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Late Autumn Sunshine

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

Tryfan from Careg Mianog

The warm autumn weather this year encouraged people out and the November meet at Capel Curig was almost full – in fact we had trouble fitting people round the table in the evenings.  Rob had also brought his Movember  'tash.   A full pack of mountain bikers was there, with the obligatory start – an On The Spot repair of Annies bike by Pete the Pie. The weather on saturday was beautiful, so while the bikers biked, the climbers headed for the rocks- except for Simon and Carmen who fancied an 8 hour run round the Carneddau.

Rob, PeteB, Angela and me headed for Tremadog to bask on the sunny rocks like lizards. After a lengthy gossip in Eric's Cafe, me and Angela headed for One Step in the Clouds, a 3 star VS which I have wanted to do for ages. It was as good as I had hoped, an easyish start then a delicate and exposed traverse followed by an airy hand traverse along a flake which finishes at the prettiest belay ever, a mossy rock ledge surrounded by holly bushes and rowan.

We arrived at this point late in the day as we had to divert part way up the route to help a team on Hail Bebe who had a dramatic fall after going off route. Neither was badly hurt, but the belayer was pulled from the stance and was unable to get back up by himself due to rope burns. So I was very glad Debra and me had been on a self rescue course the year before which helped deal with the situation – thanks, Paul! There was a slightly surreal moment when another member of their club arrived by abseil announcing "Hello, I'm a doctor". For one moment I expected him to whip out a sonic screwdriver and take on the Cybermen.

Next day was still dry but a lot chillier, so while Angela and a friend headed for Holyhead Mountain, where she did her first ever trad lead – well done! – and Simon & Carmen headed for Tryfan,  I teamed up with Rob and Pete who were heading for Careg Mianog, an obscurish but accessible crag with a reputation for catching the sun. Which I'm sure it would have, had there been any sun to catch…

Biceps Wall, allegedly Vs 4c

The walk in was flat but marshy so probably took us about 40 minutes. We found the crag wet in places, and all the grades seemed on the stiff side, the phrase "[insert grade here] my arse!" was used a few times. However we had the place to ourselves and it felt wild and woolly, with spectacular views of Tryfan.  In particular we thought Biceps Wall a complete sandbag at VS 4c – tough moves and not very reassuring protection at the start. We ran out of daylight and bailed from the second pitch, managing to get across the marshy section just in time to avoid complete darkness.

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Posted in Climbing, Crags, Fell running, Weekend Meets | 2 Comments »

RAB Mountain Marathon 2011

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

It's unusual to find a mountain marathon in North Wales, as apparently it can be hard to gain the necessary permissions. So we were rather looking forward to this year's RAB, starting and finishing in Bethesda and heading into the heart of the Carneddau. Even the ominous weather forecast didn't put us off too much.

The format of the event is time limited, with 6 hours on Saturday, 5 on Sunday (an extra hour per day for the Elite class), to pick up as many points as possible. Controls scored anything between 5 and 50 points, with most of the big ones being a long way away; points are deducted for being late. The master maps displayed in the event centre contained rather too many out-of-bounds areas for my liking, too often this leads to limited route choice.

The strong Friday night winds in the campsite (school football pitch) didn't bode well, and the next morning it was raining for good measure and views of the hills were non-existent. We were raring to go!

A quick glance at the map as we crossed the start line and marked up the control list gave a number of options, but the one that stood out headed up onto the high tops for some high scoring controls, with various options available near the mid camp depending on how well we were going.

Heading south east towards the lower slopes of Carnedd Llywelyn we were soon faced with our first big decision, whether or not to take on a 350m climb to the north ridge of Carnedd Dafydd for an extra 40 points before losing all that height again, or just to contour up the valley to the next control. What the hell, might as well go for it. It turned out less hideous than it looked, and only added around 50 minutes, so probably a good move. From here we lost all the height we had worked so hard for, with the next control down in the valley bottom. A group of people were looking too hight and by the wrong stream, but we went straight there by following the right stream throughout. As we left, one of them spotted us and made for the checkpoint – one person then stood by it and whistled loudly and waved to her partner on the other side of the valley, so giving the location away to everyone within a mile or two!

