Lakeland rock with the Wrekin MC

A relaxing weekend in the Lake District. It was supposed to be at the Toc-H hut, but through some very dodgy dealing apparently its been sold, and the club had to fight to get any money back! Instead we were based at the national trust campsite, somewhere I've never stayed before. At £7.50 a night I expected it to be quite good. My expectations were fulfilled with excellent toliets, washing/showering facilities and great pitches. It was also only 5 minutes from the pub (clearly a major selling point). Sadly I only made it up for the saturday morning and missed what sounded like a good night down the pub on the friday.

A day on Pavey...I'd planned to climb with Sally on Pavey Ark on the Saturday. This had all been arranged over a few text messages and a good weather report. I arrived at 0845 and found some of the club seemed a little worse for wear from the for mentioned Friday night. There were groups heading out walking for the day another heading out for a 7 pitch VD on Bowfell Buttress. Me and Sally stuck with our plan and packed up the car shamelessly driving 5 minutes down the road to the New Dungeon Ghyll car park to start our day. I really need to start walking more as my climbing generated carbon footprint must be massive. We set off up the motorway of a path up to Pavey Ark.

Its a stiff little climb, but I think I'm a little out of shape (too many kit-kats at work). Still I think me and Sal managed it in under the hour. Annoyingly neither of us had a bothered to look at what time we sert off we'd left so don't accurately know how long it took. I've never been to Pavey before, always writing it off due to the walk in, which is odd because it really isn't that bad. I'd chosen to do 2 climbs, one below the Jack's Rake and the second above it. Instead of carrying all our stuff to the base of the climb, we cached it at the end of the rake as this was our descent route.

The nicely named Crescent Slabs (S) was our first climb. I have not climbing with Sally in ages or on Pavey either so I thought this would get us used to each other climbing and get me used to the rock. I was block leading the whole day, with Sally happy to second so we'd brought my rack. I'd ditched the 1,2 & 3 cam in favour of a 1.5, 2.5 & 3.5. In retrospect this was a bad decision. I would have been better just taking either all of them or a 1 to 2.5 (including the half sizes). You live and learn I guess. This would be a good time to mention Sal's only piece of gear she'd brought with her. Its an CCH Alien she'd had for about 8 years. Its just smaller than a size 1.5 but she made me carry it and said I had to place it on route. This little cam turned out the be a crucial runner on several of the pitches that day, good little alien.

Crescent slabs wasn't really hard climbing, but there's not much to say about it. Pitches 1 & 3 had good climbing on them, but 2 & 4 were either jungle bashing or just plain scrambling. Still it was an enjoyable route and a good introduction to Pavey. On the rake we wondered round for a while trying to find the start of the next route (Golden Slipper HVS 5a), hampered by the less than ideal topo and description. Obviously we found it and I started off up a ramp which soon ended up with me on an overhanging crack line doing some sort of bridging with my feet and laybacking with my hands. I stuffed in a cam and moved up, slung a spike and topped out on the next ledge. I wasn't expecting something so big to be honest. A good 1.5 cam and a tree provided a more than adequate belay. I yelled Sal up and she climbed it well considering she doesn't have much arm strenght.

Now this next pitch was to be our crux for the day. At 5a it shouldn't have been a problem (and it wasn't) but the guide book said "protection is available for the deligent". Now I must not be the only person who reads that as "no gear" or "rediculiously hard to place gear"? I set off with all this in mind and started putting in runners as soon as I could, expecting to run out further up. The route took a sweeping buttress with slab start but a steeper wall to finish. In the middle was a slight corner to follow before breaking out across the wall. Like I said I'd been taking advantage of gear where I found it, but I'd only taken 8 runners with me in a effort to save weight. I started running it out a little as the rock was so good you could almost get a handhold anywhere and as for footholds, I think it had more friction that grit!. After running it out a little, I spotted a great crack for a piece of gear and guess what fitted? Sal's little alien sat perfectly in it. The climbing was still about hard 4c on little edges at this point, so happy with my cam placement I carried on up, finding more little slots here and there. By deligent I can only assume that that placements where just not obvious and took some thinking, whilst hanging to "2 finger wide" ledges. The 5a section came as you crossed the wall, and all I could place was a really bad little wired hex. Not to worry as a better piece soon presented itself and I topped out on to a easy slab to the belay. I belayed so I could see Sal climb this and keep and eye on her. She had no problems at all (less than the 4c first pitch). We agreed that it was simply such a good pitch of great climbing, no doubt I'll be going back to do that again.

We'd left our belay jackets or fleeces at the base of the route as it was so warm, but the sun had been behind a cloud for a while and a bitter breeze filled the air. We quickly set off up the last 4a pitch, just a glorified scramble than anything else and we ended up just scrambling off roped together. After a quick chewey bar we headed to the top of Jack's rake. I've never done this scramble before, but its not hard even in descent. I had to wait at couple of points when people coming up barred the way but all in all we made it down pretty quickly. We gathered all our gear from around the base of the crag and got to the bags to decided what we'd do next. As it happened all the other VS climbs where occupied with people climbing slowly or waiting. The sun had also dissappeared behind Harrison Sickle at this point and it was getting cold, so we went for a wander to walk out. This took us away from the crowds and out into the quiet where we could discuss at lenght important ethical issues, namely bolts and bolted abseil stations on Gogarth.

Our wander brought us finally back to the path and to the New Dungeon Ghyll pub where it would have been rude to not stop for a pint. I can't remember what mine was called but it was a hearty dark ale, with lots of body, strong in taste. Just right to finish the day on. We headed back to the campsite to cook up some food, then headed to the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub for an evening beer and the costumary game of Domino's. Domino's is a serious thing within the Wrekin and something I've been forced to learn. Oddly the Domino's quickly becomes more important than the climbing. I was so tired I kept making little mistakes and not adding up properly. We planned for Raven Crag in Walthwaite on Sunday.

I slept in my tent without putting the inner up, just bunged my thermarest on the ground and snuggled into my 2 sleeping bags (I'm still testing this double bagging sleeping bag idea). With no inner I had more room than usual so I settled in with some hot chocolate and a good book till I fell asleep.

Bacon sandwiches for breakfast, cooked in sesame seed oil (from stir fry the night before) so it had abit of a twist. The weather had come in overnight so I woke up to a warmer but damper morning. It seemed like the bad weather that was suposed to come in for the afternoon was a little premature. Me and Sal risked it anyway and we to Raven Crag above Walthwaite, but were rained off after the first pitch. Instead we walked back to the crag and went to Chesters coffee shop to relax the afternoon way drinking tea, eating soup and scones.

Its a hard life being a mountaineer.