Raven Crag Gully

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!

Hart Crag Icefalls

Making the most of the last of the cold weather, Adrian and I headed to the Lakes. We, rather optimistically, hoped to find Black Crag Icefall still complete. A 5.30 start from Ali's floor and a sweaty rush up the hill saw us beneath the icefall, which sadly had a number of gaps in it. We then headed up to Hart Crag at a more leisurly pace, via a solo up Houndshope Beck.

Naughty soloing at the start of Hart Crag Icefalls.

The ice on Hart crag was fat and chewy, so we set about climbing it as fast as we could before the thaw ate it all. By 2pm the thaw was well underway, but we had climbed 350m of good ice at grades III and IV and were knackered so didn't mind going home.

Adrian leading a grade IV pitch.

Easy routes

As the title says, I've been catching up on some hiking and easy classics the last few months. My favourite was Bracket and Slab on Gimmer Crag. Here's a photo.

Amazing climbing in the Lakes

Well, the best venue in England and Wales for rock action lived up to its billing again. I went for 5 days, Phil was with us for the 1st 3 and we were joined by Paul for the last 3 (don't worry, I can count, we were all 3 together on the middle day.

Day 1 Phil and I went to Black Crag on Pike o Blisco, Id not been before and we did 10 nice lines to HVS.
Day 2, we felt like something a little larger so opted for White Gill in Langdale. This was a crag I'd wanted to visit for ages, especially to do the classic Slip Knot. I'd heard the first pitch was amazing so I kindly offered Phil the second, crux pitch in order to lead the amazing wall pitch, which was as lovely to climb as I had heard. This was Phil's 1st VS lead, a good one I thought. We also did Inferno, which had some really cool back and foot moves through the overlap on pitch 2. Go do it people! On the left is the amazing wall pitch, with another chap on it.

Day 3, we all went to the Castle Rock of Triermain to do the classic Zig Zag. Phil led the first crux pitch and sketched wildly up it, nearly falling from a point where he would have decked. He did the crux moves in fine style smearing blood everywhere as per usual. I lowered off after this pitch as my arm was playing up. Later we did some excellent 1 pitch routes on the South Crag.

Day 4 was amazing, we visited Grey Crag in Buttermere and did 4 excellent climbs, Paul got to lead Dexter Wall, which felt hard enough on the second, good alpine training anyway as we finished with a pleasant walk along the ridge to Scarth Gap.

Day 5 we tried new routing on Harrison Stickle after promising each other a short walk in! Glory hunting and ambition got the better of our sore legs. After a pitch and a half our 'new line' degenerated into scrambling so we contented ourselves with the classic and unfrequented Harristikorner/Spillikin Ridge above the Dungeon ravine. Nice!

And with that, my arm is tired! Hopefully better for Almscliffe on Sunday.

Lots of good climbing!

That's right, lots of good climbing has been achieved in the last few weeks culminating in a lead of a short E1 at Bell Hagg, the Brig. Here's a picture. I've just done the crux at the start. These routes are about 9m high and are traditionally soloed but some of them are worth a lead. No doubt all the old school climbers from the 70s are shaking their heads in disbelief, but I had a fun time. Ad then led Hyde's Mantleshelf, a pleasant route at the end of the cliff.

The top picture shows the hairy one on Cardinal's slab and the bottom one shows me on Cardinal's Crack.

Sandstone Rocks!

Everyone knows Southern Sandstone is the finest rock known to man. Unfortunately I am often compelled to climb on inferior media such as Gritstone, Rhyolite or ice.

Last week we went to Yarncliffe Quarry and enjoyed some of the mid grade gritstone and sand slab routes. Cardinal's crack was especially enjoyable as the hairy one hates fist jamming, especially when it is wet and damp, even though he was seconding on a very tight rope. His Royal Hairiness made up for this with a couple of good leads on Latecomer and Cardinal's slab.

I must also admit to appplying Southern Sandstone ethics to the bold Ant's Arete, largely due to needing rescuing from a lead attempt.