12/13 Winter Season Part 3 - Coniston

Coniston 30.03.12

Alpine

We had a long time off and just been mostly indoor climbing. I didn't expect there to be much snow in the hills and I had sent my Trangos off for new soles and didn't fancy long distance walks in B3s! On Saturday we parked up the hill by the museum and set off walking up to the quarry by the Old Man of Coniston. We made an early ascent starting at 8:45am and struggled up past the old mine buildings on packed slippery snow. Approaching the Low Water Elliott found a pound, stroke of luck.

Bottom Section of North Gully

We kitted up at Low water and stopped our route using the guide book. Today we decided to make an ascent of North Gully. We walked round to the start to find lots of ice, a little thin but generally good. Most of the snow was drifts and a little dodgy but there seemed to be a mixed bag of every thing.

P P P Power Lunge

After out ascent of the fist gully section which was fairly shallow, it opened out to a large snow slope surrounded by crags and closing in again at the top with a number of gully exits. in the middle was small 5m crag covered in ice which just had to be done. Elliott lead an soloed up, at the top was a small ice chandelier, to get past it he had to smash though some of it, this is where it got interesting.

"I've cut my head", I heard, "Its ok though". A few moments later..."I think its a worse than I thought". The thought of having to deal with a concussed climbing partner did not appeal, "I'll come patch you up" I shouted. I headed round the side of the crag up a steep ice slope and met Elliott at the top of the Ice fall sat down holding his head. I quickly got a bandage out and asked if he was ok, when he confirmed he was fine first thing I did was take a picture of him like any good friend would! A chunk of Ice hit his face, we agreed that if any one asked he had a fight with two wolves and a Yeti over the quid he found in the snow earlier!

Elliott's Ice Fall

Elliott Post Icefall

One he was patched up and I was happy that he was ok, we continued up to a 'V', the left was North Gully and Right was an alternative shallow gully covered mostly in water ice, maybe a grade II. We agreed to go right given his incident and that if he did turn for the worse it would be the safer route up as we were soloing. I went first over the step, there were a dodgy placements but it wasn't too difficult. By this time the sun was out and it had turned into a nice Alpine day. the snow began to improve and Elliott then took the lead position as we headed to the top. Looking back down was a steep(ish) snow and ice chute with a couple of nasty drops, feeling of being there in the sun was like nothing else.

Elliott top gully section

Me top gully section

As we topped out, we encountered the best snow of the day on the cornice. We headed for the summit and had a chat with some climber who came up Mulled Wine (Grade II) who reported poor snow, so we chose the right route and go the ice. We descended quickly with our crampons on and after patching up Elliott again at the car we went to The Black Bull for the obligatory pint of Bluebird.