Another sunny day so we hot footed it up to Greatend in Borrowdale. The last time we went there it was very overgrown and a loose boulder on Banzai Pipeline persuaded us to abseil down. However, “mandy” had posted a message telling us that there had been some serious gardening going on so we decided we should investigate…
Indeed, there had been some serious gardening. There were huge piles of heather and moss at the bottom of the routes.
There was already one team there, on Banzai Pipeline, so we tackled the first (and only worthwhile) pitch of No Holds Barred. Pete did it in fine style of course, despite the marginal protection in the middle, but I required a very tight rope on a couple of sections. It was quite dirty, still a bit mossy, and could probably do with a power hose drenching to remove some more of the dirt, but it was still a good route.
After that we started up Banzai Pipeline. This was much easier, but still testing. The hardest pitch for me was the jamming crack, but I successfully managed a few moves with full on hand or finger jams.
The exciting top pitch, where you step left off a pinnacle, wasn’t quite as scary as I thought it was going to be after I found a sneaky hidden finger crimp for my right hand.
It was a great route and we were down for 5pm. Just enough time to get back for some dinner with David before going to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A fantastic Saturday! 😀
Tish,
Are those Ferns at the base of the cliffy thing in the first picture? If so, did you get a better shot of them?
Colin.
Good effort on the exploratory front :star:
What about Great End Corner ❓
Greatend Corner has seen the most significant cleaning – there is AT LEAST a skip full of dirt, heather and moss piled up at the foot of the route ❗ When we abseiled down we could see muddy brush marks on the surface of the rock (no rock damage though) where the scrubbing brush has been – hence the need for a wash with a power hose. We didn’t climb it, but there was a fair bit of chalk on the holds.
Excellent news all round. Do we know who’s responsible for the cleaning? Would be nice to offer my/our thanks. Always fancied the routes there, but they’ve been buried for the last few years.
Presumably a good dose of rain would clean things up a bit further, or would this start a return to vegetation? And any comment on Nagasaki Grooves? Clean enough for a bash?
Must add it back to the top of my ‘must visit’ list.
Cheers all, hope you get out this weekend…
Yeah, “mandy”, see this comment…