Honister Via Ferrata Xtreme
DATE 17.11.2012 |
Posted by Matt | Filed under lake district
The day finally arrived! When I first heard about the Via Ferrata route at Honister Slate Mine, it had just been closed down due to some re-routing work around wild plant life. Now its back with a new Xtreme route aswell. Seeing as half of us are firefighters, it seemed only right that we should commit ourselves to the more exposed course. Not to say we don't tremble at sharp falls like anybody else. parp!
We arrived at mid day with a delayed start. Someone in an earlier group was taking a considerably longer time to complete the course. This didn't help lessen the fear already expressed in Shaun's face. lol!
once we were harnessed up and given head torches?? , we clambered onto the bus which took us up to the start point. The mouth of a mine shaft! we clicked on our head lamps and followed our guide through dripping wet, narrow tunnels until we came out onto the north face of fleetwith pike.
out on the ledge, we had a short tutorial on our twin carabiners and where they were to be clipped on. if on a ladder they were to be clipped onto steel rings attached to the ladder strings, anywhere else we were to clip onto the steel cable leading the way.
'who wants to go first?'
my hand went up fast but came back down just as quickly. too late, everyone looked at me.
I clipped on and off i went down a raking ladder with nothing more below me apart from some steep rungs drilled into the rock and about 1000ft of air. as i followed the rungs and traversed across the side of the rock face, my friends began to follow. there was a lot of laughter and the odd joke about needing the toilet or having a wobbly handle to grip onto. ( i can assure you though that there was no wobbly rungs...ok maybe one) all was going rather well in the first section of the route. i had the occasional look down into the pass below but was mostly too busy clipping and unclipping from the cable.
the next section became even more interesting. descending into the side of a gully with an overhanging wall was a good test for using the carabiners with one hand and hanging on with the other. being at the front my little updates were relayed along the line. 'this bits tough', 'this ones wobbly', 'slippery here', were all met with nervous laughter. i would say i was quite vocal, that was until i reached the cable bridge!!!
another part to our harness was a pulley. once at the bridge, i attached my pulley to a cable above my head and clipped the carabiners onto it. the bridge consisted of one steel cable to walk on and one either side to balance. my experience of the bridge can be split into two parts.
part 1- my technique. at times swaying to near horizontal; it's amazing i didn't fall
part 2 - a simple piece of advise from the guide. I'm not going to tell you what that advise was ;) It was practical advise that makes perfect sense but when you're swaying on a cable high above the ground, sense is limited.
a few comments were thrown at each other back and forth across the gully. the one i remember most was, 'matt you've gone quiet!'
it wasn't the height that was playing on my mind. it was more about how far would i fall? how easy would it be to pull myself back up? would the shock absorber on my lanyard pay out? would i smash my man goods? all this whilst laughing like a child!!
somehow we all made it across without falling and were faced with more steel rungs, this time gaining some height. the height was then gained further with the help of a cargo net. this too required a little bit of technique but was tackled without too much difficulty. one remaining raking ladder to go and we had finished the route!
as we looked way back down towards the honister slate mine visitor centre our guide informed us of the new zip wire that they have been battling for and hoping to have next summer. its only about 1-1.5km long!!!, starting at near 2000ft up!!! and moving between 70 and 80mph!!!
All that was left now was to clip on our head torches and follow a shaft up into the mountain, eventually topping out near the summit of fleetwith pike. we gathered around to admire the view across buttermere and crummock water and posed for group photos. with huge smiles across our faces, we all agreed we would be coming back soon...NOw that deserved a few beers!
*PHOTOS ON THE CABLE WERE TAKEN BY OUR GUIDE*
chris signing his life away
thankfully we had our guide to take photos. our hands would be far too busy.
i volunteered to go first. no looking up at big man bums for me and i would get to look back and laugh.
mark
as you can see, the route starts down and then traverses
when on the ladders you clip onto the rings. once off the ladder then its the cable
nice shot mr camera man. bit blurry but still effective
here's the gully. descending into it is a challenge as the wall overhangs. not all of the rungs are straight either. they tend to go off at all sorts of angles. this makes it all that more interesting though.
lol. looking at this photo i can see why we nearly tipped off it
that's better
gaining some height
how many men can you get on one cargo net?
and i'm done!
paul threatened to drill me when back at the fire station
andy
imagine the zip wire. from here, all the way back down to the visitor centre at 80mph...yes please!!!
work friends
view from black star. buttermere and crummock water
group shot before a gentle walk back down to the visitor centre. will we do this again?? ......You bet!