We now followed the main ridge northwards, with detours off each side to collect controls, and as we had plenty of time spare managed to add in an extra dog-leg for 20 more points near the end. Finished in 5 hours 50 minutes, timing it well (despite both forgetting to note exactly what time we started!) with 10 minutes to spare, not enough to have added any extra controls, so we were pleased. 255 points, 39th out of 300 overnight, though that fell to 44th after they'd adjusted other teams' points due to two missing controls.

The weather had gradually improved all day, with rain turning to showers before stopping, and cloud gradually lifting to give a fine sunny evening. The overnight camp was excellent, in fields at the edge of the open fells above Abergwyngregyn – lots of space, so easy to find a pitch, and plenty of soft vegetation to make for a relatively comfortable sleep.

The next day we were greeted by continuing sun, and were soon off. Again, one route suggested itself immediately – unfortunately this was pretty similar to Saturday's route, visiting many of the same controls and following the same ridge. As it turned out, probably due to the improved weather, it all seemed very different.

A steep slog up the hill at least had the benefit of getting us onto the tops as soon as possible. After revisiting two of the last controls from the day before, we dropped over a col to another of Saturday's sites, but from here we contoured round the side of the ridge rather than going over the top. This leg was potentially confusing in mist, luckily it was clear, and as we approached we saw the usual group of people clustered round the control, showing everyone else where it was (for once I was pleased!). Another short climb back to the ridge was followed by some more contouring for a 40-pointer. We were wondering whether to go straight on or right after this, but everyone else headed left, so I checked the map and found an extra easy control hidden over the fold – so we duly followed them leftwards.

We were now thinking of options for the finish. An extra 15-pointer involved 150m ascent so we ruled that out, but there were 3 5-point controls near the end, I reckoned we'd probably get them all with 10 minutes to spare. Carmen didn't believe me, and was right, we got one of them and sprinted in with just 7 minutes left.

210 points, 42nd on the day, so pretty consistent, and pulling us up to 41st overall out of 300. Very pleasing, given that we've done very little preparation this year and I had a knee op in January.

Alan K was the other club representative, running solo. After a disappointing Saturday he pulled the stops out on Sunday (scoring the same points as the day before) to finish 134th.

An excellent weekend, in an interesting and unusual area. Next, an appointment with the OMM…

 

Results

Photos

Route Day 1

Route Day 2

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Posted in Mountain Marathons | No Comments »

Lundays

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Behold - the kraken wakes!

 

Suntan lotion – check. Ab ropes – check. Ferry tickets – check. Yup, York Alpine Club plus friends are off on our summer holidays to Lundy.

 

 

 

 

Gannet Buttress

Lundy (norse for puffin) Island is a 2 1/2 by 3/4 mile granite plateau in the middle of the Bristol Channel. It's reached by a two hour ferry crossing, and it's a sea cliff climbers paradise.

We stayed in The Barn, which is like a climbing hut only posher, and sleeps 14 in separate beds – no cramped sleeping platforms here. With a shower and decent kitchen its ideal for self catering – except you are also two minutes away from The Marisco Tavern which does good cheap meals.

Some goats for Debra

Lundy has fantastic wildlife and is also a marine conservation area, so along with the soay sheep, goats, Lundy ponies and sika deer, seals were also a regular presence, popping up to watch our antics and offer beta (I assume thats what the sealy honks and barks were). At one point me and Crofty counted 14 seals below us, basking on the rocks and swimming in conga lines through the clear water.

 

Rob cruises Satan's Slip, Simon discovers The Shark is not VS!

The quality of the rock and climbs was fantastic, and lots of personal targets were ticked, too many to mention but a particular highlight was Simon C's accidental onsight of an E1 -quote- "I thought it felt a bit hard for VS". Since you managed it cleanly, Simon, we'll be expecting to see a few more logged soon… SWS (shallow water solo) queen was Courtney, who got a soaking three days in a row. Courtney enjoyed the ferry trip so much she did it four times, as she had an interview half way through the week.

