Pitch 5: The description in the current guidebook (2023) page 156 (and the previous two guidebooks), suggests that from the bilberry and grass ledge you should keep moving left. In June 2024 this did not look feasible to me, or very pleasant! Instead I climbed straight up on good clean rock to reach the top of the route. It is possible that the original description was wrong and that this has been perpetuated through several guidebook or that I have found a more pleasant and logical way.
Description for P5 should read.
5 12m Climb the broken groove up and left to a grass and bilberry ledge. From the left side of the ledge climb a flake and the wall above to arrive at the grassy slopes above the climb.
Descent: The descents on this crag are either non-trivial or very long. It might be worth suggesting that if no other routes are to be climbed it is best to carry sacks up the climb and to carry on (scrambling?) to the top of Great How. Alternatively walk uphill a short distance and then descend an obvious grassy rake until you are below the routes Napoleon and Trio, climb either of these and then descend rightwards from their top.
The 2023 guidebook causes confusion about the best descent: In the diagram on page 152 the descent is shown down the grassy rake and then a break on the right just before the abseil point. In the diagram on page 156 the same descent is marked with an exclamation mark (caution). This makes more sense because why would there be an abseil station if the descent was easy?
We did not see the break and continued on until just beyond route 17 (page 156), here we reached an impasse. It did not take much scouting around to find another abseil point, below a boulder on the edge of the rake. This had two slings and some cord on (all quite old), so has been used by at least three parties in the past. We reinforced the abseil point and abseiled from here.
This abseil is not recommended because although straightforward it was quite wet part way down.
I think the point is that parties in the past have considered it necessary to set up an abseil here and so there should be a warning in the guidebook that if they do not intend to continue upwards they will most likely need to abseil and reinforce that old tat that is in place,
Hi Ken
I provided some editing feedback for the page 156 phototopo.
The lower abseil point near the short section of dry stone wall was in good condition in 2022. Other abseil points on the crag exist but are of varying quality, perhaps better removed as litter, I did remove some I found in 2022 but maybe not all. Perhaps you used one of these.
The ! on the scramble descent near the abseil point was to get climbers to engage brain. This start going down is not obvious on first aquaintance and the line intricate, hence the dogleg in the dashed line.
This whole area is the scene of much activity for the Coniston MRT. The dry stone wall was originally put up with a warning sign to avoid walkers attempting the much harder downclimb by the righthand !. I have only been up this way once, I had a rope with me so used it.
Thanks Rick, your comments are useful. Yes the abseil point we used is lower down than the one marked in the guidebook, so was probably not checked for the latest guidebook. Your comments underline the fact that descents from this area of the crag are non-trivial and require care and experience. This is why I think in any future guidebook and the next Lake District Rock there should be more info and warning about the descents. If you see my comments for Misty Wall on the same crag, I have commented that descents in the other direction (right facing out) are also non-trivial and require some route finding. Thanks for taking the time to comment.