The evening was spent in the Riverside bar of the Scafell Hotel. A late arrival saw Mark Redford turn up after a nightmare six and a half-hour journey from Hertfordshire. Apart from Alistair treading on the New Age traveller's dog and scaring them off with a pool cue the evening past without incident.  Dawn, Helen, Phil & Charles were the last to leave and the walk back saw piggyback races before Phil & Charles decided to get ahead and hide. The plan was to creep up behind the girls and secretly listen to the conversation. Not now, ago, earlier, later then sometimes once, once upon a time, one day, one fine morning, one of these days someday, some other time or day, sometime, some time or other, sooner or later, any time, any old time,
any time now, soon, whenever you wish, as soon as you like. With all the timing of the stunned slugs that they were they failed to catch up with the girls and met them back at the hut.  Tony's mates were in fine form that night and four figures crept out into the main area of the hut to try and get some sleep.  The lights sparked whenever someone tried to switch them out and they came back on. This caused a fit of giggles amongst the four, but eventually they settled down for the night.               

Sunday with talk of many of the group heading over to Blencathra and Sharp Edge; Phil, Charles, Helen & Dawn headed over to Black Crags to climb the classic Troutdale Pinnacle. This 7 pitch severe is highly rated and consequently on arriving they joined the queue to start.  Phil led off first on the route, ascending an off width crack, traversing right, then another crack unto the belay stance. Charles followed and joined Phil waiting for the girls ahead to complete the next pitch. Helen then followed and Dawn came up as Charles set off on the next pitch.

The view opened up across the russet browns and greens of autumn to Derwentwater and Skiddaw beyond.  The next pitch had a short, wet & tricky wall, followed by an easy slab.  The queues ahead were inevitable, but this was not such a disadvantage. The climb became quite sociable, with much chatting, and admiration of the scene ahead.  Up the next pitch the rock was composed of a perfect symphony of moves.  The belay stance proved small and Phil had to wait before being invited to make his entrance.  Charles led across the next pitch, a slab traverse, followed by an ascent of the pinnacle. Helen and Dawn, just below Phil, but unable to see Charles, had a running commentary as one by one the gear lifted out, leaving five nuts dangling near the cam at the end of the traverse.  Charles safely astride the pinnacle and Helen captured the moment on film.  Safely on the pinnacle, the boys watched Dawn make the traverse in style, with no gear flapping on the rope.  Phil then led the last pitch, supposedly the hardest, but with the ability to place as much gear as one wanted, it didn't seem so.  Maybe it was Phil's 7-foot plus reach that rendered it so, the group had differing opinions on its difficulty.  Helen and Dawn followed up after a little difficulty removing some nuts. 

The climb took about 4.5 half-hours mainly due to queuing; however it was superb. Following food and drink they headed back to the cars.  Phil & Charles took the direct route, and taking the keys met Dawn and Helen near the