Teflon Pete coming round the final corner of Albion

With so much quality climbing on the island, and 14 climbers it would be tedious to list all the routes done, so I won't, but at some point almost everyone made it onto the Devil's Slide, and I think we all went away with just as many new targets on our wish lists as targets we had ticked during our stay.

I suspect we will be going back but be warned – the barn is popular, and gets booked up around two years in advance.

Who went:

  • YAC: Peri, Rob, Simon C, Carmen, Courtney, Cef, Simon F, Debra, Annie, Pete E, Pete B
  • UKC: Teflon Pete
  • York Climbers: Graham Booth, Rachel, Crofty (and family)

Logistics

  • Travel: six hours from York, then two hours on the M.S. Oldenburg from Ilfracombe (£58 return)
  • Accomodation: The camping barn costs about £1300 in total for a week in August, but sleeps 14 so is pretty good value. There is other, more luxurious, accommodation on the island that is much more expensive, and also a decent campsite which can be booked at quite short notice (cost about £11 per night).
  • Lundy Island website for more details: http://www.lundyisland.co.uk/

 

Pics:

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Posted in Climbing, Extended trips | 1 Comment »

March winds and April showers

Monday, August 8th, 2011

After a few days of sitting in the office watching the sun out the window, the weekend forecast promised flooding on a Biblical scale. This duly arrived on Saturday, but Sunday sounded slightly less bad, with the chance of some dry weather before the rain returned in the afternoon. So we decided to risk it.

Despite lots of rain down the M1, and some more on the roads as we approached the crag, Agden Rocher was dry when we arrived, and mostly sheltered from the strong winds. As always, we were the only people there (the crag has a reputation for looseness which is only partly deserved).

We started with The Whittler (VS 4c *), which has a hard but well-protected start, giving much opportunity for faffing (which was duly taken). As Carmen passed the initial overhang, it started raining, but she persevered anyway, with some bold climbing up no-more-than-adequately-protected wet rock to a small cave where the rain got heavier so she stopped to belay. By the time I joined her it was dry again so she led the 2nd pitch as well (I've previously led the route). A really good climb, surely worth a couple of stars.

The sky was black again so I went for an easier route, Harlequinade (VDiff). Nobody ever climbs this, and you can see why. It climbs a crack behind a tree, and the crux is getting to the start of the crack, up loose vegetated choss. The crack itself is quite easy and involves battling with another tree. Two other climbers passed by as I was setting off, strange to see anyone else here, let alone in these conditions – shortly afterwards they wandered back again, presumably headed home as the rain started. By the time I reached the top it was raining hard, and there was no cosy cave to belay in, so I got more than a little wet. Just like mountaineering, only with added trees.

We decided to call it a day, but kept the harnesses on just in case we could find a dry route under the trees. We could, and even better it stopped raining and the sun came out, and the wind meant that the crag dried really quickly. So I led Hagg (HS), up a fine corner with some worrying rock but solid enough if you avoid the perched blocks of doom near the top. It finishes with an exciting step right across the void. I later discovered the new guide describes the route as "dangerous", but it's not really (though don't come crying to me if you try it and it falls down on top of you).

Next Carmen led the fine arete of Bianco (VS 4b *), a minor classic that would have queues if on a more popular crag.

To finish, I went for Derision (S). We climbed this on our first visit to the crag some 8 years ago and thought it a good route. The new guidebook reckons it's poor so I thought I'd better have another look to make sure. The first third is indeed fairly poor, with lots of turf and some crumbly rock, but it gets much better after that and the last section is excellent. It was graded VDiff first time round, but I wouldn't argue with HS 4b.

A nice late-Spring day, can't wait until Summer arrives…

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Some classics in the sun

Monday, July 25th, 2011

The unexpected arrival of a good weekend's weather forecast meant some last-minute changes of plans, so Carmen and I drove over to the Lakes on Saturday morning with the aim of getting to Great Gable the next day. Having pitched the tent we popped up to Honister for some afternoon climbing on Buckstone How, expecting to have to queue for a bit as the crag is a quick-drying suntrap with a 10 minute approach and several starred routes mainly from HS to HVS. But the place was deserted so we had our pick, and opted for Honister Wall (HS 4b **).

