Mission Aborted

In the interests of maintaining balance here and just to show that things don't always go to plan, my latest foray into th'ills, went something like this.

The original plan (and yes, there is a cautionary tale about sticking to your original plan!) was for a walk, more specifically, Catbells and Maiden Moor in the North Western Lake District Fells. The weather has been grim for the best part of a month, barely a dry spell in amongst seemingly endless rain. So a walk seemed like the sensible option, I couldn't think of a single spot that might be dry enough to climb.

Then something happened. A cursory check of the weather forecast and there they were, 2 days of brilliant sunshine, a whole weekend! A quick consult with my partner for the day and we agreed, sun after all this rain was just too good an opportunity to pass up, we had to climb.

So Catbells was put on the back burner and a plan B was quickly drawn up, we'd head across to Wilton, this decision being helped by another climber buddy announcing a party were headed that way and they'd see us there.

I picked Nathan up and we were in good spirits, the thought that this might not be the best plan, never entering our heads, this despite the snow covered tops in the distance.

We parked at the Wilton 3 car park and trudged up the hill towards the quarry, the fresh snow crunching underfoot. Although, late morning by now, the winter sun was very low. Would any of the crag be in sunlight?

 

 

No was the answer, well, apart from a small section away from the main crag, which contains a handful of good bouldering problems but nothing more. The rock was dry though in quite a few places and when the wind dropped, standing in the sunshine, it felt quite pleasant. But the wind didn't drop that often and the crag was swathed in shadow, occasional glints of sunlight here and there bringing thoughts of what might have been.

Undaunted however, Nathan chose a particularly dark corner of the quarry and a HVD to start. Damn it was cold gearing up, Nathan racking up between bouts of blowing into cupped hands. I didn't even take my gloves off!

He set off, got 5 or so feet off the ground, placed some gear, moved up, looked for some more gear, which was difficult, what with the icicles in the way! I got the sense that even Nathan, who is probably even more enthusiastic about climbing than I am, was starting to doubt that this was a good plan! I suggested we abort and try and find sunnier spots.......I think Nathan was down climbing even before I'd finished the sentence!

As we were packing the gear away, our friends from LCCC arrived and were setting up base camp in the only sunlit spot in the quarry. We wandered over for a chat. They were bouldering only, maybe moving to Wilton 2 later. I suggested Brownstones to Nathan, a bouldering only venue about a mile down the road, surely there'd be a bit of sun there?!

No, is the answer! The path leading to this miniature gem of a quarry, was flooded, seriously flooded! We had to scramble up the bank, through the brambles, just to navigate a way around what was a path but was now a pond!

On finally arriving at the first section of quarry, ironically named 'The Pond Area', well, judge for yourselves what our reaction might have been!

The whole area was underwater! There IS a pond here, but it was now buried under this lake!

There was one last option, at the far end of the quarry and we headed over there but by then, we were pretty much downhearted and defeated. My mind was already wondering at what might have been if we'd stuck to our original plan of Catbells.

And so we aborted for the second time that day, cold and beaten, we retreated back to the car and headed home.

So the first snow on the hills......and I spend the day searching for climbs in a dark damp Lancashire Quarry..... bloody marvellous!