Arkle conquered!

Team return from the mountain

The team are back at the Adventure School tonight after a challenging but successful day high in the mountains.

We left our wild camp this morning after a hot breakfast at the old stone stables at the foot of Arkle. The Red and Blue teams made their way up different routes on the open south east face of the mountain. We were in the clouds from about 400m for much of the day, reaching the first summit at 758m at about midday.

From here the mountain narrows to a ridge with a crenelated section shortly before the second summit that requires a bit of extra teamwork. It was blustery and damp in the cloud but both teams rose to the challenge with good spirits and we reached the second summit at about 1pm.

We returned to the col between the two summits, descending down a corrie on the southern side of the mountain.

The mountain day is always designed to be a challenge, to stretch the young people that undertake it. When the weather is less than perfect, as it was today, the challenge is exacerbated but the reward of achieving both summits is only enhanced.

We tucked into lasagne and vegetable lasagne for supper, with sticky toffee pud. There was lots of chat and excitement this evening and a keen but small team taking to the water tomorrow for a swim before breakfast.