Great End

Monday myself and Martin set off from Tarleton at 5:30am with high hopes after the weekend's local snowfall. We actually found theres significantly less snow and the further north you get, for example Lancaster only has 1-2inchs compared to the 8 we've got at home. After a pit-stop for gear and crumpets in Lancaster we were back on the M6 and debating where to go. I've got three ice routes on my ticklist for this winter in the Lakes - Black Crag Icefall, Inaccessible Gully and Raven Crag Gully. They're all predominately ice routes meaning they take a reasonable cold spell to form. We immediately crossed off Innacsessable Gully as even though it was -15C outside it hasn't been substantially long enough since the last thaw for this to form. Black Crag Icefall is also fairly low and not completely north facing so we decided this could potentially waste our day if it wasn't in. And finally once we got into Borrowdale and saw the lack of snow on Raven we decided to give that a miss as well, as without good snow in the Gully and good ice cover apparently it can get quite a bit harder. So by default we went to Great End where there is 'always' stuff in.

Icefall finish on Window Gully.

We walked in from Seathwaite, relatively late compared to recent days only leaving the car at 9:30am, by 11am we were at Sprinkling Tarn eying the guidebook. First we set off up Window Gully II/III** and did the Upper Icefall Finish III 3**. We soloed up the first part of the gully which is good solid neve with a few ice steps before doing one long pitch from where the gully narrows up to the bay below the upper finish. The main icefall finish looked not to be in as the bottom half of the pillar was not touching down, it might go though as there are a few different lines around there. The upper icefall is fairly fat but lower down is hollow underneath and the bottom section has been broken off which meant high tool placements and some campusing on our axes to get foot purchase. The rest went with ease and took screws where needed. Rather then follow the snow slope to the top, after the ice fall we climbed leftward slanting mixed groove on the small buttress above tog gain the top to spice things up a little, don't think its in the book, but loads of people must of done it before.

Downclimbing Custs Gully.

We had lunch on the summit in brilliant sunshine with some fantastic views of the Lake District and further before down climbing Custs Gully I* to get back to the bottom of the buttress. This was stepped out allowing us to walk down most of it, there is also no cornice at the top.

Moving together up Central Gully.

Once back at the bottom we roped up with 30m of rope between us and set off up Central Gully Right Branch 200m II** moving together. The 3 main ice-steps added a little interest and the snow in between was stepped out and bomber neve allowing us to move fairly fast, doing the route in 35mins. Again no cornice and it looks like the lefthand variations are also in and seeing traffic. There was a little bit of wind-slab around in places, particularity noticeable in the bay at the bottom of the gully but not really enough to warrant any major hazard in my opinion.

Martin at the summit of Great End, complete with alpenglow and the full moon.

We topped out just at the sun was ducking behind Scafell and de-geared before heading down to Esk Hause in the failing light. Its worth noting that there are quite a few large patches of neve around on the tops which you could very easily take a large slide. Theres was a full moon which was so bright it almost meant we didn't need headtorches as we were casting shadows by the light of the moon - at night! We got back to the car at 6pm - fantastic day.

Thanks to Martin for the photos, I forgot my camera unfortunately.

Tarleton Skiing

I arrived home on the train on Friday (17th) evening just as it was beginning to snow in Preston. Between then, and when I woke up on Saturday morning it didn't really stop, with places getting 6-12inchs.

Skinning on Hesketh Lane.

After getting in late (2am) from the Ormskirk Network Christmas Meal in Southport I decided that considering the conditions it would be foolish to pass up the chance for a quick ski-tour round Tarleton. I managed to ski down Sutton Lane, through Mark's Square - much to the amazement of those that were still in the Lilford. Then all the way up Hesketh Lane to the High School where I skied down to the canal before heading back up to the main road, down Kearsley Avenue and home. Never thought I'd get to do that in Tarleton!

Saturday, Jacob, Andy and myself took the car out to the moss for some more fun with both the skis and sledge. I found skiing the powder on the verges of the road to actually be really good fun - although perhaps a little more akin to waterskiing than actual skiing!



Later that night we took this to another level though when Martin, Bob and Tom joined us complete with Landrover so we could really get some speed up on the Moss. We all found it quite exciting skiing and sledging behind the landrover at speed with somebody hanging out the back with a lantern illuminating where you were going. Anyhow, lets hope this snow sicks around. I'm hoping going to try and get to the Lakes tomarrow for some climbing, so if I do I'll report conditions when I get back.

