Langdale: Gimmer & Pavey

The forecast was mediocre for Sunday, predicting cool, cloudy weather with a chance of showers and the possibility of sunny spells in the afternoon. After coming back from the Alps and not doing much for two weeks I fancied a big day in the mountains getting in some climbing and some summits.

Looking up to Gimmer Crag.

We left the Old Dungean Ghyll car park at around 10:30pm and headed up Mickeldore before striking off up to Gimmer Crag. We got a few showers on the way up but there was a breeze and things seemed to dry off quite quickly. Once at the foot of the lower section of the north west face we decided on North West Arete VS 4b*** to get us up to Ash Tree ledge. The route was excellent with some great varied climbing, starting with face climbing, before a crack and then a stiff move through an overhang before finishing up the wonderfully exposed arete. The top section was a little spicy as it started to rain just as I'd reached the arete. The main pitch is also a long way of fairly sustained climbing being 40-50m which is awesome.

Jonny coming up the final bit of North West Arete.

Once we topped out of North West Arete we'd intended to do 'F' Route on the upper face which is another classic VS but unfortunately it looked quite wet and it was much windier then we expected so we dropped our expectations and instead headed up 'D' Route S+ *** quickly to get us to the top of the crag. The climbing on this was good for the grade and steady all the way up.

Heading down from Harrison Stickle to Stickle Tarn.

We topped out, de-geared and scrambled the rest of the way to the summit of Loft Crag before dropping down, back up over Harrison Stickle and down to Stickle Tarn in improving weather. We skirted round the lake and headed up Jack's Rake 1 the classic scramble to the horizontal ledge at about 2-3rds height where we geared up for the Golden Slipper HVS 4c,5a,4a ***.

Jonny coming up the final moves of the 5a slab on Golden Slipper.

I thought the first pitch was fairly soft for 4c, comparing it to the kind of moves North West Arete had on it at allegedly 4b. The meat of the route though is the second 5a pitch up the exposed steepening slab. Gear is better than it looks for the first half with you managing to find a bomber wire or small cam every 3-4m. Once you reach the top of the small corner on the slap it steepens again and you make quite tenuous traverse before topping out above your gear, you wouldn't deck if you fell but I still found it a little scary being right up their at the top of a reasonably big cliff! The climbing in on very abrasive and featured rhyolite, almost conglomerate like in its appearance which means its very pinchy and crimpy in nature and you have to make good use of your feet.

Myself at the top of Golden Slipper.

The final pitch is easy and we ran the rope out most of the way to the top of the crag before quickly de-gearing and running down to the New Dungeon Ghyll and then along the road back to the car. Excellent day, and it felt really good to get out and get some milage in on rock, climbing with sacks and get to the top of a few mountains.