Day in the lakes video

Another winter route...

Get in! Another winter route! but in the Lakes this time! I was supposed to be meeting Andy on the sunday and as Tim was suddenly free I invited him along. Tim owns a pair of crampons and some B2 (ish) boots but no axes. Well no axes no problem as we borrowed a pair of a friend and set off for a long day in the lakes from B'ham.

0540, wake up, roll out of bed and wake up Tim. Twenty minutes later he's defrosting the ice off the inside of my windscreen while I'm scraping it off the outside of the car thinking that if it's cold enough down here in Brum for an ice covered car, how cold will it be in the lakes! About 40 minutes later we arrived at Tims to pack some of his kit, and for me to re-adjust my headlight bulb which had fallen out of the holder. Finally we set off on the long haul to Glenridding to meet Andy. 

The journey was relatively uneventful, even Kirkstone Pass had no ice on it (thankfully) and we made our rendevous for 10am at the car park. Here we hashed out a load of different idea's about what to do for the day. We didn't really know what the conditions were going to be like for climbing. From what we'd see there wasn't as much snow as expected. I knew for a report I'd found from the epiccentre that we'd have to go as high as we could to find anything worth climbing on. Also I was worried about Tim's boots for hard ice. In the end we figured that we'd pack a light rack and a single rope and head for striding edge as an objective, but take a single axe each and crampons in case we found a gully that was in. It seems like a "cover all bases" sort of plan.

Armed with a plan and loads of enthuiasm off we set. I'd completly forgotten how long that walk in to striding edge is (not the only thing I'd forgotten). I was knackered and sweating like nobodies buisness with thoughts running round in my head laong the lines of "your not fit enough for scotland" " you need to get out and do more exercise" etc. Added to this I had my thermal trousers on thinking it was going to be really cold... they were soon removed. I found my pace soon enough. 

As we walked in we gleaned conditions reports from more eager peaple (and whose who clearly hadn't had a three hour drive) who were on thier way down. Apparently things on Red Tarn Cove were not looking that bad. We soon rounded a corner and had the whole of the Helvelyn area in view (Striding edge, Red Tarn Cove and Swirral Edge) and could see what was in. We identified a long snowed up gully that ran from base to summit with what looked like a little area of difficulity around 3/4 height. This the guidebook told us was the inspiringly named Gully 2 a grade I gully. Finally we had an aim for the day. 

The walk into the cove was simply beautiful. It wasn't too cold and it's nice and flat, something that you can really enjoy. Mostly you can't see a town or road at all and the silence is very calming. We we stopped for a spot to eat at the nearside of the tarn I realised that I'd forgotten my harness. It was one of those moments when you can completly visualise all the events that lead up to me leaving my harness in my other bag, in the boot of the car. Well we just added it to the list of forgotten kit for the day (2 belay devices and a helmet as well). It was just as well that we were doing a grade 1 gully because hopefully we'd need no extra kit. 

We walked to a little snowfeild at the base of the route to crampon up and practise some basic technique like different ways of walking up slope and some ice axes arrests. Then we had at the route making swift progress up the neve and taking adventage of the steps left by parties before us. As we moved up we had to dodge some large lumps of ice from a couple of guys climbing on a ice route next to us. Then we avoided a couple descending our route. We made good progress up the route stopping off at little steps of ice to show Tim some more or different techniques until we got to the ice step. 

Here I nipped up it first, and Andy second. I then gave Tim my axe and posistioned myself to shoot some film and pictures while Tim delt with the difficulities. He managed them just fine and soon we were flying up the final slope to top out. Again I went a little off route to shoot a few more nice photos. We summited and enjoyed the orange glow of the afternoon sun as it broke through the clouds. It was one of those truly beautifel moments when the world was bathed in an orange light. After congratulations and a quick brew we set off towards our descent... Striding edge! It seemed like the most obvious option to make a real long day out of it.  

