[Bonjoy]

 It's ages since I last visited Hodge Close, Parrock, Black Hole, Tilberthwaite etc, but I do remember doing some fantastic routes there, infact I personally prefer the climbing to that on the welsh slate and not just cos the routes are better bolted, honest. But the rockfax guide is quite old now and I haven't heard anything about the place for ages, in mags or online. Do people still climb there much? Are the routes clean? Have they been rebolted? I haven't done heaps there, has anyone got any recommendations?

[andy_e]

I went to Tilberthwaite last summer- I soloed an E1 on the upper tier- but I do remember seeing routes (which weren't in Dow, Duddon and Slate) looking like they'd been rebolted recently, a wall on the right as you go in the first entrance, just right of a gully, that looked good. I'd be keen to get back there (but not elsewhere, all the other slate quarries make me fill my pants)...

p.s. Fiend- there were top-ropers on the upper section 

[Johnny Brown]

Last went to Hodge a couple of years back, I'm sure its as popular as it ever was or wasn't. Didn't strike me as the kind of place to get dirty rapidly just through lack of traffic.

personally prefer the climbing to that on the welsh slate and not just cos the routes are better bolted

and graded generously if anything, rather than assuming you live less than a mile away and once shagged the first ascensionist's sister.

[dobbin]

Do the first pitch of Sideshow in Hodge close. Its one of about three trad routes I have done in my life and weighs in at a hefty E2 (or it might be E1). I onsighted it placing the gear on the lead before getting totally gripped and making a wild lunge for the belay. It felt like I was atop El Capitan, but I would have been about 17 or 18, so you will probably find a VS 4b thats 5 metres high and has bolts in it.

[Fiend]

Awesome stuff. Climbed at Hodge and Parrock and Cathedral a couple of years ago and Tilberthwaite a little while before that. Stuff is in generally decent nick and as JB says doesn't look like it changes much. Some E3 at the far left of Parrock had a big rockfall by it, maybe a section of the route. No retrobolting that I could see - oh except Malice In Wonderland seemed to have some shiny new ones at the start but not higher up.

I am aiming for a Lakes Slate Tour weekend later this year - psyched 

[Ru]

I also have a bit of a thing for lakes slate and generally get up there a couple of times a year. Most of the slate is in the same state as in the old Rockfax guide wrt gear. A few things in Cathedral/Black hole have been rebolted, but there's not that many new routes. The MasterBlaster area of Parrock is pretty much a complete gonner I think. The Hodge routes up the big back wall seem to still get enough traffic to keep them clean ish, not sure about how often the E6s get done, probably more often that I'd expect. I think some of the bolted routes don't get done much though.