A quick note from earlier in February when winter was living up to the description. I might sue the last 2 weeks on the grounds of how crap and mild they have been.
Jon, Simon and myself headed to the Lakes to seek out some classic routes that are rarely in condition. On the saturday we passed any number of people heading up to queue on Great End and drop ice on each other's heads and headed round Borrowdale to investigate the classic Raven Crag Gully. I had previously gone to the bottom of this route in 2005 to find it a mass of chandeliers and big wet gaps in the ice; hopefully this time things would be different...
Simon leading pitch 1.
Fortunately, this time there was a little more ice than previously. The ice was a curious mixture of good ice, weak chandeliers and onion skin. Onion skin is formed by snow falling on the water as it freezes (I think), it makes nice steps but also has the nasty habit of giving way suddenly when stood upon it.
After waiting for a whole 20 minutes Simon had dispatched the first pitch and I got to lead pitch 2. This was thinly iced and out of balance at the start, it definitely felt harder than the 3 or 4 grade IVs I'd done previously so I was well pleased to get it done.
After some easier stuff the final main pitch was upon us; it looked superb. Sadly it was Jon's turn, not mine, a fact I was glad of when dealing with the very thin top out!
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