We went for it and it was awesome. The hardest part was actaully descending off the Helveyln plateau because of the small amount of hard snow present. The edge was a clear of snow and ice so was pretty easy. I was horrified at all the crampons scratches we could see on the rocks as we made our way across. I can't believe that someone would feel the need to wear crampons across an edge not covered in snow. Striding edge petered out and we rejoined the path we'd walked in on to take us back to the cars, with a pit stop in the pub on the way. 

I learnt loads on this day out. From simple things like double checking that my bag is packed up properly so I don't forget my harness to how much climbing is possible in crampons and just a simple walking axe.

Snow, People and Red lights...

So we've had about a 9 inches of snow here in Birmingham and you can guess whats happened... mad panic! Maybe Britian sufferers from some sort of super snow as apposed to the rest of world? or maybe it's because we're British and we like to make a fuss of everything. I'm currently sitting in my room, with a nice big mug of coffee, checking every weather report I can and trying to decided whether to go wales tonight or tomorrow for some climbing. A little bit of snow isn't going to put me off, infact it's precisely the reason I'm going. 

However I just thought I'd enlighten any readers to the plight of the poor poor people of Birmingham and the west midlands and add some words of advice. The snow isn't actually that bad here. Yes, I'm sure there are roads that are impassable but all the mainroads seem to be fine, as long as you take it easy. I've seen so many people just avoiding redlights ar junctions in the snow, or plain not stopping for things. The other thing is people are not helping other people. I don't know when this culture of "ladders up jack, I'm alright" came about, or whether its a commen thing in winter but seriously! why not just help that guy push his car out of that snow. It's amazing how easy it can be to move a stuck car with a few people. 

When I'm out in the mountains it seems there is a never ending supply of people willing to push someone out, or jump someones car or even tow them to the nearest pub! However there is a different mentalilty in cities. 

I'm still going to stop and help that guy out next time I see him, even if he is driving a BMW....

And so to finish, please don't drive if your not prepared to help someone else on the road, able to cope with some snow and have some spare gear in the car. I leave you with a tree...

First ice of the season (for me at least)

The picture above should be a regular view for any weekend warrior*. It's the sunday night view of a untidy car boot full of gear. It's a view I'm used to as well, as well as the sunday night sorting and drying of gear from a weekend away. Sunday night is never an easy night.

This weekend was my first ice of the season. I know it's not the first ice of the year and routes have been done on the Ben and in Wales for the last few weeks but it was my first ice of the year. The problem with being a weekend warrior is that there are so many other weekend warriors who'll be out at the weekend. Normally this isn't a problem but with a week of winter climbing and good reports coming in about North Wales and Idwal in particular being in condition it already looked like I'd need to book and ticket to get on some ice.

However I did have one idea...

I floated the idea of walking in to Idwal on the friday night with Holloway, my climbing partner for the weekend. I contacted him last week after a walking around Idwal and seeing that everything would be in condition soon. I didn't expect him to actaully agree with my plan, let alone think it was a good idea! He did though and I spent all week packing and repacking trying to make my bag lighter whilst taking the maximum amount of stuff with me. Personally I packed a little on the heavier side taking a little more food and kit with me on the understanding it would be better to get a warm night and leave things cached in our bivi for the night while we climbed.

Things started off interestingly. I managed to pick him up from Stoke (making it there in record time during the rushhour!) only to them side the car off the road and into some snow abotu 500 metres from his house. After pushing it out we managed to get to Idwal with no other problems arriving at the grand time of 10pm... it was warm.

Ok well it wasn't warm, but it wasn't exactly the coldest temperatures I was hoping for. As we walked in I actually thought it was going to rain at one point! It didn't but we had a load of snow and mizzle** before we reached our spot for the night. We actually bivied somewhere I'd scoped out the week before in the boulderfield that flows out from beneath devils kitchen. It's a simple overhanging rock with a little bit of a wall built around it. There was another spot we could have bivied, but it was literally a small cave that I'd not looked into properly. When I arrived I noticed that we already had "guests" sheltering under our rock but never fear for I snowballed the goats till they ran out. They came back later but more snowballs seemed to sort that problem out.

