Bivy on Pavey Ark

It's funny how things work out... after leaving Carlilse a bit later than we planned, due to people running a bit behind scheduled and then someone (Ed cough cough) forgetting to pack the ropes we ended up starting Middle Fell Buttress on Raven Crag just behind a old climbing friend of mine from back in Ireland. They had pitched the climb from the description so weren't far from the start so I climbed up to them for a little chat as Harvey racked up and did his first lead climb, which is something this routes seems popular for.

Ed on the second(1st) pitch of Middle Fell Buttress on Raven crag

We normally do this route in three pitches, but it had been turned into four which makes quite a difference, and Ed managed to get two middle pitches with the way we were tied in. Ofcourse though just before the crux pitch we could sort this out on a big ledge and I took the lead and as I topped out I got to say goodbye to my Irish pal as they headed back down the valley. The climbing was made extra interesting with our full packs, as we needed to carry all things we needed for the bivy aswell as the normal climbing gear. Although this is something you get more and more used to and after a while you don't really notice them.

From here we walked towards Pavey Ark, and as we had ascendet most the height the fun way there wasn't to much uphill to walk to get to the base of Pavey Ark. Although ofcourse there was the steep little hill to get to the start of the route.

At the start of the route we decided to get the head torches out as we didn't know how dark it would get before we found our bivy ledge, with a quick snack we made our way up the scramble.

Me, Harvey, and Ed scrambling up Jakes Rake looking for our bivy spot

Just under half way though the scramble we found our first candidate for a bivy spot where we could fit all three of us. So we ditched our bags just to check over the next horision and if you read the last blog post from a similar trip that's where we found the freshly fallen sheep... This time not so fresh which we even got a reminder of at our bivy spot with the wind going down the route we decided to go for the first spot.

We quickly got to building out our little laying areas, whilst some just removed the rocks that could be kicked down on the person below, that person got to crafting together a bed you could expect to see at a hotel. Once this was sorted it was time to sort the anchors, and lucky for Ed and Harvey they had a massive spike that they could just (well I) wrap a massive sling around and make it into an anchor, whilst I had to scavenge some more for one. With two solid placements and then a stack made with three light weigh offsets ( I don't know if I'm sad or not that I don't have a picture of this) I also had a pretty solid anchor for me and all my stuff.

As we got some water on the boil for our dinners, it was starting to get dark and it was time for head torches to come out... And as both me and Harvey forgot our spoons we ended up taking the eating and turns , well I gave it a go with my nut key but unfortunately it was still a bit though. So we finished off the meal with some Jamica Cake and some Ardmore Single Malt Whisky on the hip flask before taking the night in our bivy bags.

Compared to the last time I went camping this evening was fairly enjoyable! Even without a sleeping mat and laying sideways for a while would really hurt it wasn't bad at all. The night was quite mild as well and the great thing about Jakes Rake the route we were bivying on is that it's super sheltered so throught the night I could hear that the wind had really picked up and was playing with the water on the tarn whilst we would just get a little chilly blow going down the route. Even though I probably got around 4/5 hours sleep the night was really enjoyable and we were all up quite early and out of our packs around 7. Instead of hanging around and having our porridge breakfast we decided to get up and get town for a Greggs breakfast on the way back.

Even though me and Ed have done this route before, it felt quite different doing the rest from just walking up on it and it had a very alpine feel which made it all feel quite special.

Scrambling the last part of Jakes Rake

As we topped out from the scramble we quickly made our way down the path towards the car that we hoped was still there as the keys had been left in the wheel arch overnight...

Luckily enough it was still there and we made our way to Ambleside for our Greggs breakfast, though there was a big debate if we'd get one or two...