Trowbarrow

With the advent of what seemed to be a early summer last week, Wednesday afternoon myself, Rebecca, Jonny and Jade headed up to Trowbarrow for what was for me, the first proper day in rock boots of the year.

Climbing on Frontage.

We geared up below Assagai wall and to warm up I did a quick solo of Frontage HS 4b, rock climbing head back on. Rebecca has just started leading so she lead Frontage up to the halfway ledge and then up the second, and more interesting part of Jomo VD *** to the top of the crag. While we did this Jonny and Jade climbed the true line of Jomo in it's entirety. Next up we did Coral Sea VS 4c** which Rebecca also led, which is very impressive for a 3rd lead!

Rebecca leading Jomo VD**.

For the last route of the day it was my turn on the sharp end so we did Assagai HVS 5a** which was excellent as ever. We all topped out just as the sun was setting, before packing gear and heading off. Imran's in Lancaster naturally followed.

Sunset from the top of Assagai.

For those that haven't been Trowbarrow is a excellent venue just south of the Lake District Natinal park on the Silverdale Arnside peninsula. Its easily accessible by public transport being a 10 minute walk from the Silverdale rail station, and is a good option for when the weather is bad in the lakes or just for an evening cragging.

Photos courtesy of Rebecca.

Cairngorms: Ski Mountaineering & Winter Climbing

Saturday morning, after a relaxed drive up on the Friday afternoon I skinned into Coire an t'Sneachda along with Hannah, Joe, Jonny and Tom who were on foot. We split into two team with Hannah, Jonny and Tom heading to Fiaciall Couloir. Joe wanted to climb so steep ice so we went up to look at Mirror Direct IV 4 and I gave him some tips on tool and screw placements as well as foot work and then he did a superb job of leading the route which was his first proper ice route. At the moment its fairly banked out but still giving a good 6-8m just off vertical section. I followed and then we abseiled from the in-situ belay at the top.

Back at the rescue box we had a bite to eat and I stuck the skis back on and we headed over to Fiaciall Buttress, I managed to skin almost to the bottom only having to put my skis on my back for the final section, much to the pleasure of Joe who was wading through the snow behind me. We looked at Invernookie but decided the wind was a bit high but went for Fiaciall Couloir II/III. We roped together with about 30m of rope between us with myself leading and Joe following and climbed the route in about 20 minutes which was awesome. After topping out we headed round to 1141m where I left the other to walk down to the daylodge while I skied the Cas headwall and then blagged a few laps of the Corrie Cas T-bar.

Sunday we headed into the Corrie again and with the high winds and avalanche hazard decided to go for the sheltered option of Patey's Route IV 5. The first challenge of the day was constructing a harness for Hannah as she had failed to pack her's in the chaos of the morning. Joe led the pitch up to below the first bulge where I took over climbing this and then the crux pitch. The route was fairly thin in places, but still good, if a little tricky. Once at the top of the difficulties we soloed up Alladin's Mirror to the top.

Joe and Hannah filmed quite a bit of footage over the weekend and they've put it together in the video below:

Pinnacle Ridge, St. Sunday Crag

Saturday's forecast was relatively poor, and certainly not weather for rock climbing so myself, Rebecca, Joe, Lewis and Stubbs headed up to Patterdale to do the classic Pinnacle Ridge on St. Sunday crag.

Following the Elmhow Zig Zags uphill on the approach.

The approach follows the road, and then track from Patterdale up the Grisedale valley on the south side of Grisedale Beck until you reach the western edge of the Elmhow Plantation. Here you head uphill (South) following a vague set of zig zigs until you reach ~500m. You then contour round to the SW, across Blind Cove and under the NW west face of St Sunday crag for about 1km until you reach the foot of Pinnacle Ridge which marked by a old tree on the far side of a scree slope, with the 'gun' on the ridge being visible above.

Joe and Stubbs, on the 'gun' at about half height on the ridge.

The ridge can be gained most easily from the left hand side, but the right gives more interest and a more sustained scramble. The first section is relatively easy, and most difficulties can be passed on the left. At about half height you reach what I've been referring to as the 'gun' feature - a peculiar fallen block which from below resembles a sidearm. From here easier ground leads to the base of the crux corner crack.

Joe climbing the crux corner crack.

The corner is harder than the rest of the ridge, with some book speculating that its Mod-Diff which I suppose is fair. Its pretty straight forward though, with all the holds and footholds being there. If this is busy, and theres a queue of people at the bottom it can bypassed by the crack about 5m to the left which is a little harder. From the top of this the pinnacles themselves are gained which give some airy exposed scrambling before the final down-climb.

Lewis, Stubbs, Myself and Joe walking off the summit of St Sunday Crag.

From the summit we made a quick retreat back down the valley, which was followed by Bilbo's Cafe and gear shopping in Ambleside, and naturally, Imran's in Lancaster.

All photos courtesy of Rebecca.

Church Beck

This weekend was Ormskirk Scout Network's annual activity weekend in the Lake District. Two years ago when I was last around for the event I took a large group of people for a scramble up Link Cove Ghyll in Deepdale followed by the Greenhow End Slabs before topping out on Fairfield. It was a superb day, and despite everybody getting pretty wet they all enjoyed it. Keeping to the theme of gyhlls, this year I decided to brave the cold March water and go a for a look at Church Beck above Coniston with Josh, Tom and Rob.

With the recent high pressure and dry weather the water level was fairly low, but still deep enough for us to be able to safely complete all the jumps. It meant we stayed fairly dry, at least on our upper halves throughout the approach section. As is commonplace for most groups using the ghyll (although we had it to ourselves today) we hopped out midway, just below the 'slide stone' and walked up the bridge before getting back in and descending the upper section doing the jumps. We ended up doing this twice before the signs of hypothermia started to set in, at which point we walked back down to Coniston, passing several inquisitive wooly hat and glove wearing walkers, got changed and had a few rounds of hot chocolate in the Sun pub. I've put together a small video of the day below: