April 27th ....Great Gable, ......great views

A short walk to the summit of Great gable from the farm at Seathwaite.
Still some snow drifts in the sheltered gullies, but superb summer conditions now..

Images in no particular order....

Kirk Fell from the summit of Great Gable

Great End and the Corridor Route

Wasdale from Great Gable summit

Scafell Pike, Scafell, Lingmell and the Corridor Route

Scafell Pike, Scafell, Lingmell and the Corridor Route

Great End from Windy Gap

Ennerdale from Windy Gap

April 20th ....Back walking again

.Grisedale Pike, Hope Gill Head, and Sail

All the climbing snow has disappeared from the open fells now and only pockets survive in the north facing gullies and a few patches on the sheltered crags and cliffs.

Th e long approach climb up to the summit of Grisedale Pike

Looking north back to the summit of Grisedale Pike

Grisedale Pike from Coledale Hause

The "path" to Sail :(

The National Park Authority has a way of just making a bad situation into an eye sore.
Another example of an uninspired "path erosion project" planned a dept with a pen and no idea about the visual impact of their work.
This project is a few  years old now and still looks as bad as the day it was installed,
Its hard to imagine what these people are thinking about when they approve these kind of works!

April 13th ...The Final Climb..

Central Gully.... Great End.......the very last climb...........probably....

With the warmer weather already here it was doubtful if we would be able to make a final ascent of Central Gully on Great End as planned.
There was plenty of snow on the walk in and an early start made us hopeful that the snow pack would be just firm enough to get up.
Initially the snow was quite soft and sugary and with some evidence of an old avalanche we considered backing off, but plodded up to the first pitch where things improved enough for us to go on up.

The top of Ruddy Gill

 

Allen Crags and Ruddy Gill

The snow pack was softish for most of the way and became very soft (as expected) on the exit.

All in all I guess that by the end of the weekend it won't be possible to make forward and upward  progress through the gullies.  What ice there was sounded a bit hollow in places and will be receding fast today.

If it does refreeze then it'll be amazing,....

The start, conditions looking promising

Pitch One

Left Branch ice looking very used

Fisheye view of Left and Right Branch in the Ampitheatre

Tea break in the Ampitheatre

The upper exit slopes

Then the rain came

South-East and Central Gullies

THE END

2014 Northern Heights calendars

A great set of first proofs from the printers and all is starting to come together for the
2014 NORTHERN HEIGHTS and NORTHERN LANDSCAPES calendars.

This image was taken only a couple of weeks ago, what a great winter we're having.

The Buttermere pines at their most reflective.

Available soon from www.escape2thewild.co.uk

April 6th Catsty Cam and Helvellyn

Perfect Winter.......Still all white

The perfect conditions still persist in the lakes.

Catsty Cam Gully had more snow in it than a few weeks ago when and Red Tarn is still fully frozen over.

No. 1 & No. 2 gullies on Helvellyn were in great condition all the way from the tarn to the summit.

Nethermost Gully also looked to be in.

Striding Edge is still looking awesome with its white coat.

Catsty Cam Gully

Red Tarn Cove, Helvellyn and Swirrel Edge

No.2 and No.1 Gullies, Helvellyn

Striding Edge

Nethermost Gully

Fairfield and Dollywagon Pike from Striding Edge

31st March Red Tarn Cove

Fifty Shades of White      (monochrome images from  the whiteroom)

I've never seen Helvellyn and Red Tarn Cove looking so perfect, just sooo tempting to go and play in one of her gullies, and slide up the ice on the buttresses.

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Red Tarn Cove and Helvellyn

Red Tarn Cove and Brown Cove Crags conditions:
Striding Edge is in full winter condition and while crampons and axe are compulsory a nice track has been ploughed across the arete and it is well stepped out on any ups and downs, its a simple but fantastic classic winter outing right now.

 Big crowds of climbers were expected to descend/ascend on the crags and gullies of Red Tarn cove this weekend, the winter conditions turned up but the crowds didn’t, probably put off by the fact that much of the snow has yet to consolidate into some nice hard neve, and crossing any open slopes meant risking the wind slab which is wide spread.

Evidence of high winds and possible wind slab

Nethermost Cove,Striding Edge and Helvellyn

Nethermost Cove and Striding Edge

Striding Edge with Nethermost

No. 2 & No. 1 Gullies

I only saw one pair on the face in No.2 gully.

Netermost Gully, with the Chimney Variation (center)

Also Available in Colour

Catsty Cam

Catsty Cam Gully in the centre

Striding Edge from Nethermost

Brown Cove Crags had several parties out, I descended Broad Gully (mixed soft and hard snow, with a small amount of ice at the usual place near the bottom).

I climbed Central Gully along with a couple of other pairs, the short ice pitch at the bottom is good and the rest is easy grade 1 to the exit.