A high camp as Dow Crag was on the cards, but with the Sunday forecast just below optimum the consensus was that a base in Langdale would provide more options.
Neil, Pete and Mark drove down on Friday night, missing the new Baysbrown camping check in cut off by half an hour with the resultant violation of the ‘don’t pitch your tent before checking in’ policy. Still, this seemed to be much less significant than our neighbours breach of the ‘no noise after 10pm’ policy…
After one of the worst night’s sleep any of us have had in a long time (and Neil has 3 young children!) We packed up and headed off to the climbing:
Andy drove down from Dumfries to meet Pete at 8am at the campsite where they favoured the shorter walk-in to White Ghyll over the longer walk to the original planned destination of Gimmer. Andy and Pete almost had the crag to themselves and climbed 3 classic VS’, Gordian knot, White Ghyll Wall and Haste not.
Mark and Neil headed to Dow where they coincidentally bumped* into Lee and Higgy in the car park. Lee and Higgy climbed Hopkinson’s crack (HS) and started up the Classic Rock ‘Murray’s Route’ (S) but had to bail due to lost of slower parties in front.
Neil and Mark climbed Sidewalk (E2, 5b) in three long adventurous pitches followed by Catacomb (E1, 5c) both with some moderately run out technical climbing on traverses. This had the resultant effect they missed the 8pm check in deadline at the campsite, again. Luckily, through the modern medium of WhatsApp Pete, (who made it back to the campsite at a much more reasonable 4:30pm!) saved the day.
Tent relocation, a late meal, a beer and an amazing night’s sleep followed.
Lee and Higgy attempted to get a meal in a pub, details are unclear on how successful this was, or if any beer was consumed but at some point, Lee bumped** into Higgy before they decided (incorrectly) that the weather was not good enough on Sunday to stay and camp.
Neil, Pete and Mark chose wisely (and out of complete tiredness) to have a long lay to let the early morning rain clear before driving down the dale to Old Dungeon Ghyll to climb on Raven crag. Pete led the first pitch of Odin (VS, 4c) with Mark finishing up the upper 4b pitch. Neil then led the amazing main pitch of Mendez (VS,4c) with Pete leading the short top pitch.
*Not literally. We saw them there.
**Literally. The storey a bit vague, but Lee apparently reversed over Higgy while Higgy was attempting to help Lee reverse park. There is also some scepticism as to whether this was a deliberate ploy by Higgy, a professional car bodyworker, to drum up some more work.