The Climbers Tree

If you've ever climbed in Langdale in the Lake District chances are you know this tree. It stands proud and alone in the mightily atmospheric White Ghyll - when climbers say "I'll meet you at the tree" - this is where they mean.
White Ghyll is such an impressive and still wild feeling place - yet its only a firm twenty minutes from the bustle of the car parks and the hordes heading to Stickle Tarn. Chances are if you're not a climber you've passed it by, certainly today I had it all to myself. The climbing is all on the right hand side of the ghyll - some of the Lakes most famous routes for generations are here - mostly two and three pitch - a lot of them the test pieces of their day - though nowadays a lot of them fall into a seemingly amenable grade - its a common place for the foolish to under estimate and find themselves having an epic - obviously I love it here! For many moons the challenge was to climb the 'nots' of White Ghyll - routes with names such as Haste Not, Laugh Not & (my fav) Gordian Knot to name but a few. The addition of a new E8 (a truly formidable grade of severity), Stopper Knot, may well put an end to that though.

The whole ghyll is a mass of fallen rock - the red rocks in the foreground being freshly fallen and smashed open to show an iron rich core - its a place that tells you up front "there may be consequences", but its also a beautiful place with ancient trees, falling water and full of wood sorrel, anemones, eyebright and more.

Today I was on a recce in the pouring rain - this Wednesday I'm running my first training course for the Mountain Training Association - so I've been out and run some drills, timed some exercises and generally done my best to make sure it will run smoothly - though hopefully a little bit drier than today!