Good job it is light till about 10pm at the moment. Setting off at the crack of 2pm from Gatesgarth (Buttermere / Honister) Jules and I headed of for Slab and Notch a Grade 3S(***) scramble on Pillar Rock – and I can tell you that's a bloody long way away (5 miles ish). Over Scarth Gap, you get a great view of the distance to go, down to the Youth Hostel without much 
incident before the reasonable climb to Black Sail Pass and a fair bit of wind. The high Level traverse is easy to find, but splits into a higher and lower, doesn't matter which you take as they both end at the Robinson Cairn with a grandstand view of our objective in the swirling mist. All that moisture added to the unnerving feel of the place, making some of the rocks on the Shamrock Traverse greasy.
The route is quite straightforward and marked by worn holds, but is serious, in the sense of slipping off would be terminal! 
We justified breaking out the rope by 'ML training' and a healthy dose of concern. Most for the route was dry and straightforward and passed without incident using spikes to set up quick direct belays. The top presents wonderful panoramas of Ennerdale – but in cloud it aint so impressive. Now comes the the fun part; you have to reverse the whole route to get off! Again we made use of the rope – it's surprising how much it boosts your confidence in poor conditions but also slows you down.
Pulling onto the summit plateau of Pillar (having ticked Pisgah – grade 1 easy v. short jaunt) in thick cloud, the next trick was to find the trig point. 
'Hmm wish I'd brought the 1:25,000' , the BMC 1:40,000 lacks the detail to locate us accurately by the features only (orientation of the edge of cliff and the spur we had come up). Jules used the tried and trusted method of randomly wandering of into the mist until she could see it 25m away during a break in the cloud. 7:10 pm – hmm back at the car for 10 maybe? We made good time (not stopping at the YHA despite or maybe because Didgerdoo man had arrived) and briefly chatting to two lost souls at Scarth Gap) and arrived back at 9:15 , drove to the pub just in time to miss the last of the food!
Camping beside Crummock Water 
(sounded like in the water) gave us great views with a car park just across the road. After breakfast the heavens open and the car park turned into a convention for rubber and gas fetishist. Rain dominated the rest of the day and we had a mooch about the shops and pootled back.
Great walk and great scramble, maybe set off a tad early next time !
Tags: clag