Tremadog & Ogwen

I was in North Wales this weekend for a friend's birthday, and had orginally intended to try and get some more winter routes done but due to thaw at the end of last week, and the temperatures on Friday evening being positively tropical (8C in Nant Peris at night) we decided to give it a miss. I heard stuff still got done on the Black Ladders, and there was still ice around in Idwal on the Sunday but whether or not any of the lines were complete I am skeptical about. A lot of the snow cover has also diminished as well.

Myself leading pitch 3 of Poor Man's Peutery.

Saturday, with it being overcast and damp in the Pass we headed south to Tremadog for some rock-climbing. We did Poor Man's Peutery S 75m which is one of the classic easier routes on Craig Pant Ifan. In the guidebook its given 4 pitches but I manged to run both 1+2 and 3+4 together without any issues. The route as a whole is generally good but the 3rd pitch is fantastic for the grade, with an excellent, exposed traverse out onto the nose, before following a steep crack line up the wall above for about 20m. Due to our intentions of winter routes both Stu and Stubbs were climbing in there big boots and I was rocking my trainers which made the whole thing a little more interesting!

Scrambling on Carnedd Dayfdd.

Sunday brought a delayed start, but eventually we got round to Ogwen by mid afternoon (2:30pm), we'd intended to go and do Ceniefion Arete which is one of my favourite routes in Wales but decided against it as we all wanted to be home a reasonable hour, and we still had a 2 hour drive ahead if us. Instead we struck straight out of Ogwen Cottage up towards Carnedd Dafydd, picking a line up the different rock buttress to give some quality scrambling in places. We also got some stunning views of Cwm Idwal as the sun set behind. I could just about make out the remnants of the Devil's Appendix, and I'm quite excited to go for a look at it when it's fully formed again.

Cautley Spout

Cautley Spout is allegedly England's highest waterfall according to Wikipedia, and is located in the Howgill Fells. Its a bit of a winter classic, forming after a good period of cold temperatures what is a pretty good ice route. I've been up to it a few times before when walking in the Howgills, most recently two weeks ago - at that point I definitely did not think I was going to be getting on it this early in the season!

With university commitments during the days all this week I was getting a little frustrated, so on Tuesday evening I suggested to Ben that perhaps we should go and get on it one night, which is what we did last night. I was a little skeptical about conditions, so earlier in the week, daringly started a thread on UKC to see if anybody had been up there, hoping it wouldn't spur on loads of overly keen people to go and get on before us and knock all the ice off! The route is in Brian Davison's Lake District Winter Climbs book in the outlying areas section. Its given III and 250m, and has a short approach of probably only 1.5km and a small amount of ascent.

Myself, almost feeling like I was on fat Canadian water-ice.

When we left the car at Cross Keys it was getting on towards 7pm, and was about -4C which boded well, another good sign was that the river that flows parallel to the road had a reasonable layer of ice on it. After about 25 minutes we were at the base of the ghyll. Its obviously been well visited over the last few days as there was a defined track that wove its way up the lower stages to the large enclosed amphitheater below the first proper and crux pitch - there are a few small ice steps before this so geared up, apart from ropes about halfway up.

Ben below the 2nd pitch we roped up for, with quite a cold plunge pool below him.

We'd seen some headtorches on the the walk in and met this pair just as they were backing off the first pitch, having taken a line on skier's left of the ghyll. We decided to go and have a look anyway. We set up an intermediate stance probably 25m off the deck and then I lead off up the crux. At first the ice was good, but the higher I got the more detached and hollow it became, mostly sugary spray ice as appose to water ice that my tools were just pulling through. It wouldn't take screws and a bit of dig for some rock gear below was fruitless so I decided to bail, only about 6m from the top of the 30m pitch, and started the careful downclimb. A few more days of cold weather, or perhaps even first thing int he morning and perhaps this pitch would be ok, I guess it would probably go at around WI3, Scottish tech 4 in good conditions. I got to the belay and lowered Ben to the ground before downclimbing again, we took a look at skier's right as well but that looked as it probably wouldn't go either, and we would of has to get seriously wet.

