The club's July meet was in Langdale at the Robertson Lamb Hut. Currently undergoing some renovations this huts in a great location for lots of accessible climbing, scrambling and walking and should be even better when the renovations are completed.
The walkers in the party Andrew and Karen, Pete and Oifie, Donal and Dave D all headed out in good time on Saturday morning to complete their various excursions.
With lots of rain overnight most of the climbers opted for a later start on Saturday, eventually we all headed for Scout crags. Simon and Carmen headed straight for the upper crags and ticked a handful of the routes on there. The rest of the group made the most of the lower crags, Peri, Jayne and even Anni climbed Cubs Groove and Cub’s Crack, .Ana, Adam, Jamie and myself ticked off Cubs Arete, Cubs Crack and The Slab.
In the afternoon the four of us headed to White Ghyll and left the others to do some abseil practice. Quite a few of the routes still looked pretty damp but we managed to climb The Slabs Route 1 and 2 and Haste Not which has an awesome traverse, not hard but exposed and pretty exciting. Some of the guys headed to the Pub for a quick one then we settled down to another legendary YAC meal.
Sunday was forecast to be dry, which it was but quite windy. Pete, Aoife, Jayne and Anni opted for a walk and scramble on Bowfell via the climbers traverse and easy slabs to the top. Then on to crinkle crags where they encountered near whiteout conditions in the low cloud and had to put their navigation practice to good use.
All the climbers headed for White Ghyll this time which turned out to be a good option with the low cloud and strong winds high up. Simon and Carmen climbed The Slabs this time, Peri and Dave D climbed Slip Not, Jamie and Adam did Hollin Groove while Ana and myself tackled Laugh Not. Great name, wasn’t much laughing from me just a lot of huffing and puffing. We abbed off then Ana led slip Knot which has an excellent first pitch, better than the second pitch I thought which is over too soon.
On the way down we spotted Carmen and Simon climbing the classic VD Route 1 on upper Scout Crag so decided to follow them up. Ana led both pitches on this one, the second pitch been the main event with some great climbing as you step round onto the arete. We were soon at the top then descended and headed for the hut just as the rain started and only half an hour later than planned, time to head back home.
Given the dodgy forecast can’t complain with pretty much two full days climbing, still need to get up to Gimmer at some point though.