A minor classic on natural slate, with excellent climbing on each of the pitches (6 in the guidebook, we combined some and did it in 4). In the early days there was lots of loose rock around, but this has all gone in the intervening decades and so long as you stay on route it's as solid as any other mountain crag. We followed this with Groove One (VDiff) as it got a star in the old guide. We later found that this star has disappeared in the latest update, and with good reason! The second pitch is a fine groove, but to get there you have to wander up nasty unprotected vegetated ledges. Not recommended.

The next day we started early to avoid the expected crowds, and got to Tophet Wall (HS 4b ***) just before 10, to find we were the first team there. I led a long first pitch (guidebook pitches 1+2), and Carmen followed suit with a long 2nd pitch (guidebook pitches 3+4). Another pair arrived as we were part way up, but otherwise nobody else did the route all day. Weird. A truly great route, rightly considered one of the best in the country.

Next we wandered over to the Napes to see if anyone was climbing the Needle. They weren't, so we did. It's either got harder since I last did it about 12 years ago, or I've got worse, probably both! But we managed it, Carmen led Wasdale Crack to the shoulder, then I did the last short pitch to the summit. HS 4b *** but much of its quality comes from the history and the situation rather than the climbing per se. Again, we were followed by the pair from Tophet Wall, but nobody else on the route for the rest of the day. A handful of other teams doing other routes – Needle Ridge, Eagles Nest Direct, The Cayman – but overall very quiet for such a classic area on one of the only sunny weekends of the summer so far.

Still plenty of time left, we decided to finish with Needle Ridge (VDiff ***). We did this in 3 pitches, I began with the variation arete start to avoid the polish on the normal, excellent grippy rock but not much protection. Carmen took the long interesting central section, then I finished up the final groove, taking another variation on the right up excellent twin jamming cracks. A scramble along the rest of the ridge finished off yet another excellent route, much better than I was expecting after paying too much attention to exaggerated reports of polish. We'd carried our kit up the route so finished by walking over the summit of Great Gable, then via Green Gable back to Seathwaite.

A brilliant impromptu weekend!

More photos here.

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Phew What a Scorcher!

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

At last, a weekend of warm dry weather, perfect for climbing or a nice walk in the hills. So of course we were doing the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon, 2 days of running up and down hills carrying camping gear. This year we started at Chapel Stile in Langdale, and headed for an overnight camp at Steel End Farm near Thirlmere. YAC was represented by Carmen and me doing the Bowfell (all the courses are named after hills); Alan and Peter doing Carrock Fell; and Graeme and non-YAC Will on Kirkfell.

This year's courses were tougher than usual, so everyone suffered. Ours went northwards over the hill and into Easedale, before heading north west into Langstrath. Here we had the first major route choice of the weekend – contour round Langstrath or go down to the valley bottom and up the other side. We opted for the latter, with hindsight (and a view of the planner's recommend routed) we should have gone for the former, but I don't think we lost more than about 10 minutes on a 2-hour leg. A traverse of the Glaramara ridge was followed by the usual Saunders sadistic descent to the valley floor and straight up the other side, then finally a circuit of Ullscarf before a tricky steep and rocky descent to the last control and the finish – 7 hours and 44 seconds. We felt we'd done just about as well as we could given our fitness levels, and were pleased to be lying 14th out of 58. Alan and Peter arrived an hour or so later, 41st out of 104. Unfortunately Will had sprained an ankle so he and Graeme hobbled slowly home and couldn't continue on Sunday, but still managing to finish a creditable 39th on day 1 – without the injury they'd have been looking at a possible podium finish.

The next day we were expecting things to be a bit easier, Sunday usually being an hour or more shorter than Saturday. More fool us.

