The Lake District June 2026

mountain@imperial.ac.uk (Imperial College Mountaineering Club) — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Written by: Lucy Lau

ICMC Lake District (5th-8th) Trip Report

ICMC went to the lakes for the first time in forever (maybe like 4 years). I decided to branch out from my sole committee responsibility of sending weekly emails and receiving meme of the week from Peter and volunteered to take on the (admin part of) planning this trip – it all worked out ok because Jeremy would backseat all my paperwork when procrastinating (thank you Jeremy).

Trip attendees:

Zak Leek
Jeremy (Jimmy) Ghinn
Michele Zordan
Christoph Riesinger
Claire Gordon
Jenny Wu
Lucy Lau
Ben Varmin
Peter Moore
Wynsee Lau
Amelie Langourieux
Yvette Yu
Tom Cumming
Matthew Shields :pray:

DAY 1 – 5th

Knowing that the drive from union to the lakes was going to be a grueling 7 hours, Matthew had begged for everyone to convene as early as possible – the goal was to leave at 4PM from union. This meant that Jenny, Jeremy and I headed to Tesco for the food shop whilst Ben and Tom sorted (because they both couldn’t be arsed, they just took everything from stores and dumped it into the van) gear. We punctually met everyone at the Tesco to load the massive haul of food (maybe less bread next time) and Zak into the minibus.

I had been frantically checking the weather in Keswick throughout the entire week leading up to the trip and it was NOT looking good. My backup plan was to just climb in the rain, but Matthew and Tom, seasoned veterans of going outside, decided that it was good to bring some singles and pads just in case we had to resort to indoor climbing or even bouldering. Luckily, Hazel had dropped out last minute, so we crammed everything into the backseat next to Claire and set off for the North.

Stopping on the way at a service station, Matthew decided that he would invest ICMC funds in a triple cheeseburger (which he found too indulgent) and grinch?? fries. Somehow that green sauce had managed to touch each and every fry, so that meant everyone had a taste. It was bad. We loaded back into the van and headed for Threlkeld, which was the hall I had booked (and was fully unsure that it was actually going to be a functional place for us until we actually got there).

The hall was genuinely a piece of art. I walk through to find the key card and the front doors are automatic. The kitchen has enough dishes for us to not wash up at all, full size fridge. There is a shower. I am in awe. We set up our sleeping bags as Jeremy prepares breakfast and organizes the food (we start eyeing the absolute quantity of bread purchased). The bouldering pads are distributed mostly to Tom (spoiler alert their only purpose was to serve as mattresses) and we fall asleep with the world’s brightest exit lights.

DAY 2 – 6th

We wake up to the adjacent coffee shop blasting starships at 9AM (it’s a shame we never visited). Claire and Michele are one of the first people up and start sorting breakfast. I check the weather to find that it’s not THAT bad – Apple says it will stop raining at 12, met office says it will stop raining at 3 and MWIS says it will just dust down rain throughout the day. We have a relatively slow morning and start setting off for Shepherd’s crag at 10-ish with no concrete plans. We drive down through Keswick and I am indeed charmed, then along Derwentwater as Ben tells me about the open roof bus that follows the exact same route. We drive past the hotel next to Shepherd’s crag. Everyone starts getting ready for some climbing? Matthew and Tom decide to test how wet the rock is with Matthew’s friend Connor at Little Chamonix. Jeremy (it’s his birthday by the way) wants to climb. He takes Jenny and Claire on Brown Slabs, followed by Michele and Christoph, where Jenny and Claire do their first assisted trad lead with Jeremy free soloing to check their placements.

The other group (Zak, Peter, Wynsee, Amelie, Yvette, Ben and I), who are NOT keen on climbing on wet rock, decide to go on an extended hike (lead by Peter and Zak) around Borrowdale (I believe the walk was called King’s How walk) in the mist. On the way we pass by a small village and pass the café (with £9 paninis). I look up to the top of the hills (mountain, really) enshrouded in white fog as we make our way up to the tops of Eel Crags. At the top, I can barely see 5 meters in front of me, but we come back down from inside the clouds to a boggy marsh. Peter takes Wynsee running through it and reaps the consequences of soaked shoes. Everyone else wades through carefully – some with wetter shoes than others. We head back down to the minibus for some late lunch, but not before a café stop (which I believe motivated Peter’s pace). Ben and I skip the sweet treat in hopes of some dry Brown Slabs, and find Matthew and Tom done with their multipitch.

