Hause Gill Seatoller
Borrowdale
Lakedistrict
Arrived Saturday 4th May at around 08:00 at the cottage, over cast and cloudy. Perfect
Lakeland weather, out with the kit and on with the planning, planning of our next adventure.
Dean and Melissa arrived about 10 o'clock, Dean had all the equipment for the task which
he had picked up from the Epicentre in Ambleside on the way in. Next we are off to Hodge
close to re place all the missing hangers and quick-draws taken from the route called First
blood.One of the routes in the industrial area of the works which had been sabotaged by
the (People's climbing front of the Lake District).
Met up with a bunch of guys from the Lakeland climbing scene, Pete Holder, Paddy Cave and Brian the Lakeland winter climbs writer.
Great set of people, and an interesting bunch, all from different walks of life.
Brian works for Lancaster university travelling the world looking for natural gases. He was off to the
Amazon on Sunday the day after we met him. Pete works for the epicentre, and Paddy
Cave runs Mountain Circles, an adventure guide firm based here in the Lake district. There
were also a couple of guys from (White goods), this is a sister venue in Ruthin North
Wales set up by a few more dedicated DT ( Dry tool ) enthusiasts. Only linked to the
Works by its dicaplin and dedication to see DT move forward and become a sport in its own right.
Re bolting process begins
Dean on First blood, re bolting and placing quick draws after the recent sabotage.
Press release
The Westmorland gazette arrived at the top of of the crag taking photographs, so Pete
went up to invite them down so that they got the right story about the situation and didn't
make the incident any worse by reporting in accurate information. All went well and a good
article was produced, it also hit the Times newspaper, so Dean became instantly famous,
to right.
Pushing on with the trip, did what we could on saturday but were limited due to Paddy and
Brian already well into bolting and glueing. Me and Dean ferried a bit of kit about, which
Dean had collected from the Epicentre early that morning, Ambleside to Seatoller, back to
Hodge close, not an easy trip, then got on with some climbing. Mr Rutherford was taking
shots all day so will be good to see the results. Dean and I started at Grand Design M7
and moved back along the wall to Time and a half to finish M4. A great run of climbs all on
top rope, but without falls or any dogging. I climbed Grand Design straight no faults, clean,
a best for me well chuffed. We intend to lead each route on our next trip, but left it on this
occasion as we were pretty tired from three sessions at the Works and a hard day on the
indoor climbing wall at Keswick.
Keswick wall (5th may)
Filling in the laborious paper work due to first time at Keswick wall. Done, off on the wall to
do some routes. Nice little boulder section with some interesting problems, one route Dean
completed was excellent, a real grunge of a route. Massive slopers and wide pulls out of
an over hang onto a major mantle. This was a great test piece which Dean completed in
fine style. I ran some interesting over hang routes around 6c + and a couple of 6a, didn't
complete the last move,well hard, left Dean to do that. Melissa put some good routes in
with 5a and 5b holding her attention. She's coming on great with more confidence at every
session.
Back to Hodge Close ( industrial section) Tuesday 6th
Walked into the industrial section through the mine (tunnel)' Doogle on my shoulder due to
the wet dank and muddy conditions.
Torch all the way in,very dark,Melissa and Dean close behind. Nice way to get in and a bit
different for Melissa as she's never been to the Works and it wouldn't be easy to abseil in
with Doogle.
The new route on the over hanging wall is now bolted and looks like someone has already
been up, looking forward to getting on it myself,this is mine and Deans next target. Grand
design is our target for today (M7), didn't start as well as Saturday, bit tired I think. The
route went well after a bit of scrapping, and Dean sent it to, we both had a couple of runs
up it to get pumped then off and re set for stein pull next door. Excellent route, again both
tired so I don't think we climbed as good as normal. The day went on to see Dean trying
the new routes set on the main wall which had been recently cleaned off. Dean took the
right line which he felt would easy make a grade of E2 in trad. I don't think Brian has
graded or named these routes yet.
Ground hog day, May 10th.
Every single thing that day lead up to one thing, second by second counted. Walking
across the bridge from Hause Gill cottage in Seatoller a car passed in front of me and
Doogle, stopped, moved on. The door opened, closed and the car moved on with a
backward glance from the driver. The car stopped a second time and the door opened and
the driver got out. He walked up the road towards me, ed, it's richy. My god, it's Richy
Reed, richy Norway, Rjukan, ice climbing trip last feb with cliff me and dean richy. How the
hell are you, we'll.
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