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Goat Crag in the afternoon sun

Some images from todays climbing with Luke. The original idea that we had was to go to Grey Crag in Buttermere - however by the time we left Luke's it was about 10 and we were both tired so elected to have day on Shepherds getting some mileage in. However we soon discovered that we were not alone in that thought....so we used our back up plan - Goat Crag. There are several Goat Crags in the Lakes. This one is nearly at the lovely hamlet of Watendlath and that is about all I'm going to say about it as I'd like to go there again - and we saw no-one at all day. This was probably just as well given the way that the climbing went. Luke and I were both suffering from not being out on rock too much - and I still have a massive aversion to trusting my own gear placements - although they actually are quite good!!!!

The Slab - Diff

It didn't seem like that on the first route, a lovely Diff slab that I duly ascended in nice style with two good runners. It's actually a route I soloed later in the day and is very pleasant indeed. After a bit to each I tried to do a Severe - a crack line that Luke had done on his previous visit to the crag. I will freely admit that crack climbing is not my forte at all - I am much happier on slabs and open walls. My footwork was actually ok; however I didn't seem able/willing to trust my gear placements (which we clearly good as Luke lowered off them after his attempt). The key move was a couple of high steps which seemed to be committing i.e not able to reverse; and without an obvious handhold. Looking down from the top (we had to abseil for the gear) the handhold is obvious - Luke did very well to lead this when he was last at the crag.

Luke had a gear at the other severe on the crag - which I say to was yet another crack and was probably undergraded too. An interesting sequence up a greasy pod with holds for the hands only on one side (which Luke decided to make interesting by arranging for all his runners to leap out when he was climbing it!!) brings one underneath a wide crack with an obvious jug out of the reach of all bar basketball players. He arranged so bombproof gear and set to work. On my attempt it proved really arkward; everything was there one just needed to re-arrange one's body in a variety of strange ways; two left feet would have been a distinct advantage for example!! Added to this it was seriously hot and the move was clearly a 'do or fall' and my cowardice came back to the fore - grrrrr...

It is noticeable that this crag does not have an awful lot of gear on some routes - there being a lovely E1 that I would have attempted (the reachy open face climbing being my kind of thing) were it not for the fact it was basically a solo with a revolting landing....the three climbs we did all had good gear it should be said....a very interesting crag though and a great day out. Learning to trust gear is my biggest weakness and one that I need to overcome if I am ever going to really progress in climbing again. I have not had a leader fall since my return to the sport in 2008....I have never really felt I was going to fall off on any of the routes I have done. As I noted earlier; the irony is that my gear placements are usually pretty good...quite why I have a distrust of camming devices I don't know as one did its job perfectly all those years ago on Right Unconquerable on Stanage. In the best interests of aversion therapy I will probably have to eschew some lovely open face climbs for some more cracks I expect. Back when I was going well I found Kipling Groove on Gimmer ( a hard HVS) much easier than the top pitch of Gimmer Crack ( VS)...just suits my style I guess.

Watendlath (next to the tarn)