Lakeland Classics

A flying visit to Shepherd's Crag, ended up being one of the most amazing days i've had climbing. I did not like Rhyolite at all at first, and i struggled up a VS with Lewis Dale. I then soloed a HVS called T.D.M, which scared me as i was unsure about the rock, but i was bored because Fran and Lewis were climbing on Little Chamonix. It's THAT classic lakeland route, and i wanted to do it, but it deserved something extra special. Fran answered the thought by saying "Fancy a Solo?"

71m is quite a considerable Solo, especially on polished, unfamiliar rock - even though it is a VD.

We set off, and soon we were on the georgously exposed last pitch. Pulling up on those flakes was a joy and i even had the audacity to hang around for a couple of pictures.

We spend a week in the Lakes climbing at Castle Rock, Eagle Crag (Grisedale), Durple Gill, Gowbarrow, but on the last day we did some fantastic stuff.

We returned to Castle Rock, having failed on Triermain Eliminate due to rain, we decided to go after lower numbers. I climbed Zig Zag and the Fantastic Overhanging Bastion with my brother, thus ticking two of the most celebrated routes on the Crag.

Me and Fran then turned are attention to another lakeland classic, Harlot Face. This summed up to be one of the most extreme routes we have done. It is E1 5b, it is on steep exposed terrain but it has a gentle side because of it's very well protected crux. However, we had never climbed E1 over 8m before and Rhyolite is a different propostion to good old North Yorks Sandstone.

Fran climbed the first pitch, up to the ledge at half height. This was the worst pitch, it was lacking on gear and was suffering from seepage and moss. We climbed this eventhough it was out of condition, and then came my lead, the crux.

This involves climbing the Overhanging crack of Triermain Eliminate and then swinging boldly out right onto the ajoining slab. The route then follows reasonably juggy ground to a vegetated belay, and safety. This was a great achievement, our first "proper" E1 lead and it was done in less than ideal conditions.

Climbing Mowgli

Park Nab, the crag that i will always associate with the beginning of my climbing, had a great buttress that contained some of the areas finest routes. One very wet day in the 90's, the Buttress gave way and collapsed leaving a scared area of rock, from which Mowgli was born.

The route on first glances looks impossible, an almost featureless slab of rock, but it is climbed at the resonable grade of E1 5b.

I had always gazed upon this slab, and imagined how good E1 climbers must be, as i walked from Severe to Severe and i always told myself that this was one of my climbing goals, something i would aim to achieve, perhaps before i left the area for University.

The time came however, much quicker than i expected.

2 October, one of those calm, clear days that is perfect for climbing. We had climbed E1 before, but they were less serious E1's that perhaps were overgraded, this however felt serious. Today was perfect though, so we climbed it. Something, we had never noticed was that the route traversed in from the right arete, therefore what looked like featureless wall, WAS featureless wall and the route avoided it!

It fell with remarkable ease, considering the look of the climb. Even so, it was a serious undertaking, the blocks below are scary, and the lack of gear means that a solo is the norm.

The picture illustates the severity of failure.

P.S On the 6th of January 2008, the Direct start to Mowgli fell, it is a technical climb that was solved well by my climbing partner Franco, i quickly followed and we agreed on E2 5c* for the tricky 'Achilles Last Stand'.

First E2 Onsight Lead

I had climbed E2 before. But they were reasonbly small and i had soloed them, i also, had taken two or three goes to get the moves right. These included Cold Turkey and Chilled Out at Cold Moor.
Hungry Heart at Oak Crag was different, 12 metres, 'Adequately Protected', it had the feeling of a proper E2 climb and indeed it was.
An exquisite Arete climb, on the unfortunately green main buttress of Oak Crag. It didnt matter to us though, the climbing was great, the situation is fantastic and we really felt proud about this achievement.

First Ascents

Every now and again, when we were visiting crags we'd see rock, with no noutes on them. We'd often comment and say there should be routes on there but we never did anything. Eventually, the penny dropped. Why didn't we do the routes?

The first crag we put up new routes on was the Esklets. It was a local crag and there was a lot of undeveloped rock. We put up some decent lines, and then both me and fran returned at different times to continue with the work. I returned with my Brother to create 'Eskrement' at HVS 5b (named so, to keep an Esklets Tradition going). Franco, my climbing partnet, then returned by himself and polished off several other routes.

Our next First Ascent was, 'Ling Arete' at the Wainstones. This is a major crag in North Yorkshire, so we were amazed when we found that this line was unclimbed. We decided that it was going to have to be hard, otherwise it would have been done in the past. We set up the top rope, and proceeded to work the route. The Top rope, soon led to a Pinkpoint, then a Redpoint. The Grade was HVS 5a, which seemed quite low considering the amount of effort put in, however the line is very good, and it is quite a commiting route. Indeed, it is in the Current Local Guide and the Rockfax guide, so hopefully we will see some repeats of what is definitely our best FA.

We also found a Slate quarry near Patterdale in the Lake District. It is about 10 metres high and makes for a good days entertainment should you be unable to get out of Patterdale, as is what happened to us. We found a few routes the best being 'Stormbringer' which again was HVS 5a, but the direct start was E1 5b.

