Red Pike

Day two of this short break was all about testing my legs for a long steep climb. I'm quite aware of the task looming ahead of me in a few weeks time when I plan to climb Ben Bevis. That's a climb of over 4000 feet in the space of about 4 miles. I need to know whether I'm going to be able to climb that sort of constant gradient before I set out. To climb Red Pike from the road beside Ennerdale Water is an ascent of 2000 feet over a distance of 1.25 miles. That half the ascent of Ben Nevis and twice the gradient. I feel sure that if I can manage that sort of climb and still have some breath in me, I can manage Ben Nevis. So if I did nothing else today I wanted to climb Red Pike. As it turned out that's exactly how it went!