The Great Escape

Late Evening at Kings Cross Station

After two hard days house moving , cleaning, decorating etc we opted to catch a late train north cos it was cheap this would give us an opportunity for another walk round London during the day.

It was Sunday, several sections of the underground were stopped for maintenance making it a good day for walking in London. We managed to get close to Hyde Park, walked tho to get to the Natural History and Science museums.

As we approached we were once again faced with masses of humanity everything was so crowded, big queues to enter, I was not happy.

Much impressed with the entrance to the Natural History museum after that it went downhill. Most of the famous exhibits I had been so looking forward to seeing looked dog eared and tired, it was obvious they had not been dusted for decades.

Over to the Science Museum I guess I was expecting something special so I was shocked as all the national museum have gone down the same old, same old cheapo display methods on floor after floor after floor.

You are directed round a series of brightly colored display placards each with distincly average photo(s) and supporting text, add a couple of interactive computer screens and they call it an exhibition........

Very cheap, no labour required, very very boring.................

Our plan is to get something to eat so in Soho so we walk via Westminster passing a traffic jam in Picadilly circus. It seemed to be caused by a flotilla of matching black Ferraris with Range Rovers front and back, driven by what looked like arabs, all very strange........

As usual after four days I have had enough of London, a great feeling of relief overwhelms me as the train pulls out of Kings Cross.

 The incredible entrance to the National History Museum.

Its 22.00 hrs on a Sunday evening and this is the queue for Platform 9 3/4 of Harry Potter fame, priceless.

An Introduction to Glen Affric

I get some amazing atmospheric photos then as darkness falls a rushed descent to the tent.

Another new area of Scotland for me my guide says its the nicest Glen in the country.

Big route today 13km walk into a youth hostel then a 20 km walk including 3 munroes then walk back out again 43km in total so I decide to take 2 days and take my tent, also decide to walk in instead of cycle cos it sounded like the track was very rough.

After three hours I got to the hostel the warden is out like a shot trying to flog her wares but when I asked to just to have a look around I was refused, typical of the SYHA, the service that likes to say NO
 

If you want to do onr thing they give you ten reasons why you can't do it.

Onward and upward to the col, pitched tent, dumped everything but the camera then did a Munro An Socach (921m) the clouds started to roll in. I get some amazing atmospheric photos then as darkness falls a rushed descent to the tent.

Overnight the clag came in big time I opened the tent door, it was a warm, wet, soggy nightmare I was concerned about what I would find in the morning. Woke again at 05.30 and felt a chill on my face so I quickly opened the tent door, Ice splintered off the fabric, it was a gorgeous morning, the cloud had inverted into the valley leaving a cloudless sky above. A couple of morsels to eat and a quick slurp of iced water and I was off.

I was treated to an amazing sunrise as I ascended Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan (1151m) followed by Mullach na Dheir again (921m).

Return to the col and tent, load up then another long walk out so I was fairly bushed by the end of the day but contented cos I had bagged three remote and highly sought after summits.

Think I made the right decision about not cycling in BUT added a note to my guide reminding me to cycle past the Pay and display on my next visit.

Back to mountaineering hut, dry the tent put my clothes in the washing machine and hang them out to dry then cook a welcome replenishing meal, down the pub to watch the footy, heaven.

Footnote

I had 7 nights in Scotland costing less than one night had I decided to stay at the youth hostel in Glen Affric, No Brainer.

Its London Calling

Follow the Bubbles to St Pauls

Yes once again variety is the name of the game so heres something completely different, yes a city walk, hope you like the photos.

I am not a big fan of London, when we had a request a request to assist offspring move house from Lewisham to Sevenoaks I volunteered and thus accruing ‘Brownee points’ with that fictitious God that still lives in the back of my mind.

Our tight agenda allows us a few hours for a London walk, bags dumped at a building site on Black Friars Bridge, long story.

