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I’ve just returned from a short visit to the Lakes whilst seeing The North Face and Halglofs to view their Spring ranges – more on that to follow soon. I decided to stay in Langdale so headed out to check conditions. Weds I headed up over the Langdale Pikes, there was still plenty of snow it became less patchy at around 600m. The recent spell of cold conditions have consolidated the snow and was all very firm and gave great conditions. Pavey Ark was black and none of the gullies were complete. You’d be wasting you time trying to find any winter climbing over this side of the valley.
There was still some daylight so I headed over to Chapel Stile boulders – the quarried problems were all in condition but there was some seepage from the natural lines. The Quarry routes were all seeping.
Thursday morning I went over the other side of the valley, it had been very cold in the night so condition were much better. The snow became less patchy at around 600m and I was looking for moderate/easy ground so that I could practice moving quickly (I was on my own) All the main gully lines were complete and gave excellent conditions.
I didn’t get over as far as Bowfell Buttress but it looked well rimed up and looked like it had just enough snow cover to justify an ascent – all exposed turf was bombproof. If you are looking for ice all running was was running, I only found a short icefall at the top of Shelter Crags Gully and even this was detached and running. there was plenty of ice smears but they were prone to dinner plating.
Greta End looked complete and Scafell also looked great so they’ll be plenty of opportunities this weekend, have a great time. There was team on the Langdale boulders as I was leaving so I’m assuming they had dried out a bit from Thursday.
Dave.
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