All week I'd been thinking about a weekend trip to the Lakes for some winter fun. And all week I'd felt myself going down with a cold. By Friday, I was completely voiceless and off work. But the conditions were rumoured to be perfect so it was too good to miss, and arrangements were duly made.
I couldn't face the 5am start favoured by Rob and (mainly) Will, but we still managed to leave York by 7.30, and parked at Dunmail Raise a couple of hours later. As we were getting our kit out of the car, Will and Rob drove up. It was a long story apparently, involving a forgotten rope…
So, off we raced, along with hundreds of others, up towards Grisedale Tarn. We passed several parties on the way up, and were then passed back again when we chose an unnecessarily slow traverse line towards Tarn Crag, on the lower slopes of Dollywagon Pike. When we arrived, it was teeming. All the grade 1 and 2 gully lines contained queues, as did Dollywagon Gully (the 2* grade III we'd been hoping to do), and even the largely snow-free grade 2 buttress.
But Dollywagon Chimney (grade III, no stars) was free, with just one other team on it already finishing the 2nd pitch. More of a mixed route than we'd had in mind, but better than queuing. As we geared up, Will and Rob arrived and duly joined the queue for Dollywagon Gully.
It was a bit hard. Actually, it was a lot hard. An initial tricky rocky groove was followed shortly afterwards by an even trickier icy groove then some more tricky bits before the belay. I took 50 minutes, Carmen about the same. The 2nd pitch looked slightly easier, but wasn't, as snow and ice gave way to some nice back-and-footing. Carmen thoughtfully let me lead this one as well. I muttered a few choice words as I rounded a corner and the narrow chimney of the last pitch came in sight.
After bringing Carmen up, I convinced myself it must be easier than it looked, and set off. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't easier than it looked at all, it was slightly harder. I bridged and struggled half way up the narrow chimney, until the holds ran out. Luckily, there was a small spike out on the left at this point, so I could pull myself precariously out of the chimney, and make a few vaguely terrifying moves up before stepping back into the gully proper. Some nice neve then led to a buried-axe belay at the top.
Other people's comments on UKC suggest that a more accurate grade might be IV 5!
By this time it was 5pm (5 hours for a 130m route!), no time for anything else, so we packed up and headed back down to the car, no need for torches due to a glorious full moon. We expected the others to have got back already, but Will's car was still there. So we drove to the campsite and were putting up the tent at about 7.20 when Will phoned to say they'd just topped out! having finished the Gully and decided to follow us up the Chimney. Unsurprisingly, they decided to return to York rather than staying until Sunday.
The next morning we were up before dawn to return to Tarn Crag, this time to climb Dollywagon Gully. Vague hopes of beating the queues were dashed, and we were the 4th team there. We decided we may as well wait and climb it anyway – so we did. And very nice it was too, fortunately rather less traumatic than the previous day's epic. An initial rocky chockstone was followed by a nice snow plod, and then some water ice to finish (unfortunately rather hacked to bits by this stage).
We descended Tarn Crag Gully 2 (grade I), then dithered between Tarn Crag C Gully 1 (I/II *) and Falcon Crag Gully (II *). We went for the latter, as it was a little longer, with 3 pitches rather than just 2.
It started well with a nice (though hard for the grade) ice pitch, with an optimistic belay at the end. Then a snow pitch, which Carmen led, also with an optimistic belay. Next, what I hoped was the final pitch, as it was snowing by this stage, a turfy groove and traverse back into the gully proper. I was a little surprised when I popped round the corner and found the gully disappearing out of sight in the distance, with an obviously difficult rocky groove in front of me.
To cut a long story short, there were another 2 long pitches after this, mostly turf with some rock, and though one of the belays was good, there was not a lot of protection. Over 5 pitches, we placed a total of 4 pieces of gear, and 2 of those were on the first pitch! So the easy 3-pitch turned out to be 5 hard pitches. The discrepancy in grade (maybe IV 3?) can be explained by conditions, but the guide is seriously wrong in its estimation of length!
We topped out (in a blizzard) at 6pm, just as it was getting dark. Luckily the descent is quite straightforward, so despite the lack of a helpful moon, we got back to the car at about 7.30 and were back in York for some fish & chips at 10.
Next weekend we're having a rest.
A few more photos can be found here.
Good to see you had some fun too. Talking to a lot of people, it seems to be a season where routes feel harder than their grade (despite all the snow and cold).
From the little I've managed this season, although the snow has been widespread, it hasn't been that deep. So conditions have been mostly thin, despite appearing fat!
Thats true, some of things we were on looked good from afar, but on them our axes were bottoming out. Pendulum Ridge, another story, will tell you when I see you.