UKC

Was walking up on Broad Crag and Ill Crag (Scafell Pikes) yesterday and noticed this amazing looking cliff on the north side of Broad Crag. Wondered if it had any routes and if not, why not.

It looked a bit like the Vikings section of Tophet on Gable (steep/overhanging wall followed by slab, repeated) but much, much more overhanging.

Now it may just be that it's too remote and too hard, but has anyone even had a serious look at it.

Drone reconnaissance maybe?

In reply to Michael Hood:

On a really wild day many years ago I walked up from Wasdale to Mickledore then leftwards up to Scafell Pike. We were met by a ferocious wind so sheltered behind the enormous summit cairn. The vis was coming and going so after a bite to eat we chose one of those brief clear spells to head off towards Great End and then down to Wasdale via Sty Head. The mist kept coming and going, when suddenly we were stopped dead in our tracks... a crag loomed out of the greyness. At first it was difficult to tell how big it was as we only got brief glimpses of it. But then gradually the mist cleared more to reveal a very impressive crag indeed. Checking the map we couldn't work out which crag it was but slowly the truth dawned. It was Scafell crag - we'd set off from Scafell Pike 180° in the wrong direction - we'd been fooled by walking around the summit cairn to find shelter. Shelter that we'd shared with a few other folk whose choice of lightweight footwear we'd scoffed at. And who we now had to sheepishly walk back past to correct our mistake...

In reply to jon:

Bet you've never left your compass behind again, Jon. Nice to know anyone can make a serious boob (and relate it in public), even if the consequences were only a red face.
If the OP doesn't mind his thread being hi-jacked, I have a similar story against me. Quite a few years back I was with a group of club mates of very mixed experience and abilities doing a gill scramble up Crinkle Gill, Langdale in appallingly wet weather with clouds almost down to valley bottom. We managed to split into two groups on the way up, fortunately with competent (?) navigators in both groups. The group I was with were happy for me to look after the navigation to get down (more fools them). Thinking I knew enough without getting the map out in those conditions we set off up to the Crinkle Crag ridge and attempted to follow it north to Three Tarns to follow the Band down to the pub. There is a well-known idiot-trap on the summit plateau where the obvious path on the ground is not the path you want along the ridge. The obvious path in minimal visibility (it was also dark by now) gradually slips off the ridge, without you realising, down towards Eskdale to the west. Both the right and wrong paths go northwards at this point, so the compass doesn't help much. As the ground steepened, still on a good path, it slowly dawned on me that it was downhill on the left and uphill on the right, not all what we wanted. It took me quite a while to persuade my little flock that in these very poor conditions we should leave a good path, going downhill, and scramble up a steep slope of mixed grass and boulders. Fortunately, they decided that whatever my navigational weaknesses already apparent, they'd be better off with me than on their own and disaster was avoided. It was a tired and bedraggled little group who staggered into the ODG to find the other half of our group on their second or third round and beginning to discuss the need for calling out the MRT. Though behind us in the gill, when they topped out they looked at the map and decided the best route - shorter, easier, less complex - was to turn left onto the shoulder of Gladstone Knott and pick up the southerly route off Crinkle Crags and down on to the Red Tarn path. I still get ribbed by some of the other group.....

In reply to Rog Wilko:

Once in a white out on the summit of Pen Yr Olwen (spelling?), with a compass, I set off down towards Gerlan but still managed an unintentional circuit of the summit area first.

Still got no idea how I did that but I obviously did.

In reply to Rog Wilko:

>
Soemone we both know "lost" Whernside on a walk we were on. They had polarised their compass with a camelback water pipe of all things.

To the OP. If the crag is as steep as you say I cannot imagine Dave Birkett has not examined it from all angles and even checked on a rope, unlike many Grit stone types he is not afraid of a walk. He is now knocking on a bit ROFL , but I suspect on this crag in 15 or 20 years, we may get the first Female E12 or maybe E14 in the name of M Birkett and so the legend will continue

In reply to Michael Hood:

Has it got a fixed ab point?

In reply to Michael Hood:

I scrambled up the north west shoulder of Broad Crag last October and saw no such crag
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5167073
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5167471
I think I'd have spotted something like you have described as I was in the comb below (above the Corridor Route) and I'm always Crag-X spotting. There is no such thing as 'too remote/too hard' in the Lakes. Ray McHaffie, Pete Botteril, Jeff Lamb and Pete Whillance and many, many more have scoured the fells for decades. If you HAVE found something of note don't trumpet it on UKC - get back and develop it!

In reply to Lankyman:

It's on the NE side approx grid ref 220077. I wondered whether someone like Dave Birkett knew about it.

Steep bit only looked about one pitch but a similar width so possibly more than one line. Still had wet streaks yesterday.

As for developing it myself, it's about 3 zillion grades too hard

In reply to Lankyman:

I've found 2 photos on the web but neither shows how steep it is.

https://www.sallyscottages.co.uk/blog/climbing-scafell-pike
Second photo down, the black square under the summit.

http://www.gateway2thelakes.com/Walking%20Diary%202009/Scafell%20Pike%20090...
6 below the doggy about halfway down.

In reply to Michael Hood:

Nice photos...

In reply to Michael Hood:

Mike,
Locals have known about it for some time, Steve Hubbard once had a serious look at it, and asked me not to mention it in the Scafell guide, but I did. See page 201 of the new Scafell guide - it is labelled 'huge overhanging wall'. It consists of diagonal bands of slabs interspersed by overhanging walls, I thought there was a possibility of a line that weaved up through the slabs, it would be excitingly exposed, but I couldn't guess at a grade, because that would depend on the runners available. The right arête looks amazing - a future 'classic' for trad folk looking for fantastic obscure lines.
Yes, Mr. Birkett does know about it, there's nothing that escapes his attention up here! But that could also give a clue on how hard it is, if he hasn't had a look!
Get on it!
Cheers
Al

In reply to Phizzers:

Thanks for the info, I presumed DB would know about it. As I said above, way above my grade. Maybe one for future generations.