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A few notes about the activities of the climbing contingent on the recent meet at Kildale. Some gnarly walks were also done including an ascent of Roseberry Topping.
On Friday the advance guard hacked through the jungle to the base of Whitestone Cliffe and climbed “The Night Watch”. This is an absolutely brilliant route on solid, crozzly limestone of a type not previously encountered in the UK. After cooling off with a swim in nearby Gormire Lake we carried on to the bunkhouse at Kildale and had time to sprint up the hillside to climb a few pleasant routes at Park Nab as the sun was setting. (Luckily it was not till Sunday that the farmer told us that every few years a complete buttress drops away from the main crag.)
On Saturday we headed to Scugdale and climbed lots of good quality but rather short routes. Zeta Wall was climbed almost to the top, then climbed back down almost to the bottom, and finally virtually soloed – due to incompetence rather than bravado. Top route of the day was the very overhanging Scugdale Chimney Eliminate. This was boldly led by Kial and then a Battle of the Bulge took place as the rest of the party followed using a variety of styles and route variations.
On Sunday the original goal was Ravenscar. After a protracted period of blundering through the heather we finally located the main buttress but the routes turned out to be green and lichenous, with no reassuring chalk marks to indicate that anyone had climbed there within the last decade. Leon, as a veteran of many a dirty Lancashire quarry, thought it was good to go. But on reflection it was decided that the best option would be to return on another occasion with several stiff brushes and a Karcher Power Washer. We then continued on to the Wainstones and did a number of routes including the classic Sphinx Nose Traverse (easier than it looked fom below) and Christopher (harder than it looked from below). Then the rains came bringing to an end a busy climbing weekend with lots of good routes climbed – pity they weren’t a bit longer.
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