We're going to Wales

Travelling up to the Lakes on Sunday morning tucking into a mega bacon,egg,haggiss,black pudding wrap and boom the phone goes.

Ay up boys, comes that north east twang. Cliffs face appears on the iPhone screen. Cliff Lowther of Roxcool http://www.roxcool.co.uk/

is about to be stung with a bit of Derbyshire humour. So, story starts during the week Cliff is invited to join us on a Lakes winter climbing trip. The meeting point is Seathwaite, what ever happens we will meet at Great End below central gully. 

So fun time.

Ay up Cliff, Ay up bud. Where are you, we're off to Wales, what. 

Long silence, Wales, yeh.

Iam about 30mins from Penrith, only joking.

See you in Keswick. Fun over, we meet in Keswick sort out what gear we are taking and split it between us.

Heading out from Seathwaite we start to gain height up into Grains Gill.

Pushing out from the farmstead into open fell, cliffs sporting his new Osprey ruck sack. For more detail contact osprey via the web site.

http://www.ospreyeurope.com/gb_en/

The pace is quick and strong, we're heading for one particular climb Dean and I have yet to climb. 

South East Gully is the target, Cliff has climbed this route before so it will be interesting to see if the route is leaner than previous years. The route is graded as (Lakes lll) 

Selfie time.

South East Gully is the route left of the main cleft in the crag called Central Gully, for obvious reasons. We stowed our gear and headed into South East Gully, we all soloed the first couple of sections as this was easy ground to cover and didn't warrant roping up.

The first section was my lead, super pitch with lots of mixed ground. Bulldogs,tomahawks,warthogs were in great demand on this route. Lakes winter climbing absorbs such items in great abundance, these pieces of kit are an absolute must in and lakes climber Arsenal.

Looking up the first section, easy ground, no major difficulties here.

Dean having a bit of banter with Cliff.

Looking back towards Sprinkling tarn.

I am belaying Cliff and Dean up in tandem. Easy pitch, nice even ground.

Deans moves off into the crux section of the route. This section is about fifteen feet of vertical shandeliered ice with a fairy rough broken back drop. The idea is slowly slowly softly softly, as the ice is pretty brittle in this section of the route.

Next up is me, iam on second and cliff is third. Deans up at the belay way out of site around 50metres away.

A short video of the crux section and me being fleeced out of two beers.

http://youtu.be/FJTRBkMv9GE

Time for a selfie.

Not far to the top know.

Cliff belays us out onto the summit were, yes another selfie is performed.

Then an axe selfie.

Topping out we headed back down to were we had stashed the gear, quick drink and something to eat and its onto the next route. Central gully left branch was our target, fantastic route with a super little ice pitch in the middle. We soloed the route for about two pitches, I lead the ice pitch and brought the guys up then Dean lead out to the top into fantastic Alps style panorama. 

We finished the day with a nice pint in the river side bar.

http://scafell.co.uk/

What a fantastic day, two routes completed both with there own individual styles.

A great day out with

http://www.peakathleteclimbing.co.uk/

http://www.roxcool.co.uk/

Arete adventures

Welsh winter to Peak bogs and Kinder windscape.

Saturday saw Peak Athlete instructors off to Wales to climb the superb Arete by the name of Cnefion.

We parked just below Tryfans West face in the great little placed car park. Van doors open, freezer box ready and bacon haggis egg wraps prepared on the stove in minutes. The great start to any adventure, this makes part of the journey, it also reduces the cost when you can self cater for the day.

The view from the track leading into Idwal was amazing. It's one of my favourite spots to shoot.

The chosen route of attack was above the ridge looking out over Cwm Idwal.

Wild goats grazing on the hill side on the approach.

We also got a great little scramble in by heading up the river at the side of Idwal slabs, grade 2. The left hand branch of the river as you look at the map in the pic.

This lead out into Cwm Cnefion, just below the Arete. 

Looking back towards Cwm Idwal.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=33981

We went prepared to make the ascent in winter or none winter conditions, this covers a wide range of elements. The main element being, the snow had quickly gone from the Welsh hills within a few days.

So, it was a wet windy ascent, wind was at gale force with buffeting just when you could have done without it.

Peppermint tea and honey before we set off.

Dean heading up into the gods from P1 (pitch 1)

Dean giving a wave from the top of pitch one.

P1, handover. I am heading upto P2.

Dean arriving at P2.

Pitch two was a great section, but Dean drew the winning straw with P1. Fantastic section, just wish the Arete was bigger and longer.

At the top of Cnefion, time for tea and a bit of back slapping (Jolly good show old boy) and all that.

At this point our attention turned to the possibilities in front, snow,ice werrrrrrrrrrr. Another day maybe, conditions are not good to tackle the routes on the other side of the valley today.

Back to the van for coffee and wraps. The whole day was finished with great coffee and conversations of days to come in Wales.

So, we're does the Peak District come in.

Just sorting out the climbing gear from Saturday's trip, and BLEEP BLEEP.

Callout to Kinder for an injured walker. The Callout lasted around 6hrs, so all in all a great weekend out in the hills with two great results.

One fantastic climb and one very happy casualty carried off the hill in a prolonged evacuation due to terrain and ground conditions.

Buxton MRT in action in trying conditions.

Crowden brook un soft snow

Parking in the car park at Upper Booth I met a fellow member of Buxton Mountain Rescue Team http://www.buxtonmountainrescue.org.uk/ Peter Parker.

 http://www.moorlandadventure.co.uk/ we had a chat about this un that then moved on.

A small jaunt up Crowden Brook today saw an interesting change in the weather. All looked good till the rain started as I walked up through Upper Booth past the farm and into the Clough. Rain,why rain it's meant to be winter. There's plenty of snow on the ground and the whole of Derbyshire is locked in a winters coat, but it seems that it not to last. The change in temperature has started a thaw, a thaw which is not really welcomed, certainly by me as an avid climber. It's also a slightly different walk, I am testing out my new purchase. I recently purchased a new rucksack so that I didn't need to keep emptying my MRT bag ever time I went out on none MR (Mountain Rescue) walk. I can say that the Montane Medusa 32 did everything it said on the ticket, super light and rugged to boot. Well chuffed, I will be looking to change my MRT rucksack over to Montane as soon as the spon du licks allow.

http://www.montane.co.uk/range/packs/medusa-32

The super little barn on the way to the beck.

Crossing the little bridge before the Clough opens up.

Looking up Crowden Clough.

Looking back towards Mam Tor.

Heading deeper in to the jaws of the Clough and the steep acent towards the plataue. The mist is cloaking the summit, the cloud base has lowered to around 550 meters preventing a superb view of Crowden tower.

Doogle sporting his outdoor jacket.

Heading back home the light starts to fade.