As Haskett Smith recorded in 1894 in his Climbing in the British Isles, “… There are times even in the Lake District when the rain ceases and the sun shines, and it is then that the climber should gambol upon this crag.”
With such a fantastic forecast for the weekend, the only place to be was Gimmer.
A 45 minute very hot march from Stickle Barn car park got us to the bottom of the South East Face. There weren’t many people there. Perhaps they hadn’t read Climbing in the British Isles, or even the introduction to Gimmer in the FRCC’s Langdale guide. I wasn’t complaining. I like it quiet.
I didn’t want to lead anything today. My left shoulder is getting better, but I didn’t yet trust it for a lead, and in sympathy a tendon in my right forearm has decided to become aggravated!
So we scrambled up to Ashtree Ledge and found Lichen Groove. This is a nice enough route, and not too taxing.
It might have been quiet, but over lunch we met two climbing pals: Mike, who I first met on the 2009 Lundy trip; and Martin, who told us about the drunken antics of the Wayfarers members the night before… something about a face plant in a pile of muck (as in muck spreading muck).
Anyway, lunch and sunbathing over, we walked round to Outside Tokyo/Dight for something a little harder. This proved much, much harder for my weakened state and there was a bit of hanging on the crux. We finished up The Crack.
It was quite late by the time we finished and there were only a few teams left on the crag. We made our descent and headed on home.
Maybee the bee could see only the yellow stripes on the rope and thought it was a fellow bee. π Looks like a nice new rope. And really wonderful weather! :star:
Hey Pete, I hope your language was more moderate than the last time I saw you on that difficult crack move π³
I’ve trained myself to be a quiet climber these days. The cursing never helped, so I stopped. :good:
Wow lakes, sunshine and rock, unbeatable combination, hope it stays that way for my visit later in the week!