Patricia arriving at the 2nd stance on Tophet Wall (HS)This week I'm working for Adventure Peaks with Patricia for her regular fix of Lake District rock. The brief for the week was Classic and Hard Rock routes so with blue skies in the North Lakes we took a chance on the weather and headed up to Tophet Wall (HS) on Great Gable. Arriving at the base of the route in just a t-shirt the cloud level was still above the crag and we were reasonably sheltered from the strong south westerly. The rock was still dry to touch but as we climbed the cloud came down to meet us and the wind increased giving very atmospheric and challenging conditions. Slow progress and a rather damp looking forth pitch prompted us to escape by abseil back into the gully. Rope management was interesting as the increasingly strong updraft frequently hurled our ab ropes back up the crag!
Patricia eying up the moves to the 3rd stance
My abseil ropes going horizontal across the crag!
