Lakes 18th-19th of November (Winter Meet)
Having missed the blogs for Peak camping, North Wales, Yorkshire, we jump straight into the lakes!
Saturday
Remy's Perspective
Saturday
After Remy, Mo and Paddy's nocturnal winter scramble from the copper mines hut on the Friday night, psych was high for some winter fun!
...and for Chris that meant bouldering!
Chris's account
On the Saturday, five of us (Chris R, Ao-Hin, Kyle, Jess and
Chris P) headed out to Coniston for a walk and – all too optimistically – a
boulder amidst the snow. We arrived as the Sun peaked over the hills and set
off towards the quarries, or at least we would have done had the other bus
remembered the guidebooks. Having sent them on their way, we headed up the
slushy steps in patchy rain, light on our feet with nothing but boulder pads; a
full first kit; food; water; camera equipment and all the necessary climbing
gear. We took our time ambling up the dirt path, crossing fresh new streams
while the waterfall raged below from last night’s storm.
Last night’s storm turned into today’s as we climbed higher.
We walked through snow, hail, sleet and rain – lots and lots of rain. Following
a very rough guide we managed to find our way into the pass. The snow was heavy
enough to have disguised the boulders as little knolls, too easy to miss. So we
continued upwards, passing faults and falls resting at the occasional derelict
farm hut or comfy-looking log. With the heavy weather not abating, we decided
to head up higher, stopping for lunch in the deep snow. After making sure
Ao-Hin got some good shut-eye, we headed on through the springy heather in
search of anything climbable.
Eventually, we found what looked vaguely like boulders.
Success! They were boulders! Desperate, we plopped the pads down beneath a
dripping – nay flowing – overhang. The top-outs were sodden but the
mid-sections just dry enough to get a good few climbs in, evening testing an
excellent 7C+ roof, Groove Armada (we’ll be back). Sadly, strong will and
disgust are not enough for sending, and we only managed a few 6As between us.
However, in the distance, a glimmer of hope shone from
above; a bright (dry!) face hid under a sharp rock roof. With just a fifty
degree icy scree slope between us and definite 8A sends, we trudged on further.
Skipping up the mountain as the ground slipped out from under us, we struggled
to the top, or at least I did, before telling everyone we should head back down
before we all die.
Peckish, but not disheartened, we stopped on a ledge for a
quick picnic, enjoying the Chinese water torture the cliffs provided. After
another four cycles of rain, sleet, snow, hail, we started back down. When
suddenly, I noticed some more rock in the distance. Had we found the promised
rock? Is there such a thing as a snow mirage? Will this be climbable? Is rap
poetry?
Probably not.
We decided on walking back before our pants breached –
everything else had already. Bouncing down the slope, gravity finally on our
side, we made our way back to the path. With a few minor detours through a bog
and over a waterfall, we made it back to Ao-Hin’s car. If a car could shudder,
it would. I wouldn’t have opened my doors to five sodden students, the poor
metal bastard had no choice.
Adams adventure (Adam, Ali, James, Jenny & Elisa)
Prepare yourself, for this is a tale unlike any other. It is the tale of 5 friends , battling against harsh weather, unending torrents of wind, snow and slow moving old people. We start this epic story by the Old Gylly Dungeon Hotel, just a stone's throw away from the infamous Ravens crag where many a ULMC cock-up has occurred.
Psych level was dangerously low due to the disastrous weather turning the entire valley into a water logger slip and slide topped with a thin layer of slush, still, I managed to gather a hardy group of 5 willing bodies to go a small walk, not yet knowing that it would actually turn into a vast adventure spanning 3 mountains, 2 lunch breaks, multiple blizzards and a dog. We set out with the intention of walking up to Ravens Crag, having a look at the climbs on offer and generally having a mince. The plan quickly changed as we couldn’t be bothered with the steep approach to RC so turned around and decided on Plan B, walk up the big hill on the other side of the valley.
This was going well, until we got up halfway in 15 minutes and realised there would be a high amount of mincing done if we didn’t change plan again, so, on too plan C
*Remy’s Conclusions*
A) Adams Full Novel Plan C will be available by Portland?
B) Plan C was deemed to be so dangerous and secret that it could not be shared with the wider membership of the ULMC…
C) The five adventurers returned to the pub and got pissed
D) Remy didn't follow Adam up on concluding his account but it seemed too good to leave out and everyone really wanted another blog post
Remy's account
I wanted to slowly get back into roped climbing after the previous meets excitement, and given my previous years experience of Ravens Crag (see last years blog..), me and paddy decided we would go scrambling. Being the winter optimist that I am, I had packed my axes and crampons, desperately hoping there there would be some white stuff somewhere in the Lakes. A quick look on UKC had told us that Jake’s Rake had recently received a winter ascent so me and paddy decided to set ourselves on that! With Psych coming out of our ear me and Paddy sprinted off from the car park before the other had so much as stepped out of the van. Within an hour and a half later with our grins spanning roughly from ear to ear we found oursleves at the foot of Jake Rake. It looked amazing. The 450 meter long groove crusted with snow and ice (mainly snow, and a little slush) looked like something from the next TVmountain episode.
The groove itself, provided a fun scramble up the face with a couple of nice moves however the setting was quite spectacular.
As we topped out we new we had to take the traditional summit selfies to prove our ground breaking ascent (well maybe not groundbreaking, but we definitely went up something).
We finished off our day with a little Wainwright ticking before heading over to gimmer crag to meet the others. Upon arriving at gimmer crag we found another snow crusted wall, but not trad climbers. We decided they must have headed down, and as neither of us had a working timepiece we decided we must be late and that we needed to take the fastest route down the slippery muddy gully west of raven's crag. Despite the the gullys best efforts we managed not to slide down its entire length through a series of scary self arrests.
When we finally arrived back at the van we realised we were infact two and a half hours early and that the only sensible solution was to head to the pub and wait for it all to blow over.
Sunday
Tobys Account
After a great day Saturday, building snowmen and walking, we were expecting the worst; for it to be pissing down with rain all of Sunday. This would have meant the inevitable split of those psyched and want to head on a walk and those much less so and want to go and mince around an indoor wall somewhere.
To our greatest disbelief while having breakfast… It hadn’t rained yet… Exited at this revelation Remy quickly changes the plans and we’re all headed out climbing! Although some of us are feeling a bit more adventurous and want taking on a day of scrambling and hiking. In the end myself, Sam, Ben, Remy and Mo get dropped off in Stonethwaite to set off to conquer the 70 meters of Diff climbing with intermittent scrambling and hiking in-between each section. What actually happened was much more than any of us really expected.
As we approached the deviation from trodden paths that led us up the mountain, we anticipated a small amount of snow, which would make the scrambling a tad trickier. To an extent this was the case, with Remy whipping out his 20-meter top rope for a few slippy sections before me and Mo pushed ahead up the broken buttress before hitting intake gully (grade II/diff) where I decided to take on the large slabbed face while the others headed up the more scrambley routes and Remy set me up a top rope. Getting a bit bored of the wait I headed up the easy section to just below the overhang where Remy FINALLY tossed me the top rope (Apparently Sam needed it more than me). The final scramble was a good challenge, probably made a hell of a lot easier without the snow on every single ledge… From the top of intake gully we were greeted with the most amazing sight, the Rosthwaite fell horseshoe covered in a thick layer of snow with two peaks prime for the summiting.
This was the point where our aspirations to hike to the next 70m Diff scrambling section ended and our day as Alpine mountaineers began. Bessyboot was the first peak beckoning, being the only people to have been up there was the best feeling… Until we came across another set of tracks, dashing our dreams of being
the pioneers we all wished we were. Nevertheless we pushed on and made good progress up the steep ascent apart from Ben who managed to fall up some rocks posing for a picture. We sunk our axes deep into the millimetres of ice that had formed over the slabbed face of the summit, not that we could do anything with that but it was fun all the same, instead taking the slippery walk round the side and having lunch atop Bessyboot.
From here the down-climb towards the small tarn was taken at a lighting speed with Remy practically skiing into the thigh high powder, giving us tips on how not to cause an avalanche on the way. Up the other side of the Horseshoe we headed this time towards Highknot taking in the view of the route we’d just taken.
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The day ended with a decent far more treacherous than anything we’d experienced higher up, through heather covered rock-fields on very steep terrain. One cheeky piece of heather catching your foot and that would have been an interesting fall. All was well however as waiting for us at the bottom of the slopes was the Riverside Pub with much needed Ale on tap, concluding the best day that I’ve had with the ULMC this far.
Paddy and Chris's account of Sunday
In the months leading up to this publication I have tried on a number of occasions tried to convince other members of committee to contribute to the post.. Paddy is regrettably unable to partake in this blog post as he has been very busy for the last three months. Here is his and Chris's (R) contribution taken from the pub in an attempt to co-dictate their sections. Each was planning to contribute alternate words to the blog. Here is what we were gifted with!
'I went to the Lake District and it was amazing. We decided to go climbing, ish. The weather was unfortunately nice in the morning. (Chris: It "wasn't though it was shit all day!".... Paddy: "I was talking about a different trip I had to write a blog for!"
Paddy Spent that Sunday leading an eventful session trad climbing at Shepard's Crag, whilst Chris spearheaded an attack on the local pub! (Kyle nay have fucked it after his 'Kinda onsight' and had to walk a group off with two head torches and hour after we were supposed to meet but "we arent talking about that anymore"
If you've made it this far thank you for reading and sorry about all the spelling mistakes I will have missed!
PS. We really will try and 'kinda (onsight)' stay up to date with the blog posts this year