In the afternoon, I do my first trad lead up Brown Slabs. As I’m finishing my anchor around this big tree, Zak arrives with Amelie and Yvette to do some teaching up a HS right next to my Diff. Peter and Wynsee head to Little Chamonix, and everyone reconvenes (eventually, quite late much to Ben’s frustration) to head back to Threlkeld for dinner.

After some feverous chopping of spag bol ingredients, Jeremy cooks in the cleanest kitchen I’ve seen a village hall have. Jenny, Wynsee, Claire and I start preparing for his birthday cake – which was procured from a devil’s food cake mix with some pink frosting. We find no suitable baking dish so we distribute the batter in 10 ramekins. To appease the hungry crowd, Jeremy forgoes the authentic 3 hour simmer and serves dinner in record time. While everyone eats, I put the cake in the oven.

We sing Jimmy happy birthday and thank him for being president next year. We put 10 candles because that’s all we could fit and the cake is kind of sickly sweet but good when warm. Everyone starts packing up to get ready for bed, but Jeremy stays up to prepare pizza dough until 3AM. Matthew tells me about his prospective plans for tomorrow (no spoilers) and I tell him that there’s nothing I can do if he decides to drive there anyways. We sleep.

DAY 3 – 7th

I wake up early for another day of ambiguous weather. The blue sky is visible from the massive windows of Threlkeld and there are rumbles of braving the possibility of some rain to continue climbing at Shepherd’s Crag. After breakfast, we load most of our gear into the bus as there is some major dilly dally deliberation on where to go. Eventually, Matthew locks in and starts his drive. One minibus wheel is slightly flat but was deftly sorted at a nearby gas station.

It is a long drive. As the minibus passes field after field, the sky grows ever clearer. It takes an hour and a bit before the crag comes into view, along with Hadrian’s Wall. We’re at Crag Lough, Northumberland.

Everyone is in awe of Matthew’s wisdom as we start packing for the crag. The approach is along segments of Hadrian’s wall, and we lug our ropes across a stump – which we realize is (was) the Sycamore Gap. The crag is gorgeous.

The day is uneventful in the sense that there were no injuries, and a lot of climbing happened. Christoph and Michele climb a record breaking 5 climbs. It is EXTREMELY windy at the crag and I’m glad that no-one was blown away. Peter takes Wynsee up an E1. I believe Amelie leads her first trad. Jenny and Claire both do their first unassisted lead.

As the sun starts to set and the wind begins to get unbearably fierce and cold, everyone starts packing up to head back for pizza. Peter, for some reason, decides that the marsh/pond was enticing enough for a swim. He gets about 5 meters in before deciding the algae was too texturally challenging and heading up as Ben and Wynsee look on. He is somehow kind of dry when we regroup and head back.

The drive back is long, and everyone is kind sleepy – thank you Matthew. We get back to see that Jeremy’s labor has paid off, and the pizza dough has risen. Everyone makes their own pizza for dinner, before settling into bed. I am grateful that Threlkeld has clean and functional showers.

DAY 4 – 8th

We awake in preparation for a Raven Crag. Which Raven Crag, I don’t know – that is for Matthew to decide (thank you Matthew). Before heading out, we do an extensive cleaning of the village hall to ensure good relations with Threlkeld. I locked the doors and return the keycard, and we headed out with our very full minibus.

The drive took us through Keswick, then through a series of meres, through Ambleside and finally to the Raven Crag in Langdale. On the way, Jenny finally saw what she set out to accomplish: see Highland cows. There was a little commotion about new climbing groups and distribution of guidebooks before everyone headed off to do some trad multipitching! The crag was bright and sunny, with a glorious view of little Langdale.

Some more climbing happened. Zak took Wynsee and Yvette up a multipitch (involving some questionable rope management), Christoph and Michele, Tom and Matthew go about their ways, Jeremy meanders onto an E5 with Peter before correcting his path, I do my first trad multipitch with Ben, and Amelie, Jenny and Claire do their first trad multipitch as well. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Shoutout to the cute and friendly crag dog we meet on our climb.

The 6 hour drive that awaited us meant that a hard limit of no climbing after 2 pm and no multipitching after 1, but there was no set limit on how much dilly dallying at the pub we could do. Early finishers enjoyed a pint and some chips, before everyone packed up back into the overfilled van for the long drive.