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!
No comments:
Post a Comment