UKBouldering.com
places to visit => uk and eire => Topic started by: richdraws on October 03, 2006, 07:30:26 pm
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I was hoping to get out to somewhere in Yorkshire tomorrow. I have never been to Earl Crag so its top of my list, but I hear it often has poor condition as it is north facing.
Any idea how long it takes to dry and where to go instead if it is wet?
I will be travelling down from Middlesbrough if that helps.
Cheers
Rich
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If there is a good wind it'll be dry in no time
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Yeah, and darkness is no handicap to climbing festin de pierre.
Earl gets very green at this time of year, plus its only exposed to northerly winds. The typical westerlies that follow rain will dry some but not all. Handy Andy's area an fairly reliable but its a long way to go for. At least Almscliff is on your way home...
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Thanks guys, I ended up going to the Bridestones for the first time... I only managed to see mebbe a 1/5th of the crag before being rained off. I was well impressed with the area. Did the Horror Arete in the rain with a sheep carcass as my spotter - I was not looking forward to being ankle deep in dessicated sheep brain.
Horror arete is now one of my all time favourite climbs - I love the slap for the top!!!!
Anyway ended up going to sunderland wall in the evening instead of almscliffe as planned... demon wall v6? v7? can wait.
Rich
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Was hoping to go to Earl tomorrow afternoon but was unsure what conditions would be like given the snow and recent damp. Was hoping to get on Andy browns wall and grapenut. Will they likely be dry? Or is snow melt an issue.
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We’ve had a decent amount of snow in Skipton and it’s due to shower in the morning, so it’s more than likely to be a total write off.
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Okay, thanks teestub. That’s a shame but saves a drive. Thought I might be being too optimistic. I’ll stare out the window and complain as usual then.
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Agree a write-off seems likely - I was at the Cow & Calf in Ilkley and there was heavy snow for around an hour - quite slushy and wetting out the rock. Also, driving back downhill into town, my car had a bit of a slide and I had to made quite an effort to avoid a lamp post. Earl's a fair bit higher and more exposed than Ilkley (350m c.f. 250m), so I suspect it was worse there.
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I'm at 300m and pretty close. We've had proper snow, not slushy stuff and TBH there hasn't been much melt since the first lot we had. The main issue was before it snowed everything was pretty wet around my immediate area (Widdop).
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Okay thanks for all the replies. I’ll give it a miss. Not looking great here in the chew valley either. Had some pretty damp slushy snow this afternoon.
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I went to Earl yesterday. Was hoping it had stayed cold enough for the snow not to have melted, but unfortunately there was a lot of run off.
- Krafty was all dry, along with Grape Nut and bits to the left.
- Suspect Desert Island would have been fine.
- AC/DC wall was fine but lots of drips off the capping roof soaking the pads.
- Underworld and Lager Lager had drips running down them but otherwise were so nearly there.
- Andy Brown's and Handy Andy's had lots of run off.
In short, it wasn't a total write off but hard to get on anything really. And when I did climb on the dry stuff my fingers numbed out in seconds due to the Northerly wind.
Been lots more snow today but it's still not that cold so suspect lots will melt again. Probably not worth it tomorrow.
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I was up at Dove Lowe today (high - north of Blackstone) and it didn’t get about freezing all day. Then it snowed. However it was frustrating cleaning problems as clearly it had melted a bit yesterday then frozen hard overnight. So patches of snow on stuff that normally can be brushed off fine had collections of ice underneath stuck hard to the face.
It was much dryer today though (before the snow) with none of the previous days humidity.
Edit - forecast is for it to barely freeze overnight - so suspect it’ll be a melting mess tomorrow.
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We’ve had a decent amount of snow in Skipton and it’s due to shower in the morning, so it’s more than likely to be a total write off.
Textbook Earl Crag Connies, I'd say.