Yesterday I had been leading a walk over the Langdale Pikes and we included Jacks Rake into the itinerary, which was lovely.
​And today i'm back in Langdale, this time for a full day of Rock Scrambling. Mark, who i've previously climbed with on Ill Crag (Scafell range) was back in the Lake District and keen for more quality scrambling and had chosen Langdale for this, good choice.
We began with 'The Groove' on Tarn Crag. This is a fine grade 3 route on impeccable rock, with much variety and plenty of opportunity to gain valuable route finding skills whilst on steeper terrain. We flew up this and took in a couple more steep sections higher up before dropping down to Stickle Tarn.

Jacks Rake on Pavey Ark was next up. A striking fault line cutting the a gash across the huge South West face of Pavey Ark, the Rake is prominent from afar. A long scramble and a very strong line, with little / no route finding difficulties in clear weather. We noticed more evidence of rockfall, certainly something to be mindful of on this route. From the top, we descended back towards Stickle Tarn as far as the base of Harrison Stickle.

After a short lunch break we were recharged and ready for more rock action. This time the 'East Ridge of Harrison Stickle'. A grade 2 route involving complex route finding throughout. The rock quality is simply magnificent and despite a few damp patches here and there, it was easy to stick to the dry rock all the way. The scramble goes all the way to the summit of Harrison Stickle.
We returned to the New Dungeon Ghyll via the Dungeon Ghyll footpath.

​A grand day out in glorious weather, thanks Mark.

A few days ago I had made a note to write a short article about safety whilst climbing, with the focus being on wearing a helmet to protect our heads.
 
Ironically, the day I’d planned to write this, a rock fell onto Kate, injuring her left arm. At the time, neither of us were wearing a helmet, as we were still on the approach to a scramble along the Segaria ridge. The terrain being mostly straightforward and nobody above us. For a moment it crossed my mind that helmets and gearing up would be a good idea, but it certainly didn’t feel necessary.
 
Thankfully on this occasion a helmet wouldn’t have made a difference, but that’s not always going to be the case. The rock Kate pulled off causing her to fall a short distance could have landed on her head not her arm, she could have knocked her head during the fall. In either scenario wearing a helmet would have been very beneficial.
 
So why weren’t we wearing helmets?
We had decided on a suitable gearing up spot where helmets, harness, etc would be fitted. We had not yet reached that spot.
 
Was this a reasonable choice?
I think so. The terrain wasn’t overly steep, nor did it feel particularly loose, it was dry, friction was excellent, nobody above us. Also, we were only on the approach to the scramble, with a few very short rocky steps to negotiate. Our dynamic risk assessment gave us the thumbs up.
 
A few days prior to this, a group of us were rock climbing at a nearby crag, much of the crag is overhanging. It’s very common for climbers not to wear a helmet whilst at an overhanging crag as the likelihood of something falling onto their head is low. Well guess what folks, we had a large tree branch narrowly miss us all whilst standing beneath the overhanging section of crag. The weight of a climber (Sam) dislodged the branch. Sam didn’t have time to shout out to warn us as it all happened so fast! I was belaying for Sam and we both had helmets on our heads, I was very thankful for that.
 
Let’s look at this scenario in more detail.
A belayer will often take off their helmet to belay a lead climber, this is a silly mistake that so many of us make (yes I’ve been guilty of this on occasion). The belayer is just as likely to be injured as the climber. Why?
Firstly, if the climber dislodges anything, it’s quite likely going to land on / near the belayer!
Secondly, should the leader fall, large forces can be felt by the belayer, often causing them to be jolted around quite suddenly.
Sam did fall during that climb, I was jolted around and having a helmet on most definitely gave us both added protection.
When Sam dislodged the tree branch, there was no warning for us below, thus wearing the helmet significantly increased our safely.
 
Let’s consider not wearing a helmet in the above scenario and what could result from that:
Climber falls off, this pulls the belayer into the rock with a force, belayer hits head on rock and is dazed / knocked out. Belayer inevitably lets go of the rope and the climber falls to the ground = 2 injured people (at least).
Climber dislodges tree branch which strikes belayer on head knocking them unconscious. Result is for belayer to let go of the rope and climber falls to the ground = 2 injured people (at least).
 
