Climbers on Slip Knot - Where to Climb in The Lake District
Where to Climb in The Lake District - White Ghyll
My first visit to White Ghyll was around 15 years ago, when me and Kate initially climbed ‘The Slab Routes’ at the far left hand side of the crag. These being a good introduction to the venue and offer climbs of a less intimidating nature.
I remember back then being impressed by the crag and its setting, high above the Langdale Valley.
Max Biden notes in his guidebook something about it being ‘840 steps up the rocky gully to reach the gearing up point by the oak tree and the gully exists in a space-time continuum in which energy is transformed into mass and time runs more slowly.’ All I know is, the approach walk can feel arduous but does serve as a good warm up for the climbing.
On my many visits to the crag over the years I’ve been lucky enough to have climbed loads of the great routes of the crag up to E1 and mostly in the Severe to VS range.
Slip Knot, Gordian Knot, Haste Not, Forget-Me-Not, Slack Knot, Do Not Direct are some of the Knot/Not routes I’ve done. All memorable in their own way, and all provide the White Ghyll excitement.
So I was back at the crag earlier this week with good friend Sam. As we’ve both climbed loads at the crag and were looking for something new to us, we choose a route called ‘Inferno’ a MVS. Although I later realised I have climbed pitch 1 of this 10 years ago.
We set off up pitch 1, me leading and finding it fairly enjoyable. The rock was clean and of good quality despite it looking a bit mucky. Our plan above here was to move on to a different route, however, the upper pitch enticed us, so Sam took the lead and set off up the impressive looking corner.
It wasn’t long before he was finding it all a bit tricky. Pretty rare for Sam to get stopped by a move on a VS, but that’s what happened. I knew he’d be fine and he had loads of protection in, so all nice and safe. Once he worked out a way through the overlap we both thought it would be all easy to the top. Not so. What followed was some serious and insecure climbing on dirty rock that was now wet - oh yes it had started raining - and very slippery, all mixed in with clumps of heather for holds. Thankfully Sam has a very cool head in these situations and carefully worked his way to the top.
My turn now. Well, the overlap needed the traditional approach of ‘back and footing’ and this wasn’t executed particularly elegantly by me. The rock was now really wet, that’s my excuse and I’ll be sticking to it!
Our plan had been to stay longer and do another route here, but the rain had dampened the rock and we were both feeling sufficiently fulfilled after our adventure on ‘Inferno’.
Later that evening I checked in the guidebook and that’s when I realised I’d climbed pitch 1 of this already. My notes were something like - ‘pitch 1 was okay albeit a bit dirty, but pitch 2 looked horrid so we diverted onto an adjacent climb instead.’ Shame I hadn’t remembered that detail. Still, we had a memorable adventure and that is a big part of the fun of going climbing.
What I hadn’t realised until recently is that there are a number of VD-S routes at White Ghyll that I haven’t done, so next time will be sure to tick some of those off.
If you’re looking for a crag in the south lakes that gives adventurous climbing in an inspiring setting, where routes will mostly exceed your expectations (Inferno aside), then White Ghyll is well worth a visit.
Thanks for readingÂ
Mark Â
Me leading Pitch 1 - Where to Climb in The Lake District
Sam on the thin Pitch 2 - Where to Climb in The Lake District
Back and footing through the crux - Where to Climb in The Lake District