A very wet Napes Needle

The rain and wind were hammering but Patricia and Siobhan were on a mission to tick some classic Lake District climbs this week so we opted to give the day a mountaineering feel by heading up on to the Napes on Great Gable. Despite the conditions we bumped in to a number of teams with similar plans.
Wasdale Crack (HS) on the iconic Napes Needle gave a real struggle with water flowing down the greasy and polished rock. A 10 minute break in the rain allowed us to soak up the atmospheric conditions from the small summit block although I was sat in a puddle!
Once back at the bags we turned our attentions to Needle Ridge. Both these routes are featured in Ken Wilson's Classic Rock. Despite the leader from the party ahead of us taking a 20' fall we made steady progress before a quick slide down the scree below Tophet Wall led us to the path back to Seathwaite. Today I was working for Adventure Peaks.

Apologies - No photos today as I forgot my camera. It was very wet and atmospheric!