I'll have to update the Lost Rock article now too!
"Once the new face stabilises, the potential for new routes will no doubt attract some keen first ascensionists."
Start thinking of new route names now, folks!
I'll start the ball rolling with 'Face off'
There's got to be an Underhanging Bastion, surely?
I was expecting the road to be blocked with debris etc, Keswick cut off for a few weeks.
One of the problems on the boulders below must surely become 'Humpty dumpty'
How bid (tall x wide x thick) was the flake? Unless the photo is misleading it looks a lot bigger than 500 tonnes (180 cubic metres).
Chris
'North crag eliminated'
Or 'Passing Rock of Triermain'?
You beat me to it. Great memories of that route!
North crag gone south.
> "Once the new face stabilises, the potential for new routes will no doubt attract some keen first ascensionists." Start thinking of new route names now, folks!
Oh Shit, I didn't wait long enough, EVHXS 999c
Below!
Blexit.
Looks like I'll be adding a few more to my ever growing list of routes I've done in the past that are no more.
Blocky McBlockface
it could reflect the year: Political unity or Partisan love affair?
Any thoughts on what will replace North Crag Eliminate in Hard Rock?
Do we know exactly which routes have gone yet?
> Any thoughts on what will replace North Crag Eliminate in Hard Rock?
None. Just as Dierbield Buttress. Its gone.
Totalitarian is replacing Deer Bield Buttress, so I'd guess some time in the future NCE will be replaced.
Probably matheson avenue to the top pitch of OB and its direct finish ,NCE tree upwards.
> Totalitarian is replacing Deer Bield Buttress, so I'd guess some time in the future NCE will be replaced.
Excellent an extra tick from the comfort of my armchair. Fortunately NCE was bagged in 1976 (tree was a mere sapling then
Bloxit
Get your blocks off
Barbican't. Not sad the original has gone, certainly the scariest and last multi pitch route I ever soloed.
RIP North Crag Eliminate (E1 5b) and Overhanging Bastion (HVS 5a); both great traditional lines.
How about "6 Degrees of Separation" for the next line on the new face?
M
Presumably this means the wonderful Agony has gone too? Sorry, I haven't got access to my old guidebooks at the moment.
> Presumably this means the wonderful Agony has gone too? Sorry, I haven't got access to my old guidebooks at the moment.
The first pitch is probably a bit shook up and scarred. The second has changed a lot over the years, from numerous hollow flakes and dodgy runners to harder and runout, probably the former when you first did it.
Most likely, mostly to the right and clear of the rockfall, though the first fifteen metres could have had a glancing blow.
As rick suggests I reckon it'll still go, as to the right of the rockfall. It is one of the most memorable climbs i've ever done, the second pitch especially.
I think the first route on the remains should be called Low Hanging Fruit
Presumably this means the wonderful Agony has gone too? Sorry, I haven't got access to my old guidebooks at the moment.
No
> Probably matheson avenue to the top pitch of OB and its direct finish ,NCE tree upwards.
Spot on Rick!
DC
Piccies please. Surely someone's gone and had a good look.
Also a route topo showing the extent of the affected area would be nice.
> The first pitch is probably a bit shook up and scarred.
Rick, somehow I've read this as 'a bit shook up and scared'. Can't think why!
Back when the world was young, we did this as the warm-up and an introduction to Lakes climbing. My mate led the first pitch. It didn't take too long to get his gear out! I faffed around on the top pitch, not too happy with gear placements. My mate was looking a bit bored so it seemed easier just to solo it.
At the top, we looked at each other. Lakes HVS... (as it was, then). The penny dropped. We'd left Wales. No soft touches, up here!
So many memories of this crag. Pretty much the only popular routes we didn't do were North Crag Eliminate and Overhanging Bastion. What a pity. Great crag, though. Hopefully things will clean up and it will once again get the traffic it deserves.
Mick
> The first pitch is probably a bit shook up and scarred. The second has changed a lot over the years, from numerous hollow flakes and dodgy runners to harder and runout, probably the former when you first did it.
> Most likely, mostly to the right and clear of the rockfall, though the first fifteen metres could have had a glancing blow.
I've just looked it up in my logbook. Did it on 1st Sept 1984. Seconded top pitch. 'Found very daunting as Dave had put on no pro at all for 100' and the ropes curved out in space behind my head ... once gained, the arete is slightly overhanging all the way and v. exposed. Only given 4C, and maybe move for move it is only that, though being strenuous and sustained rather than technical, difficult to grade. We both thought it a bit harder than the Gates, for example, so probably deserves 5A and should definitely be given E1 on account of its seriousness. An HVS leader could get into a lot of trouble on it. But a superb route, very coolly led by Dave'
And there's an interesting final sentence
'Go to Golden Rule in evening with Rick Graham, Bob etc. (Rick also thinks Agony is E1, 5A).'
Well well. I don't remember that.
I do not remember either
Hvs seemed fair when I did it first around 1972. With a few less holds and runners, E1, 5a. I think I did it with bob around 84, which may have prompted my comments in the pub that night.
> Totalitarian is replacing Deer Bield Buttress, so I'd guess some time in the future NCE will be replaced.
Really? I find it vaguely disappointing in some indefinable way that the list is changing. I quite like the idea of the list being timeless even though the routes aren't.
I climbed Agony just the once (along with OB) in 1996. The guidebook gave it E1 5a which seemed appropriate, except that gear on the first pitch was marginal at best (do I remember rusted remains of a peg?) and basically nothing on the second. If I was worried then my partner was terrified (and never climbed with me again)
The right side of The North Crag well away from the rockfall area has been neglected for years, "climbers" have all gone down the road to the bolted Bram Quarry. However, the South Crag with less difficulty climbs is still popular.
