UKC

Anyone know or can list the total number of climbs on Quarryfoot buttress in the 80s?

SORRY IT SHOULD BE QUAYFOOT BUTTRESS near The Bowderstone in the Lakes

In reply to fanggy:

The 1990 Borrowdale guide lists 13 routes (and 4 variations) at Quayfoot.

Meshak VS 1973
Shadrach VS 1970
The Mound MVS 1969
Quayfoot Buttress VD 1946
Catafalque HVS 1976 (var. Loitering with Intent E4 1981)
The Crypt Direct E1 1971 (var Original Finish HVS 1969) (var The In Between E1 1985)
The Go Between E2 1981
Brain Stain E4 1982
Mandrake HVS 1964
Aberration MVS 1965
Irony HVS 1961
The Creep HVS 1965
The Girdle Traverse HVS 1969 (var Variation Finish E1 1969)

I hope this helps.

If you need any more details please ask.

In reply to August West:

















Hi and thanks for at least replying. Irony or Aberration? Perhaps but they still dont feel right. I was so impressed with what I did-annd I was a middle grade climber- that I wrote a very short story later on- I ama writer, poetry and fiction. This is a vignette 300 words:

Hanging Out

“There's the slab.” The description fits — at a stretch of the imagination. No mention of the buttress to its left. Hey Ho! Dick ropes up, shoots off. Ten minutes later, hardly off the ground, he surrenders with a muffled curse. Uncharacteristic.
‟Mind if I take a quick look?” Curiosity runs riot. Quick becomes prolonged. Without doubt, it's a struggle but inch by inch I'm twenty feet higher. Competition is fair play.
Hard for V. Diff. A variant start? Must be huge holds up there. I can't make them out because it's kinda vertical. Stubbornness pushes me thirty feet higher. The crack in the corner runs out, though the slab on the right is supposed to have the line. Challenging work. What am I trying to prove?
Sun blushes. Stygian clouds cover the sky.
An ill fitting runner ― my only protection― flinches. Too high to leap from and the landing is ugly. Above, the surface is perpendicular. No line across the slab. No grip for rubbers. Purgatory comes to mind. I think of Pauline. Four children. The game turns into survival.
An irritating “You O.K?” penetrates the air.
I study geography in detail. A pebble. Rugosities. Diminutive undulations. Signs of wear? Hints of a traverse? Which foot first? What lies beyond? What is there left but hope?
“Climbing,” repeated a dozen times. Good for the psyche. Toes ache. Legs tremble. Oh, what the hell!
Pebble is a pinch grip, solid as grit. Nobbles. Pieces of quartz. What is it about crystals?
I soft shoe shuffle. I'm a fly on a wall. I'm steep sticky.
A strip of land appears. A runway? A five pence piece? A centime? PLEASE.
Curtain falls. The drama ends.
“Not as bad as it looks.” Relief fills the Albert Hall.

Perhaps rock fall changed or obliterated the route

A drawing would go up across and up to a ledge. Above was an overhanging section which we didn't do- we'd had enough excitement

thanks for your trouble

bernard lord

In reply to fanggy:
I'm curious about this, because having climbed off and on in Borrowdale for about 50 years it was only about 5 years ago that I even discovered the cliff existed when I was taken up a HVS there.Was I simply miissing out or was it something else?

In reply to jcw:

It's a hidden gem! Most people frolic about at the Bowderstone area. Oh, but we did find and do Quayfoot Buttress ( V Diff!) some years later but we never went back to see if there were any others.

I think I may contact my climbing partner Dick Mitchell, a retired GP from Kendal who followed me up it. It just goes to show you that climbing is really 99.9 per cent psychological. I should never have done it if I'd known. I didn't have the gear to protect it like there is today. I kept my cool, knew that reversing was far worse than trying to traverse and the traverse only became visible after pin point observation over what seemed like quarter of an hour. Then I just put trust in myself. Must have been VS or HVS where I usually seconded MVS or VS!

What was the one you were taken up? Did you see any other route similar to what I described? If Dick can find out, I'll let you know_ if it still exists. It's a cracking route! Did you like the story?

In reply to fanggy:
Mandrake which I did Sept 2008. And I see from above it was put up in 1964.
I note you speak of a Dick Mitchell. Did he in his youth work in the ODG?

In reply to jcw:

No, I don't think so but I'll ask him.

I'm thinking it might have been Aberration, I think it was a lot cleaner in those days. It seems to be very polished today .

I remember thinking the traverse on the slab of first pitch ( or wherever it was!) had not had much traffic so must only have been climbed just now and then, and there were no trees about on the climb- but we stopped when we got to the ledge and there was plenty of rock above.
thanks for your interest

In reply to fanggy:
BETA ALERT.
mandrake can be done as a single pitch on 50m ropes, which just reach the belay trees on stretch.as such its the best single pitch HVS in , erm , er ....the world