Day 188 - Little Chamonix

job done

The climb we did today almost qualifies for a full tick against my "Climb a Long Mountain Route" challenge...but not quite.

Today was a very long day...up at 7.30 to finish packing, then Anna took the cats to the cattery whilst I loaded what seemed like the majority of the contents of the house into the back of the car...including Old Jazzy Boy himself.

Then a two hour drive up the motorway to Warrington to drop Jazz off with Anna's folks and scoff a quick bacon and egg butty (thanks Cathy), before jumping back on the motorway and continuing north for a further couple of hours.

By 2.30pm we were at Shepherds Crag in Borrowdale in the Lake District, where Derwent Water and the valley itself were looking spectacular in the summer sunshine.

We were there to climb a three star multi-pitch route called Little Chamonix (VDiff).  In the photo above I'm sitting at the top of the route, looking back down the route up which I'd just climbed. 

The route consisted of four pitches in total.   Anna led the first, which was harder than expected - slippery and polished from thousands of previous climbers, and nowhere to place any gear for the first 10m or so...all in all, it made for a slightly nervous start, not least as the climb just disappeared above us, and we couldn't see whether things would improve with height.

Still, a bold start from Anna, and there we were established on the route and pretty much committed to carrying on...

The second pitch turned out to be a simple scramble up a woody ledge, where I built a belay stance at the bottom of the third pitch, which was, according to guidebooks and websites, the crux of the climb.  There's an exposed and tentative step out on to a steep, slabby face, where many climbers apparently baulk, reluctant to commit to the move.

Anna danced across the crux with no drama and no apparent effort!

Here she is climbing the steep arete that follows it:

exposure

 The views from the second belay were stunning...

borrowdale

At the top of the third pitch is a famous belay position known as the Saddle Belay, which you sit astride like a horse.   Here Anna is sitting on the Saddle, looking for places to put gear, to build an anchor.

back in the saddle

When I reached Anna, the easiest thing seemed to simply hop on behind her...so here we are, both sitting astride the Saddle...I tried all sorts of selfies, which were a bit tricky with sweaty hands, and trying to not drop my phone down the 60m sheer drop on every side of us! 

can I get a croggy

Whilst we were having celebratory milkshake and cake at the cafe in the valley afterwards, I noticed some climbers on the same route.  With our swanky DSLR camera, and using our biggest perv lens, I took a few shots.   

Here you can see the person in red sitting on the Saddle belay, and the climber above making his way up the steep and exposed final pitch, to where I'm sitting in the top photo.

top pitch

I led the top pitch, which was steep and exposed, as you can see.   You're 65m above a rocky, scree covered slope at the base of the climb, with one or two trees that may break your fall, but probably not enough to save your life if you fell.

Obviously, I'm putting gear in the rock as I go, to catch me should I slip, and Anna is tied to an anchor she's built at the Saddle belay - in theory, there is no possibility of falling...but when you're holding onto slippery, smooth handholds with your feet on tiny ledges, with 65m of air beneath your feet...it can seem less safe than it really is.  

Of course, this is exactly the time that you need to focus on actual risk, rather than perceived risk, as I've talked about before.

This is one of my strengths - the mental and psychological aspect of climbing - and one of the reasons I climb solo (i.e. without ropes) more than most people.

Today was not a soloing day though - here's the same shot, zoomed out, to give you a sense of the scale of it.

from the cafe

The views from the top of the climb were simply amazing...

north over derwent water

...in every direction...

west across borrowdale

  And we really caught some beautiful weather for the day!

south towards the bottom of the valley

So I'm going to call it half a tick ticked from my challenge list.   If I don't manage a bigger, more mountainous climb this year, then I might claim this one anyway - it was multi pitch, it was up in the mountains (as much as we do mountains in England, anyway), it was definitely adventurous, and it was very much exposed and somewhat "interesting" in parts.

So there it is...Little Chamonix, only a VDiff, but it made for a big day out!

B-)

PS sorry for the late post, we have no mobile signal here in Wasdale, where we're staying, and our wifi connection is flaky, to say the least...my posts might be a little late for the next few days.