Modern helmets are lightweight, comfortable, and even look good. There’s absolutely no excuse not to be wearing one of these at the crag whether belaying, climbing, or sitting around enjoying lunch.
 
Now I’ll come clean too. Over the years I’ve probably worn a helmet at the crag only about 80% of the time, that’s simply not enough. However, this has improved in recent times to probably nearer 90%. In light of recent events that figure is now very likely to reach 100% and stay there.
 
There’s a great climbing DVD called Welsh Connections. Amongst the Rock Stars are legends Johnny Dawes and Paul Pritchard. Both being absolutely brilliant climbers at the top of their game and both of world renown. During the DVD both are seen to be wearing helmets and commenting on such (although there is a sketch where Johnny lets his hair blow in the wind)!   
 
Rock climbing is an amazing sport that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of people. There’s no need to be super fit, skinny, or tall. But there really is a need to wear a helmet.
 
When booking a climbing or scrambling course with us, we provide modern, well fitting, and lightweight helmets for your comfort and safety. If you’d like to book a course or guided day, please get in touch anytime.
 
Thanks for reading, happy climbing J
 
 
Mark

After our adventures in the Malafi gorge, we decided on some more conventional rock climbing antics. First up being the super steep and sustained El Dorado on the Toix sea cliffs near Calpe.
The route starts from a small beach below Pueblo Mascarat. Pitch 1 traverses out over the sea to a spacious ledge, this is a good warm up pitch with a few tricky moves but nothing too difficult.
Things change quite dramatically thereafter!

Pitch 2 is steep and unrelenting, but all of it is on magnificent rock and all the moves are brilliant. An absolutely fantastic pitch of climbing, one of the finest I have ever done. By the time I reached the belay my arms were so tired it took a huge effort to clip the rope into the bolt, I was very close to falling off at that point, but thankfully mustered some strength from somewhere.
Sam took over for pitch 3. This started very steeply and with some awkward moves. Soon this pitch progressed onto slabby terrain, giving a slight respite to the arms.

2 abseils took us back down to the beach for a late lunch by the sea.

A grand afternoon.

Other notable routes this week have been: Via Pany on the Peñon, Sonjannika at Morro Falqui, and GEDE at Mascarat.

Good climbing, thanks Sam

​Mark

On numerous occasions I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing the grandeur of the Malafi gorge near to the mountain village of Castell de Castells. I am captivated by its beauty and drama. The first time I visited was to walk a long circuit with Kate & Kim, it was a route I wasn’t really keen for doing, but am so glad we did.
 
During the walk (which was wonderful), we couldn’t help but notice the massive amount of rock all around us. Not small, insignificant rock walls, but huge towering crags. We then noticed ‘the’ ridge! Wow, this ridge took my breath away, so narrow, so tall, a magnificent Limestone arête and I knew we must return soon to take a closer look.
Sure enough, not long after me & Kim were standing at the base of this ridge, looking up and feeling pretty nervous, for it was steep and even narrower than I had remembered it being. There was also plenty of loose rock, in fact there was so much loose rock we decided to go for plan ‘b’, which was to check out the other end of the ridge and have a spot of lunch.
Kim set off along the first pitch, traversing the knife-edge ridge, even Kim who is usually super confident and sure-footed on ridges was clearly having doubts. This didn’t bode well. I followed on and continued with another pitch of increasingly wobbly rock. This was certainly exciting, but also increasingly dangerous for both of us, so I chose to go no further. Kim was pretty relieved, well we both were to be honest.
Bailing from the ridge brought disappointment, but we had tried our best and returned to safety unscathed and this is always our aim. If something isn’t feeling right it’s probably because it isn’t right. Listen to instincts and act upon them. Thankfully we did and it probably saved us from un-pleasantries.
 
Walking back out of the Malafi gorge that afternoon, we both spotted another couple of fine looking ridges and I was keen to explore these more, although it was too late today, it was noted for another time.
After closer inspection, I could see one of the ridges to be a pile of loose choss, but the other still looked promising.
So this week, along with Sam, I went for a look. What we found was a lot of fun and a proper mountain adventure.
 
