It's time for YAC to enter the 21st Century, Rob and I headed to Blea Water Crag, with a video camera in the pack. We set off from York around 7 (Dave W was clearly keen as he'd headed over there around an hour earlier!). At the head of the road leading to Haweswater Rob spotted a red squirrel, it made his day and for a moment I thought we may be knocking the climbing on the head. But we persevered, up past Haweswater, made interesting by plenty of ice. Getting up to the crag (alpine conditions and everything) we could see at least two groups on the classic route (III – Blea Water Gill Icefall) so we plumped for Birketts Gully (II/III) which looked like it had good ice low down. But you can judge for your self, here is a video of Rob climbing the first couple of pitches.
Here is another video, the entrance to the gully follows a set of easyish ice steps. These are a little higher than the last lot:
As I was too cheap to buy a decent camera there is no more footage due to the battery running out….. (also thanks for all the wonderful and inventive alternative to GoPros suggested by club members – you know who you are!)
The mid pitch of the gully was not in great condition. The ice was thawing and starting to fall down, Rob decided to head to the left which put him on some quite exposed ground, I opted to go right scrambling up a bit of a waterfall! Neither was a good option but my choice was decidedly less scary (isn't hindsight a wonderful thing). The upper sections turned out to be in good nick but we roped up and pitched these sections. We topped out into howling wind and clag. Thinking the weather had turned for the day we opted for a gentle walk back to the car via Small Water. The weather cleared after about 30 minutes leaving nice views down the valley, and the walk back.