UKH

hi

any locals care to share how its looking high up? Much ice formation? MIxed routes looking feasible? Not a single route logged as far as i can see which doesn't bode well....

thanks,

Hi, I know it isn't quite what you asked for, but here is the link to the Lake District Weather Line, with its daily felltop assessor on Helvellyn.  looks like it is some fabulous winter walking at the moment but not much build up of anything else.

https://www.lakedistrictweatherline.co.uk/home

A team turned around from a very hoared-up Red Tarn Face yesterday - as they found even on the steep buttress routes the turf wasn't frozen yet. Kudos to them for defending the environmental honour of winter climbers everywhere! The pictures look beautiful, but at least up to yesterday, not snowy, just lots of frost up high. 

The fell top assessors will have pics up from today by now I expect, check their twitter feed along with the website above.

Very dry at the moment, warm in the sun, gimmer was good where the sun shone today

Hmm I was wondering about blea tarn. Tough call tbh.

Not a huge amount of ice yet. It was forming on Great End. You need to be high and North facing in the Lakes at the moment. Gable Crag might be worth a look.

Had a look at brown cove crags this morning. Turf seemed frozen and there was the odd tiny bit of ice but except for the top of the crag the rock was all dry. Did stepped ridge as a summer scramble. As others have said it's been too dry for much to come in

Took bikes up Fairfield today. It was both stunningly cold and stunningly dry. Can't see there being much ice as there was so little water about.

Edit: amazed to hear turf is not frozen.  There were loads of bogs on the horseshoe and every single one of them was frozen like iron.

Look at the fourth photo here:https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/high-tops-in-lakes-tomorrow-y...

The BMC temp probes look to be up and running on Helvellyn and Great End, a valuable resource and really useful as a guide if it’s worth heading out or not. Despite the chill the ground temps look to be no where near frozen yet. There is some good info on the pages around guidance for heading up.

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/lake-district-winter-conditions

Dusting of snow in langdale valley this am

Ditto Kendal

Lovely covering of snow in Kendal just now. Not deep but evenly spread.

Nor crisp.

It takes longer early in the season to make ice as the ground water is warmer. I would be surprised if blea water gill was in properly. Middle of next week it may well be.....

Walked up Helvellyn on Friday, snowline about 850m. Some ice on the paths lower down, especially by Raise Beck, but didn't really notice much on the crags. Glorious crisp winter day.

Edit  - different story today, snowline about 100m on the southern edge of the Lake District, was in the cloud walking the dog so not able to report on what the higher fells looked like.

Ran around the Coniston fells Friday/AM taking in Low Water Beck on the way. Ice is forming well but it will need another 4 or 5 days to freeze fully I think. The low rate of water flow & stable low temperature forecast bodes well …

DSM

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Proper snow in Coniston now:
https://www.lakelandcam.co.uk/

By contrast, central Scotland seems to have turned a bit less wintry. There was a thin layer of fresh snow down to 200m overnight (all week it's been at about 650m-700m) and even a sprinkling down to near sea level in Stirling. But it's lifted/brightened and there's now no snow below 400m hereabouts and the big western hills look to still only have it from the 650m-ish level. The overnight frost lifted here much earlier today than it has done all week.

Here was Blea Water Crag this morning, Needs a good few more days and a lot more snow I think 

Apparently it was climbed yesterday. https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/blea_water_crag-1301/blea_water_gi...

Having descended the ridge from Racecourse Hill to the N of that fellside on Wed I can say it looked frosted but not even beginning to be not out

Hoping to head up tomorrow night for Tues/Wed. Temps are looking rather low so I'm hoping some of the water might ice up and the turf maybe freeze if that snow doesn't keep it soft. Anyone been out today? I'm thinking about heading up to Scafell Pike, west face from the Wasterwater side as the routes on there are fanstastic if they come into condition.

Going to try again Sunday. December could be our winter!

So you didn't go to Wales last night? There seems to be so much stuff that is in conditions in Wales - if you're not sure about the Lakes why not just go there instead? The weather looked perfect again today in Wales, like it was yesterday afternoon.

Took a solo trip around the Helvellyn area yesterday (Mon/12). In general there's lots of fresh snow about but relatively little ice due to the snap freeze which is only a few days old of course.

Here's a brief synopsis:

Central Gully (Brown Cove) - surprisingly icy for much of its length, turf well frozen.

Gully 2 (Red Tarn) - straightforward descent.

V Corner (Red Tarn) - by this I mean the grade 2 line that most folk seem to do.  No ice on the tricky step near the bottom but turf well frozen all the way.

Gully 1 (Red Tarn) - turf well frozen but the crux corner was bare - needs some freeze/thaw.

Swirral & Striding edges - in full winter condition but stripped of snow on the southerly aspects in the sunshine.

DSM 

When you say the V Corner the grade ll line. Are we talking the icefalls up to a short steep Corner with a peg in to belay? If so then where is the grade lll line. I've often wondered if I'm doing the right route

Yes the V Corner I was referring to is exactly as you describe.  I think the 'true' line is a slightly less obvious series of corners just to the right as you look at the cliff, culminating in a steeper corner finish.  Happy to be corrected though!  Mind you, you can climb this cliff almost anywhere at II-III ...

DSM

If we're thinking of the same bit, and I might be misremembering anyway, there's often some substantial icefalls that lead into a shallow easy angled corner. People seem to think this is v-corner, but it's not listed in the guidebook despite being a fairly obvious line.

The actual v-corner is to the right, the initial line is a bit vague from what I remember but leads into an enormous corner that really can't be confused with anything else.

Happy to be corrected...

As you'll know by now, common sense prevailed and we went to Wales. The temps up in the Lakes were forecast a lot lower for some reason and I'd done some pure ice pitches on Scafell some years back which we were hoping might have formed. It turned out that the ice didn't form after reading some of the reports here and there so we switched back to Wales. Your pics from the side of Bristly on that route did give us some inspiration.

Took another look at Low Water Beck yesterday (Wed/15) - not climbable & I'm not sure it will be given the amount of water flowing & a warm-up imminent. Summit Route to top of Old Man OK though.

Been to Blea Water today (Thu/16).  Roads all OK, paths very icy.  The Gill was not fully frozen at the bottom with water flowing behind the ice.  However, several smaller watercourses to the left (looking @ the crag) were well frozen & excellent fun at around grade II - safe soloing.  I declined to solo the main Gill icefall as its ice was quite brittle (dinner-plating), but a frozen stream to its left at the same angle provided much safer fun & led back to the Gill & thus all the way to the top of the moor - excellent sport. Several other parties were in evidence today.

Don't want to be prophet of doom but temperatures are rising so enjoy while it lasts folks!

DSM

I was out on Wednesday and climbed Blea Water Gill Waterfall. A bit of water still running but thick ice where it mattered. I managed to get a couple of good screws in. Given recent temperatures should still be in nick today, possibly tomorrow as well if it doesn't warm up overnight. All the other lines in the area looked pretty lean/brittle although turf was obviously well frozen