Ice-climbing by headtorch - awesome!

Undeterred we escaped the ghyll up a small turf/scree gully on skiers left just below the amphitheater and walked up and traverse in to just above the crux pitch that had just thwarted us. Here we soloed for a while up small ice steps following the ghyll before roping up where it steepens again for 4 pitches, the best certainly being the penultimate full 50m pitch of good ice, probably going at WI3-, so nowhere near hard but fantastic for UK Ice. All night we had fantastic weather, perfectly clear skies with bright stars, perhaps the only thing that could of made it better would of a full moon. Climbing winter routes at night is cool, go do it.

Lake District Ice - Blea Water

Sunday entailed another 'Griffiths-early-start' with me and Martin leaving Tarleton around 5:30am. The drive up was fairly slow as anything other than the motorway was covered in ice. We came off at Shap, noticing on the way that the Teabay road cutting icefalls seems to be coming into condition quickly, I don't know if they are quite climbable yet though so don't take my word. From Shap we followed some icier roads, eventually arriving at the head of Haweswater just as it was getting properly light.

I've never climbed on Blea Water Crag before, I was initially attracted to it in the guidebook by the short walk in and the promise of some of the fastest forming water ice in the Lakes, which considering its been cold for a while I reckoned on being quite fat by now. The walk in went quickly and we were soon at Blea Water where we chose the Lakeland classic of Blea Water Gill Direct III 4. This route starts at the base of the face, only about 15m above the water level and follows a steep gill, first through a series of narrow chimneys filled with ice before it opens up allowing several variations on what was superb water-ice. We did 5 reasonably full pitches before soloing the last section where it eases.If you take the easiest line and avoid the difficulties it probably deserves and straight III 3 however if you take them direct its at least tech 4. The route is easily escapable at most point, which also allows to come back down and do variations you missed.



After topping out onto High Street we dropped down the ridge heading back to Haweswater for a few hundred meters before coming off partway down to the south to check out some steeper looking ice lines that we'd seen from the Gill earlier. I lead a nice route of about 20-25m which started with vertical ice for about 6-8m before the angle eased a little as you go over a few bulges. I'd say it felt about WI3, which roughly equates to IV 4, although it was single pitch Ice cragging so probably just the tech 4 is more applicable.

So, conditions are great at the moment, and if its ice your after certainly go and take a look at Blea Water Crag in the next few days.

Multi-pitch Climbing Seminar

Saturday I was at West View Leisure Center with LUMC running a follow-up workshop to a skills seminary we had last week, specifically on multi-pitch climbing. We started with basic skills in the morning such as prussics, tying off a plate, abseiling among others before pulling all these together in the afternoon by looking at basic rescues, hoisting, escaping the system etc. I think it went well and everybody seemed to learn something which is good. We just need to wait for the spring now so we can get people outside to put some of the things they learnt into practice.

On a side note, it's probably getting on for 18-24 months since I've been to West View (its over a year since I've climbed indoor!) and it seems to of changed a lot, theres an excellent new tiered lead wall in the middle, and they've revamped the bouldering area. The other thing to note is, West View used to be my local wall and I used to find the grades fairly stiff, especially on the main lead wall which was (and still is) very polished. After we'd finished running the course I lead a few easy lines (5+ & 6a) in my trainers and found them very amenable, I don't remember 6a holds being jugs all the way anyway, or maybe I've just got better. So If you've not been for a while go and take a look.

Winter Climbing Clothing

With the winter season coming early this year I've already been out on a few routes, and I've been trying out the first of a few new clothing system ideas I've got for this winter, mostly made up of bits of kit I picked up while living across the pond last year. I'm a big fan of softshell clothing, I think its ace, infact in winter I hardly ever wear waterproofs - I find them constrictive and not breathable enough. The British climate however often doesn't lend itself well the whole softshell concept though, often being fairly warm, and as a consequence wet. Recent conditions have been almost alpine or continental like though, with low temperatures producing fairly dry snow.