There is a lot of pretention in this world, of which the Tate Modern, our first stop, has more than its fair share. I love the irony of a magnificent cathedral scale building housing the gallery, its artistic contents paling into insignificance, tucked into little corners of the great wide open spaces .

I'd like to think I have an modicom of artistic appreciation BUT the only exhibits I found remotely interesting are a couple of old black and white prints of 1970's Newcastle. Like many before me I have to ask what is the point of it all. In these days of austerity could we not find a better way of using the £86 million yearly running costs of the Tate Modern.

I am keen to get some photos of the city from a high level vantage point, one of the reasons for visiting the Tate was to gain entry to the roof gallery, a very impressive viewpoint and popular price!!!!!!!

Onwards over the Millenium Bridge towards St Pauls, its heaving with, humanity the more I see of humanity the more I love my dog, well if I had a dog!!!!!

Ive decided one of the few things I like about London is St Pauls it got class, its a pleasure to sit at its base taking a water break, watching a big screen of the Brownlee brothers winning gold and silver in the triathelon, more class!!!!!!!

All too soon our brief window to explore is over, we are whisked off to Lewishan for 2 hard days labour, Gardening, house cleaning, decoratiing and furniture moving.

The Millenium Bridge

 View from the top't Tate

 Tate exhibit

 Reflections of St Pauls
 

Great Gable via Napes Traverse and Westmorland Crag

Climbers on Pinnacle Ridge adjacent to Napes Needle

One thing that gets up my nose nowadays in fact since the great storm of 1987, is that the BBC and other weather forcasters always play it safe cos

nobody wants to be another Michael Fish so they always give you the case worst scenario....

Had been watching the weather for a couple of days it looked ok Monday, good on Tuesday, even better Wednesday thro Thursday.

So I made my plans accordingly for a crack of dawn start to go to the Lakes on Tuesday morning, Got up early, turned BBC breakfast on, Carol Kirkwood now predicted heavy rain by 11.00 and it would continue thro the rest of the day into the night.

On the strength of the latest info we had a relaxed start thinking we were not gonna get much done today. Plan B was to go to climbing at Bram Crag a recently developed venue 5 minutes walk off the road from Threlkeld down to St Johns in the Vale.

We arrived at 12.00, it was warm and sunny, we bagged 3 top quality rock climbs then a sharp downfall. Expecting this was the start of a substantial storm we retreated to the car and drove onto our accomodation at Grange in Borrowdale. The substantial storm petered out after 10 mins en route. So we had got settled in had a brew and went out for an evening walk to try and salvage something from the day it was a fantastic sunset.

WHY, WHY,WHY, can't the BBC just give us no bull(s)hit accurate weather forecasts.

Next morning we wake to misty conditions, plan A is to walk up to Napes via Taylor Gill then one of the best run of scrambles in the Lake District Threading the Needle, Napes Traverse, Sphinx Ridge then up to Westmorland Crag, topping out at the Cairn approx 200m from the summit of Great Gable. The clouds lift as we get to Taylor Gill and we are treated to incredible atmospherics. The rest of the day is hot and hazy, not enough water so we detour to a reliable spring and fill up.

Misty conditions at the wicket

Taylor Ghyll force thro the early morning mist

Traversing round to Kern Knotts Crag

Climbers above us on Tophet Wall

Looking down on Napes and Wasdale

Another Rescue Drama

The big bad ben looking very innocent

My mate Richard and his partner Carmel had decided to the The Long Climb on Ben Nevis the guidebook describes it as.

A route of alpine proportion finishing nr the summit of Ben Nevis is one of the finest mountaineering expeditions in the country. The route is neither totally clean or solid and in anything but perfect dry conditions it is likely to be much more serious than the grade suggests.

Now Ross, another guy in the hut, had done the climb in summer and I had done the winter version when is called the Orion Face Direct so we had a good idea of what was involved and we all had good natter about the proposed route the night prior to the ascent.

Come the next morning the Nevis team set of early before we got up, after a leisurely breakfast we set of for a day in Glen Nevis an area I had never climbed before. Glen Nevis is renowned for its midges but today there was a good breeze which kept them off and we had a superb day.