The route started up Dunmail Raise before heading back west via Easedale to Langstrath again, via an endless switchback of descents and reascents. A misjudged traverse (too high) round Bowfell slowed us as we picked a way through broken crags, after that exhaustion set in. A steep grassy scramble up the NW ridge of Kettle Crag (no, I hadn't heard of it either) led to another climb onto Lingmoor Fell for the sting in the tail, some orienteering-style micro-navigation to find a re-entrant in a bank of re-entrants, and a knoll in a field of knolls. We finally crawled across the finish line some 7 hours 48 minutes after starting. 22nd on the day, and 19th overall, but the most telling statistic is that there were only 29 finishers out of 58 starters! Peter and Alan appeared an hour or so later, with a final position of 48th out of 106 (61 finishers).

Another great weekend, though the hardest event I've done for a long time.

A few photos here – not many as I was too hot and bothered to take my camera out!

Our routes:
Day 1, 17 miles and 1900m ascent
Day 2, 16 miles and 2000m ascent

Full results here and more details of the SLMM here.

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We're all Royalists now

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Just a week after Easter, and time for another 4-day weekend courtesy of the Windsors (God bless 'em). By popular request we were having a Spring meet in Wales – we usually go in the Autumn or winter when it's either raining or snowing, and there were lots of classic climbs and scrambles waiting for dry rock. The venue was the North London MC hut at Capel Curig – we've not been there before, but will definitely go again, an excellent little hut with good facilities, just lacking a drying room (but it never rains in North Wales so that's not a problem).

A few people arrived a day early, Simon & Debra making the most of the sunshine to do the Snowdon Horseshoe before the crowds arrived, Rob and Pete B making the least of the sunshine and spending a cold day ticking Classic Rock in the shade on Glyder Fach and Milestone Buttress.

On Friday, we found that nobody had remembered to pack any flags and bunting, so we were forced to head for the hills instead. Simon & Debra went for a walk up Cnicht; Angela walked up a few of the Carneddau; Rich and special guest star Jack began their long hard tick list with the two Suicide Wall routes at Idwal. Meanwhile the rest of us joined Rob in his Classic Rock tickathon and headed for Great Gully on Craig yr Ysfa.

This is the sort of route that makes for good pub stories and is generally enjoyed in hindsight if at all – 700 feet of vegetated gully, with a few chimney pitches, the sort of thing they used to do in the olde dayes when men had beards and women climbed in skirts. These routes are always graded VDiff.

Disappointingly, due to several weeks of dry weather, the moss and slime were notable mainly by their absence and we actually found ourselves liking some of it at the time. I wangled it so Dave D got to lead the infamous 'converging walls' chimney pitch (all classic gullies have one of those). He quickly saw sense and ran away, leaving Rob to save the day and huff and puff his way to the top. We all followed with varying degrees of grunt, as each person topped out they intoned the ritual phrase "VDiff my arse". The consensus seemed to be about VS but the original grade from 1910 is perhaps more suitable – "exceedingly difficult". After this the rest was relatively easy; even the Great Cave Pitch (all classic gullies have one of these as well) proved benign, despite my efforts to make it look desperate.

Rob now disappeared to a BMC Clubs Weekend leaving the rest of us free to do things that aren't in Classic Rock. Angela, Dave and Pete scrambled up Tryfan, Bristly Ridge, the Glyders, and Y Garn. Simon and Debra headed for Tryfan Bach to climb some Moderates, but due to regrading accidentally did three Diffs instead. Rich and Jack did a grand tour of the Dinorwig slate quarries where they climbed themselves into the ground notching up an impressive number of onsight E points each. Andrew and Karen walked up Cnicht.

Carmen and I chose the neglected West Face of Tryfan to avoid the easterly gales that were a feature of the weekend. We started with Columbyne (VDiff*), the crux of which was the wet scramble required to get to the start. The climb itself was a really good 5-pitch mountaineering route which managed to miss most of the heather, probably worth 2 stars. We'd planned to move on to a starred Severe next but the wind was somehow penetrating the mountain so opted for Flat Iron Ridge (Diff) instead. Owing to the omission of the phrase "traverse 30 feet leftwards" from the guidebook, we ended up doing a new route which after much thought I've christened "Flat Iron Ridge Direct". It's about Severe (so we might as well have done the good route instead) and was undoubtedly climbed 100 years ago by men in nailed boots. Finally we moved together up Notch Arete (Mod *), a fine rediscovery which must surely deserve at least 2 stars (it was highly praised in early guidebooks and then ignored for decades, presumably as it was deemed too easy to be any good). Although not as steep or continuous as the popular East face, Tryfan's west side is well worth a visit – and is guaranteed no queues.

