UKC

With a lot of routes in the Lakes not getting climbed enough, Arc'teryx wanted to remind people that the climbing here is still some of the best in the UK. With the help of local shops, Needle Sports and The Climbers Shop we put together a list of 50 classic routes that need reviving.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=69140

In reply to UKC News:

Shouldn't they be wearing helmets in a BMC sponsored video about rarely climbed routes that need cleaning because they haven't been climbed in a while?

In reply to UKC News:

Off the beaten track, far east raven????

And the helmet was on the wrong head. You have just cleaned a neglected route and lead wearing a helmet whilst your belayer stands below un protected.

How about a climbing revival where we keep advertising and commercial interests away from our crags.

I am having a grumpy day but stuff like this really gets my goat.

No I do not want a free chalk bag

In reply to foxjerk:


Surely they can wear helmets if they want to - just like any of us? Anything else would be the BMC dictating to climbers how they should be climbing - something I would be very careful about advocating, however clear-cut a situation may appear at first glance to a climber from a particular background.

Did anyone get hit on the head?... Thought not.

In reply to UKC News:
Lovely, entertaining video. But I'm not quite sure it's doing its job from the 'marketing' Lakes routes perspective! I'm not so certain *these* routes are some of the best in the UK after watching.

The closest we got to praise for the actual routes climbed was "err, yeah, it was umm worthwhile" - and watching top climbers bottle out of filthy E4s onto filthy E1s because the approach (to a valley crag) was so demoralising there was no time to clean the route...classic stuff, but might struggle to top the nominations for "most inspirational climbing video"...

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Agreed. It might have been better if they'd cleaned Nagasaki Grooves beforehand and then filmed an ascent of it. It does have holds and gear in it BTW.

In reply to UKC News:

Where is the list?

In reply to foxjerk:

How about you get off your high horse and stop trying to force your opinions on other people?
It's a personal choice whether people want to wear helmets...

In reply to UKC News:

Great video, made me want to go climb in the Lake District

In reply to UKC News:

Long live the Lakes! Let's go climbing!

In reply to GuyVG:


It reinforced my admittedly prejudiced view of the Lakes as a a load of overgrown choss - I'm probably now less likely to be heading south anytime soon

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Is the E1 filthy??

In reply to Robert Durran:


Great comment, made me want to go climb in the lake district

In reply to UKC News:

Toe-curlingly awful.
Another grab for outside ownership of the Lake District.
How can anyone make a film about this topic without Colin Downer, a Cumbrian accent and a boggart, or Dave Birkett even?
Shocking.
DC

In reply to Dave Cumberland:



I'm not sure if you are trying to parody someone - yourself maybe - or are serious? If the latter, ownership of what do you think is being grabbed for? I can see that the commercial sponsorship of climbing films can be a tad annoying, although I don't know what the alternative funding model is, but even if you don't like Arcteryx "bribing" people to go and clean routes, I'm still don't know what you think they want to own.

In reply to UKC News:

Really looking forward to the photos of the brave lads who climb Post Mortem (some hope?).Not much cleaning required on the main pitch just some on the first.

In reply to UKC News:

There is a reason for the lack of climbing in the Lakes and that is that for a long time the guidebooks have either been out of print, hard to get hold of or just plain difficult to use. Note that the most popular places to climb in the uk also have the best guides, just a coincidence? I think not.

In reply to richy381:

Whilst I am all in favour of a quiet lake district, your cooment about the guides is simply untrue.

In reply to richy381:

What!?

The FRCC guides have long been ahead of the game, you have to go back to the 1960s to find hard to use guides from that stable. If a guide has been out of print it has been only for a year or so though I'm struggling to remember ever walking in to a Lakes climbing shop and not seeing a full set of guidebooks to the area on sale. In the 1980s the aim was to bring out a new edition of each guide every five years - it didn't quite happen but hardly the strategy of a producer out of touch.

Like others, the FRCC have adopted the best parts of Rockfax guidebooks but they haven't been hard to use for a long time.

As for popularity of crags, you might want to consider their proximity to large centres of population.

In reply to nakedave:

Traditionally Banzai Pipeline was known as being brilliant for its grade but tended to need cleaning.

In reply to neilh:

The whole crag was basically dug out of the hillside - the first time I did Great End Corner in the early 1980s there was still a huge pile of debris maybe 20ft deep at the base, originally it was reckoned at nearly 40ft, over the years it's settled down and the last time I did the route there wasn't as much debris.

This is one of the crags that really does need regular traffic to keep things clean - a brush should be de-riguer for climbing here, if everyone did just a little bit then there wouldn't be a need for a big clean.

In reply to Bob:


I can vouch for that, having done it in 1975, a couple of months after it was dug out. We were down from Scotland, completely ignorant of recent Lakes development, and at the crag to do Great End Pillar, a sixties route that was then HVS with a peg for aid. We did that and became aware of this great pile of rotting vegetation so climbed over it and up the route above it. A local who seemed to know what he was about turned up and told us it must have been the 3rd or 4th ascent. Comment in my diary is "a bit loose but excellent".

In reply to neilh:

I have climbed it a few times, and has never been dirty

In reply to UKC News:

Maybe a few winter ascents would clean these routes up.....

In reply to im off:

... or a nice big fire.

In reply to UKC News:

What a great marketing campaign. Really impressive idea to not just promote Arc'teryx with some competition but actually get people out there and do some lesser travelled routes. Shame the climbers involved did not seem to quite get the idea but it would encourage me to go to the Lakes, climb and incidentally spend some money in the local community as well as being predisposed to buy Arc'teryx.

Does anyone know why the FRCC were not involved? It does seem lakes trad climbing needs encouragement and I would have thought they would have been enthusiastic about this. Mind you they do not exactly encourage outsiders to use their huts so maybe they are just happy with the apparent decline of Lakes trad.

mike

In reply to mike lawrence?:

Ron Kenyon who is briefly interviewed in the film is from the FRCC as well as the BMC - could have been made clearer in the film, apologies.