In Autumn 1992 we stayed in Grasmere. At that time Jerry had an old Nissan Ur Van which had been converted to a camper, and we all travelled up in that.

On the first day (Sunday 11th October) we set off to climb Crinkle Crags from Cockley Beck. We parked in the small car park about 50 yards up Hardknott Pass and walked back down the road. I wandered down to the stream to see if I could pick up our path, which was initially up Red How. For some unknown reason I decided to ignore the bridge which was only a few yards to my left, and jump across the stream instead.
Now, I'd never had any problems before. You know the routine; pick out the rocks you want to land on, and then just go. If you dither about, you're sure to overbalance and fall in. Well, I made the first two rocks with no problems, but in mid air on my way to the third, I realised I wasn't going to make it! I did get one foot on it, but my momentum and the weight of my rucsack swung me round, and I landed heavily on my left side in the water. To make matters worse, a coach load of Japanese tourists were watching me. My left elbow was quite painful, but my mind was occuopied by my wet clothes. We walked back up the the van, and I stripped down to my shreddies and dried my things over Jerry's camping stove.

We finally set off properly about an hour later, by which time the weather had closed in and it had turned misty. My elbow was now swollen and very painful, and by the time we reached the bottom of the second Crinkle I had had enough. The sight of the 'Bad Step' made me realise I wasn't going to get any further with only one good arm. We made our way down to the left into Adam-a-Cove to descend to Mosedale by Lingcove Beck.
In retrospect, it may have been better to carry on, because the path (path? what path?) we took was steep and loose, and I slipped and hit my elbow again, which did nothing to improve my temper!

The following day was spent in the casualty department of Kendal Hospital, where I was X-rayed and told I had broken my radius.

I am completely left-handed, and it was interesting to discover things I couldn't do with my right hand. Like cleaning my teeth. I ended up with toothpaste everywhere except in my mouth! I also mastered the technique of one-handed unzipping and extraction - after all, there are some things that even your best friends won't do for you.