Mountain Journeys

Rock climbing courses and more – Lake District

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A climber cruising 'Needle Arete' E3 at Black crag, Wrynose

All in all it's been another busy week here and thankfully mostly good weather to be out enjoying the great outdoors.
A hot day sent us up to Black crag, Wrynose in search of a breeze. Conditions were perfect up there and we enjoyed a few top quality climbs on its rough,. pocketed rock. Whilst there, a climber was cruising 'Needle arete', so we paused to enjoy the show. At E3 it's a serious route even though only quite short. We then fought our way up a nearby HVS, 'The Prow'.

The following couple of days were filled with enhancing our rescue skills and techniques on crags in the Langdale and Borrowdale valleys. We also managed to climb circa 10 routes whilst going through these scenarios. Keeping all this fresh and practiced is important whether working on the crags or out climbing with friends. Problems can and do arise, knowing how to help is the key to continued enjoyment.
A few of the skills we covered:
Ascending / descending a rope;
Escaping from the belay system;
Assisted and unassisted hoists;
Releasing jammed abseil devices;
Stacked abseil;
Counter-balance abseil;
Traverse rescue / assistance systems.

All lots of fun too.

By Thursday it was time for a walk in the mountains. Helping our friends at Highpoint Mountain Guides, we led a group of lawyers over the Langdale Pikes. Perfect conditions, great views, and good company. Finished with drinks and cake back at the Stickle Barn tavern, lovely.

For the weekend, it was back onto the crags for a 2 day climbing course. Allan & Kim had climbed a fair amount already and were keen to progress so they go safely set up top and bottom ropes using anchors they build. So the focus was all about placing 'bomber' protection at a variety of venues. Plenty climbing was on the cards too of course.
We started at Middlefell Buttress and I led this whilst placing lots of protection and building multi-anchor belays at regular intervals. We then descending via a stacked abseil.
Using the 1st pitch of this route, Allan & Kim then set up a number of bottom ropes and climbed these too.
Other crags visited during Sunday included: Stickle Barn and Lower Scout crags. Around 7 climbs were set up on those crags and this all done by Allan & Kim, so they had lots of practice of placing gear and equalising anchors suitable for top/bottom roping.

Thanks everyone for making this another fab week 🙂

Mark & Kate

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Setting up and equalising anchors for top / bottom rope applications

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The Pillar, E2 at Stickle Barn crag, Langdale

#self_rescue_for_climbers

Scenarios. What to do when things don't go to plan! The makings of a traverse rescue

#guided_walks_lake_district

Kate enjoying a day of work in Langdale

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