UKC

Does anyone know if there is water near the Bivi on the moraine and in the rockfax guide it says that a large cam is vital for one of the upper pitches. Anybody know what large could be? Cheers

Don't remember finding water nearby in 2010, but you'll cross plenty of streams on the walk in.

We didn't take anything bigger than a tech friend 3 - there certainly were some unprotectable offwidths, but seem to remember the route got easier and easier the higher we got. We ended up ~100m shy of the summit as dense clouds rolled in and we worried about an unexpected lightning storm. (So there is a little bit of the route I haven't done - maybe that's where you need a big cam?!)

In reply to robgixer:

No water near the bivi unless its coming off the glacier.

A BD 4 should suffice for the OW near the top of the route although it can be climbed without, depends on your determination!

In reply to robgixer:

I remember lots about that route but not any unprotectable wide cracks (and that is exactly the sort of thing I would remember!) so they're probably not too bad.

In reply to Tyler:

Exactly did that pitch a few years ago with a minimal rack, don't remember anything untoward.

In reply to robgixer:

Wow, that brings back memories, did it in 84 or 85, didn't have any cams, took a litre of water and a chocolate bar between us, great up and down, ended up walking down and hallucinating due to dehydration, got into the Nash and solved that problem then back to Snells.

We overtook a guide on the way up, he told us we were the fastest British climbers he'd ever seen. He probably had his guide badge taken off him.

In reply to Fruit:

Couldn't have been that fast if you had to walk down

In reply to robgixer:

Did it about ten years ago and people we met at the bivvi (no water)who just came down said we needed a Camalot 5- my buddy just by passed the problem by moving out right from the crack which was way easier, seem to remember this was just a few pitches up from the halfway ledge where it steepened.

In reply to jon:

In them days we walked up and down skint!

In reply to robgixer:

Did it 12 years ago. Only had a Friend 3.5 as the biggest, but seem to remember this being tipped out in the bottom of the wide crack, and a few minutes of exciting runout. This pitch is given F6B in the new Rockfax guide - I remember it being more like HVS, certainly not E2... I would recommend a minimum full set of Camalots up to #4, which will keep you happy in this wide section.

In reply to robgixer:

In the eighties it were a glacier, we bivvied on the rognon, up early and up and down with a water bottle and some snacks, great route, one of my most memorable days. There was a Japanese team doing something hard to the left, and I recall being most amused that one of their climbing calls was "Eeyore"- I am a big Winnie the Pooh fan.
It was a shock to see a picture on the front of a magazine some years later and see there was no glacier, one of those stark reminders of something we all know but have not perhaps grasped, if that makes any sense.