60mph on level ground, we were too late to see the sunrise on the summit. Beginning the climb was darkness, but most of us had turned off our headlights within 15-20 mins as dusk broke.

Snowdon 3h 40′ solo, incl. 15 mins at the summit.

I took this at my own pace, which resulted in a curcuit time 2 hours faster then the others (/boast). The air was clear at the summit, A milky light just allowed Anglesea to be seen- if you knew what to look for.

I ran the last mile off Snowdon to get a better time and then waited for the others. Those who’d withdrawn met me there with a bottle of water and a round of applause! I needed that drink- it was the last of 11 litres g;ugged down my throat on that day.

I’m cycling in to work tomorrow to try to loosen up the legs; sleeping now since only had 3½ hours sleep since Sunday.
G’night.