The best weather of the year so far coincided with Speech Day at school. That meant that our activities could start after 2pm and a lunchtime glass of wine. A rough outline of a plan had formed whilst trying to get to sleep on Friday night. We would use Saturday afternoon to walk up Scafell, climb a route in the evening, bivouac overnight before climbing on Scafell East Buttress on Sunday morning.

Penny was convinced in the merit of my plan and at about 16:30 we left Brackenclose carrying rather heavy bags bound for Mickledore, the col between Scafell and Scafell Pike. We split the ascent into four sections: up to the ford, up to a large rock before the Pike path splits off, to the Woolworth boulder and then finally to the col. Each section involved about two hundred meters of ascent and took us about half an hour. At the Woolworth boulder we collected three litres of water, unsure of whether there would be a good water supply at our bivi site.

At Mickledore we left our bivi gear and donned our harnesses and helmets. We used Rake’s Progress to reach the foot of Botterill’s Slab (VS 4c). This was exposed and very slippery in places. There was one section that involved crossing some green, loose rocks that we protected with the rope. As we had walked up the valley we had seen two pairs on our intended route, which was in shadow. By the time we reached it the lower of these pairs were on the second pitch and the sun was on the slab.

The route itself was a great line, a long narrow slab with the best holds out by the arête on the left. The first pitch was a little wet but the main second pitch was great. A textured slab about 25 metres long with some good cracks for protection. The amount of air beneath my heels was exhilarating. The final pitch was a bit of a disappointment, it was a wet dirty chimney followed by some loose flakes. However the second pitch makes the climb. We had been a little concerned about the descent to Mickledore, it is mostly a scramble but the lest few metres involve down climbing Broad Stand, a notorious diff that is one of WMRT’s blackspots. We scrambled most of the way down and then headed left (looking out) right above Mickledore where a short abseil reunited us with our bags. We had started the route at 19:30, topped out at 21:10 and got back to our bags about 21:45.

We headed down about 300m (horizontally) towards Great Moss, where a small enclosure had been built on a flat and dry patch of grass. This would be home for the night (see photo). A hasty (and well deserved) tuna and cous cous was consumed before retiring to bed with a good view of Jupiter, the Moon and some of the brightest stars.

In the morning we woke to see East Buttress in full sunshine. Others had the two-hour walk in to reach it but we had a head start and after a five-minute walk we were under Mickledore Grooves (VS 4c). The start proved to be the crux and after a few difficult moves an easy rightward ramp was reached. This led to a groove that in turn led to another groove. Moving between these was also a little tricky and felt exposed. Penny had a difficult time starting this pitch as her leader had placed his first piece of gear to the side of the climb. This left the start unprotected, instead she climbed, and swore at, a harder section to the right of the normal start. The second pitch was fun, climbing good rock in an excellent situation up a slab and then a groove. I managed to reach a belay but only on rope stretch.

Another scramble descent and abseil was followed by a trip down to fetch the bags. By 11.00 we were eating our lunch as other teams were arriving to climb. A hot but quick descent was only punctuated by a stop to cool our feet in the beck just before the ford.

Given the amount of time and effort required to walk in and out I think our plan worked well. Scafell in the evening was magical but I doubt that it would be possible to get more than one route in the sunshine. The East Buttress in the morning was also great, and if a party had more stamina it would be possible to move onto Pike’s Crag for the afternoon!