A French Guy in the Lake District...

This is an old weekend to write up, but I couldn't leave it out. When I went over to France to do some climbing in Chamonix we stayed for a few days with Claire's sister just outside Geneva. Her husband (Fabrice) used to climb alot back in the day, although now he spends his time doing via ferrata alot as he's got no-one to climb with.

He took me and Claire sport climbing for the day while we were over in France. It was great fun. I said if he came over to Britain in the summer then I'd take him out trad climbing in the Lakes. Bear in mind that when I explained placing your own protection he muttered "kamakazi British trad climbers!". So heres how it went...

Seeing as we were based south of Coniston in a great little farm house (one of the benefits of crashing with Claire's folks while they were here on holiday) we decided on a roadside crag for out fist day. Me, Claire and Fabrice headed for Raven Crag behind the Old Dungen Ghyll.

The weather looked good, well good for the Lake District. We headed straight from Holly Tree Direct (HVS 4c). Seeing as I was leading I wanted to be on a climb I'd done before and thankfully this time it was dry. The first pitch went well and I brought them both up using my reverso as a guide plate. This is something I've only really done a few times but was quite confident doing. We moved quickly up the next pitch especially as I was block leading so there was no constant change of ropes. I quickly dispatched the crux of the route which I'd had loads of trouble on the first time. At the next belay Fabrice secured himself in a tree leaving Claire to belay me to the finish. I honestly couldn't believe how quickly we'd moved by block leading and using a guide plate allowing them to climb together.

Anyway as I was happy we'd climbed so quick I was swifley brought back down to earth as I missed the descent path. Seeing as someone else had obviously made the same mistake and left a big piece of abseil tat behind (seriously like 8mm rope cut off the end of a 60m rope), I tested it, backed it up, promised Fabrice that I wasn't really a crazy british climber and abseiled off. We all arrived at the floor safely and ran round to our next route (dispite accidentally kicking off an sheep skeleton).

Seeing as Fabrice had asked for "Traditional British Climbing" I'd had decided on Bilberry Buttress (VS 4c) as our second climb. The first pitch takes a blank but easy slab then a beautifel crack (beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder). It takes fist jams and makes me smile. I went up it happily jamming away and then brought Fabrice up. He looked as me like a crazy man when he pulled himself onto the ledge. He thought jamming was a odd concept, and had laybacked as much as he could. Claire having had to suffer my crack addiction before came up the easier groove to the left.

by now the weather had gone from good to worse. I'd been watching the weather building and the clouds coming in but now the rain had just started. Thankfully we were sheilded from the worst of the weather by the rest of Raven crag, but I had decided to get a shufty on. We did the second pitch quickly again, which had a right difficuly section just above the belay. Its also full of stuck wires (I counted 3) but I refused to clip them. The rain had really started as we set out on the final pitch. Its a bit of an esoteric adevnture as there is lots vegetation on route and a little bit of loose rock. But its a mountain route, what do you expect! I belayed in the rain and praying they climb quicker as they came up. This time I hit the descent right on and we got back to the bags, as the weather stopped.

Now Claire wanted to explore some more, and after consulting the guide book she lead off towards Raven Crag East, a single pitch crag with a host of S's, VS's and HVS's. The rock was still a little damp, but our rats clearly still needed feeding so I went up Rowan Tree Groove (HVS 4c). It was a pretty good route by all accounts, and the gear for the crux was a few bomber micro wires (wouldn't want to run it out) but it was only a short move till the next good piece.

Sadly by now the rain had moved back in and we were getting cold. Also a crag with a pub at the base is never a good idea, so we packed up and went for a pint. Fabrice said he had enjoyed Trad climbing and I asked him if he wanted to try something harder and more exposed. He said he would. So on the next day we went to... Dow crag.

I've only completed a route on Dow once, after 3 attempts. The first ended in an abseil off, when we'd pushed on and were hopelessly lost on B buttress in 50mph winds, fog and rain (we were young and inexperienced). The second we also aseiled off in again very high wind, but this time it was probably for the sake of the rest of the party. My third attempt we did Isengard (HVS 5b) and then joined up with Eliminate A (VS 4c) in bright sunshine hauling our rucksack on the hard pitches. All in all this day had been great.

So we rocked up at the Walna Scar Road grabbed the kit and started on the walk in. On the walk in I noted the weather and how it seemed to be building. I figured that we'd be ok anyway and we headed for A buttress. The rock itself was damp and greasy as I found out when I tried to do Eliminate A. VS 4c in slippery greasy wet isn't good and I swiftly backed off on my trusty skyhook. When I'd arrived back at Fabrice and flicked off said trusty skyhook, I took a moment to explain its use. I don't think I made to case for "crazy english climbers" any better to be honest (retreating of little bent bits of metal). As wind had picked up, Arete, chimeny and Crack (HS 4a) had had a more time to dry off so we had a rest, re-racked and I headed off there.

I ended up running the first 2 pitches together as the second only covers easy ground (although somewhat loose). The first pitch runs up a fantastic arete (as suggested by the name!), but the compact rock doesn't allow for much gear. It did save alot of time running both pitches together in the end. The next pitch took the chimney. I'd wanted to avoid this as much as possible, thinking it would be hell in damp conditions. When I got to the crux it just turned out to be climbing over a giant chockstone involving alot of thrutching and salmoning that left us both smeared in green.

The next pitch took "Gordan and Craig's Traverse". I don't know how this traverse has got this name, but I'd love to know the full story behind it. This traverse pitch is a great one and I explained about placing loads of gear to protect my second and that the climbing wasn't actually that hard. I belayed where I'd belayed before, remembering the first time I'd met a friend out on the hill here at this very spot. Finally I nipped up the exit crack/groove, which proved to be harder than I'd anticipated. I'd used up every runner on my rack by the time I topped out. When I'd brought up Fabrice the cloud descended so we moved together until I was sure we where topped out on the summit.

To end the day we took a walk south down the ridge and back to the Walna Scar road, seeing as we'd carried up our bags it made the obvious option. I asked Fabrice what he thought about climbing in British mountains. He said sometimes the climbing isn't hard, but what your doing is. Your in a situation and its an adventure because you have to look after yourself (ok well I wrote it in better english but). He said he'd enjoyed "traditional" climbing in Britian, although I still think he thinks I'm mad.

On our final day we went to Hodge Close Quarry and went sport climbing on some slate. I nearly ended up in the drink climbing out above the pool. Fabrice lead a super strenuous 5+ which knackered us all out. It was a good day.