Mountain Journeys

Rock climbing courses all weekend – Lake District

Lead-rock-climbing-course-Lake-District

Pitch 2 of Middlefell Buttress

It's been a busy weekend on the crags and the weather has been on our side too.
On Saturday I was working for Kendal Mountaineering Services, helping out with a 'learn to lead' trad climbing course. Rasheed & Becca who have been climbing indoors for quite a while and climbed a few sport routes outdoors, now wanted to make the transition to tradition rock climbing.
Having spent the morning with Iain at Scout crags, I then accompanied them on Middlefell Buttress, also in Langdale. They led alternately, placing good protection at frequent intervals and building belays at each stance. We finished the route with an abseil descent and headed back to the Stickle Barn to meet up with Iain and the others.

Thanks for the work Iain 🙂

Becca-&-Rasheed-at-the-top-of-Middlefell-Buttress

Becca & Rasheed at the top of Middlefell Buttress, Langdale

Sunday turned out to be another rock climbing skills course. This time in the Borrowdale valley with David & Duncan. Both have been climbing indoors for a while and started leading some easy outdoor routes quite recently. The aim of today was to look at a wide variety of anchor placements, build some amazing belays, look at retreat skills & techniques, and look at some of the fine climbing venues Borrowdale has to offer.
We spent much of our time at Glaciated Slab. This super rough slab of volcanic rock is amazing to climb on, and will almost certainly increase anyones smearing capabilities with its roughness!
Having constructed a good anchor at the top, we were able to get in plenty of abseil practice. Only for the final route did we need to walk down from the top, and that was well worth it for the view (see photo below).
The afternoon was finished off with a visit to Wodens face, another fine valley crag in Borrowdale. Both crags are places the guys can easily visit again to further consolidate their rock climbing skills.

​Thanks David & Duncan. Maybe see you next year for Napes Needle 🙂 

Rock-climbing-skills-course-Borrowdale

Equalising 3 anchors during our skills course today

Rock-climbing-Glaciated-slab-Borrowdale

Glaciated Slab, Borrowdale

Rock-climbing-course-Borrowdale

View from top of Glaciated Slab

Abseiling-in-the-Lake-District

Stacked abseil descent

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