We had already done a couple of climbs when we met up with a local guide working for the Outward Bound org who gave us a lot of info about linking climbs on different buttress’s, something I will do on my next visit.

Back to Roybridge 6ish and Ross was back soon after he monster Marilyn bagging day out. I guess we were expecting the Nevis Team back around 7ish. So we cooked a meal and settled down in the lounge, at first the conversation was relaxed and easy.

8 o’clock came and it was getting dark, we reviewed the situation, I know Richard, who is a fireman, to be very competent and well capable of climbing the route but he was not familiar with the North Face of Ben Nevis. I knew less about Carmel who did not lead so if anything happened to Richard they would have to retreat.

We were aware that they have got the hut key for the Forestry Commission roads that knocks 2/3 hours off any ascent of Ben Nevis. On the other hand we knew they should have been back long before dark.

9 O’clock came and went, the tension mounted, Ross and I in analysis mode again breaking the day into sections estimating times for each section even adding several hours into the equation this confirms they should have been back a long time ago.

A car headlight comes onto the estate our hopes rise then the car drives past us, gutted.

We decide we would leave it until 10 then contact the rescue.

10 o’clock comes, I go to the kitchen notice board where there is a leaflet about info you need when you call out the rescue, I toy with my mobile phone.

10.05 I am making notes putting off the inevitable when I get a shout from the lounge a car has arrived, is it them or newcomers turning up, the external security light flicks on and we can see its them, they are back, thank god for that.

Its hugs all round as they come in the door, they know will have been worried sick. The route has been mossy, loose and wet taking longer than expected and they got lost coming down the forestry tracks in the car after dark.

But the big error was that they took the tourist route down to the half way lochan taking several hours longer than the direct Alt a’Mhulinn route. Something we had neglected to brief them on.

The tension is released and the beers flow so we are late going to bed.

Everything turned out fine but what would you do in that situation, at what point would you call out the rescue services???????

The North East Buttress of Ben Nevis Photos/Topo image from Climbing Guide 

Time Spent in Reconnaissance

Descending the ridge to Buttermere

Time spent in  is reconnaissance seldom wasted a saying that could be no further than the truth.

I try to visit quiet(er) places in August, don't visit the Lake District much cos its alway crowded did you know 95% of the visitors to our national parks never move more than 200metres form their car.......

And they all seem to want to go to the same place as me!!!!!!!

As it happened we spotted a window in the rain so drove up to our hut in Borrowdale. As usual we got the place to ourselves even in peak holiday period., I used to find this strange BUT apparently August is the month most of our members who are mainly mountaineers scatter all over the globe so it tends to be quiet for us stay at home types.

After dinner we went for a walk along the shore of Derwent Water not a very inspiring sunset BUT it was supposed to clear out for the next day. A sudden flurry of rain splattered the windows as we sipped whisky, perusing the library of climbing litriture lounging by the dying embers of the fire.

Wake up to sunshine streaming thro the window, today's plan was to scope out a potential photo of the sun setting behind Buttermere/Crumack water with Warnscale Bothy in the foreground. Last nights reading had inspired me and I was drawn to exploring Great Round Howe a crag I had walked past many times but not actually climbed on.

A light rack was packed alongside the cheese sandwichs.

Not the earliest of starts BUT we wern't late either, at Buttermere village parking there were few parking places free, Gatesgarth qas complete so I had to sneak into a roadside pullout. It always amazes me why folks drive past pull outs to the pay carpark.

Our walk started along Warnscale Bottom taking the right hand branch footpath leading up to Warnscale Bothy. Its real neat sleeps maybe three and had 2 pepes in residence.

There were a lot of folks on the surrounding footpaths, our cameras acted as a magnet to several teams who would have normally walked on by.

We crossed the main Haystacks/Coast to Coast path up to Great Round Howe, suprise , suprise at last we got somewhere to ourselves.

