I’ve spent the past few weeks working on a couple bolting programmes in anticipation of the new Lakes Sport & Slate guidebook to be published by the FRCC under the Wired publishing brand…
First off was Runestone Quarry where Ron Kenyon has been leading the charge to drag this obscure quarry in to 21st century. There’s actually a lot of potential for good climbing in the Upper Quarry. Now with high quality modern bolted sport climbs, with a wide spread of grades, popping up all around the quarry’s walls I reckon this esoteric venue could well become much more popular!
All of the work uses kit (drills etc.) and fixed equipment (bolts, lower-offs, etc.) supplied by the Cumbria Bolt Fund (CBF). The CBF is wholly funded through donations. So if you gain any enjoyment from climbing these new lines, or any sports climbs in Cumbria, please consider a donation – there’s big button on the CBF Home Page to make that really easy to do. 😉
More recently I’ve spent quite a few days working at Scout Scar. Scout has always been a great venue – and it’s only minutes from Kendal. How could it be better? Well, it is quite a tough venue! So the plan is to open up a range of easier climbs…
To make the happen Nick Wharton and I have schemed a plan to add a range of easier climbs to the cliff – adding around 50% more routes!
The work at Scout, especially with so many new lines being created, is expensive. Each bolt can cost as much as £15 to install, and even the shortest routes will use three bolts and a lower-off – i.e. around £75 minimum for the shortest of routes! Some routes need many many more bolts and so cost significantly more to create.
Thankfully the Lakeland Climbing Foundation, a charity set up by the chair of the Lakeland Climbing Centre, has made a generous donation to make the first phase of Scout Scar’s development possible.
As I say, please think about donating…