We completed the Bob Graham in 23 hours 6 minutes, starting at quarter to 10pm on Saturday 24th June 2023, going clockwise mainly because that’s the way I’d done most of the recce’ing. We originally planned to set off at 10pm on Friday, but the forecast was for heavy rain through the night so we decided to postpone. Kudos to those (Phil Hall) who set out in those conditions.
I spent all day Saturday obsessively checking summit forecasts, it looked like we were in for a heavy downpour late on Sunday. I considered suggesting we start earlier, but decided to stick with 10pm to get the night running done early on.
Andy joined me at my parent’s house in west Cumbria on Saturday afternoon. We discussed logistics, amounts of sandwiches (and my pork pies), and divided up supplies between my parents (supporting the first two road crossings) and Slogger (supporting the second two). After a large feed we set off to Keswick.
Legs 1 & 2
Leg 1 went smoothly, except a slight nav mistake heading up Skiddaw Little Man instead of contouring around. Hall’s Fell ridge was a bit tricky in the dark. Leg 2 was a beauty after a tough climb up Clough Head in muggy conditions. Andy’s head torch packed in part way, but there was just enough moonlight to get away with it and it meant it slowed him down enough for me to keep up. Sunrise over Helvelyn, and meeting Dec V bivvying at Grisedale tarn were highlights. We met my parents & Nick Pike at Dunmail.
Leg 3
A quick restock and we set off up Steel Fell (now with Nick P and Dec supporting). Conditions were good, and it was easy to pick off the tops until we made a slight mistake going up Bow Fell – the cairned path led us to an impassable wall which wasn’t there when I recce’d. Some easy scrambling got us back on track. I had a slight low point after bow fell – Nick handed me a strawberry lace which sorted me out. Dec peeled off after Great End and headed for Honister to have a look at the slate museum. Weather was still good, so we did Scafell via Broad Stand. Nick and Andy flew down the scree, I fell over a lot.
Leg 4
Wasdale was a quick-ish change-over – my dad had noticed we were cutting the schedule a bit fine. At this point the weather started to turn, Nick pulled us up Yewbarrow to get us back on track. This leg was tough as the weather turned bad – heavy rain and poor vis. We pushed on to get it over with and by the time we got to Green Gable we knew we were back on track. At this point, thankfully, the rain stopped, and things started to clear.
Leg 5
Honister was an excellent change-over. Declan turned up with caramel shortbread, and my parents had decided to come round to help us re-stock. We had ~4 hours to spare so we knew at this point, assuming nothing went badly wrong on the last leg, it was in the bag. Dec led the way pulling us up the first hill of the final leg. Dale head and Robinson must have grown since I’d recce’d, the climbs felt tough but we made it up with a healthy margin. Just as we hit the road the weather turned again. This time the rain was biblical, with thunder and lightning added in. We realised if we upped the pace, we might dip in under 23 hours so tried to run fast for a bit – this went well for about 800 metres. We then managed to lose each other (Andy and Nick took a different turn to me and Dec). Once we regrouped, we jogged a steady pace back to Moot Hall. The square was empty due to the awful weather, except for my parents and Slogger. A great way to end it, followed by a few pints in Keswick.
Rob Owen