Carrock: Repairs and Restoration

Lots of repairs and groundwork have been going on at Carrock Fell of late. Following on from Adam Hocking sorting out the landing of what became Dan Varian's new problem, Get a Grip, Dan returned the favour by shifting the the large block below Punks Life. This both makes the sit start project a better proposition, as well as opening up an off-the-deck stand up start - which also remains a project. The original version stepping off the block is unaffected.

Up on the Mint Wall I've glued the central hold back, re-establishing the quality 7C+, Mint Royale and the central 7A Orison . Thanks to Jon Freeman for collecting the broken hold and handing it on to me. Hopefully it will stay put - it does take a fair amount of weight.

Over on the Leopold Wall myself and Dan Varian (to be fair Dan did most of the work) completely shifted the big block to the immediate left of Leopold Von Buch making the landing far flatter and meaning you need less pads to try the problem.

Mint Wall Breakage

Unfortunately the useful obvious edge in the centre of Carrock Fell's Mint Wall has recently snapped off, rendering Orison and Mint Royale much harder/defunct.

Jon Freeman has rescued the hold so if possible it will be glue back in place at some point.

St. Bees North: Central Descent Further Damage

I have heard reports that the main and most frequently used central descent at St. Bees Head North has suffered yet another fairly sizeable rockfall/mudslide.

Although the descent is still usable the insitu assurance ropes and anchor points should be treated with extreme caution. If you are at all usure and/or its extremely windy I would strongly recommended using the furthest northern descent.

Photo: Seen better days - Tom Burns ascending the then relatively pristine central descent some 8 years ago.

Lad Stones Guide Released

Finally, one of the last best bouldering areas to get documented properly is complete.

The Lad Stones offer a brilliant hard circuit, situated on the southern flanks of Wetherlam, east of Levers Water and the Coppermines Valley. Two vast 2000 ton blocks and a few smaller satellites provide a circuit of some 50 odd problems, nothing too unusual about that. However, where the Lad Stones stand apart from other areas with a similar quota of climbs is their grade spread ratio – 60% of the problems are in the 7’s and 8’s spectrum!

I have thoroughly enjoyed putting this guide together and climbing most of the problems in the process (all but 3 at the time of writing). Big thanks to the numerous individuals who have also been up there enjoying the venue and giving valuable feedback.

I've also updated the Lad Stones Gallery, which is also well worth checking out to get a better idea of the problems on offer.

Image goes directly to guide (PDF - 3.75mb):

Anyway without further ado here she blows, I hope you enjoy the area as much as I do:

http://www.lakesbloc.com/guides/ladstones-guide.pdf

Improved Videos Section

I have completely overhauled the videos section of the site, so it is a proper database of clips. Now if you click on the 'Videos' link in the LH menu column, you will be greeted by a list of crags/venues, after selecting your desired venue you will see a list of the current additions by problem name and grade. Each of these has its own page and is embedded to a large scale where possible (i.e. when the clip quality allows) and the ability for the user to comment on any particular video.

Please feel free to submit additions via email, Facebook or commenting below this post.

New videos section: http://www.lakesbloc.com/videos.html

Traci Lords Landing Improved

Over the weekend, myself and George North did a proper job of platforming out the landing below the excellent Traci Lords (8A) face at the Lad Stones.

It was previously a bit of stretch to pull on even with a very thick/folded pad, and the hole to the right made the landing a bit iffy. With the new groundwork complete it's now really easy to pull on and work the problem, plus the landing is much safer - i.e. it's good. You now only really need a single large pad to climb the problem if you have a spotter or two pads if you're on your own. I also added a couple of new problems hereabouts, which I'll write up on the site soon.

Carrock Fell Fell Gallery Updated

Added quite a few new images to the Carrock Fell gallery, hope they help you get psyched for autumn/winter...

http://www.lakesbloc.com/galleries/315-carrock-fell-gallery.html