Malafi ridge: Severe / 4+
There are 3 pitches with scrambling and walking to connect the lower and upper sections. We parked at the head of the Malafi gorge and followed a vague trail through the almond grove just above the Malafi and separating it from another canyon to the right. The ridge can be seen clearly from here, it was straightforward to reach the base in about 20 minutes.
The initial pitch was vegetated (new routes often are) but fun and challenging. I belayed around a large pile of ‘rubble’ which was as good as the mountain offered! Sam followed up and continued up steeper ground on what was clearly the crux pitch. This offered very exciting climbing onto an arête giving wild exposure. Protection was reasonable and the belay above was much better, thankfully. On the arête lay a large, loose block so I gave it a trundle (there was no one below and actually probably nobody for miles around, it’s that kind of place), this made the whole crag shake!
I led through the short way to level ground where a short walk over an orchid filled landscape brought us to the final pitch. This was on good quality, solid rock and was a pleasure to climb.
Topping out onto Limestone pavement with a wild landscape all around is a pretty inspiring experience. Added to this, we had little idea of how to descend the mountain yet. An advance study of the map had suggested heading down to the right may be best, but the terrain definitely suggested that not to be an option! So on to plan ‘b’ it is, we headed left to reach the top of a subsidiary canyon in the hope we could follow it down into the Malafi gorge. This proved to be more than we’d bargained for, in a good way.
Lots of scrambling, bush-whacking, and abseiling later, we arrived in the Malafi. An easy walk out along this and back to the car.
 
Adventure with a capital ‘A’    
Thanks to Sam for joining me on this one.
 
Mark
 

Free reigns for me today while Kate was away running in the Calpe 10K road race (oh and she came 2nd in her category, well done).
So first up was a trip to Castell de Castells to check out potential climbing venues. Not only did we (me & Don) find these, but also some bouldering and a fun ascent of the canyon below the crags.
Are the crags any good? Well I didn't climb any of the routes so can't comment fully. But it certainly looks good, albeit mostly harder grades! There's definitely a few routes for us mere mortals, and the scope for future development is extensive.
Bonuses of the crag are: it's walking distance to the village (shops, bars, etc), has wonderful views, and is likely to remain nice and quiet. There are caves underneath some parts of the crag, so it's easy to escape the sun and these are good places to store bags, keeping lunch and drinks cool :-)

After lunch back on our sunny terrace, I left Don to snooze away the afternoon whilst I ventured out to the Sierra del Migdia, only a 15 minute drive from our winter base in Llosa de Camacho.
Parking up behind the village of Tormos I set off along the PR route zig-zagging up the hillside. The path clearly goes through a well used bouldering area, some of it even looked doable! The mountain throws down a narrow spur of rock and soon I arrived at it's base. This was to be the start of this afternoons adventure.

Not knowing anything about this ridge I made my way towards the rocky crest, passing a couple of green way-markers along the way, this was reassuring. I started just left of a small cave like recess, this makes for an obvious feature to get established.
The rock was almost all solid and razor sharp. As this ridge is so close to the Segaria ridge which is similarly sharp, i'm going to call this rock 'Segaria sharp'! With water worn pockets and holes everywhere, this rock is a delight to climb on. The route seemed to flow easily and felt straightforward to follow, mostly being on a crest. I'd say there were a couple of short sections at grade 3 but mostly was more like grade 1/2.
I descended North from the first major col, but there is more scrambling further on, looked about grade 1. Descent was through some rough ground towards a ruined building. Once at the building a cairn marks the start of a good path (PR route) heading East back to Tormos.

The round trip for this scramble as a solo scrambler was 2 hours 30 mins today.

We're based out here for a couple more weeks yet and will be back again from around October time. If you'd like a guided day on a great ridge scramble, mountain walk, or rock climb, please get in touch anytime and let's make it happen.

And for the summer months we'll be busy guiding in the beautiful Lakeland fells, where we can make your ideal day come true. 
 
Thanks for reading.

​Mark
​

​This week we’ve been out with a group of youth workers from the North East of England. Looking to escape the grey drizzle for a few days but wanting much more than a beach and sunbed.
 
We have the answer. How about: Canyon; climb; mountain walk; canyon; beach; swim; canyon; and climb grap you? Well that’s what Michael, Andy, Dean, and Matt took on and we all had a fantastic time.
 
