My fascination with the slate quarries of the Lakes and North Wales hasn’t always been matched by my climbing bravery. A phase of seeking out Lakeland industrial esoterica foundered on the mighty Titanic Arete in Moss Rigg. The guidebook description had been alluring:
‘50m E3 – An unsinkable experience up the arête. The first pitch contains little solid rock or protection, but the upper rib is in an eye catching position…. Wires, helmets and lifeboats should be taken.’
From the rim of the quarry the line hadn’t disappointed and Mike, Jim and I duly found ourselves at the belay halfway up the mighty arête. With just off vertical tottering rubble below and unnerving blankness above this seemed like a good time for Mike to prove his often asserted rock mastery, even if it had all been my idea. As Mike reached for the sanctuary of the top it seemed that this particular misadventure would have a happy ending until, in cartoon slow motion, he began to plummet fully 30 metres head first down the crag. He disappeared with a strangled scream down the far side of the arête still clutching the finishing flake that had, until so recently, offered salvation.
The first of the ladders, scary until you saw what came next!
More ladders....
‘Snakes and Ladders’ in the Llanberis slate quarries seemed to offer the opportunity for similar exploration with slightly less mortal danger. Confronted by a wet forecast in every direction Andy, Sam, Martin and I, all from ME, decided to go and ‘have a look’. Most of us had climbed in the quarries in some shape or form but rarely beyond the accessible classics on everyone’s ticklist. This trip, one of several that promises to take you into the depths of Hades, California, Mordor and the Lost World is graded a mysterious HVS in an attempt to hint that it may be a little more involved than climbing some ladders and chains. And so it turned out to be.
Andy realises what's holding it all up.I’ll spare you the blow by blow account as half the fun is the discovery of what, if anything, each ladder or chain is attached to as well as finding the well hidden 'Tunnel of Love'. I hesitate to recommend this to anyone as one day, probably in the not too distant future, something will fall down with someone on it with terminal consequences. If however you’re prepared to make your own decisions about the shockingly corroded metal work, hideous looseness, levitating ladders and life threatening drops there are few more impressive man made landscapes anywhere in the UK.
The start of the abseils into the 'Lost World'.