Well, when we picked the title of this walk, it was based on the hills we planned to visit, rather than steeling yourself against the forces of nature!

"Aye, but it didn't stop to rain"

This social walk rapidly turned into a challenge.  To be honest, at the bottom of Steel Fell I thought to myself "you don't really need to do this" and I guess I should have listened to myself.  But we do it for moral support for our group companions and actually, climbing the fell turned out to be quite pleasant if a little windy and lofty. And coffee break was even in a little sunshine.

Crossing towards Greenup edge, was not big or clever!  There was water coming up, water coming down, the odd splash as one or other of us toppled over in the high winds into said bogs and puddles, ah but we did have a laugh. 

With us being a responsible, sensible group, we were sensible enough to shun High Raise because 2500 feet was just too high for the conditions. Instead we headed for Sargeant Man, a mere 2414 feet. Now I'm not saying that I wasn't convinced that 86 feet made all the difference to our welfare, and you can call me a chicken, but I decided to stay behind a rock and hide from the wind.  This in itself proved a challenge as the wind on Blea Rigg is very very good at playing 'hide n seek'.  It didn't play fair, it only counted to ten and didn't give me fair time to hide!

Anyway, after a rather shivery lunch we decided pride came before a fall and we'd be better going down by Codale Tarn and Far Easedale for safety.  This proved very successful as the waterfalls were wonderful.  It took us a while, because we were being smug beggars telling everyone going up the fell that they shouldn't.  Scaremongering came into it with lines like:

"Oooh, I wouldn't go up there, especially wearing that!  You'll do a Mary Poppins up there"

"It's not safe you know"

"We turned back and we are very experienced hillwalkers with several hundred years of experience - and that's just Eileen and George".