Pavey Ark

I was all set for the Peak when Sarah gets a text from Jen Thursday evening, wondering if we fancy joining them in the Lake District for the weekend. A friend of Bruno's mum's owns a cottage near Coniston, and they're up for a week. This is somewhat of a dilemma. The Lakes is normally beyond my pain threshold in terms of weekend warrioring. The AA route planner suggests a 500 mile roundtrip, and five and a half hours each way, sticking to speed limits. On the other hand, it's a chance to play in some of the finest mountain scenery of the land, weather gods willing. Sarah's keen. I'm more hesitant. Looking at the AA thingy again, it's actually only another 60 miles further than a Peak trip to Hathersage, and most of it is actually motorway. I reluctantly agree.

We set off around 6.30pm Friday evening. We take almost nothing apart from climbing gear. I don't own any guide books for the Lakes, bar one section off the Rockfax Northern Lime Stone on Cumbria, but it only includes road-side crags. Sarah drives. The journey is actually not that bad - M5 to Birmingham, M6 to Lancaster, and four hours later we're within the boundaries of the park. We get a bit lost on the last section of micro navigation, but after we miraculously manage to find an inverted eon-flux of mobile reception in the middle of the dark nowhere, Bruno puts us back on the right track, and soon we're holed up in front of a log fire.

The slate cottage is magnificent, all low wooden beams and rustic charm. We say hello to Bruno's mum, Helen, and thankfully wolf up some food. Around the table we soon drift off into the somewhat trainspotty speak that climbers do, discussing routes, swapping long tales, occasionally pausing to explain terms, grades etc to Helen. "It's like a foreign language" she says.

There are so many historic crags around here, and I've never climbed in the Lakes. In fact, I've only ever been here once before, and that was way back when, years before I actually started climbing. But as the climbing geek I am, I am familiar with names like Gimmer, Pavey Ark, Dow, Raven Crag etc. This is as far away as one can get in the UK from the convenience climbing offered by roadside grit. Bruno suggests Gimmer or Pavey Ark, as they're both within a short drive (and a long walk). We settle for Pavey, as the walk-in is a bit easier, allowing Helen to join us to the foot of the crag.

The next morning we wake up to blue skies and sunshine. The view from the cottage is simply breathtaking. It's easy to forget that countryside like this exists on these densly populated isles. We stop off in Consiton for supplies and I purchase the Langdale guide book. As we drive Bruno points out all the crags along the way. So much rock. We park at the New Dungeon Ghyll hotel, and begin the sweaty slog up the hill. Some 40 mins or so later the imposing expanse of Pavey Ark comes into view and we set down our packs on the edge of Sickle Tarn. We eat some of our provisions, and flick through the guide book. Sarah and Jen are set to do a 3-starred, 3-pitch VS on the right of the crag. I'm no match for Bruno, with a trad onsighting grade eclipsing mine at least four notches. He suggests a 5-pitch E3 which apparently is soft. The E3s I've led before are easily counted on one hand, not even requiring the use of all fingers, and none of them have been on-sight. As this is a new crag, and rock-type for me, and I don't really want to be the reason we have an epic. We settle on the 3-star E1 'Capella' up to the mid-height rake, and then pick another route once we get there to get us to the top.