Did a couple single pitch climbs on superb rock, I feel my inner self come alive on the fantastic friction with edges just where you wanted them.

H then decides she wanted to climb Haystacks which was not part of the original plan, its afternoon and we meet dozens of tired C2Cers and the inevitable, Do you know how far is it to Cherry Blossom Cottage? has it got a bath....? are we nearly there yet?

Our final hill would be Fleetwith Pike via a banana stop at Dubs Quarry Bothy, Jekyll and Hyde hill this one, boring from Honister BUT has thee bestest footpaths in the Lakes down the ridge to Buttermere.

Great day out, back to the hut, another team of three old friends have turned up so its a lively catch up evening.

Next morning we wake up to the pitter patter of rain.

Time to go home BUT 'I'll be back' to spend a night at Warnscale sometime round next summers solstice.

Warnscale Bothy all thats missing is a sunset

Extract from the FRCC guidebook

 H topping out on Great Round Howe

Overlooking Great Gable 

How far is it to Rosthwaith

To call a rescue

This photo does not do it justice BUT this is the point as you approach the CIC hut you realise just how big Ben Nevis is:- Tower ridge is the first ridge on the right, The incident described happened where the main face is marked Observatory Buttress......

Conditions were stable, weather fine until late afternoon when it was due to deteriate. Four of us had an early start and walked into the North Face of Ben Nevis our two mates decided to do a rapid ascent of the Grade III Classic Tower Ridge *** while we opted for the Grade V,5 Vanishing Gully** on the west side of Tower Ridge its a short tough route which should allow us an early finish before the bad weather hit-Well that was the plan.

Everything went fine for us and we finished our route on Tower Ridge in thick mist and heavy snow, here you have an option of going up to the summit plateau or reversing down the ridge, we opted for the latter.

We had not decended far when we heard an ominous clattering and aaaaargh followed by some more clattering, someone had taken a bad fall across on the Orion Face area. From Tower ridge they were very close to us so we could hear them clearly despite not seeing them thro thick mist.

We shouted are you ok, relief as they replied yes but we are hanging in space....oh (S)hit.

Cut a long story short the they were on Obsevatory Ridge one of the many BIG 3*** classics in that area, the leader had slipped draging the second off his stance so they were both falling when one of the ropes snagged on a spike, stopped them but they had been seperated and both of them were hanging in space.

This was before the days of mobile phones so we descended quickly to the CIC hut where there was (still is) a field telephone for emergency use. By now the wind was almost knocking us off our feet and we were glad to get into the hut out of the blizzard.

Thankfully there were three guys in the hut but the (b)astards would not contact the police on just our word, after 20 frantic minutes trying to get them to use the phone I was raving. As a last resort I went over to the log book where every hut user has to sign in. Ripped out a page from the back and wrote down the name of the three residents, shall I say all of them were well known Scottish mountaineers....

I said its 17.00hrs now so I am going down to the fort bill nick {a 2hr walk) to report this incident and the fact that these three guys have refused to phone the message in doing so risked lives and delayed this rescue by at least 2 hrs.

So they reluctantly made the call.

Our problems were not over though, light was failing and we walked off the hill in the darkness, back at the car our 2 mates failed to show, so we reported them missing. The rescue team were in the back room at the nick preparing to go out, they had a busy night ahead. Apparently 11 folks were reported missing, conditions were grim, getting grimer, the rescue services do an amazing job, I did not envy them setting off up the hill in this storm.

We got lucky, found our mates at the chippy at 23.00 hrs they had been caught in the atrocious conditions and escaped by the tourist route the only safe way of the hill that night, we notified the police that they were safe and went back to our digs at the Alex Mac hut.

Monday morning back at work a guy showed me the Daily Express there was a sensational full page 'artists impression' sketch of daring rescue on Ben Nevis. It showed two guys on a steep cliff dangling in space from a rope snagged on a protruding spike with the rescue services lowering from the ridge above to reach them......

 Another view of the North Face from the CMD ridge