Another Sunny Day; will it ever rain again?

Jon and I continued our rock climbing odyssey today… This time thanks to the continuing dry summer weather we selected Neckband Crag in Langdale; a great venue, but being north facing, high, and slow drying it demands hot weather after many days of no rain – exactly the conditions we’ve got right now! 😛

Having met late (11am) we raced into the crag as fast as our legs would carry us up the long steep approach of the Band. We needed to get going as Jon had a mountain rescue team meeting at 6.30pm back in Penrith. Our efforts paid off, we had this awesome little crag to ourselves all day and bagged four great routes.

Interestingly, as we put our harnesses on and got ready for the first climb there were several massive loud rumbles. I say “loud”, but really they were more “feelings” than noises. At first we wondered if it could be a massive rockfall somewhere – but that was unlikely as it would have had to have been MASSIVE for us to have felt/heard it but not see it (i.e. outside the Langdale valley). Then we wondered if it could be blasting at Elterwater Quarry – but do they detonate several (3+) charges at a time, we thought it was normally a single blast or at least in very quick succession, not over 10 or 15 minutes. We even speculated if it could have been a minor earthquake. Anyone got any other ideas?

I can’t remember a summer so dry since I was at school – long may it continue! Although, strangely as we were on our fourth route, and despite not having a single cloud in the sky overhead, there were a few random spits of rain! I guess they were blown in condensed droplets from a clouds out of sight? Or perhaps it was bird pee! 😮