UKC

Climbed the downfall today not bad plenty ice,pretty solid.Good value anyway.

In reply to mac7120:

I give it a few hours before it's hacked to pieces by the masses.

In reply to mac7120:

good effort, i'm off there tomorrow night.

can we delete this thread please.

In reply to mac7120:

Just curious, how long is it and how hard? Lots of people seem to talk about it and I know nothing about it (cos I live in Ayrshire).

Thanks

Stuart

In reply to Oceanic:

Looks worth doing if you lived thereabouts, does it have a grade as such, first ascentionists known?

Stuart

In reply to Stuart the postie:

For (very rare)good conditions I've heard people say IV for the central line and III for the right hand line.

On the day the photo was taken the central icicle hadn't touched down so I started up the right hand line and then traversed across to the central line, it was hard IV I guess.

Shortly afterwards the ice fall above the main pitch fell down. Fortunately I wasn't underneath it at the time, but I certainly learnt a lesson about ice falls and sunshine that day!

There are some other grade II/III ice falls in the area as well

In reply to Oceanic:

I wonder if High Force ever freezes?

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=high+force&um=1&ie=UT...

Some more possibles;

http://www.walkingenglishman.com/dalesguide/waterfalls/master.htm

In reply to sutty:
it certainly has before sometime in 1920,s and about 10 ish years back it was climbed on it,s edges as the central section was running and not complete ! needs a good deep freeze as you would imagine !

jas-work

In reply to sutty:

type in high force frozen and you get this:

http://www.bentleybeetham.org/media/.gallery/main52.jpg

In reply to Anonymous:

someone should check these out;

http://www.go4awalk.com/userpics/briandavidson9.php
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/912356

In reply to sutty:

Couple of 30-40ft waterfalls in Force gill on Whernside that would probably go at about III/IV.

In fact they may well be frozen now.............

In reply to Oceanic:

Any chance you could add the routes with winter grades into the database?
http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=134

Thanks!

In reply to Clauso:

So what?

In reply to Oceanic: really? I havent seen it frozen apart from in pictures, looking at the one you posted it doesnt look like it would be hard IV in the middle (assuming the icicle fully forms) to me?
Perhaps its steeper than it looks in the photo?

In reply to Tony the Blade:

So nothing. It was merely an observation based on the number of people who must be sat within 20 miles of the thing sharpening their ice axes.

That okay with you?

In reply to Clauso:

Yep - succinct answer very well put.

In reply to Tony the Blade:

Good stuff... They'd better be quick, if they're going to hack about on it, anyhow. It seems to be distinctly warmer around that side of Kinder today.

In reply to mac7120:

I wonder if this little(!) beauty is starting to form up yet:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1402/1322487535_f0fb4ceee4.jpg?v=0

and in winter:

http://www.hardrawforce.com/images/waterfall/waterfallfrozen01b.jpg

Chris

PS I am unaware of any winter ascent!

In reply to Clauso:

Better off round at the north facing Shining Clough.

Ps don't tell anyone!

In reply to sutty:
They'd have to pretty much shut off the flow from Cow Green, I'd have thought.

In reply to sypmc:

Mum's the word!

In reply to mac7120:

from a friend up yesterday:

http://76.163.68.82/gallery/photos/main/11075.jpg

In reply to mac7120: Shining Clough, visible from the road so easy to check if in condition, and normally very quiet by comparision to the Downfall, but there are also some more, you just need to get out and explore.

In reply to mac7120:

Looks like it was barely worth the walk in to kinder tbh

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

Now done. I took the route descriptions from an article by Jerry Rawson which was published in Climber and Rambler in February 1985. He didn't grade the routes in his article, and I've only done one of the routes in entirety, so the grades are best guesses.

In reply to Oceanic:

I have put them in the correct place in the Database and renamed SW Corner as Downfall Climb.


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Thanks I've changed Jerry Rawson's description of Downfall climb to say 'Start up ... South Corner' rather than 'Start up ... South West Corner' to bring it into line with the modern name for the summer route.

In reply to Graeme Hammond:

Hi There,
any contact details for the 'friend' - we might be able to use that in the new Western Grit?

Cheers

Chris

I'm in the Peak this weekend. Is it worth packing axes and poons or just stick to the grit?

Cheers,

Simon

In reply to simonw1:

Stick to Grit, it's all melting, temps up to +10c

In reply to Anonymous:

not yet they arent. still pretty chilly in manchester this am, and not set to warm up till sunday.

In reply to Chris Craggs:


Hi Chris,
that appears to a photo of me and my dad climbing the downfall on tuesday 6th. Not sure who took it though as there were several people around at the base. Really good day out, only my third winter route in this country
Nick

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

It's currently +6c, and set to rise

In reply to Anonymous:

Dear anonymous armchair climber - while you were spouting cr*p, we were climbing a fairly frozen Kinder Downfall. Unless this was a spoiler to keep folk away from it.

In reply to nicwes01:

Cheers, I will contact you direct for full details,

Chris