G. WILSON President 1945–1946 THE JOURNAL OF THE FELL & ROCK CLIMBING CLUB OF THE ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT Edited by E. BANNER MENDUS No. 40 VOL. XIV (NO. Ill) Published by THE FELL AND ROCK CLIMBING CLUB OF THE ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT 1946 CONTENTS PAGE An Interim Report from Borrowdale .. Bentley Beetham 179 A Holiday in Kulu .. .. T. Howard Somervell 195 Thoughts on a Piece of Glass .. .. F.H.F. Simpson 200 Memories of John Wilson Robinson "A Founder Member" 208 " Pour les sans-guide debutants " .. S. B. Beck 211 Undelivered Letter to a Friend .. Mary Leighton 219 Amenity and All That E.W. Hodge 223 A Visit to the Lofoten Islands, in August, 1877 C. F. Hadfield 232 Climbing in Northumberland .. .. H. K. Gregory 234 Raid on Rum F.L. Jenkins 240 Welsh Weekend J.Carswell 243 The Rope Stretcher A. S. Pigott 248 Two Poems : Mare Tranquillum .. John Be'chervaise 249 Hollow Stones .. R. L. Plackett 250 Climbs Old and New 251 The Year with the Club A.M. Dobson 261 In Memoriam : W. P. Haskett-Smith 264 T. M. Hardwick J. R. Wheldon T. L. Cowlishaw F. F. Thomas Editor's Notes 273 Club Notes 277 London Section 277 The Library 278 Reviews 279 AN INTERIM REPORT FROM BORROWDALE Bentley Beetham For many years a deep-seated depression has brooded over the dale. It has been fostered, if not indeed created, by comments appearing from time to time in the Journal. I will begin by first giving a few examples of these gloomy remarks, and then after each I will add a few facts which may help to dissipate the said depression. ' Climbs in Borrowdale are few and far between.' In the next edition of the Guide there will be detailed some 20,000 feet of climbing within a radius of about two miles ! '. their frequent wetness.' Actually these climbs have a distinct advantage in not being situated high up on the larger western mountains, and often when the latter are swathed in wet mist and obscurity, or coated in verglas, some of these lower eastern rocks are in first-class condition. Neither is there any need to apologise for their ' rather low standard of difficulty ' ; there are routes here to suit all standards of proficiency. At the date of the last Guide, 1936, after more than forty years of exploration, there were only twenty-two climbs in Borrowdale to be recorded, and, in the ten years that have passed since then, only three or four additions have been noted in the Journal ; yet now there is a sudden spate of more than fifty new routes. How is this to be accounted for ? The explanation is easy. In 1936 the Goldsborough Club, the mountaineering activity of Barnard Castle School, acquired the lease of a hut near Rosthwaite to act as its Lakeland headquarters, and it was soon apparent that if boys were to be suitably introduced to the true joys and art of mountaineering the popular crags would have to be eschewed, at least during the main holiday periods. Serious overcrowding of the rocks will increase in proportion to the influx of climbing recruits now the war is over. Reference to an actual occurrence will make the point clear. It was Easter Tuesday, and we had kept away from Gable since the preceding Thursday. As two of our stalwarts had on this day to return to business, we thought that the same would apply on a larger scale to Lakeland visitors generally, and that we might therefore visit a popular centre. On arrival at the Napes we found more than seventy people and miles of rope festooned on and about the Needle and the Dress Circle. Had we required an insight into the management of a circus or of a performing-flea show it might have been useful, but as an introduction to mountaineering it was utterly repellent. Without stopping we continued along the Gable Traverse and so to Beck Head and round to the Ennerdale 180 AN INTERIM REPORT FROM BORROWDALE Face of Gable. Here there was not a single person visible ; we appeared to have the mountain to ourselves, and the great crags towered up in all their pristine solitude and grandeur. That there was not much climbing here suitable to the ability of our party was, of course, our fault, not the mountain's, and we quickly set about trying to rectify the deficiency—the result was the making of Barney Buttress, a good route of 500 feet, going from bottom to top of the crag and providing varied and interesting climbing on sound rock. And so the work has gone on ; we have made climbs, not necessarily where they offered themselves, but where they were required, and the result is that today