Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Blea Water Crag: ascent 1902


	Blea Water Crag: ascent 1902
civil parish:-	Shap Rural (formerly Westmorland)
county:-	Cumbria
locality type:-	rocks
locality type:-	cirque
locality type:-	historic ascent
locality type:-	climb
coordinates:-	NY446104 (etc)
1Km square:-	NY4410
10Km square:-	NY41

evidence:-	old text:- Gents Mag placename:- Blea Tarn Crag item:- climbing; accident
source data:-	Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922. goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1902 part 2 p.420 "..." "II. - THE STORY OF A CLIMB." "THOUGH it was not yet sunrise, Joe Graves was discussing his simple breakfast. He was alone, for his sister had long since married and gone to a distant home of her own, but he never seriously thought of engaging a substitute. "I can fend best for mesel'," was his invariable reply to all who suggested the matter to him. Jem Bate opened the door and walked in." ""Will you go to Blea Tarn Crag to-day, Joe?" he asked, without even a prefatory greeting; "the ground is in rare fettle for cragging."" ""Too dry," was the reply, "but I'll go. It's ower bonnie a day to stop in the boddem. We mustn't take too much rope, or we may have a smash. Half a dozen yards should be about enough. There's no pitch on Blea Tarn Crag as'll want more."" "After this they talked awhile of the different routes by which this crag is scaled, and determined to try one which was as yet unclimbed. His meal finished, Grave produced an assortment of ropes, out of which the most suitable was selected; then, without further delay, they started. Once clear of the semi-wild garden, the pair put on a pace, for the time at their disposal was limited, considering the object in view. The sun rose as they followed up the bent-grown slack which forms the quickest approach to the mountain of High Street, and by five o'clock they were walking across the summit. The panorama extended for miles over mountains, dales, lakes, and plains, in unequalled grandeur. Far way, with splashes of purple and grey swirling over its tops, was the great mass of Lakeland mountains; to the west Windermere wound away among the quiet, wooded hills, and beyond this shimmered the sea. This clearness was a sure sign of an impending thunderstorm. Their practised strides rapidly bore the pair to the corner where Long Stile extends from the parent range, and beneath which slumbers the ink-like Blea Water. Down the rough rocks they threaded their"
source data:-	goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1902 part 2 p.422 "With their backs against the wall of rock, the climbers were looking at a distant patch of sunlit cloud over Kidsty Pike when from the west, black as the smoke from a manufacturing city, dropped a cloud of rain. Thunder in magnificent melody roared, boomed, sang, and rattled; lightning clove the semi-darkness with fitful gleams; the rills and gullies continued and intensified the blast till fell and dale, tarn and sky seemed in the very climax of an exterminating war." "There was now no time to be lost if the climbers were to reach safety at all; for the heavy rain descending would soon fill the tiny channel up which they must escape. Six hundred feet of sheer cliff below, thousands of tons of rock above, each threatened in vain direst vengeance upon the pair crawling between. The rock shelved outward and upward, and this characteristic saved them. It was a wearying climb; the water, in ever increasing volume, oozed through their clothes and lapped their faces when at particularly narrow corners their bodies dammed it back, but at length Bate reached the head of the semi-tunnel and found himself in a very steep and rough gorge, Graves had not followed him closely, for if the track had proved useless such action would have created a nasty position. The summit could hardly be more than two hundred feet above, and the edge of a cliff is usually so weather-worn that its ascent is not difficult, though the crumbling nature of the rock makes it extremely dangerous. Bate gave a whistle for his companion to finish cimbing the hollow way, and and a judicious strain on the rope helped him to do so. A stream of blue fire flickered from a low-flying cloud and struck the rugged crag above their heads. Ten thousand tons of shale, felspar, and slate crumbled away, and parted with a terrible crash from its base.The ghyll in which Bate was standing was swept by an avalanche of scree, and when it cleared a bleeding, crushed body jammed in a crack showed that some fragment had struck home a fearful blow. Graves was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he was crushed under the mighty weight, perhaps hurled among the falling rock into the tarn." "High up beyond the range of human sight the battered form still breathed. No one came to succour as evening died among the crags and slopes - in these localities a rock-fall is not so extraordinary as to invite minute exploration. The quietude of night passed, daybreak and broad day came. The body still breathed, though it did not move. Would another be added to the ghastly tale of skeletons lying on the moors and cliffs? Day blazed to its"
