Once again most people apparently had better things to do. And for a while it seemed that they were all right, as we sat in the car at the top of the crag watching the rain bounce off the windscreen, while listening to the man on Radio 4 tell us that northern England was currently bright and sunny.
But we wandered down anyway, and found the crag itself remarkably dry, sheltered from the rain. Donal and Luke were already there, gearing up at the foot of Sidewinder, the best of the routes at the seldom-climbed-on left end of the crag. Everyone else was conspicuous by their absence!
I thought I'd try White Wall, an obscure Severe just to the left. Got a few metres up, retreated onto the Mod on the right to gain height to inspect what was coming up. Noted the complete lack of gear and holds on the overhanging wall, pencilled it in as a sandbag to be top-roped sometime, and wandered off to find another route now the rain had stopped and the evening brightened.
Due to a rope miscalculation (only a 45m half rope, when the shortest route is 22m and the belays mainly some way back – oops), Donal and Luke called it a day. So we climbed by ourselves in the evening sun (the rain stopped quickly), a glorious end to the day.
Photos courtesy of Donal!
Routes climbed:
Sidewinder – VDiff *
Wings – Severe **
Birdland Direct – MVS 4b *