Fell & Rock Climbing Club

FA details for Fleetwith Gully in the current winter guidebook are “1928 Jan, Chorley, KC Chorley, Pilkington, G Adair.” In the FRCC Journal of 1972 there is an obituary of Dorothy Lawrence Pilkington (dtr of Lawrence Pilkington) written by Theo Chorley, in which he writes, “I have particularly happy recollections of the New Years at Buttermere, when she often accompanied me on my ritual ascents of the Pillar Rock to welcome the New Year in; and a wonderful day in Fleetwith Gully, deep with snow, and ice, stands out in my memory.” The obituary is just signed Chorley which is usual among peers of the realm, but his initials were RST (and indeed are written so in the Buttermere book). As to the date, the entry in the Buttermere book makes it clear that the gully was climbed on 31st December 1927. The page it is on is headed “Saturday December 31st & January 1st” However, lower down the page, and below the Fleetwith Gully entry, is a sub-heading of New Year’s Day and below that, Dorothy Pilkington is listed as climbing Slab and Notch, and Theo and Katherine Chorley are credited with climbing North Climb, therefore they could not have climbed Fleetwith Gully that day, it must have been on New Years Eve. So it seems that the FA details for the climb could be amended to read: 1927 Dec 31 RST Chorley, KC Chorley, DL Pilkington, G Adair.