Sunday. Sunny again, so no excuses for a rest. This time it was Simon & Debra's turn for Tryfan North Ridge/Bristly Ridge, while Andrew and Karen walked up Moel Siabod. Pete and Dave headed for Idwal where they did Charity, Lazarus Gully, Groove Above, Hope, and Lazarus. Rich and Jack went home via Gogarth for some more hard classics. And Carmen and I went for a look at Carreg Alltrem and the VS classics of Lightning Visit and Lavaredo. I was feeling a bit rubbish so bagged the easy pitches, which I made look hard. Carmen did the hard pitch of Lightning Visit, which she made look easy. We combined to wimp out of the hard 2nd pitch of Lavaredo, running away up the Severe slab of original Route instead. We'll be back to do it properly some day! Since it wasn't yet dark, we drove to Ogwen where we finished the day with Milestone Buttress Direct, which was polished to a sheen when I last did it in the 1990s, and is now even shinier. Still a classic though.

Next day Rob had finished with his course so he dragged Pete off to do some more Classic Rock ticking on the east face of Tryfan, where they tried but narrowly failed to be blown off the mountain by the gale force winds while climbing a couple of the classic ridge routes. Dave, Carmen and I went to Idwal, where we took advantage of the dry conditions to do Subwall Climb (HS 4b) which is normally dripping wet. I led the second (crux) pitch, which mostly involved standing around for hours reading the guidebook trying to work out where the route went while not thinking too much about my only runner, 10m below. A good MVS 4a. We finished up Faith West Finish which apparently is rarely climbed, though this hasn't always been the case judging by the polish.

It was now 3pm and we were due to meet the others at the hut at 5, so we decided that they'd be late anyway so there was time for another 5 pitch route. Faith (VDiff **) gave Dave the full set after his ascents of Hope and Charity the day before. An excellent route, nowhere hard but everywhere bold, surely worth 3 stars – and made even better by having the whole of Idwal Slabs to ourselves, everyone else having run off to sit in traffic jams.

A fantastic long weekend courtesy of the Royal Family. Next year the free holiday is due to the Diamond Jubilee. Is it too much to hope that Harry gets hitched in 2013? If you're reading this, Your Highness, sometime towards the end of May would be ideal…

More photos here.
Debra's photos here.

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Posted in Climbing, Mountaineering, Scrambling, Walking, Weekend Meets | 2 Comments »

Sun, Rock and Owls

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

Julie on the steep initial scramble of the Caval Bernat Ridge

This years sun rock trip to majorca belied Simon's dire predictions of rain and snow. The sun shone all week and bt the end of the holiday with temperatures in the high twenties we were seeking out shady crags.

Our flights went without a hitch – well, almost, unless you count Cef's panicked realisation that he had left his keys in his front door. Back in York Fliss and Tom went to the rescue – problem solved. As we approached the island I got my first taste of the landscape – a sheer knife edge ridge guarding the north west corner. Wow, I thought, this is going to be good.

Arrived at our villa and another wow – a beautifully converted former mine nbuilding on four storeys, complete with swimming pool. And it turns out, complete with in situ owl. This owl hooted every 3 seconds all night, and team Twitcher Andrew told us it was a Scops Owl. This is not what we heard him call it later in the week, as it turns out it was Andrews room it liked to hoot outside.

Los Perxes



Anyway, a quick unpack and we were off to Los Perxes, the local crag for an evenings climbing – not bad after a 5.30am start.

