Heron Stones

Written by LakesBloc Monday, 07 June 2004 00:00

A nice afternoons sport in Eskdale resulted in the cleaning up of a smart little circuit of problems on the banks of the river Esk, 20 minutes walk from the road. The Heron Stones will be known to many a trad climber as a useful warm up before tackling the delights of Heron Crag, in a similar way the Sampson's Stones are used on an excursion to Esk buttress. Despite this they have not before been specifically "bouldered" on to any extent. After climbing a number of good little lines which had obviously been done before, some of the boggy landings were sorted out in a patio fashion using lovely large water worn pebbles, this opened a few more lines - Riverside Wall 6c+/V5, Heronesk 7a+/V7 and Ardea Cinera 7a+/V7, which is a superb left to right traverse of the riverside face of the main block, all new problems - F.A. Greg Chapman. There is in total around 15 problems all with good landings, although I must point out this is a slightly esoteric venue and would be best combined with a walk or a trip to Heron Crag, there is a topo guide in the pipeline.