As the “Summer of 26” continues to deliver, I’ve made a couple more baby steps in my recovery, firstly back into mountain trad (albeit in top-rope tough-guy mode) and then onto the sharp end.

Tuesday saw a trip to Cloggy – a bit ahead of schedule, to say the least! Keep an eye out for the next blog post to see if I got away with it, and for the full story in context.

With the heatwave continuing, the lure of a shady mountain crag was obvious. Another 90mins uphill schlep seemed inadvisable, so when Paul suggested a flyer to the Lakes it took a fair bit of head-scrathing to come up with an objective. We settled on Banzai Pipeline, a four-pitch, 3-star E1 5b on Great End crag in Borrowdale. Rarely in great condition, but hopefully bone-dry in the drought, it ticked the “shady” box, and would certainly have a “mountain feel” whilst (allegedly) only being a 20mins walk.

Here’s the crag viewed in the late afternoon sun.

Parking at the Bowderstone car park, it’s a struggle to even see the footpath that leads from the upper tier beneath the bountiful crop of bracken. Once you do find it, it’s half a mile walk along a fairly well-defined path, which passes a large boulder and then meets a wall at a gate. The guidebook mentions the boulder and the wall, but (inexplicably) omits to mention that you go through the gate and then turn off rightwards almost immediately after about 10m and bushwhack through more bracken, roughly parallel to the wall (or at least that’s what we found to be the best way). There’s not much of a path, and bracken soon gives way to a steep hillside of moss-covered boulders. Zig gently leftwards and you might find a vague trod leading back right to the foot of the crag. Here are the GPS coordinates of the start of the route:

54.542752° N 03.147279° W

… and here’s a trace of the least worst route we found. You’d be hard pressed to do it in 20mins with two fully-functioning legs, and it was quite a workout with just the one!

At first glance it looks a bit of a bushy and broken crag, but once you work out the line you begin to appreciate a strong if devious path up a really extensive buttress. The rock is obviously quite compact and there’s barely a dab of chalk, and it’s with some relief that Paul is signed up to be the rope-gun for the day – especially heroic as he’d done the route twice before!

Pitch 1 takes a groove, and in hindsight we reckon we picked the wrong (central) option, and should perhaps have stayed right instead. Felt harder than 5a in any case, and not overly well protected.

The Holly tree at the stance isn’t the sturdiest, so Paul pressed on to link P2. This is quite a stiff proposition, with thin, technical moves up a couple of corners. It’s genuinely harrowing, with vestigal gear for about the first 20ft – There’s plenty of easier E2s.

P3 is a real contrast, a stupendous jamming crack followed by an awkward offwidth chimney leading to a palatial ledge from which you can survey the last pitch. More contrast, as a traverse out left…

… brings the arete to hand, which is followed until a wild swing…

… gives access to a long corner and finally an easing of the angle and the top of the route.

Stupendous views over Derwent Water…

A couple of 40m abseils bring you back to the sacks, although beer o’clock was delayed by an intransigent rope that refused to budge on the top rap. Prussik practice for Paul.

All in all it’s a tremendous route, well worth the 3*s. The rock is surprisingly clean, if a bit dusty in places, but the actual climbing is not to be taken lightly.

Having re-opened my trad account, it was time to get back on the sharp end, but somewhere a bit less committing than Great End. Windgather was a much better bet.

Glorious in the Goyt, and Helen and I enjoyed the perfect conditions for some gentle mileage. What it lacks in stature it makes up for in outlook and friendliness.

Friendly was just what the doctor ordered for my first foray into post-op trad leading. Nose Direct, HVD a useful taster and nice to build confidence in my slowly improving ankle.

Having completed my self-appointed ration of routes, Helen reverted to soloing to top up her yardage.

That completes the latest edition of Recuperation Roundup – Onwards and upwards!