source data:-	goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1902 part 2 p.421 "way to the narrow belt of grass by the tarn's outlet. The crag was now close at hand, and they eagerly scanned its fifteen-hundred-feet sheer face. A fault in the rock, cleaving it from base well-nigh to summit, was the point of attack they had selected, and they climbed up the scree to its lowest point. At the foot of the crag the rope was adjusted, and Bate led up a narrow gully, which a few yards above seemed to lose itself in the wall of rock." "The toilers gradually climbed up till the ravine narrowed, and the gully was blocked above by a huge cornice. Here footholds must continue either to right or left - it might mean a perilous hand-traverse across the face of the cliff, but having warmed to their work this peril could not daunt them. The rock above was virgin, human foot had not yet been placed on it; hence its conquest, after so many failures would be a feat." "Hour after hour the pair laboured on, trying anew grip here, or a tiny foothold there, till one with less patience might have judged the attempt a failure. Meanwhile the whole aspect was changing. In the west the misty blue had deepened into blackness, the light of the sun was sensibly diminished as the veil of mists extended, the glinting of the ripples on the tarn beneath ceased, and the bleak slopes around looked still more depressing. The minutes passed, and the storm-hiss on the moor above was succeeded by a distant mutter of thunder. Though this change was perfectly well known to them, they did not speak of it to each other." ""Stop?" queried Bate, "dinner-time."" "Graves spragged a leg crossways the gully and looked up." ""Ay! Is there a ledge handy?"" ""No, two good toe-grips here, and another pair higher up. Shall I get to 'em?"" "Very cautiously Jem Bate continued his scramble; his knees outspread could now touch both sides of the crack; arm pressure had to be lifting power. At last he succeeded in reaching the point he had spoken of, and prepared to give a helping haul to his companion. The position which he was forced to stand in was very uncomfortable, his shoulders were bent by the hanging mass above; so he looked around for an easier position. A narrow gap close above promised a little, and into it he crawled; it was a drain-like crack scoring the base of the pinnacle. Crag-instinct pointed to the possibilty of this traverse continuing into a higher gully, and this hope was strengthened by the tiny stream trickling down. In a few words Jem conveyed the discovery to Graves, who was eating his lunch twenty feet below."
source data:-	goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1902 part 2 p.423 "close, and the body slowly recovered consciousness and seemingly appreciation of its position. Tortured by thirst and hunger, with crushed shoulder and side, Jem Bate rose to survey, with all his old defiance, the shattered cliff above. As he began to drag himself up the rough passage, his nerve steadied, but just as he seemed to reach safety, a few loose fragments hurtled down, and struck him to the ground. The shock was fearful, but the hardihood of a thousand scrambles enabled him to survive it. For an hour he lay on the shelving broken rock, while a wanderer who had seen the man in the ascent climbed the rugged gable of High Street and walked along the summit to the top of the gully. This man had a keen interest in scrambling among uncoventional climbs, and therefore essayed a descent to meet the other. But fifty - one hundred feet down he carefully climbed, at every moment his position becoming more dangerous, signalling again and again without hearing any response. Then, as he traversed a rough, projecting rock, he came upon the still breathing body of Jem Bate. Tenderly, yet with consummate skill and strength, he lifted it and bore it up the terrible steep. How he managed it in safety none can tell, but the shepherd who hastened from Lingmell at the sound of the danger-cry of his kind found the two lying together so still that he thought both were dead. In an hour assistance was at hand, and the cragsman and his rescuer were being carried towards Mardale." "..."

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