High Moss Dry Tooling at The Works

The forecast was typical for late October in the Lake District: some sunny spells, some showers, some drizzle, but little certainty over the relative proportions of each, and even less certainty over when each would arrive. But spirits weren’t dampened and there was a good turnout for this meet: KMC members: Sean Clancy, Luke Cullem, Jake Fletcher, Adam Griffin, Michelle Harrison, Stuart Hurworth, Paul Lonsdale, Adam McCudden (joint meet leader), Phil Mitchell, Lynne Williams, Gareth Williams (joint meet leader). Guest: Harriet. We also enjoyed the company of some dry tooling regulars Jonathan, Lina (none other than the dry tooling guidebook author) and Reece who were at the crag by chance. Well, maybe they had a bit of a tip-off we were coming?!?

Everyone staying at the hut managed to find their way to High Moss, with some abandoning it almost immediately in favour of the pub. The East Yorkshire Mountaineering Club also had a group at the hut and were a friendly team and good company over the weekend. We didn’t convert any of them to dry tooling though.

On Saturday most of us headed to The Works, a dedicated dry tooling cave and one of the UK’s premier venues for the sport. After scrambling down the approach slope, rope and ladder, we were all in the quarry ready to unleash our axes. The two Adam’s set about putting top ropes on a couple of routes in each of the Industrial Sector and the People’s Slab and everyone had a go on these. Notable mention to Harriet, her first time dry tooling and she had a fractured wrist, still wearing a splint, she climbed her route with a single axe. Adam Griffin put in some hard work on Bloodline (D10) in the Paddy Cave. Stuart, busy filming him, produced the quote of the weekend “I’m pumped just holding the camera up”. We also had a go on Cerberus (D6+), thanks to Adam again for putting a rope up it. As we got back to the cars the heavens opened and we realised we’d timed it perfectly with the weather. On the way back to High Moss we stopped off at The Black Bull in Coniston where good food was enjoyed with a few drinks.

On Sunday our venue of choice was Bakestones Quarry, just around the corner from The Works. The rain was a bit more persistent today but one of the good things about dry (sic) tooling is it can be done in the wet, and there’s usually deep caves to hide away from the rain in. Routes climbed, to various heights and in various styles, were Outside Leg (D5), DibDab (D8), Left Slip (D5), Right Slip (D5), The Fang (D8). Not everyone went tooling, some naught people snuck off searching to find dry rock to climb. I understand they were successful but didn’t take note of exactly what they did. Thank you to everyone who came along to make this a very successful meet, whatever you did!

Footnote: dry tooling is a niche sport which is tolerated in only a very small number of dedicated locations. We have a good number of dry toolers in the Club with a lot of knowledge about venues and routes. If you fancy a go, please get in touch with one of the keen dry toolers in the Club who will be only too happy to introduce you to it (note there are further tooling meets already in the calendar). Whatever you do, PLEASE don’t go dry tooling anywhere that isn’t an established tooling venue.

Gareth Williams