Viking Reunion Camp 2014

You wait 20 years for a Viking reunion than they all cone along at once. Back at Fieldhead campsite in Edale with my boys. This year there are many more tents and more at Cooper's. More banter, and more pre race/walk drinks to steady the nerves or fuel the fires as we catch up.

I get a Justin shaped lodger in our tent and he tolerates our ethnic British squalor with his new found Scots understatement.

Friday night is cold, I end up cuddling my youngest who was to be found curled up under a blanket complaining of the cold, having wriggled out of his sleeping bag. By dawn everyone is awake anyway. So we all get up to find ice on the tents and the ground. Fried food followed by indoor fried food makes the day seem warmer. Soon there we are stood outside the Nags Head waiting to see who will show this year.

Craig Sephton reflects on climbing the Munros

I guess I learned to love the Scottish hills when I was in the Viking Venture Unit. I remember to this day the exhilaration of topping out with John Thurman on Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis as the sun was setting – an irresponsibly bold winter climbing route for a pair that had never done any winter climbing before. I recall the magic of negotiating the cornices on the Devil’s Ridge in the Mamores on a crisp, clear, sunny day during one of the Unit’s visits to Corpach Scout Hut one Christmas holiday in the mid-1970s. And who could forget the traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on Skye – the Island of Mists – on a day so cloudless that we were all dreaming of a large, cold glass of water as we negotiated the finest mountaineering route in the British Isles?

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Viking Venture Unit Family camp and Trig visit - details

As previously advised, the family camp is taking place in Edale on the weekend Friday 26th September to Sunday 28th September.

Several alumni have advised us that they have booked into ‘brick built’ accommodation, whilst others are generally camping at either Field Head or Coopers farm. If you are not booked in, don’t worry – you can roll up at coopers where 135 pitches are available. Beware the grumpy farmer.