Limestone Times

Trow Gill.

In my last post I said that I would be off to Yorkshire to sample some of their limestone crags and that is what happened yesterday. The limestone crag for the occasion was Trow Gill, which is an impressive place and it wouldn't be out of place in a film starring that ever popular Iowa boy, Marion Robert Morrison. You could just imagine the Academy Award winner ambushing a hardy bunch of lawless individuals as they trekked through the gill in search of a hiding place.

High up on Clapham in Irons (F6a+).

Luckily there was none of that today; there was the odd group of high school Geography students, but for the most part we were left to our own devices as we worked away on the bolted routes of the southern wall.

Making a couple of tentative moves on Sunday Best (F6a+).

We were plagued throughout the day by the weather. The wind funnelled up the gill making it extremely cold, which made it hard to crank on the small limestone edges, but that was manageable, what was not manageable was the precipitation that began to fall after our third climb. We took shelter for half-an-hour as it abated and eventually stopped and after a couple of minutes the limestone was dry. One more climb was had before the heavens opened again signalling the end to our day.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain