Is Kinder Downfall in?

Kinder Downfall in winter nick

It's obviously not the best rock climbing time of year, so not much to report on Classic Rock progress.

On reflection, it's been a decent climbing year, with a family weekend at the Roaches, a few Peak grit days, including my first trip to Burbage North this autumn, on top of the Classic trips to Cornwall and North Wales.

Last weekend offered a finale to the climbing year as we tooled up and tackled the rarely in condition winter route on Kinder Downfall. Although I've done steep snowy routes and winter gullies, I realised on gearing up that this was my first actual steep ice climbing route. 

Our approach to the falls took us from the Snake Pass side and over the top of a wintry plateau, although we noted it didn't quite feel wintry enough underfoot at times; still some flowing streams and boggy bits liquid enough to cause some wet feet. On arrival at the Downfall, the unmistakable sound of flowing water greeted us and we knew we'd been optimistic to expect good conditions. Our pragmatic approach from the outset was that we would enjoy a winter walk over to the falls and we'd rather carry climbing gear needlessly than get there without gear and find it in nick; we didn't really expect to climb it. And now, on finding the river Kinder sliding behind the dripping iced up drop we were even less expectant. It felt magical just to witness the conditions up there so we descended to the base of the falls, joking that if we stuck an ice axe in the base of it, we would learn something and at least be able to log it as a DNF rather than a "didn't bother".

As another pair were racking up to give it a go, our confidence grew. Sometimes in climbing, it's possible to be over-confident because of someone else's views, or feel a bit of pressure from misinformed encouragement and when the other leader urged us to give it a go, I had to check myself as to whether I was about to end up setting off up something I wouldn't have otherwise. Having visualised the moves and the route, and being confident in the integrity of ice-screw placements, I quickly moved from "happy to have been for a look", to "let's give it a go".

Immediately on fully committing to the route, I felt out of my depth. The idea that you have to fully commit to one axe in order to move the other, as obvious as it is, seemed to be an absolute revelation about 3 metres in. Using the (spiky) feet effectively seemed an alien skill to relearn, despite banging on about the importance of that for years to novice rock climbers.

Topping out lacked any sense of style or technique as I clawed one axe over the other on an easing ice slab, dragging myself in a crawling position, seemingly unable to stand up and just walk off.

During the route, I got crampons caught on rope, axes stuck, feet all over the place; I felt like the novice I was, something similar to leading my first severe and just being glad to have got up it. But I loved it. I learnt loads (like elbows and knees don't have much friction on ice) and am looking forward to trying it again in 3 years when it's next in.

Massive thanks to Danny Lawson Photo for capturing amazing images to remind us of a great day out and sharing them with us, and the national press. All photos on this post are Danny Lawson / PA Media. https://twitter.com/DannyLawPhoto