The Epics So Far

The first tales of epics on hill and crag are now trickling in to OUTDOORSmagic, in the competition for a signed copy of Preposterous Tales by Neil Gresham and Timm Emmett. Climbing adventures have mostly stolen the show so far, perhaps inevitably. The chances of everything going pear-shaped are always helped along nicely when you're suspended 30m up in the air. Still, hiking routes that weren't designed for the navigationally-challenged are also the stuff of epics, particularly if daylight isn't on your side...

Read extracts from the best tales below, or send us your own stories by emailing susan@magicalia.com.

Climbing in the Treska River Canyon

Tomi from Macedonia sent us the first of the week's climbing 'mares, dredged up from the 1997 archive, when he was climbing with an Italian friend on the limestone face of Treska River Canyon. The pair were climbing with a brand new 12mm rope, while another couple of climbers nearby were using double ropes. Unfortunately, the climbers weren't the only things on the route that were moving. A rock, 0.75 - 0.85 square metres in size, was also feeling the effects of gravity, and plummetted down the rock face towards them. As luck would have it, no one was so much as scratched, but the rope wasn't so lucky; it was completely severed. Tomi and his cimbing partner, Fabio, asked for help from the nearby pair on double ropes, who merely asked them why they weren't carrying a spare rope. Helpful, eh?! Fortunately they were able to connect their own ropes to descend to safety. The sequel, presumably, includes a new rope and a careful search for terra firma, not to mention some more friendly climbers:-)

Treska River Canyon

Darkness falls on Llewedd, Snowdonia

The next climbing epic comes from slightly closer to home. Ian Rickerby reports on his worst experience on a cliff face...

"A friend and I arrived in Snowdonia for a weekend's climbing in October 2004. On Saturday we took on some of Dinas Cromlech's HS and VS lines. All went well, and with a good dinner and a couple of pints inside us, in the Tyn-y-Coed, we made plans for the next day. We decided to attempt Avalanche, Red Wall and Longland's Continuation on the north face of Llewedd. Three hundred metres of climbing graded Severe and below shouldn't have been a problem even on an autumn day.

"Sunday morning arrived and after a fried egg butty breakfast we drove up to the Pen-y-Pass car park to start the 2 hour walk-in. We arrived at the start of the climb at 11am; so far so good. Unfortunately, things didn't continue to run smoothly. On the second pitch we didn't traverse far enough to the right so my climbing partner, Andy, ended up belaying in a corner on the wrong side of a buttress. When I joined him at the belay I decided to head up the corner and go round the top of the buttress to rejoin the route on the other side.

"After ten meters of easy climbing I reached the top of the cornerto find a smooth wet wall on the left and an overhang with a detached column on the right. I wedged myself painfully behind the column and edged my way up to the top of the overhang, where I belly-flopped onto the top of the buttress in the absence of handholds. I realised I would have to belay where I was as the climb required a down climb and traverse to continue.

"Andy headed off on the next pitch and got us back on route but promptly disappeared from view up another corner. Due to the buffeting I was receiving from the wind I couldn't hear his calls of 'safe' or his tugs on the rope and so it took me ages to start climbing. By this time we were both getting cold and time seemed to be passing very quickly. Still, we knew the angle would ease the further we climbed, and we hoped that the top wouldn't be more than another three or four long pitches, so we persevered.

"I set off on my next pitch, scrambling up poorly protected, slimy rock and grass, and was relieved to anchor onto a large boulder. By the time Andy joined me it was about 4:00pm and we knew we would have to abseil off or climb on in the dark. We decided to go down.

"As Andy had been standing for over an hour at his last belay and was very numb I offered to go down first and find somewhere to set up the next abseil. As the route we had climbed wasn't a direct line up the face, I wasn't anywhere near the previous belay spot when I reached the bottom of the abseil. I needed to find a flake or block to abseil off but all I could find was a small hollow flake to attach myself to, with a little foot ledge below. Using my head torch I spotted some larger blocks that would hold an abseil but I couldn't get to them as the rope was in the wrong place.

"Andy moved the rope and abseiled down to the blocks and after a heart-stopping moment when we thought the ropes had jammed we were able to set up a new abseil and head down in the dark. After another abseil and scramble down the scree at the foot to the face we only had the long walk back to the car and drive back to London to go!"

Llewedd

A near-downfall on Kinder Downfall!

You don't necessarily need cliffs to have an epic, as Dean Morgan found out when he trusted his local knowledge a little too much in a rather dusky Peak District...

"I had a fantastic day walking on 25 Feb 2006 but it nearly went completely pear-shaped.

"Living in New Mills and knowing the Kinder Plateau extremely well I though I'd be able to walk from Edale to Hayfield via the Kinder Downfall within 3 ½ hrs. I started at Edale station at 2:45 and managed to get to the top of Grinsbrook Clough by 3:30. I then walked along the plateau past the Woolpacks, Crowden Tower and Pym Chair. By 4:55 I had reached Edale Rocks but the weather was starting to turn very white indeed and there was snow a-plenty under foot from the heavy snowfall the day before.

"Ploughing on, I made it to ‘Kinder Low End’ trig point a little after 5pm and decided to walk over to the downfall, knowing that I had my head-torch and fairly good sense of direction on Kinder (I didn’t have a GPS or Map). I almost bailed out at ‘Kinder Low End’ to take the easy route back to Hayfield but chose to complete the walk instead. Big mistake! As I approached ‘Cluther Rocks’ things started to turn very worrying indeed...

"I was alone in the quickening dark and difficul walking conditions, with the snow turning to ice. The sense of walking in a ping-pong ball had really set in. It actually took some inner strength to keep me from panicking. When I reached Kinder downfall at 5:40 the atmosphere was positively eerie; I was very alone, frightened and mad with myself for not bailing out earlier. I knew one false move was all it would take to put me in serious trouble, now that the temperature had dropped to approximately -2, with a very strong wind. Obviously, it was only going to carry on getting colder.

"Stories of Kinder ghosts, which I’d read about, started to flash scary thoughts through my head; all I wanted now was to get off Kinder. I knew if I could get to ‘Sandy Heys’ I'd be off the mountain in a jiffy. I did think about dropping off the mountain via a steap-ish down climb to Mermaid's Pool but the thought of her jumping out and eating me scared me even more! More to the point, scrambling down some very icy rocks didn’t appeal much either.

"I started to do strange things in my panic, like running and jumping rocks, which was stupid because I slipped and really pulled my leg muscle. It could easily have been a break. Fortunately, I calmed myself down again and managed to get to ‘Sandy Heys’ for 6:15 to walk down off the mountain. After descending only 50 metres from the Kinder Edge I was outside of the snow cloud where I could now see the big city lights guiding me home.

"When I got to the Kinder Lodge pub in Hayfield I sank 3 pints of JW Lee's with some of my local friends. I told them the story and they said I was mad. What a fantastic day walking but I now need a new pair of underpants :-)

"Rule: Don’t think you know somewhere better than you think you do. If taking the escape route seems the most sensible option then TAKE it; you’ll no doubt regret not doing so when it’s too late."

Kinder Downfall

If you have any similar words of wisdom for us, then drop us a line...