Over the next week we visited various crags in various orders. My personal favourites were:

La Creveta– pristine grey frictiony limestone slabs high above a coastal valley. The approach to this feels quite adventurous, especially if, like Tracy and Pete B, you go over the wrong col and end up abseiling in down the routes…

Looking down from the second pitch of the Gubia Normale

Sa Gubia was another highlight. It is the biggest climbing area on the island with big multipitch routes. Most of us visited at some point, either to do the 7 pitch trad route, the Gubia Normale (4+) or one of the various multipitch sport routes. Even the scramble up to the top of the crags from the end of the routes is long, exposed and exciting. Several people also did The Sharks Fin, a trad route on a formation shaped like-guess what – in the Boquet Valley, and another favourite was Cala Magraner aka the Bay of Pigs – apparently YAC visited this on a previous trip and were molested by rogue piggies. The climbing here was good, but the main attraction was the beach location – when too hot to climb we just went for a swim.

Puig San Marti

Other crags visited included Sestre (which I thought was very polished in places and a bit scruffy), Puig y Garafa, Puig San Marti (met some nice germans here who helped out with gear where the bolt had been removed from the crux), La Victoria, and on the last day we visited a small crag, Can Ortigues, chiefly because Rockfax reccomended it as an easy access crag for an airport day. Unfortunately it turned out quite a few people had also bought the rockfax, and with quite a few shared starts and lower offs there was a bit of waiting for routes, although a spanish team very kindly allowed us to climb on their lower gear.

Puig y Garafa

Non climbing days included a mass gorge descent of the Torrent De Pareis, during which Carmen accidentally (she claims) punched Annie, and Annie crawled inside a pebble.

The Caval Bernat Ridge (scramble)

For me, the highlight was possibly not a climbing day, but the day we spent scrambling the ridge we saw from the plane. This looked steep and intimidating in places, but as we approached each desperate looking section hold magically appeared. I have never done a scramble so continuously exposed and sheer – at one point Rob dropped a pebble from the ridge and we counted 7 seconds till it hit the sea. As we finished the steep sections mountain goats appeared and made us look clumsy by skipping effortlessly over the slabs. A stunning and memorable day.

rest of my pics here

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Posted in Climbing, Extended trips, Scrambling | 3 Comments »

Carpe Diem!

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

The forecasts for last weekend's weather were getting worse by the day and it seemed like yet another weekend of dodging the showers was on the cards. But on Friday, the predictions changed suddenly, with the main area of rain moving south where it belongs. Carmen's enthusiasm overwhelmed my inertia, so on Saturday morning we drove to the Lakes. It rained for much of the journey, even as close as Dunmail Raise, but as we approached Langdale the clouds cleared and we were rewarded with blue sky and sunshine (remember that?).

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Raven Crag (Walthwaite), just 15 minutes walk from the campsite in Chapel Stile. I'd hoped to climb the classic offwidth VS of Walthwaite Crack, but found that it had fallen down 4 years ago, but there was plenty still standing and we climbed Enterprize (VS 4c **), Route 2 (HS 4b,4b ***), Walthwaite Gully (VS 4b 4c **) and Route 1 (S 4a **).

The next day dawned even brighter, with a cloudless sky, so we decided to make the most of it and start on the Picco Harrison Integrale – a long link-up suggested in the guidebook of VD/S routes on Lower Scout, Upper Scout, White Ghyll lower, White Ghyll upper, Pavey Ark, and finally Harrison Stickle.

Lower Scout – Cub's Groove (VD *) horribly polished.
Upper Scout – Route 2 (VD ** 4 pitches) very pleasant, not much gear.
White Ghyll lower – Slip Knot (VS 4b *** 2 pitches) harder than planned, but it was on the tick-list and there was nobody on it! A welcome escape from the heat of the sun.
White Ghyll upper – The Slabs Route 2 (S 4a ** 3 pitches) I ran all 3 pitches into 1 due to failing to find the belays described in the guidebook! Carmen then added on the last pitch of The Slabs Route 1 to make up for it.

Due to the earlier choice of a VS we were now running short of time, and Carmen's feet were suffering, so we decided on Rake End Chimney (Diff ***) on Pavey Ark – a very traditional route! and only 2 main pitches. This wasted a good half an hour as I started off and then retreated as it was (a) very wet, and (b) not the sort of route to climb with a rucksack on!

It was obvious now that we wouldn't have time for the route on Harrison Stickle without risking an epic, so we chose Cook's Tour (VD ** 5 pitches) to finish the day. A strange route, 50% walking, not sure of its classic status. Though our impartiality may have been impaired by having been eaten by midges for the last 3 pitches!