> Any thoughts on what will replace North Crag Eliminate in Hard Rock?
It's going to be Nimrod on Dow Crag, with Totalitarian on Raven replacing Deer Bield Buttress.
Hopefully the old essays for the routes that are no longer in the guide will be included as an addendum - that's what I have lobbied for. If you feel strongly about it you could always email Vertebrate Publishing!
Anyway, has anyone been up for a look yet? I want to see some piccies.
> Anyway, has anyone been up for a look yet? I want to see some piccies.
One photo in the UKC news item.
Wonder if the block slid or toppled.
If it landed right side up, the routes might still be doable, albeit at a different angle.
I expected the block to travel further, luckily it did not.
> Wonder if the block slid or toppled.
> If it landed right side up, the routes might still be doable, albeit at a different angle.
> I expected the block to travel further, luckily it did not.
Rick I think it toppled. It has chiselled out some big rock scars below Barbican, and then dug out about five feet of soil below the crag. I think I saw the groove of Side of the Hill lying on its side. It is 200 metres or so from the crag to the buildings with the water culvert about half way down. The debris got half way to the culvert and some big boulders were stopped by trees.
The biggest blocks, of which one is about 30 feet long, landed about 50-100 feet from the crag base.
DC
> It's going to be Nimrod on Dow Crag, with Totalitarian on Raven replacing Deer Bield Buttress.
Surely there must be better routes than these that could go in? If not, and the chapters have to be replaced, then it makes sense to add some more routes from Scotland or Wales.
Or maybe a trio of routes from Horseshoe?
Typycal lazy journos!
The BBC news claim Castle Rock is a 1,112ft (339m) crag!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-46350937
Apparently it's been popular with climbers for hundreds of years.
That means at least 2 hundred so we've been climbing there since before 1819. Looks like a revised climbing history is going to be required for the next guidebook
It seems a great shame that nobody filmed this major geomorphological event.
That isn't as daft as it sounds, because this link shows the crack width was being permanently monitored and those monitors picked up all the increased movement immediately prior to the failure.
https://twitter.com/Rock_Avalanches/status/1067183340455907328
Would it not have been possible for the someone local to the site to have had access to those readings and popped up with a camera when it became obvious things were beginning to unfold (so to speak)?
I'm not sure how the timings would have worked out, and they'd clearly have had to avoid the direct approach to the crag(!), but it would have been great to have had it on film.
As to the guys who were climbing on the South Crag, and didn't think to stick their heads round the corner to see what all the noise and dust cloud was about, you obviously aren't on my curiosity wavelength!
Neil
Frank Wilkinson (former editor of the 1968 and 1974 Yorkshire limestone guides) and one of the two climbers on the South Crag when the rock fall took place, says: “When you get to our age – mid-70s – you can’t be arsed! The loud “whooshing” noise we heard was the crag simply sliding down to the ground and immediately settling. There was no noise from boulders bouncing downhill through the trees, no sound of rock on rock - it was all over in ten seconds. Besides, we were about to set out up Romantically Challenged, so had other things on our minds!”
> Or maybe a trio of routes from Horseshoe?
I wouldn't object on principle but can't think of any easy sport routes of real quality there or elsewhere in the UK. Reptile Smile at Portland is possibly a better choice than Nimrod given it's quite unusual, good rock, introduces a new area to the book and is historically significant.
In defence of our failure to immediately recognise the Castle Rock exfoliation
Frank and I have almost a hundred years of climbing experience between us. So we’ve seen, heard and done a lot of things
On this occasion, as Frank stated ... we heard a loud roaring /whooshing noise. Almost like the sound of a flame thrower. There was no banging of rocks, no crashing of trees. Nothing to suggest tons of rock were on the move. From our position on the crag, the large cloud of dust which appeared shortly after, enveloping the farm in the valley below, seemed to have originated from there. We imagined, possibly, something on the farm had exploded. If we had heard anything akin to 500 tons of rocks crashing down the hillside, believe me, aged and knackered as we are, we’d have investigated with relish
RB
> Apparently it's been popular with climbers for hundreds of years.
I missed that bit!
Surprised you heard anything over Frank talking away.
Maybe time for another new volume 'Pox Rock' then?
> Maybe time for another new volume 'Pox Rock' then?
Yeah, you could call it Finest Climbs in the Lakes or something
Hi Rick – thought you might chip in again when you saw it was the old Original Yorkshire Passport Holder (you invented the name) on the South Crag last Monday. Must be three years since we last traded banter at Bram Crag Quarry. As you can see, we are still keeping proper climbing alive on the trad. It’s only certain faculties that are on the wane – like ignoring monster rock falls on the North Crag. I can hear you groaning from down here in Yorkshire.
Best wishes,
Frank
I popped down to Castle Rock this afternoon with a mate to have a look. I also took my little drone to get some visuals on the face. You should be able to see them on my Instagram here if you're interested!
RIP North Crag
https://www.instagram.com/landandskymedia/
Good work Dom.
I actually wish I was there right now, instead of working in West Africa, as the obvious corner/groove/crack line slightly left of centre in the newly exposed section could well become a classic within 10 years or so. My guess is that it will be something like E3/4 and 5a/b right now but could settle quite soon to HVS or E1. Although there are quite a few perched blocks and rubble, it actually looks like the main surface has been weathering for quite some time already while it was in an open crack.
Who's mad or keen enough to be first to find out whether I'm right?
Very good. That top section of OB would probably clean up OK. I see the old yew is still hanging on.
Great to get some pictures - thanks Dom! To me, it looks that there are at least three big blocks still to fall, plus all the debris.
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