Gav, Ewart and I are looking to climb as a three and our rough plan is as follows:
Friday
We’ll drive to Ennerdale, park at Bowness Knot car park (GR NY 109 153) and start the walk into Ennerdale. We’ll follow the road to the bridge at GR NY 165 135, follow the footpath up the hill towards Pillar and look to camp somewhere around GR NY 172 128 – above the woodline in the re-entrant about 2-300m north of Pillar Rock itself. it’s about a 7km walk in total with a climb of about 280m.
We’ll be in bivvy bags so can throw down almost anywhere. I’ll definitely be taking some insect repellent and a midge headnet.
Saturday
We’re hoping to climb both the West Wall Climb VD / HVD (depending on which guidebook you read) *** 65m 4 pitches and the New West Climb VD *** 87m 5 pitches. We’re looking to use the The Old West Route M as the descent line each time as it keeps us on the side of Pillar Rock that we want to be. To get both routes in will need an early start…
Once we’ve climbed, we’re looking to move round to Windgap Cove (between Pillar Rock and Steeple) and camp somewhere in the Cove. It’ll be 3-3.5km walk with about 300m of climb.
Sunday
We’re looking to go to Black Crag and climb Tower Buttress VD *** 57m 3 pitches. Unless we’ve done this very quickly, we’ll probably be heading back to the car park (just over 7km and almost all downhill!) as I need to get back to Filey to eat ice creams, paddle in the sea etc.
