olo/ Unsupported Winter Bob Graham (66 Miles & 8,200m of Ascent)
Well that’s going to be a hard day to top I think! Absolutely perfect conditions for the entirety of the day, the sort of conditions you only dream about.
Having an attempt at the BG solo/ unsupported in winter has been on my mind for sometime, but the one thing I’ve always been pretty strict on was the winter conditions underfoot.
The sustained cold we’ve had for the last two weeks has been the coldest December in over a decade, but something we haven’t had much of has been snow, just cold high pressure winter days. I’ve always wanted the proper winter conditions for the attempt, the type where you need winter kit to complete the round.
At first I was unsure if there would be enough snow for it to feel wintery enough, but I was surprised to be running on snow/ hard frost all day (pretty much every top was white). I used my @inov_8 Arctic Claws all day, which were perfect on the ice and snow 👌🏻
There were many highlights about the day; moving well over the amazingly frozen ground, seeing the perfect sunrise from Great Gable, passing @paulwilson22 on his S/U attempt, enjoying the cold winter sunshine, crunching through the snow/ frost all day, being completely self sufficient, watching another epic sunset over the Lakeland hills and finally cracking on through the clear night with barely any wind.
Being completely solo and self sufficient makes rounds like this much harder and I really enjoyed the challenge of this style. Getting water through the day was tough as everything was frozen, as well as bottles freezing, along with carrying the weight of food etc on you all day. But that’s what makes it the challenge right?
Managed to come away with a new record time of 21 Hours and 12 minutes too 😁
Thanks so much as always for all the kit @inov_8, it all worked a treat as usual 🙏🏻