In January 2008, we started our project at Park Nab. A route we thought had been climbed before, it was the direct start to 'Mowgli'. The guidebook stated 6a/b. We decided it would be a good chance to 'break' into the 6grades. We set about the bouldery start and found it was resonably difficult and that it didn't ease. Franco, who really wanted the route then set up a TR and we worked it. We found it was quite a bold problem, which was sustained and required a careful approach pulling on very positive albeit Very small edges.
Franco completed the route and then so did I. A fantastic slab climb on a featureless piece of rock, we were so proud to have done such a route, and to then find that it hadn't been climbed before was the icing on the cake!

Hopefully some more FA's should follow, as we have found people are mostly encouraging when you do find FA's.

Climbing At Camp Hill

Camp Hill, a lovely crag nestled above Botton Village in NorthYorkshire was the place we first started to achieve things. VS's, HVS's and one of my first E1's fell at this Crag. It was a good place to go and push ones grade.

The best route on the crag is Ace of Winds, which i still need to do, but the second hardest route at the crag, and one of my favourite climbs i have done, is Cling Wrap Direct (E1 5c).

We went one blustery Spring day with the idea of climbing this, which we did, Albeit on Top Rope. We did however return in the late summer and Lead it, which unfortunately put an end to our climbing at Camp Hill.

How It All Started

My brother was the one that first discovered climbing. He visited the 'Local' Climbing wall and discovered the art. He dragged me along to indoor sessions and soon i could climb. Indoors however, was not real climbing. This i found, was done on lumps of rock found in remote and cold areas of the local moors. The Rock; Sandstone was quite different from the Pastic holds of the wall. I was taught to climb by means of Top Roping at Scugdale, routes such as Alpha - HD, Beta - D and Gamma - HD were my first routes. This however, was done very rarely, perhaps once, or twice a summer that we got out and climbed outside, indeed indoor climbing was also becoming something of a rarity.

2006 was the beginning of things. A trip to Wales with the family was to rekindle the love for climbing that my brother had, and i was again to be dragged along. This however, was quite different to the North York Moors. Lumps of Sandstone were replaced with soaring cliffs of "Volcanic" rock, something i would later know as Rhyolite. We climbed on some of the smaller crags, Clogwyn Cyrau was the crag were i got some practice placing and removing gear. This was all in preparation for what was going to be one of the best expierences of my life.

The route was in the famous, Llanberis Pass; a VD route called 'Parchment Passage.'

The Rain was pouring, it was misty and cold. Typical Wales. We thought twice about it, but then went for it. Nick Lead the route in 3 pitches, and i enjoyed the Exposure and the sence of being safe 100's of metres up.

I was hooked, and the route we did the next day at Milestones Buttress; the Classic Direct Route. I lead one of the pitches and throughly enjoyed it. I knew now, this is what i wanted to do.

The winter came and climbing stopped, however, come the spring of 2007 me and Franco were constantly at the local crags try and testing our technique. We started off leading, but we soon tired of the complicated nature of tieing on and belaying and so on. We started to Solo.

It wasn't until the summer that we re-discovered our leading racks and rope, with trips to Raven's Scar and Highcliff.

The Bavarian Alps - Zugspitze

I had barely done any climbing, when i was invited to Bavaria with my mate and his dad. I had mostly Scrambled and hiked at this point, so the trip to Germany was a great opportunity.

We did mostly Klettersteiging, however, we decided that we would try to climb the Zugspitze (2894m) via the Jubislaumsgrat Ridge, which is a 8-12 hour ridge from the Alpspitze to the Zugspitze, with the aim of returning on the last Cable Car.
We caught the first Cable Car to the Alpspitze, then climbed up to the summit. We then started the Ridge, and this is what awaited us.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5Y7zeFOp3VtQeGn9Wz6zvQ

I had never experienced anything like this, the ever-continuing ridge of rock seemed an impenetrable barrier between the Alpspitze and Zugspitze. We weren't even sure of the grade, however, the Guide said that Klettersteig poles and wire were insitu. This however, was grossly out of date.

The sign at the beginning told us, that the the route was being returned to an "Alpine Ridge" but non of us read good German, so we weren't entirely sure what it said at the time! We made good progress, and were treated to fantastic views of Austrias highest Mountains and also got to see Broken Spectres, as we each got one, at least once! We, eventually passed the Jubislaum Hut. We decided to keep going. Soon, it became much colder; snow was building up and eventually cornices and ice. The Zugspitze was shrouded in a veil of cloud. It was getting dark.

We arrived after 9 hours on the ridge and we had missed the last Cable Car. We were unsure what to do, walk down? Luckily, as you may know if you've been to the Zugspitze the place is manned by a awful number of buildings and towers. We managed to get a room in a rickety shack of a Hut, that overhung the cliff-side and was supported with Scaffold. We thought the ridge was Extreme!

The descent was much more fun. It was warm, easy and it involved a glacier crossing and then an amazing walk through the Hollental Gorge. The Glacier can be seen in the picture, and the whole thing was my greatest Mountaineering experience to date.