there are more than eighty climbs in the valley to choose from. It is often asked ' What is the climbing in Borrowdale like ?' To say that it is better or that it is worse than that found in some other place gives no idea of what it is like, and may moreover convey a wholly wrong impression ; perhaps it would be nearer the truth to say that it is different from the climbing in most other centres. You go to Pillar or the Napes, to Scafell or Dow, and there are the climbs all spread out before you, like goods in a shop window ; and having paid due regard to the price—the standard of difficulty of each—you make your choice and up you go. In Borrowdale there is no such scansorial display : there are plenty of climbs within the reach of all, as I hope this article will reveal, but they have to be found, identified and carefully followed. In this last there is, I think, a hidden virtue, useful as training for the Alps, where a slight deviation from the intended route may lead one to an impasse, to less interesting climbing, or to a wrong destination altogether, and so wreck the whole expedition. On many of the grand old standard courses in Lakeland the general nature of the cliff often suggests where the way will be, and the routes are so cleaned and scratched that the faculty of route-finding or following hardly enters into the programme ; though of course the main thing, the climbing, still remains. These classic routes are often ideal ones— the easiest ways up difficult places, and any deviation from them leads only to harder climbing, and one is therefore inevitably shepherded back on to the right route. But impregnable-looking rock faces which are as yet unexplored are few and far between ; the pioneers have seen to that ; and such few as do still remain untrodden may well prove, on close acquaintance, to be as im- pregnable as they look. And so it comes about that many of these newer climbs in Borrowdale do not follow a natural line of least resistance up frowning cliffs, but choose deliberately a difficult way up comparatively easy rocks. Any deviation from the given route is therefore likely to reduce the difficulty, the interest, and Bentley Beetham 181 the pleasure of the climb. It is sometimes said that such climbs are artificial ; and so indeed they are, but a little contemplation will reveal the fact that so also are most other routes in this country— there is usually some other much easier way of gaining the same objective, the top of the climb. The difference between these ' artificial' routes and the fine old standard courses is really one more of degree than of nature. There are far too few Mustagh Towers, Matterhorns and Napes Needles, and so we have to increase the interest of attaining the summit by setting the course where difficulty lies ; but once the route has been fixed we must follow it scrupulously, or regard our effort to do the climb as a failure. This purity of purpose to follow the given route becomes more and more important on these newer climbs, since any departure from them savours not of exploration but of retreat, for it results in avoidance of the very difficulties which are the raison d'etre of the expedition. Turning now to the climbs themselves, and following the method adopted in the Guide by starting at the bottom of the valley and on its eastern side ; the first place of call shall be the Bowder Stone. The cliffs hereabouts are of small stature and the climbs are therefore rather short, but some are distinctly good, and in view of their easy accessibility it may be useful to mention a few. BOWDER STONE An oak tree which grew at the foot of this much PINNACLE climbed route has fallen and dragged with it the whole of the rocks forming the lower part of the original first pitch, and leaving in their place a rather holdless, unsatisfactory slab. Fortunately this can be avoided by climbing a few feet above the old start and then traversing left so as to rejoin the first pitch a little higher. This does not materially alter either the standard of difficulty or the length of the climb. BALDER'S CRACK 120 feet. Severe. Starts a few feet to the R. of the Pinnacle Route. (1) 30 feet. Up easy rocks to a fine stance and belay where a stalwart oak springs from the crack. (2) 35 feet. Continue up the crack for about 30 feet and then go R. on to a spacious rock bracket where are innumerable belays. (3) 30 feet. Move back into the crack, which is now a harder proposition, the final ten feet especially so, but the finishing holds on the top edge are a joy.