Land of Milk and Honey

Written by Greg Chapman Wednesday, 01 February 2012 14:00

Despite the poor weather of late there are a number of interesting things to report from the Lakes and surrounding area. First up, I have great news of a cracking 'new' and entirely unrecorded granite boulder in Eskdale. The aptly named Tear Drop boulder has been developed, perhaps only rightly, by Rob Fielding (of Rob’s Wall fame) and Phil Wake (founder of Eskdale centric website lakesbouldering.co.uk) a duo with plenty of past form in opening up granite classics in the area. Having uncovered the boulder some years ago and initially climbing the left side of the highball left hand arête, off the nearby block, at 6c/V4 (incidentally the RH side of the arete off the ground is a cool project), Phil returned sometime later to add Dry Your Eyes, the central undercut wall at 6c/V4 from standing and a tough 7a+/V7 from sitting (this starts down to the left), as well as another cool highball on the far left of the block tackling the obvious slab at 5+/V1 and finally the obvious LtoR lip traverse on the back of the boulder.

Image: Tear Drop Boulder, Eskdale.

They kept the news of the find under their hats due to one last classic hard project on the right side of the block, which takes on the obvious diagonal dihedral before finishing up the left slanting arête to the apex of the block. Rob returned during a particularly cold snap to take on said project and its technical cruxy slopes and eventually walked away with what is undoubtedly one of the most striking problems of its grade in the area. Rob has named his new problem Land of Milk and Honey (7c/V9), and once you’ve visited the block and appreciated the view you'll realise why!

Location details
I have created a Google map of the location of the boulder along with approach and parking details: click here.

Video
There is a a low-res video of the first ascent of Land of Milk and Honey on Youtube, available to view here, although the angle of the camera doesn't do the climb justice!

Apocalypse Now
Rob has also climbed a right hand finish to Tom Dixon’s fine looking arête problem, Apocalypse (6c+/V5), located in the small quarry on the hillside above Dunmail Raise. This is My Horse, and it is reckoned to be a bit harder than the original at around 7a+/V7.

Meanwhile at Thorn Crag
Also of note, but on the far southern borders of the LakesBloc coverage zone, I managed to climb the obvious sit start to Resistance is Futile, at the Trackside Boulders of Thorn Crag. This is a really good problem which starts sitting on the slabby block to the right and uses a low LH undercut and higher RH side pull to pull on and swing left to a smaller side pull in the seam before stepping up and making a dynamic barn doory move to a high pinch and on left into the remainder of the stand up. This goes at around the 7c/V9 mark and is worth seeking out.