After a wet start to the weekend a blue sky day was forecast for the Sunday so Dave W and I made plans to head to the lakes for the day.
Dave was keen to tackle a long mountain route and suggested Gillercombe Buttress we had both climbed this route previously, Dave a few years back and I had climb it last year but only as a second so was happy to do it again and this time lead a few pitches.
An early start meant we were on the A66 and heading to Keswick in good time, a shock ensued when a good dusting of snow started to appear either side of the road and sure enough when the mountains came into view everywhere was white, very pretty but not ideal for climbing especially as neither of us had packed any boots.
After pulling over to discuss plan B we decided that gillercombe was still worth a look due to its south easterly aspect a decision we didn't regret, driving down the borrowdale valley it was comforting to see the snow had all ready melted on the slopes and crags that where in the sun.
fearing boggy ground and wet feet ascending from the valley floor we opted to park at the honister slate mine and descend to the crag base from above.
Dave at the start of Gillercombe Buttress
We traveled fairly light climbing with small packs so we didn't have to drop back down to collect any gear, we had the crag to ourselves it was strangely quite hardly even any walkers around we did catch sight of a couple of boulders heading up to play on the boulders just below the crag.
Dave flew through the first few pitches I managed to get him to stop for a quick photo before continuing on to a nice grassy ledge bathed in sunshine, where we stopped for lunch and awesome views I took the next couple of pitches to just shy of the top where I left dave to finish off with a scramble and an alpine style belay.
Trainers back on and in good time we headed up Gable for more great views and a look at the memorial before heading back to the car where we fueled up on chocolate, crisps and donuts for the journey back to york.
The weather played ball for a change nice clear views from the top of Gable a good start to to summer many more adventures to come.
