My brother David called me late one night to tell me that a mate of his had been waxing lyrical about a certain climbing route in the Lake District. This particular mate knows his onions. He has an extensive climbing portfolio including several trips to the alps. For him to describe this route as one of his all time favourites grabbed our attention. The route? Troutdale Pinnacle.
Black Crag from the approach
It follows an interesting line up black crag, Borrowdale in the Lake District. It’s graded severe and is a total of 114m (375ft).
After hearing the second hand description of the route from David, I checked my favourite coffee table climbing book ‘Classic Rock‘ for pictures and a bit more information. Sure enough the route was in there, with an inspiring write up and some really impressive pictures. That was it – sold!
I called my mate Justin, knowing he’s a big fan of Lake District climbing, especially the bigger routes, and asked him if he wanted to come along. He was well up for it, and arranged to meet David and I en-route.
We parked at the side of the road about half a mile down the road from the entrance to the walk-in to the climb. The walk was extremely pleasant, passing through an open meadow with a stream running through it, Black Crag looming ominously above the tree line ahead of us. We tramped our way up the steep, stoney path through the wood to the base of the climb.
The start of the climb
We arrived to find 2 teams gearing up at the base of the crag. It turned out that they were climbing the ‘Super Direct’ route, next to us. We waited for them to clear the first pitch as we geared up.
I started the proceedings. Pitch 1 was pretty easy really. I placed 3 pieces of gear, one of which popped out as I moved past it. I soon found myself in a good belay position. David climbed the next pitch which finished on a small but pleasant slab, he brought Justin and I up from his position next to a huge block which served as a useful belay spike. We must have been pretty steady away because as we readied ourselves for the next pitch, our belay stance was starting to get busy. A team of 3, lead by an experienced lass, used to climbing in Scotland were stacking up behind us.
Justin set off up the next pitch, with a view to ending up under a large rock roof at the edge of a nicely exposed slab. Only 15 metres, but instead of heading slightly left, Justin somehow managed to wander off to the right and got completely stuck. After about 30 minutes and some bush whacking he eventually got back on track and found the desired belay position.
As I made my way up as the second, Justin shouted “STOP! Gareth, it’s come off!” What he meant was that the coiled rope near his feet had slid down and off the end of the slab. I thought he meant that his belay had come to pieces! Anyway, I found a comfortable position while he sorted it out. As we waited for David to arrive I looked across the exposed slab. I was looking forward to moving across, but I felt a bit nervous about the steep moves moving off the slab to the next belay stance. I had a picture of it in the ‘Classic Rock‘ book, and thought it looked a bit ‘out-there’ then.
Me moving up from the exposed slab
Once we were all assembled, I set off across the deliciously exposed, but well protected slab. The going was pretty easy and I quickly found myself beneath the steeper part of the pitch, the part I had felt slightly nervous about. I stepped up and placed a piece of gear, I then moved up and to the left, finding myself in a position where protection for the next couple of moves would be difficult. I did try a couple of options for gear placement. Neither were any good so I decided to move on instead, slightly nervous, as a fall at this point would have meant decking out on the slab then probably slithering off the edge! I needn’t have worried, a change in position revealed a bomber hold which I gratefully used to hoist myself to a more secure position. I moved up to a large block which I used a spike for a kind of hanging belay (which after a good half hour of belaying from it, I came to regret).
David Nearing the top (and the reported crux)
I belayed Justin and David across the slab together, then tied David’s rope off as Justin climbed the steep part. Justin clipped into the belay system and I belayed David the rest of the way.
We elected to combine the last 2 pitches, as the next pitch in our guide book seemed little more than a short scramble. This meant that the final pitch fell to David, he made short work of most of it, only stalling for some huffing and puffing (and a quiet word with himself) for the final exposed move. Once he had set a belay up, I shot up after him (shot being the operative word, the fullness of my bladder was starting to reach emergency status). Justin came up after with a big grin on his face, a fitting tribute to how we all felt about the climb we had just completed.
I sat for a moment looking out over Derwent water, totally at one with myself. It’s a state that only adrenaline sports allow me to achieve. What a fantastic day and a truly awesome climb. Next time we’ll take the super direct route for a tougher challenge!
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