Recent Courses

We have had a number of great technical courses running recently and have been lucky with generally great weather.  I have put a selection of photos together of some of our recent outings when I've managed to pull the camera out...

Summer Courses - places available

Lots of great 'Summer Courses' coming up, some still with spaces and the chance to join a course with others meaning great value as the cost is shared!

Coming up we have a - 

 'Learn to Lead Climb' course with 1 space - 1 Day - dates flexible - Lake District £80

'Technical Scrambling Skills' course with 1 space - 10/11th July - Langdale £150 for 2 days/£75 to join 1 day.

See our website for full details of other courses available - Mountain Circles

Its been a busy spell with all sorts of weather coming through!  Some photos below of a recent course we ran in Scotland for Ivan and Bobby taking in Tower Ridge in much better weather than expected and then using Polldubh Crags for a training day on day 2 to hide from the wet and windy weather which came in. We covered lots of skills at Polldubh which are useful to add to your 'bag of tools' when looking to become independent in your climbing and to be able to sort out any un-expected situations that could arise... We looked at abb retreat and set up, backing up abb anchors, hoisting a 2nd, climbing a rope using prusiks, placing gear as well as getting some big boot climbing in on the classic route 'The Gutter'.  Thanks for the photos Bobby!

 Ben Nevis North face

 Pitch out of the Douglas Gap

 Just before the Eastern Traverse

 The tunnel - snowed over for most of the winter

 Just after the Tower Gap

Day 2 on the 'Gutter' at Polldubh Crags

Great Weather in the Lakes - Summer Courses

We are finally getting a consistent run of great weather in the Lakes for our summer courses.  It has generally been fairly mixed, despite a lot of unsettled weather there has been some great days for going high up to climb classic routes on the likes of Dow Crag.  This last week has brought our first consistent run of really settled weather of the summer really, its sunny and the crags are dry!

We have had various courses running but the last few days have been particularly good.  I have been out with some folk doing an article about some classic scrambling and easy climbing in the Lakes for a well known mag.  We stayed at Black Sail Hut and had a day on Napes Needle taking in the classic Wasdale Crack (HS) and the Wasdale Roof (E3 5C)  for a little interest on the side!  We also had a wander up Sphinx Ridge and on to Gable.

 Remoteness in the Lake District, the Black Sail Hut

 Napes Needle

 The Sphinx looking over Wasdale

Yesterday we headed for the high level route over to Pillar Rock, we climbed the classic scramble/climb Slab and Notch (M) route onto the Rock, then abseiled into the Jordan Gap followed by a quick ascent of the Pisgah to complete the round.  This is a really great mountaineering route with a interesting approach and can be finished with a quick detour to the top of Pillar itself.  Pillar Rock has an almost unique feel to it, there's a definite touch of the 'Alpine' about it set high above the forests of Ennerdale.

 Morning visitors at the Hut

 Pillar Rock

Exposure on the Slab and Notch route

With the great weather continuing we will be running lots of summer courses in the Lakes and on Skye so please get in touch with any inquiries...

All our courses are on our site at Mountain Circles

Raven Crag Gully 29-03-13

Brilliant conditions on the classic Raven Crag Gully ice-falls today.  We were out for a 'Cold Climbs' route today and on hearing this was in it seemed too good to miss, it was of course fairly busy but moved along OK with everyone enjoying a very social atmosphere.

I think this must be one of the best ice routes I've done in the Lakes and is justifiably popular and great value!  The mixed lower pitches were also great with the upper ice-fall as the finale.

Raven Crag Gully IV/4(5)***

 1st Pitch

 Main Pitch

Borrowdale

First Ascent of 'Fragile Mind' VIII/9, Bowfell

Today I went up to Bowfell with Tom Hodgkin to see what was looking good.  North Buttress was by far the best option and many steep mixed routes were looking good on there, also Cambridge Crag was fairly plastered.  Fight or Flight was as white as I've seen it...  Bowfell Buttress had snow on the ledges but looked stripped where steep.  There was loads of mad snow formations about and the approach along the climbers traverse was a bit dodgy in places, I'd recommend a different approach for now... We walked out by Mickleden which was quick...

We climbed a link up of a couple of different routes, the main crux pitch being unclimbed in winter.  The route climbs the arete right of Soul Vacation VIII/8.  The crux pitch of the route is also the crux pitch of the summer E4 5C Mindprobe.  We started at the extreme left end of the bay/shelf from which routes such as Skint and Single start.  This avoids the first pitch of Mindprobe which didn't look like a logical winter pitch.  The majority of the first pitch of Soul Vacation could also be climbed to gain our starting belay and add another pitch to the route...

After the main pitch of Mindprobe we finished up the top pitch of the existing winter route Fragile Existence VII/8, hence the name 'Fragile Mind'.  The crux pitch which is E4 in summer gave an awesome winter pitch, small hooks up thin shallow cracks climb a steep groove above a short overhang, small hooks and spaced small gear gives an absorbing pitch and one which was hard to grade, as its not massively long I suggested VIII/9?  The top pitch of Mindprobe might also be possible in winter and would give another hard pitch to this route.  The route was climbed ground up and attempted on-sight but unfortunately lobbed off the tenuous hooks on the crux pitch twice.



Fragile Mind VIII/9, North Buttress, Bowfell.

P1 - (9)  From the extreme left of the bay/shelf below 'Skint and Single' step left around the arete, climb a short corner and climb directly up through a short overhang to gain the parallel cracks running up the steep groove.  Follow these on thin hooks with some small gear possible.  Step right when possible onto an obvious ledge and around the arete to belay, this is the same belay used by Fragile Existence.  

P2 - (7)  Follow the top pitch of Fragile Existence....

Fragile Mind VIII/9

 Snow scoop below the Buttress

 Crux pitch

 North Buttress

 Crux groove

 Scafell

 Bowfell Buttress

 South Gully tracked

Another view of North Buttress

Crowberry Gully, Buachaille Etive Mor 26-03-13

Brilliant conditions today on the Buachaille, the rock was plastered and the wind has scoured away the majority of the fresh snow.  Some deeper snow up top and on descent into the coire but generally seems OK and the descent down Coire na Tulaich is tracked and fast.  Crowberry Gully is in brilliant condition with hard old scoured snow and just enough ice, but not too much!

A brilliant classic route....

Today was day 2 working for www.westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk

Crowberry Gully IV/4***

Coire na Tulaich