A glorious descent in the evening light finished a long 11 hour day.

The rain's due to return tomorrow…

More photos here.

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Pick a grade, any grade…

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

As a club we've not had a good success rate in terms of the weather for our recent trips to Northumberland, and perhaps because of this it was a sadly depleted group of 2 who made it to Bellingham last weekend. Either that, or everyone wanted to stay at home and watch the foopball.

For once, the weekend was forecast to be warm and sunny, but form seemed to have reasserted itself when Saturday dawned overcast and windy with occasional drizzle. Not to be deterred by a bit of discomfort, we headed for Selby's Cove, which the guidebook said was sheltered; also it faced west, which we hoped would offer some protection from the cold north wind. Some protection was indeed given, though not quite enough, and we spent most of the day climbing in more clothes than we wore in the depths of winter.

It's not a bad little crag, but judging by the vegetation, not climbed on that much. The main routes were clean enough though. We started with The Corner (Severe ***), Carmen kindly offering me the lead when she saw how steep it was. An excellent route, which would be top end HS anywhere other than Northumberland. Next Carmen led The Arete, a nice Diff (more like boldish VDiff), then it was my turn again with Lichen Wall, allegedly VDiff. This turned out to involve about 5m of unprotected climbing up a slightly overhanging wall on ever-shrinking holds, and by the line described in the book would be at least VS 4b, probably harder. I took a line slightly further left, which was less steep, with bigger holds, and allowed some side runners to be placed, but still felt VS 4b. Finally, I led Holly Tree Wall (Severe *), which would be a good route (with a hard jamming start, maybe S 4c) if it weren't for the fact that the ledge at the top had been recently vacated by nesting ravens, so the rock was mainly white and smelly.

The only remaining routes were a 3 pitch Severe traverse (which we didn't fancy as the 'best' pitch led through the deepest section of guano), or were VS and above, which given the harsh grading we didn't fancy risking. But by now the sun was out, so we stopped off at Simonside North on the walk back. Carmen led Innominate Crack (VDiff **) a nice route and amazingly the grade was right. After I'd spent an age repeatedly failing to work out the crux move of Flake Corner (MVS 4c*) before retreating ignominiously, we finished with a quick ascent of Great Chimney, a brilliant 3-star Diff.

Sunday's weather was much better – bright sun with just enough breeze to keep the midges off, so we headed for Crag Lough, a fine crag on the Whin Sill buttresses immediately below Hadrian's Wall. Despite the weather, the fantastic views, and the large number of multi-starred routes at VS and below, we had the entire crag to ourselves until about 5pm when 2 other pairs arrived. We'd hopped to have a look at the classic HS's of Main Wall and Great Chimney, but a nesting kestrel made it clear that our presence wasn't welcome, so we stayed well clear of that part of the cliff!

Once again the guidebook grades bore little resemblance to the actual difficulty. Routes climbed:
– Spuggie's Gully (VDiff **). A fine lead by Carmen up steeper-than-they-looked cracks, passing nesting jackdaws (sorry) on the way.
– Raven's Tower (MVS 4b ***). My lead, that rarest of beasts an overgraded Northumbrian route. It deserved all of its stars though.
– Tarzan's Mate (VDiff **). Carmen again, and a return to reliable Northumberland sandbaggery. Probably (H)S 4b, but at least the gear was good.
– Hadrian's Buttress (Severe ***). This one took a while! I spent ages working out how to leave the ground, and then higher up I met another impasse that took another aeon to solve. A classic route, but definitely VS 4c!

Finally we wandered along to Peel Crag, a continuation of Crag Lough, where I led Sunset (MS ***). I'd already done this on our previous visit (7 years ago!), and it was just as good as I remembered it – thoroughly recommended to anyone, whatever grade you climb at (unless it's Mild Severe or below, as this one is really a tricky severe, especially the start).

A fantastic weekend – for those who stayed at home, I hope the England match was half as good!

More photos here.

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Posted in Climbing, Crags, Weekend Meets | No Comments »

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