After settling in on Monday evening we got straight into activities on Tuesday. The Viudes canyon is a perfect introduction to the fun and varied activity, the best part of it is always the impressive scenery. The canyon leads us straight to a superb climbing venue, and Kate had gone on ahead with the additional gear we needed. Lunch under the shade of olive trees before a couple of climbs on the sharp limestone.
This was all washed down with an afternoon walk to the Les Arcs rock arches near the mountain village of Castell de Castells. Oh and then came the coffee and cake at the mountain café!
 
On Wednesday Kate led the team over the Sierra del Castell de la Solana (our local mountain here in Llosa). Walking from the doorstep is always nice and allows for a more relaxed start to the day. As well as all the wild flowers on display, they visited two castles and a cave. A cooling breeze helped as the sun was feeling pretty warm today. A tired and satisfied team this evening, well done all.
 
Thursday and already it’s the final activity day! An easier day is on the cards and that seems to be welcome news for the team. We would go to Cala Testos beach this morning. But remember, this is no beach holiday, and this is no ordinary beach. To arrive requires a canyon descent (or a boat) down numerous fixed ropes far below the towering cliffs of Morro Falqui. The sun beat down and warmed the pebbles on the beach, we sunbathed and swam in the turquoise waters, even some bouldering was enjoyed. Picnic lunch on the beach before an ascent of the same canyon and a return to civilisation. The rest of the day being spent on the crags of Morro Falqui, including an ascent of the fabulously fun ‘Coming Out’ route.
 
These activities are a small selection of what’s on offer here in the Costa Blanca. If you’ve thought about visiting but are put off by the Benidorm towers, there’s so much more to offer here and it’s all so close by. Or maybe Benidorm is the reason for your visit (it’s actually rather nice, honestly), why not tear yourself away from the beach for a day and let us show you a whole new side to Costa Blanca.
 
 
Thanks to Michael, Andy, Dean, and Matt for a fantastic few days. We hope to see you back in the Lakes soon.
 
Mark

This week we almost managed a trio of sea cliff climbs, but instead settled for the double. First up was the delightful 6 pitch route of Sonjannika on the Morro Falqui sea cliffs just North of Moraira. I can't stress enough how magnificent this cliff is. The approach along a short canyon towards the sea starts the adventure and at all times the scenery is dramatic. Every pitch offers fun and engaging climbing above azure seas. Exposure builds nicely and stepping out of the cave belay to begin pitch 4 proves to be a highlight for exposure! Topping out after about 180m of superb rock climbing is immensely satisfying, as my climbing partner for the day, Stig, agreed wholeheartedly.

Moving slightly further South to Calpe, we find the largest sea stack in Europe, El Peñon d'Ifach. Rising to 332m straight from the sea this is one amazing sight and a very popular tourist destination in its own right.
The South and North faces offer loads of excellent multi-pitch climbs starting at VS / 5+ and rising to the high 7's. The easier routes should not be under-estimated though as they are long and demanding routes that have become polished over the years. All the routes i've climbed on El Peñon have felt harder than their grades suggest.
Our chosen route was Via Valencianos, a VS / 5+ with around 8 pitches of fairly sustained climbing all the way to the summit. Even though we were climbing on a Sunday, we had the route to ourselves and the whole cliff seemed quiet, with just one other team spotted on Diedro UBSA.
There is a distinct 'crux' pitch on this route, the slippery corner! Like many, we resorted to aid techniques to surmount this section. Focusing on the polish would make the pitch almost unbearable, so instead try to focus on the fun and intensity of aid climbing. Something a little bit different and strangely enjoyable. Above this lies the huge upper slab, this provides superb climbing and positions all the way to the ridge. 2 - 3 more pitches takes us to the summit for yet more stunning views over Calpe and the surrounding area.

Two very different and very worthwhile routes. Both above the sea, with fairly easy access and continuous rock climbing from start to finish. And here's the bonus. Both have excellent beaches, restaurants, and cafes nearby for post climb swims, paddles, beers, cakes, etc!

What are you waiting for, get these gems on the to-do list for 2017 and make it happen.

If you'd prefer a guide for the day, we know these climbs and many others in the area very well and would happily arrange this for you.

Big thanks to Stig, Oda, Ann, and Kate for sharing a rope with me this week :-)

Mark