Lee Harrison Climbing

What was I doing here? ...Climbing a south facing icefall in February, in the afternoon with clear skies and temperatures barely freezing - if at all. Seriously, what was I dong here? The snow on the approach was soft and wet. Signs of small avalanche debris beneath the route. The snow was too unstable to stop us skidding on the blank granite slabs beneath. Tomorrow's forecast was 3 degrees... the next day 4 degrees... the next day 5 degrees. The next day... warmer still but by then I would be home. We bore left towards the trees to escape the lethal slabs. Victor slipped and took out Anna. Both clambered back to their feet. Anna now slightly more bruised. We were heading for Boyzone - a WI3 that was reportedly one of the only routes in condition in the Setesdal valley. The short approach suggested it would be the obvious choice given we had only arrived in the valley around 12pm. That said, a 200m route in less the perfect conditions was now seeming a slightly ambitiou...

There looked to be some good freeze-thaw cycles going on in the Lakes over the preceding 48 hours so a trip to the Lakes on Sunday looked potentially worthwhile. Worst case scenario was that we would end up at The Works if things proved warmer than expected. With a freezing level forecast at 700-800m Gable seemed an obvious choice. Maybe some mixed routes would be in nick, however I anticipated the thaw cycles would have stripped the buttresses. We went with an open mind with the view to climbing whatever might be in condition. The buttresses looked black on the approach, except towards the top, so gullies provisionally looked the best bet. We aimed for Central Gully. The only problem was that the snow was still soft amongst the boulder field directly beneath the crag. Ominous signs that we might be walking back to the car shortly. Maybe 50-100m below the start of the route the snow started to firm up and our optimism improved. I wasn't convinced that any mixed routes woul...