LANGDALE FROM HERON PIKE

A quick walk up Heron Pike on Sunday evening gave me some delightful views across to the Langdales.

RIGGINDALE EAGLES

Went to see the Riggindale Eagle(s) on Sunday but no sign of them. Did see some Goldeneye and Barnacle geese on the lake though. Beautiful day, but with a very cold NW wind.

ADVANCED PARKING SKILLS - TESCO

Though it's not particularly a mountain activity, I could not help but be impressed by the parking skills exhibited by this driver in Tesco. Like me, the driver was clearly frustrated and angry at the increasing levels of 'you can't do this here, can't do that there' and decided to park as close as possible to the No Parking sign. A pretty good effort I thought!

NAVIGATION SKILLS COURSE

Here's a shot from last weekend's Navigation Skills course - bright and dry weather but a cool wind. We tried our best to get lost on the fells above Haweswater, but failed - no thanks to the inaccuracies of the map in some places! The photo shows the group by two ancient standing stones above Haweswater. 

The next Navigation Skills weekend is on the 18/19th April - spaces available.

Late Season Winter Climbing

The blog seems to have gone a bit quiet over the last couple of weeks!  As John appears to be missing in action I'll give you a quick update of what I've been up to over the last week or so.  

I got back from the wild and windy west coast of Scotland last night where I was running an introduction to snow and ice climbing course.  After the sunshine and warmth of the previous week in the Lakes it was a bit of a shock to be plunged back into full on winter conditions.  On Monday we climbed Dorsal Arete in Glen Coe after a winter skills refresher, a great short climb to start on.  The following day we headed up Ben Nevis to try Green Gully but were beaten back by the vast quantities of snow being swept down it, a quick retreat was made and we climbed Ledge Route instead.  A wild day out that ended with a thorough soaking on the way down!  A shorter day out was needed on Wednesday so we made a very alpine ascent of Curved Ridge with a mixture of snow and dry rock to climb along the way.  A navigation refresher took us back down to the car in good time.  Something a little harder and more serious was needed by now so Thursday saw us battling our way back into an apocalyptic Coire na Ciste on the Ben in pretty 'challenging' weather.  Visibility was virtually zero as we made our way carefully towards the base of Number 3 Gully Buttress although happily the avalanche danger was limited and we excavated a belay.  We had a brief meeting to discuss whether we were going up or down in what were now extremely character building conditions....... everyone was keen, or at least I assumed so given what little I could see of their faces behind goggles and balaclavas!  Reasonable ice took us up the first part of the route before some stella Nevis neve helped us make it to the top in good time.  A brilliant and very exposed climb for the grade that should be on everyone's tick list.  Incidentally the much steeper nearby route Two Step corner looked in great condition for interested parties... a great grade V with good rock belays.  We descended Number 4 Gully  after I had 'dismantled' the cornice on an abseil rope and had a careful look at the stability of the slope beneath.  All was well so we headed rapidly back toward the CIC hut.  Tired legs and horrible weather yesterday meant a day learning some technique on the Ice Factor's excellent indoor ice wall and doing some tricky dry tooling near Onich.  It can be easier to learn the finer points of steep ice climbing when you're not being blown sideways!

All in all a great week and I suspect there will be conditions on the Ben for a few weeks to come unless there is a very substantial thaw.  That concludes the winter for me so get in touch now for Spring adventures and lets hope for a dry summer.  Tea and rest for me today and then more climbing tomorrow but this time on the bike.... the Fred Whitton awaits!  

Rich

Mountaineering in the Lakes

Peter, Keith and Paul headed up to the Lakes for the first time [what have they been doing?!] this weekend.  Given the 'mixed' conditions and changeable weather we set off up the hill on Saturday with a few different plans depending on what we came across.  Although there wasn't that much snow left on Helvellyn we did find an ideal spot to revise the use of an ice axe and then look at various types of snow anchors.... even managing to build a bollard in the soft snow that easily held all four of us!  After that we made our way up Striding Edge and down Swirral, our axes proving essential in descent.  

It was still raining when we reached the Old Dungeon Ghyll car park on Sunday but everybody was looking keen so we set off for Raven Crag anyway!  We climbed Middlefell  Buttress 'Integrale' in our big boots with parts of it getting quite dry by the top as bursts of sunshine rewarded our optimism.  From the hillside above we continued across to Pavey Ark and finished the day with a pretty damp ascent of Jack's Rake.  All in all a good weekend even if I did forget my camera so no photos I'm afraid!