For my baselayer I've been wearing a long sleeve 240 weight Icebreaker on my top and powerstretch tights on my legs. My midlayer is a Patagonia R1 Hoody which works really well on the walk in having sleeves that roll up and a big deep zip for venting. When I get to the base of the route I pull the sleeves down and stick the thumb loops on beneath my gloves to keep spindrift out, and I put up the hood under my helmet which acts almost like a balaclava. On my legs is a pair of Mountain Equipments G2 Ultimate Mountain Pants. They are made of Gore's Windstopper material which I have a bit of love/hate relationship with (See my blog on Summer Alpine Clothing) as while I like the fact that its weather resistance and waterproofness means I can forgo carrying waterproof pants, their breathability is really poor. The big thigh vents are open from leaving the car which alleviates some of this issue but their still not perfect. They also have internal gaiters which do a fairly good job of keeping the snow out of your boots, especially if you add a little piece of elastic that goes under your boot. My climbing jacket which goes on over the top is a Arcteryx Gamma MX Hoody, a softshell hooded jacket that I picked up a few months ago after wanting one for a long time, and it is perhaps one of the best jackets I've ever used - I'll review it fully after I've given it a bit more abuse. Two of the best things about it though is firstly is that its got a fully technical helmet compatible hood, and secondly the cut and stretch of the jacket is superb allowing complete freedom of movement.

Gamma MX Hoody & R1 Hoody winter climbing in the Lake District.

In the sack I carry a really lightweight waterproof shell, a Patagonia Specter Jacket. I carry this purely as a emergency jacket, if I can help it I won't be wearing it when I'm climbing at all as I would probably shed the really lightweight fabric, but for walking off in a storm it will do fine. If the forecast is particularity bad I'll take my Haglofs Spitz, which is still fairly light but much more burly. Always in the top of my bag is my belay jacket, which is really the workhorse of the system, coming in and out of the pack all the time, at belays, when gearing up and down etc. As its been fairly cold I've been taking my Rab Neutrino Endurance Jacket which has worked well, although it has all the well known disadvantages of being down, and of course the advantages. I have been thinking a heavyweight synthetic jacket may be a good investment to replace it though, with the Patagonia Das Parka and the Arcteryx Dually Belay Parka looking like very good contenders.

And thats it. I think its a fairly lightweight system, based around the softshell and belay jacket concept and so far its done well. I'm skeptical about how well it will do in more British (warmer and wetter) but we'll see.

Falcon Crag

Tuesday, myself, Joe and Lewis headed up to Falcon Crag at the head of Grisedale. We walked in from Patterdale, having driven up to Penrith and down the Ullswater road rather than risk the Kirkstone Pass. This was probably a good move as the pass was closed when we got down later that evening. The walk in was fairly long, although no arduous and even quite pleasant - I do think however that it is quicker to come up from Dunmail Raise on the other side but it is a steeper ascent.



We had planned to do Dollywagon Gully which Joe had done before, but I hadn't. We traversed in fairly high though and ended up in what we think may of been Dollywagon Chimney with the Right hand Finish IV but it could of quite easily been a different line, or Dollywagon Gully itself but Joe said he didn't recognize it. Anyhow, it looked good, and like it would go so we went for it. Conditions were good (one of the belays was a pure ice screw belay) and the turf is still fully frozen. The only thing that is letting it down slightly is that a few more inches of consolidated snow is needed on some of the lines. Most rock, on most aspects is hoared up as well. We topped out in deteriating weather, and headed down to the tarn and out the way we came, it was starting to snow heavily as we got to the car which bodes well from conditions later in the week. Beers and Imran's naturally followed.

Helvellyn - V-Corner Variation

Sunday (28th) myself and Tom got up at a un-earthly hour and headed north in search of some early season winter climbing. After a little sliding on Kirkstone Pass, and some snow chain related remediation we pulled into Glenridding before heading up the road to the youth hostel being the first people there. The walk in was a little tedious, with the ground being completely frozen from the start, but eventually we got to red tarn, finding several people encamped trying to get a early start.


We chose V-Corner III, and ended up doing a slightly harder variation of it, up a ice runnel and then mixed corner before the v-corner itself, to the right of the actual line of v-corner. Conditions were fantastic, with the turf being completely frozen for the most part, the rock was rimed up and there was quite a bit of water ice around. The snow that has been left over from the dump a few weeks ago is now bomber neve in the gullys however some of the mixed line could still do with a few more inches. We topped out in wall to wall blue skys and almost alpine conditions, had some lunch and then descended striding edge, excellent day.