Despite being a Southern Softy, Jonzer's quite a mountain man (e.g. second in the Saunders Klets) so wanted to celebrate his 27th birthday in mountainous style and get a bit of Bob Graham training in at the same time. Thus was the J27 born as an extended Buttermere Horseshoe. Starting from Lanthwaite Green it encompassed most of the tops in the Grasmoor, Dale Head, Green Gable and High Stile groups, finishing at Buttermere village. A few peaks were omitted to keep the total to 27 although a similar J30+ could be undertaken in due course!
And so, with cloud base initially around 1,500' but lifting later after a spell of rain, five of us covered 30 miles with more than 10,000' ascent in a leisurely eight hours. In true lunatic mountain man tradition one of us even carried a full bottle of champagne and we toasted our success on the last top, Dodd - only a little 'un but a lovely peak with most excellent views.
The J27 tops were:
Group Top
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Lanthwaite Green
GRASMOOR 1. Whiteside
2. Hopegill Head
3. Ladyside Pike
4. Sand Hill
5. Hobcarton Pike
6. Grisedale Pike
7. Grasmoor
8. Wandope
9. Crag Hill
10. Sail
11. Scar Crags
12. Causey Pike
13. Ard Crags
14. Knott Rigg
Newlands Hause
DALE HEAD 15. High Snockrigg
16. Robinson
17. Hindscarth
18. Dale Head
Honister Hause
GREEN GABLE 19. Grey Knotts
20. Brandreth
21. Green Gable
22. Haystacks
Scarth Gap
HIGH STILE 23. Seat
24. High Crag
25. High Stile
26. Red Pike
27. Dodd
Buttermere
My favourite peaks on the round were also some of the lowest - Ladyside Pike, Ard Crags and Dodd - and the leg from Ard Crags to Newlands Hause was the best running which all goes to show that bigger isn't always better!