The first pitch is mine. It goes up a blocky groove next to a tree before sepping out on a blank-looking slab. The climbing is great, little shallow finger pockets keep appearing, as does nut slots. You can't see them until they're right under your nose. The pitch is 32 metres, and I'm enjoying every one of them. It seems clear that at least so far the route is low in grade. I rig a belay on the wide ledge from a nut and a sling around the sturdy holly. Bruno soon joins me, and we swap the rack over. His pitch starts off to the left, trending slightly right to avoid an overhanging wall, and then straight up a set of grooves and short walls. He soon disappears out of sight. He's really moving fast, and before I know it the safe call comes. This pitch is very unbalanced - a few interesting moves right off the belay, but the rest is an easy romp that feels out of place. I join Bruno at the bealy, and we scramble up the grassy bank up to the half-height rake after the customary cheesy belay photo with camera at arm's length. I certainly picked the plum pitch, it seems. From the rake we have options. Just above us another E1 called 'Aardvark' (**) heads up to the top of the crag. This one has a tech grade of 5c, so should be more interesting. As Bruno's pitch didn't really involve any proper climbing, he takes this one. Not that a route of this grade will stretch him, but still. This one climbs a soaring arete after some steepness and a step to the left after a rusty peg. A cam goes in, and a sling around the peg - it's not looking that healthy, so a tie-off seems the safest option. The crux is a short traverse under the roof and a mantle onto a sloping shelf to its left. Another cam at the end of the traverse, and he's standing on the shelf. Tip-toeing rightwards onto the arete, he soon vanishes out of sight. My go now. Getting to the place from where Bruno tied off the peg, I can't reach it. I step up a bit further, holding on with my left on a sharp little spike, managing to untie the peg. Swapping my hands over, I also retract the yellow alien at the end of the roof. The mantle itself isn't that bad. The arete itself is awesome, the rock being almost conglomerate-like, shallow, but positive holds everywhere, and, to use a guide book cliche - in a fine position. At the top of the pitch it's actually quite cold. We scramble up the last vdiff pitch unroped. We look for the girls at the summit, but don't really expect to be seeing them - we've moved efficiently, and they had a party ahead of them just starting out. We amble down Jack's Rake back to our packs at the foot of the climb. The rake itself is a curious feature - a diagonal path cutting the width of the crag left to right allowing an easy walk to or from the summit.

While we wait for Sarah and Jen we sit down for some post match analysis. On reflection, we could probably have gone up a grade or two. Bruno's keen on trying another one, but it's already gone five. We've just finished packing up when Sarah and Jen joins us. They've had a nice climb, with Sarah leading two pitches and really enjoying it. They'd had to wait around for ages at the base, and at every belay, waiting for an incredibly slow-moving party ahead of them, but this doesn't seem to have distracted from the experience. Sarah loved the whole multi-pitching mountain route thing. We walk down to join Helen at the Tarn, and start the descent. The descent follows a stream punctuated by pools and small waterfalls from the tarn, and in the heat every step makes the thought of a quick dip more tempting. Nearly at the bottom Jen, Bruno and I jump in. The water is chilly without being freezing, and very refreshing. Bruno tries some hand traversing across a fallen tree trunk that spans the stream. We've attracted a bit of a crowd of walkers viewing us with a puzzled look. We dry off and wander down for a well-deserved pint. Back at the cottage, Helen cooks us dinner (Swedish meat balls no less), and we crawl into bed, tired but contented in the way that only a day in the hills can make you feel.

The next day we decide to go bouldering. The weather looks good, but thunderstorms are forecast for the afternoon, so we'd rather not be half way up some multipitch when that hits. After a brief excursion looking for a small bouldering venue nearby (Virtual Crag) we eventually give up and head for the Langdale boulders. The heat is stifling; not ideal bouldering conditions, but we have fun. Sarah's doing well, beating me to the small slab at the back with all chips eliminated. I have a few half-hearted goes at some of the slightly harder problems after Bruno demos, but I'm contented working the easy circuit up to V2 or so. At five there's still no sign of the predicted weather, but given the drive Sarah and I have infront of us we pack up and head back to the cottage. Bruno's sister Katie has arrived, and Helen's prepared a backberry pie for us! We'd picked loads of them in the morning, as they're growing literally everywhere around the cottage and next to the road. We have a cup of tea and a slice of pie in the garden before we pack up our stuff and head off. Bruno and Jen are staying until Thursday before heading east to Yorkshire where Bruno's got his mind set on some grade 8 routes at Malham and Kilnsey. Jen's keen on some crack practice in the Peak, so we might even see them next weekend.

The drive south passes without incident, and we're back in Bristol at 10.30pm, four hours almost to the minute after we set off. The Lakes are clearly within reach for a weekend, with a bit of luck with the traffic.