Snowy Lakes

After seeing Tim’s pictures of the Rainy Lakes I thought I must write a tale of our trip to the Snowy Lakes, in the hope that one day one of us may have the good fortune to write about the Sunny Lakes, Aye Right!

A trip to the Thirlstane in Dunfries was aborted under the pretence of missing the turn off and to the Lakes we were heading! My new guide still on the bookshelf we had to pick up another one, circle our way round Keswick then find our crag about 3pm. Not a great start but thankfully there was a portly National Trust attendant at the car park to relieve us of £5 and direct us to the crag. But alas, never trust a fat bastard! They obviously never leave the car, so how was he meant to know where the crag was! A further detour involving a steep scramble down into the river brought us to the climb (Fools Paradise, VS) at 4 o’clock - 4hrs for 3 of us to do 6 pitches, nae bother! First pitch was manky so I went off route to be greeted at the belay by a hail storm. Joseph bailed and let mark have the dubious pleasure of all the seconding, we made it to the top of P2 within 90min but the committing traverse was ahead of us so we decided to escape up an exquisite corner bounded by wet mossy slabs on either side! Much fun was had by all!

After a pricey stay in the Ambleside youth hostel we awoke to clear skies and fresh sugar on the hills, and headed for the remote (in Lakeland terms!) Wallowbarrow Crag. An excellent VS (Bryanston) was quickly dispatched with Joseph leading on his first multi-pitch, Mark taking on the airy traverse before I was allowed the joys of a cracking steep, exposed but juggy finishing pitch. This was soon enveloped in a heavy snowfall, but being sheltered from the wind it was strangely pleasant and the rock didn’t suffer too much so another route was in order.

The classic of the crag Trinity Slabs (Vdiff) was an obvious choice given the volatile weather conditions. This was very nice climbing on big (if a little polished!) holds with a slight feel of Ardverikie Wall - but the Lakes being a poor mans Scotland, the comparison was never going to be a fair one! ;-P