Rock-climbing in the English Lake District: Third EditionJones, Owen Glynne
General
Rock-climbing in the English Lake District: Third Edition
Jones, Owen Glynne
Lake District (England) -- Description and travel; Mountaineering; Rock climbing -- England -- Lake District
The most awkward part of the Blizzard Chimney is at its foot; to effect
an entry is not easy, but once attained and an exposed bulge climbed by
the crack on the left, the rectangular opening is reached, and the way
lies up the left-hand wall of this. After about 90 feet of moderately
difficult climbing the chimney gives out on the D Buttress.
E BUTTRESS presents a variety of fairly easy climbs. None of
these possess sufficient individuality or difficulty to demand a
detailed description; the routes of greatest interest are shown on the
outline drawing facing p. 370. These climbs supply a real want on Doe
Crag, and render the climbing upon it, from ‘easy’ to ‘exceptionally
severe,’ graded to an ideal degree.
Beyond the North Gully there is no climbing of sustained interest,
but the REAL CHIMNEY, a curious cleft enclosed on all sides,
possesses unique features. It is about 150 feet above the foot of the
crags, some distance to the right of the North Gully.
The NORTH GULLY itself was first climbed in 1901 by the Messrs.
Barton, and again by the writers two years later. Since then it has
been visited several times. After climbing to the under side of the
chaos of jammed boulders which form the great pitch, a narrow ledge
will be noticed running outward along the left wall. The feat of
traversing along this with practically no support for the hands, and
a fearsome drop below, led to the inclusion of the Gully amongst the
‘exceptionally severe’ courses, and rightly so. Just when the ledge
dwindles to nothing, a good hold can be reached with the left hand, and
then a severe struggle upwards discloses good holding above. Thence
the going is easier, and the top of the boulders can soon be attained.
Away at the opposite end of the crags, a hundred feet to the left of
Slingsby’s Pinnacle in the Great Gully, and at about the same level
is a fine crack which the brothers Woodhouse first climbed in 1905.
The lowest 35 feet are of about the same standard of difficulty as the
Doctor’s Chimney on Gable Crag; indeed the crack as a whole is about
as long and of as great merit as its more popular counterpart on Great
Gable, and is very well worth a visit.
It but remains to be said that the first pitch of the Great Gully can
be climbed direct up the left-hand side of the boulder without the aid
of a threaded rope--a most strenuous effort--and that the two pitches
of the Intermediate Gully (which Mr. Jones obviated in the manner
described in his chapter) are amongst the very finest in the whole of
the Lake District.
Other climbs in the Coniston district have been discovered recently by
enthusiastic members of the Fell and Rock-Climbing Club.
SYLVAN CHIMNEY is one of the best of these. It lies to the left
of Church Beck, and is the most conspicuous cleft in the splintered
mass of rock between Boulder Valley and Lever’s Water, being situated
300 or 400 yards below the tarn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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