Scrambling, Cragging and generally having a good time

Having given up the presidency and ability to stay in Cambridge, I felt a newfound sense of freedom prior to this trip. An extended bout of good weather in Cambridge over the past month also buoyed the spirits, which had previously not been very high after a winter of rain and rock-avoidance. The excellent quality of the rock in Skye also had the club buzzing with aspirations, especially Jess, who now had the job of figuring out where to take the club. Thus, the period leading up to the exams ending on the Thursday before the trip was filled with conversation about the routes that we'd take on on this trip, weather permitting. There was some disappointment when we discovered it would be overcast, but since most of the trips before this one had been filled with rain or snow ruining the chances of any good scrambling, not having rain was already a great win for us.

A merry drive up to Glenridding was soon met with mild annoyance due to roadworks on the A66 bringing traffic to a crawl, however we still arrived in good time, and woke up the next morning looking forward to conquering Pinnacle Ridge, St. Sunday's Crag. Birgit, having been up Pinnacle Ridge before and also being the only one of us that we trusted to use trad gear, kindly offered to take us up, with the promise of teaching us how to use said gear. Hiking from the bunkhouse, the approach ended up taking 2 hours and 8km. Jess had asked me if I wanted to drive over to Patterdale, but I thought it wasn't worth saving the extra couple kilometers, a decision I'll come back to later. A layer of low cloud obscured the crag, so we ended up slogging up from the path on the valley floor trying to find the start of the route, a horrid approach which I think comes second only to slogging up the equivalent amount of scree. A great reminder to look at UKC, where they describe the hardest part of Pinnacle Ridge 'is actually finding it'. Once we were nearly there, however, voices and a couple figures soon indicated we had found the correct bit of the crag.

A quick bite and some kitting up later, we moved onto the route. The line, with its large blocks and spikes of rock, was a thrilling experience. The first part of the route didn't present any undue difficulties, allowing us to warm up to the route and the mild rock-climbing moves required to climb through some of the blocks and slabs. Steady progress soon resulted in us running into the people on the Scrambling Course, afterwhich some hilarity ensued. We then arrived at the crux wall, which is definitely intimidating for the non-climber. Birgit, of course, soloed it. then set up an anchor and a belay on the top to protect the route for the three of us. Jess then went up, and, after a struggle with footwork, got a foot jam to pass the crux. Jenny then went next, and somehow got herself into a position where she had to do a really large left-facing stem to get past the crux. Seeing all the beta did help me though, as I found an easier line that leads to the right then to the left of the main crack. Past this were the pinnacles, which had some quite-dramatic drops and climbing involved. The route petered out shortly after, leading us to the top of St. Sunday's Crag.

A stop for lunch later, we were all reenergised and decided to get on with the rest of the day. A quick look at the guidebook and some decision-making and terrain assessment led us to the conclusion that we should find a relatively short and safe crag to practice abseiling and building trad anchors, and that is what we subsequently did. 3 abseils each later, and some trad gear placing and anchor-building faff later, we started the walk back to the bunkhouse. It was nearly 6pm by that point, which, in hindsight, was far too late. Even at a steady pace, we weren't even in the correct valley by 7:30, and my leg was starting to give me slight issues. Pressing on, we arrived in Glenridding at 8:30, and Eva drove down the track to pick us all up, concluding a big day out.

Dinner was then cooked up by me, Dan and Jenny, and served punctually at 10pm. Some singing then ensued, and we were treated to an operatic affair in which Thomas showed off his falsetto and enthusiasm for great singing. It was about when they started singing 'Teenage Dirtbag' that I decided to take my leave and have a good night's sleep.

Having the Monday to go cragging and a funny knee from Saturday, I had a short, restful day walking around Glenridding with Jenny, afterwhich we ended up at Fellbites to have massive portions of loaded fries. We then joined Jess, Dan and a few runners/walkers in discovering trees to climb on the road up to the bunkhouse. A long nap was then in order, having gotten about 6h of sleep the past 2 days. Unfortunately, I woke up much too late to sling trees to practice abseiling, but a pub dinner and a good night's sleep was a great end to the day.

Thornhow Crag was the planned outing for Monday, and Rachel joined Birgit, me, Jess and Jenny to go cragging and learn some cragging skills. A remarkably short approach put us at the foot of the crag, which, with its fixed bolts, made for a fantastic crag for learning the basics. We spent some time setting up a sport anchor, at the top, then practiced our abseiling. With the toprope set up, each of us proceeded to practice putting in trad gear as we climbed. Jenny joined us halfway through, having run from the bunkhouse up Helvellyn to the crag via Swirral and Striding Edge, which seemed like a very epic 10km. Having brought my climbing shoes and realising everyone was in my size, they were lent out, following which people were astounded that I managed to get my feet into my rock shoes in the first place (disclaimer: they are broken into my feet). A great day of cragging then followed, where we all climbed the crag once (except Birgit, who, as instructor, got to climb the crag about 5 times). We then proceeded on the drive home, with a quick stop at Tim Hortons.