I’m just back in Edinburgh after a couple of days down in the Lakes and a few days in Derbyshire.
On Saturday Andy, Rob and I visited Shepherd’s Crag in Borrowdale and used the Jackdaw Ridge and Donkey’s Ears area in ascent and descent to look at some skills for their upcoming Alps trip. After a late lunch at the excellent Shepherd’s Cafe we finished the day by climbing Chamonix. The midges were out in force, so take repellent or get out of the trees at the bottom quickly unless it’s a windy day. Thanks to Adele for the photo of Andy, as I was having camera difficulties.
On Sunday we headed for the classic Corvus on Raven’s Crag in Combe Ghyll. I’ve never climbed this route in the dry and thought this was going to be the day. However, as we geared up at the bottom the heavens opened and we climbed the first couple of pitches in a downpour. It dried up after that and we had a very pleasant time. A good weekend introduction to rock climbing for Rob and a chance to revise some old skills and visit some new crags for Andy.
On Monday night I managed to get out for a few hours at a limestone venue with David and climbed some good routes. The pick of the bunch being El Sergio. This has some loose rock lower down, but excellent climbing higher up and is long. Route descriptions wouldn’t indicate this, but I was only back to the ground on rope stretch on a 60m rope; definitely worth knowing. Nice to be on limestone for a change as there’s not a lot in Scotland and excellent to climb with David again.
