Pauline Fell down, But She Got Up Again

A fine and eventful outing this morning from Wasdale Head. We met Dave P-T just after the arranged time of 9:15 and after using the facilities at the Wasdale Head Inn we (NLN, YJ, P-T Dave and I) set off up to Sty Head at 9:45. We didn't run, but walked at a forced march pace to arrive at the stretcher box at 10:35. Conversation on the ascent touched on Julia Bradbury several times, and we were amused to find that Dave had amassed fell groupies who muttered things like "it's 'im off tele innit?" as we passed.

Without slowing (apart from pausing whilst Dave signed autographs), we made Sprinkling Tarn and eventually after passing Esk Hause, continued to the top of Rosset Gill, where we turned south for Bowfell. Bowfell was gained without incident and we subsequently set off for Esk Pike. The Bowfell to Esk Pike route is not my sort of terrain so I was pleased to find that we made it in 23 minutes against my schedule of 29.

All was going well from there until Pauline lost concentration near the top of Great End and attacked the local geology with the bridge of her nose. As she sat up I could see that she had gashed said extremity and that blood was dripping copiously from the end. Thoughts of helicopters and begging surgical dressings from passing para-medics flashed through my mind, but further examination revealed that whilst there was an external wound that was hemorrhaging, most of the blood was from an internal nose bleed. Bravely Pauline regained her feet and we continued on to Great End Summit.

At that point, it became apparent that Pauline was not not really one of the guys, but was mainly concerned that she was going out for dinner that evening and would be slightly less picturesque than usual. Slight reduction in the level of of sympathy from the Swift bros.

From there we endured an awful descent to Sty Head down scree filled gullies, only to be told by our TV personality that this wasn't the route for me and that on the day we should back-track nearly to Esk House. Wassat all about then?

At that point the sun came out and everything seemed to improve.

We jogged back to Wasdale Head and then whilst YJ got himself organised and Pauline got her nose organised, I trotted half way along the lake to get a couple of more miles in.

A good long morning out; hope that Pauline's dinner companions found something to talk about other than her in-your-face injury.

As we used to say when I was little "If I had a nose like your nose, I'd put my nose where nobody knows".

Thanks guys.

EtU.