Langdale offers tremendous scope for climbers. This guide covers the whole valley together with adjacent Easdale and the superb crags of Pike of Blisco.With high mountain and low level valley crags, superb rough, often south facing, rock and short approaches, climbing is possible all year round. All this together with a regular bus service, a large campsite and convivial pubs make the valley extremely popular.
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Langdale is without a doubt one of the finest of the Lakeland valleys and is easily accessible. As well as a host of outstanding and famous crags, the climber is well catered for with pubs, cafes and campsites. As a large proportion of the crags face south climbing is possible in the throughout the year.
The valley has immensely varied high quality trad climbing across the full spread of grades. There is something here for everyone, from Mod to E8 and from short single pitches to all day multi-pitch adventures. Down near the valley floor roadside crags offer superb convenience climbing, of these Raven Crag Buttress is perhaps the most outstanding, with its amazing Severes such as Original Route and Revelation share space with the high-standard test-pieces of Trilogy Wall. The nearby White Ghyll slashes down the fellside, its west facing side forming an outstanding and intimidating crag which retains its atmosphere even when in full sun. There are a some easier routes but the bulk of the climbing is in the VS to E3 range, with a particularly fine collection at E1 to E2.
Higher still Pavey Ark and Gimmer Crag are two contrasting yet sunny mountain crags. Pavey is a big crag, from a distance it looks broken and scrappy but on closer inspection its true scale is revealed. There are routes of all grades on immaculate rock, although moss affects a few it is rarely a problem. An easy scramble, Jack’s Rake, bisects the crag, by combining a route below the rake with one above you can enjoy 150m of top notch climbing. Gimmer Crag is undoubtedly one of England’s finest crags. The stats speak or themselves, of the 79 routes only 8 get no stars and there are 21 three star routes and a further 32 have two; everyone is catered for as they are spread across the grades from VD to E4 with a particular concentration of some of the best S, VS and E1 routes around.
The high mountain crags on Bowfell and Crinkle Crags, facing anywhere between east and north, offer an altogether more serious experience when compared to Gimmer and Pavey. The likes of Shelter Crag, Bowfell Buttress, North Buttress, Flat Crags and Neckband Crag all have many extremely fine routes, and again all on rock that is a joy to climb on. Being shady they need a little time to come into condition after rain, but this adds to their allure.
Why buy a definitive guide to a specific area when selective guidebooks include its most popular climbs? Well, the choice of routes in a selective guidebook is always somewhat subjective, and pressures of space dictate that many very worthwhile climbs are omitted. This guidebook therefore offers a far greater choice of climbs, all presented with helpful summary tables of both the crags and the climbs.
Below is the table of contents and some sample pages from the guide:
