Sunday 13 December 2015

Brown Cove Crags ...13-12-2015

The start of the winter climbing season is getting very close so a trip up to Brown Cove Crags to check out how things were progressing seemed like a good idea.  I was going to park in the car park at Thirlmere, but it had a couple of army vehicles in there and the council workforce didn't want anyone to park there (not that it would have made any difference), so I retreated to the Kings Head and asked if it was ok to park there.  The manger was very happy to us park there, (note for the future!!)

Conditions:   The snow is soft powder and has not bonded, it wasn't as deep as I expected, even in the gullies, and with the ground underneath still soft and unfrozen none of the gullies were "in"
Some nice built up of ice, but unfortunately it is very brittle and had water running underneath, a couple of days at sub-zero temps would soon sort that out.

All in all there's nothing doing up there yet, and we'll have to be patient a while longer and hope for a cold spell and more snow.

Brown Cove Crags, Central Gully and Broad Gully
The washed out path at the Thirlmere CP
North to Skiddaw 
Looking up Broad Gully
Looking down Central Gully