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.