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
We bore up from Hollow Stones directly towards the A chimney, over
a good deal of rough ground and an occasional snowslope. It is the
longest climb of the three, and the hand-and-foot work commenced at
once. A block at the bottom, some fifteen feet in height, was turned
by a vertical crack on the left, with excellent holds on the side
wall. An easier way is by the right, up a series of steep, wet, and
mossy ledges. This block was crowned by long tufted grass, and more
moss in the bed of the gully indicated clearly that we were not on a
much frequented route to Scawfell Pikes. A few feet higher we noticed
a grass terrace stretching across the face of the crags to the right.
There proved to be several such terraces on the same buttress between
us and the B chimney, and we concluded that it would be possible to
climb up from one to the other and so avoid the chimneys altogether.
Soon our route became steeper and careful clambering was necessary.
The gully was narrow and its walls smooth, and no chance of further
side-exit was open to us. Then came the first genuine pitch, in three
portions of increasing severity, though the hardest is not in any way
difficult or dangerous. We worked first over a small boulder, then
a bigger one followed, and we were brought to a standstill at the
entrance of a narrow cave. We decided in favour of the right wall,
which showed good holds up near the level of the roof. It looked a
bad bit to surmount, but when once the right leg of the climber had
been swung on to a sloping ledge on the wall, it was only needful to
edge along towards the jammed boulder and step off into the bed of
the gully again. The whole pitch is about thirty feet high. Walking
up the scree that now presented itself, we were rather disagreeably
impressed by the appearance of the second pitch that confronted us.
It was a mossy wall about ten feet high, and water streaming down it
gave us but little hope of continuing the climbing beyond it with dry
garments. Nevertheless the reality was not so objectionable. The wall
stretched from side to side of the gully and offered many routes up.
Taking a course to the right of the middle, we found small footholds
beneath the moss that gave the chance of using the fingers and toes
only. Clammy embracing we avoided, and our satisfaction on reaching the
top was altogether disproportionate to the actual difficulty we had
overcome, and will be unappreciated by those who tackle the gully in
drier weather. It seems to be still better to work up the left corner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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