Dufton Pike G/NP-027 - 481m ASL - NY 699 266 - OS Explorer OL19 - 1 SOTA point           

After Kisdon G/NP-026, we had driven into the East Cumbrian village of Dufton, and its youth hostel where we were staying the evening.  To our surprise, there was Myke G6DDQ, who was also stopping over.  Jimmy, Liam and I went across the road for dinner at the Stag Inn, joined later for a drink by Myke.

In the morning, we set off on foot from the hostel and retraced our Pennine Way route from weeks earlier, heading left and to the north of Dufton Pike.  Soon into the walk, we heard Myke G6DDQ/P calling from the summit of Cross Fell G/NP-001.  This was impressive, given that he had left the hostel at a similar time to us; we had the bulk of Dufton Pike still towering above us!  We had noticed a possibly easier way onto the hill from this side and were keen to investigate.  In actual fact, this was not the case, as the route was just as steep, but longer and more time consuming.  Nonetheless, we topped the hill and set up, despite the increasingly wet conditions.  Some low cloud swirling below the summit in the wind had Jimmy and Liam excited at the prospect of a cloud inversion, but the thick grey cloud above put paid to that!

The boys were in good spirits on the summit in spite of the unpleasant weather and energy draining ascent.  Jimmy and I claimed our activation points, and we didn't take too long to pack away.  The descent, on the route of our previous ascent, proved that this was indeed a much easier route, and a mental note was made of this.  However, this did complete a circular walk, which is always satisfying, and we enjoyed the stroll along the bridleway back to Dufton village.

We decided to give Nine Standards Rigg G/NP-018 and Burnhope Seat G/NP-003 a miss and press onto Whitbarrow G/LD-056.  We only realistically had time for one more summit in the day, and Whitbarrow was more towards our booked accommodation in Kendal.

Many thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts: