A weekend of Mixed Climbing
Lake District Guide
In this post we take 9 times – at writing – returning client Martin – Lake District Rock Climbing. You can imagine that by now we have built quite a good rapport and friendship. we’ve done around 9 trips now and had many adventures?! Martin originally wanted a monthly slot, and so he’d booked with us originally as he wanted a Lake District Guide to learn more about Scrambling whilst having fun in the hills. But as what usually happens…
I got him to tie in and have a go at rock climbing on one of this visits. Because of this he’s now pretty hooked, and asks for it as one/both of the days. Martin makes the long drive all the way from Bournemouth and back! He usually likes to do something in the hills on his own the day before, and then we play out for 2 days, and he drives home again on the Sunday or Monday.
Grades:
Climbing is only one grade harder than the hardest scramble. This being a grade 3, or a 4 depending on what guide books you read. Therefore the leap isn’t that great really, and often is far far easier than a grade 3 scramble let me tell you! A wet, esoteric off the beaten track scramble can be a nightmare at the best of times let alone in the wet.
So in this post as Martin has now knocked off some ‘classic’ routes – see list below, which he has created on a spreadsheet and I helped fill in the blanks/route names. This route is called Grey Knots Face and is what should be an easy grade of VD – Very Difficult. That said being a Bentley Beetham climb – see link below – means that you are gonna get your value for money!
Push/Don’t push:
Gauging what to take clients on is often hard. What I mean is don’t challenge them enough and there left wanting, push too much and it can put them off for life! Therefore there’s a lot of Lakes rock climbing that will do the latter. This route could have been one of those routes. luckily the challenges were hard but the reward of getting to the top and ‘surviving’ was higher. It can often feel like that, even though you’re tied on to the end of a tight and safe climbing rope, your mind tells you other things! That’s where hiring a qualified and experienced Lake District Guide comes into play.
The route scales the south east face and is right of another classic ‘Gillercombe Buttress’. This one I have climbed a good few times and I still remember my first ascent, when I was working my way through ‘Classic Rock’ ticks. Grey Knots Face has many challenges. Because the weather had been raining hard the day before, one of those challenges was greasy rock. Martin was no stranger to this and he has already tackled lot’s of greasy rock challenges – Corvus was one!
Besides greasy rock, you have a tight ‘letter box’ squeeze – can be avoided but kept that quiet. Where you have to drop your rucksacks if climbing with them – see picture – and get yourself through the tight squeeze. This isn’t the norm with a lot of climbs but as said you get a lot of varied climbing on this route.
Sport Climbing:
As part of his two days up in the Lakes with a Lake District Guide. We opted on day 2 for a spot of sport Climbing. I choose Attermire crag which is quickly becoming my fave sport crag. There are heaps of low to mid grade climbing all done on bolts all set in a fantastic position. This means that you can get a lot of climbing in. Plus you learn lot’s about movement and technique whilst we coach you. The sun shined and we ticked around 9 climbs varying from 12-18 metres in height. We left the crag around 16:30 and walked out later than his planned departure. With a long drive ahead of him the climbing had got him hooked in again. Until the next adventure which he now wants to try some winter mountaineering – here – So I look forward to that.