With Easter almost upon us it’s always nice to try and find somewhere in UK where you can spend your bonus days off in a location which is preferably scenic, perhaps a little tranquil and most importantly has a focal point to concentrate ones efforts.
On bank holiday weekends finding a destination which fits the above criteria can prove taxing for those with even the most detailed knowledge of these fair isles most forgotten backwaters; step forward the Duddon Valley, Lingy and his cohorts.
Image: Liz Crane on Storm in a Teacup (Ft4)
Image: Lingy Von Bong Chops (Ft7a+)
Click Here for a short Video Clip of this problem
Be warned if you’re after the next Bowderstone or Langdale Boulders then turn back now. This collection of beautifully set blocks is tailor made for the boulderer with a mountain heart and an eye for the scenic, whose day can be fulfilled just as easily by the ambience of an area as it can by a hard send. Well after that flooring blow I’ll haul you back up off the deck and tell you why you SHOULD visit this area. As previously stated the area is scenic to the extreme and despite the scattered nature of the blocks has some really fine climbing on great rock with generally good landings and problems up to Ft7c/V9! There are also a number of neat projects still to do, so don’t forget a stiff nylon brush.
The fist port of call, if approached from the base of the Walna Scar road, is the fantastically named “Lingy Stone”, a heather hat wearing block which has the peculiar air of a giant petrified toad, erm, sporting a mullet. This boulder and its neighbor have the highest concentration of problems of all the sectors and in Lingy Vong Bong Chops (Ft7a+), Mullets for Toads (Ft6b+), Crack Baron (Ft6b) and The Best Forgotten Traverse (Ft7b) have problems to match any of there grade in the lakes. Also check out the bizarre quartz and runnel features of Storm in a Teacup (Ft4), which look amazingly like a giant weather symbol.
Image: The Lingy Stone from Long Ho
Next up is Horse How a wall of unimaginable perfection 300m up the hillside from the Lingy Stone. This wall currently only purveys three problems from Ft5 to ft6b all of which are two or three stars, but has room for at least another 5 lines. A couple of hundred meters up the hill from Horse How is a yet undeveloped block (The Pike Boulder) which would appear to offer a further 3 or so unclimbed lines.
Image: An Irish Ladder (Ft7a)
Over the hill and far away.
Back to the track and a short stroll up over the brow the hill will have you face to face with Seathwaite Tarn, a picturesque little lake which will, I’m sure, evoke any number of superlatives. In 2003 the tarn - which incidentally doubles as a reservoir - was the site of an archeological dig, this uncovered a Bronze Age site which is thought to have been important for ceremonial purposes and also used a burial site, so keep a check on whether that really is an old sheep bone Rex is chomping on, and not the shin bone of some ancient Bronze Age overlord! Enough of the history lesson and back to the climbing, there are three more little areas around the tarn, these are Shudderstone How, The Damside Boulder, Black Allen’s Shed and the Foss How Boulders. Without procrastinating around the bush too much there are essentially three stand-pout lines at these venues (Darkness Before Dusk Ft7c, An Irish Ladder Ft7a and Knife Arête Ft6a) and a number of decent projects. Full details of which can be found in this freely downloadable guide: Seathwaite Bouldering Circuit.
Image: Darkness Before Dusk (Ft7c)
So all that’s left to say is have fun, leave the fells as you found them and if you do any new problems report them to the appropriate authorities – info@lakesbloc.co.uk
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