As I said I wasn't as cold as I was hoping for, not that I was looking forward to a night my sleeping bags as it was, but it was actually star to get a little damp rather than frozen and icey. I still put the kettle on and melted a load of icicles for my evening brew before settling down in my 2 decathlon sleeping bags and trying to find somewhere to lie without a rock sticking in part of me. The actual night itself wasn't so bad and I only woke up about 4 times, once however to find I'd tossed and turned so much I was out of my sleeping bag wondering why I was cold. At 6am my alarm went off and I added more icicles to my jetboil to make a brew. It was at that moment that Holloway reported a few head torches already making thier way along the side of idwal. Christ! It almost seemed like spending the night out might not get us to the ice first after all.

After speed packing I was off through the snow to get to the bottom of our route. As it was Holloways first time out climbing with me in a few years and seeing as he was so psyched for it we were heading for Idwal Stream (grade II/III ***). As it's a classic route and on Baggy's blog he reported it in the best conditions he'd seen it in for years I knew that there would be masses of people heading for it. I know it's not all about getting there first, but I wanted to be there so we had some time to do the route without the pressure of the another team behind us.

As it happened as we geared up another team joined us at the base, 2 lads called Pete and Tim. We ended up climbing in parallel for most of the route and got chatting to them. They'd both packed in thier jobs to climb ice all winter, which was pretty cool but they seemed to already be uncertain about the future. They'd not got as much winter experience as our team, but they were swapping leads as aposed to block leading so they moved a bit quicker, but it  was nice to have another party to climb with.

Crag congestion... and this is at 0730

As I said I took most of the technical pitches of climbing, but Idwal Stream is a broken route. It's escapable (if you need to) but also not a series of technical pitches one after the other. There was some easy ground and a good stance after each pitch which suited us fine. I took the inital groove and climbed parallel to Tim which was probably the hardest pitch on the route (certainly the steepest) and started off with some thin ice so it was a while before I got a good ice screw in. I climbed leashless with my modified DMM fly's which worked fine as normal, but I didn't use the lanyard and just relied on not dropping a tool.

Pitch one was fine. I took me the whole pitch to get used to climbing ice again and making usre than everything was placed in the ice properly and securely. We walked the next slope and rebelayed at the base of the next cascade. This was long but less steep and had been drfrosting a little more. Instead of front pointing my way up I was able to take adventage of various ledges and step al left behind from previous parties, whislt avoiding the water spraying out. Infact the most technical part was the top out as I tried to keep my feet on ice and not scraping on rock. At this stance I used the one and only piece of rock gear on the whole route despite the fact that I've brought what was a sizeable mixed rack up with me. I guess it's better to have it and not need it etc.

Sadly out of focus

Holloway was climbing pretty well and as a team we seemed to be moving pretty quickly. The next pitch was the longest pitch I lead, almost 60 metres but in all fairness the difficulities were short lived. The first 20 metres of the route was another iced up groove before a difficult step up and right to easier ground thenit was a semi-snow/ice gully till I found something good to belay off (a load of good ice). Moving quickly over such ground was a absolute joy. Then came the final pitch of real ice. This was a 10 metre cascade with really only a little bit of difficulity on it after topping out and bringing up Holloway we dropped the ropes and coiled them got rid of any other gear for the final gully. This was easy ground which we covered leisurely enjoying being out. The weather wasn't exactly like the met office and MWIS had predicted. It was more overcast and now snowing rather than clear skies.

Eventually we could leave the gully and head off right to fine the descend down the track that would lead us back to our bags. We had planned to do some more climbing but walking down we saw that the cues had formed and it seem a long wait before we could get on the screen or the ramp. Instead we consoled ourself with a brew back at the bivi and then the joy of repacking the bags, before a gentle walk out. It actually even stopped snowing for us on the walk out too.

All in all I don't think thats bad for my first ice route of the season and coupled with walking in the night before and sleeping out it turned it into a proper adventure. I was considering new axes (nomics or quarks) but after this weekend I decided that there's nothing wrong with my flys at the grade I'm climbing. I'd still say go leashless thought. Holloway decided that he hates his leashes with a passion. It seems like he'll be replacing them with some clipper leashes instead. And I was impressed with my sleeping bag system (a lightwieght down bag and a lightweight synthetic over the top) whic kept me warm, however I could do with some tabs so that they hold thier shape whislt I'm in them (I invariably wiggle out of one bag when sleeping).

