We spent most of Saturday running across snow covered moors in the Peak District on the first RAB Mini Mountain Marathon of the season. Which isn't really relevant to this blog, but I have to mention it so I can drop in the fact that I finished 9th out of 183 – success is rare so I need to make the most of it when I can!
Anyway, after this my vote was to return home and spend Sunday eating food and watching films. But since we'd packed a car full of camping and climbing gear, Carmen outvoted me and 4 hours later we arrived in Wasdale. After a thaw earlier in the week we weren't confident that there'd be anything much left to climb, but if nothing else we'd take the kit for a walk. Again.
After a chilly night we cleared the frost from the inside of the tent, broke camp, and set off up Scafell. Early brightness led quickly to clag, as a thick sheet of fog rolled in across Wastwater. But we soon climbed through it and were rewarded with a magnificent cloud inversion, which last for the rest of the day.
The snow was quite patchy and nowhere that extensive. But as we got higher, some of the white took on a blue tinge, and a number of icefalls came into sight. Most notable was a large frozen waterfall high on the right of the Shamrock. Luckily was on one of the routes we were hoping to climb – we just weren't sure which one, as the guidebook was pretty hopeless in identifying anything, so after some dithering we just aimed for the most obvious ice.
T
he first pitch up a narrow icefall didn't look too hard so I led off. Of course it was steeper than it looked (aren't they always), about grade 3, but 2 or 3 ice screws calmed the nerves. Carmen took the next pitch, easier but with enough steep ice to make it interesting. Two more easy pitches on ice alternating with deep powder snow, led us to the foot of the main icefall. By now we'd worked out that we were climbing The Direct Route (II/III **), though the pitch lengths given were totally wrong.
A ramp leading up to the left was topped by a line of impressive ice. The next pitch was supposed to take a direct line up the right side of these, but luckily there was no way that would go at the grade – fragile-looking, too thin to take screws, and dripping with water. So instead I climbed up the ramp and exited by another steep icefall at the end. Again, harder than it looked, a good grade 3 with ice that in places wasn't fat enough for screws – at one of these points my foothold gave way, giving me enough of a scare to stop faffing and get to the top PDQ.
One final pitch took us to Lords Rake, which we followed rightwards to reach the sunshine at last, the marked temperature difference hitting suddenly and forcing a lunch stop! The warmth didn't last long as we walked up to the summit and a strong cold wind hit. So after taking summit photos we headed straight back down the hill and into the valley cloud, where it was a grey miserable afternoon, no sign of the fantastic conditions above.
Some more photos here