The wind through the night was strong but fairly steady so didn't rattle the tent much. I was thankful the rain had stopped when I woke so I was able to go outside for a toilet break in the relative dry. The whole area was awash with the previous rain and I set about packing up so I could get underway before the next deluge arrived. My pack was ready at 7am, I was in full waterproofs and all I had to do was go out and pack the tent away. The rain had other plans. I was battered by a deluge that felt like it had been blown out of a shotgun. I dived back into the tent and sat it out for half an hour. I tried again and with difficulty got the tent down in the screaming wind. I was only a short way from the path junction at Esk Hause and crossed over it and took the path down towards Sprinkling Tarn. I came out of the cloud and could see the views below. The rain eased then stopped. It was a pleasant descending the stepped path down to meet the main path leading to the tarn. All the side streams were in full spate and a couple of crossings were a bit tricky.

A brief view towards Derwentwater.

Approaching Sprinkling Tarn.

I got a brief view down Grains Gill towards Seathwaite but it didn't last long. Descending to Sty Head I could see Aaron Slack to my right. That's where I was heading and originally I'd planned to camp somewhere on Grey Knotts summit. The increasing gales told me that wouldn't be possible. I was having the greatest difficulty just walking, or more accurately staggering along trying to keep my balance. I could see a couple of campers packing up their equipment as I descended to Sty Head Tarn. As I passed them they headed back up the path I'd just descended. The steep climb of Aaron Slack was now obscured by cloud. The climb was extremely difficult because of the terrific force of the wind which seemed to batter me from all sides.

It took ages to get up and the return of the rain made it even more uncomfortable. The summit lived up to its name of Windy Gap. It was far too dangerous to continue the climb to Green Gable so I started to descend the other side into Stone Cove. There was a good pitch there that I'd used on previous occasions. I didn't get any shelter as I'd hoped and I took it very carefully down the steep scree and across to the large boulder where I'd planned to pitch my tent. The whole area was awash with water, much wetter than I'd ever seen it. What was even worse was the ferocious wind. The boulder gave no shelter and I knew there was no way I could put the poles in the tent first as the wind would have snatched it from me. I pegged the groundsheet down and put boulders on it before pegging out the corners of the tent. With great difficulty I got the poles in and managed to get it erected. I was very concerned about whether it would stand up to the wind. I climbed inside and everything was wet. The rain blew under the edge of the ten and up inside. My stove had trouble keeping alight, even with the shelter tube around it. It was still early as I'd only taken about 3hrs to get here. I was considering abandoning the camp and going for a walk out to Honister Pass, but didn't think things would be any better there. So stayed put, hoping the wind would subside. The mid day weather report was bleak, saying the storms ravaging the north were subsiding, except for Cumbria where things would get worse. There were some nasty moments as the tent was severely battered. At one point I though some damage had been done after a particularly bad hit and had to go outside in the driving rain to check things out. I tightened the guys and re set all the pegs and noticed one of the polls had been bent rather badly near its base.. Another bad hit may snap it. I tied it down with some line and hoped that would take some of the strain. The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to keep warm as everything including my sleeping bag was soaking.