As for sunday, well we'd bailed by Saturday night. We didn't have anywhere to stay saturday and alot of kit was wet. After checking all the weather reports we could find and Holloway contacting a friend at RAF Vally to ask what the weather was going to do it didn't look promising. As it turns out it looks like the temperature dropped again. I guess thats the winter game though, because you know if we'd stayed it would have just rained all day.



Devil's Kitchen, in all it's winter glory



*weekend warrior; a climber with a monday to friday job, only getting out at the weekend.

**mizzle; somewhere between mist and drizzle. A form of precipitation.

Thought for the day and snow...

It's not normal that I write a post that isn't related to climbing but today I'm writing something different. Each morning when I wake up I do general morning stuff (wash, clothed etc) then I come downstairs to have breakfast and listen to Radio 4. Now I don't care that radio 4 is seen as an "old persons" radios station, it's much better than everything else in the morning. Each day they do a piece called "thought for the day" (this is those people who don't know). A guest speaker, usually from a prominant Faith groups will regail the listeners with thier "thought for the day". I'm not against religion but mostly the Christian and Islam religious leaders bang on about thier religion and how it's related to something in the media, normally by a tenious link. This for me is something sad because I don't want to hear that.

However at least once every two weeks a guy comes on to speak. He is the Chief Rabbi Baron Sacks. Thats a prett grand title. I figured that I should google him to give people some information on him. Born on the 8th of March, 1948 his full title is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commenwealth. A few minutes browsing what comes up will lead you to realise that Baron Sacks stands up and is not afraid the defend his religion fairly but strongly.

So why am I writing about him. Well he is clearly very proud of his faith but whenever he's on thought for the day, I don't get the feeling he's trying to force his religion onto me, or use it to influence my life. He's anocdotes and stories that are used generally can be applied to other situations and are not religion specific. When he does use a specific religious festival to make a point, the point isn't specific to religion but it's board and open. He's makes his thought simple but effective and something that everyone can read into and take something from.

Today's speach was about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, but it wasn't at the same time. It was a roundabout story of how religions the world over should work in harmony with each other. He finished telling how all religions seem to light candles at different festivals, and finished with this quote:

"For my flame does not threaten yours nor does yours diminish mine, and each time someone lights one, whatever his or her faith, the world becomes a little brighter for all of us. That's why religious freedom matters and why religious diversity enlarges us all."



Anyway, snow. Seriously!? the rest of the world must be having a right laugh about now watching Britian cope with temperatures a few degrees below zero and a bit of snow blowing around. All I keep dreaming about is ice ice ice and when I can get out and start playing in it. Bloody school!

So why haven't I been out trad climbing?

Simple answer, I don't know.

Two weeks on the trot I've done no more climbing than a couple of trips to churnet. Actually being able to rest for a considerable period has been great, but I'd still rather be out trad climbing somewhere if I'm perfectly honest.

The two trips to churnet haven't been a complete loss at all... for from it infact. I've enjoyed myself immensely each time I've been there and it's normally just been nice to get out of the house or Birmingham. On my first Churnet trip I ended up at Cottage Rocks. If you've not been there its wicked. The buttress is relativly small, but sports an overhanging crimp and pockety wall and a steep slab/wall with everything from cracks to pebbles to slopes for pull on. We arrived in the late afternoon, so we had the sun filtering through the trees (gutted I forgot my camera). I enjoyed the day climbing until we had to get the head torches out and then bailing with sore fingers. All day I was persistantly hitting about 6a/6b which is pretty good for me.

The second trip was to Wright's, which is definatly more of a burly mans route. I had another good day in less than ideal conditions (a little drizzel now and again to spice things up). I did remeber my camera this time and cought some pictures of us playing on a few problems and climbing around V3/V4. I did miss a V5 by inches, which has given me some incentive to get back and do it!