We'd not been to this hut before. Although nominally in Little Langdale, it was on the other side of an uncrossable ford and so had to be approached via a narrow lane . This was quite easy if you found the right lane, unfortunately the instructions were a little vague and several people ended up on the wrong track. The prize for perseverance goes to Debra and Simon, who nearly made it as far as Hodge Close – who needs a Land Rover when you've got an Audi?
Saturday was warm and sunny – Spring was here – so Carmen and I walked from the hut up to Wrynose Pass, and from there to Black Crag. Here we spent a few hours cragging on superb rough rock. The grades were a bit random, but the climbing excellent. We then wandered down to the nearby crag of Long Scar for more of the same – especially the random grades, with Katie's Dilemma (Severe) proving a fine VS 4b.
That evening we celebrated Annie's 30th birthday, but despite this we were up bright(ish) and early(ish) the next morning.
Sunday started cold, cloudy and windy – Spring had gone away again. We drove round to Langdale where the National Trust extorted £6 from us to use their car park, and headed for White Ghyll. The only other pair there were just starting on Slip Knot (as classic VS), so we went further up and decided on the the snappily named Slabs Route 1, a 4 pitch Severe. This turned out to be an excellent route, despite the best attempts of the wind to remove us from the rock, and despite having to share the final belay with a recently deceased sheep.
After this we headed down to Upper Scout Crag which was sheltered from the strengthening wind. Surprisingly, we were the only people there (it's only 10 minutes from the road and has loads of easy climbs so is usually busy). We took advantage of this and climbed Route 1, the classic VDiff of the crag, with some superb exposure on the 2nd pitch.
A nice comfortable hut, unfortunately a bit far away from the main areas, and a successful start to the rock climbing season.
More photos here
Four of us visited Rjukan for a week 7th to 14th March, Rob, Keith, Peri & Guido. On arrival we found that despite excellent ice conditions there had been heavy snowfall across southern Norway this made significant restrictions to what we were able to do during the week.
