D Buttress, separating the Intermediate and Easter Gullies, is, in the writers’ opinion, the most entertaining and prettiest problem of all. In its lower reaches it is quite easy and apt to disappoint until, at the same height as the difficult pitch of the Intermediate Gully, it rises almost vertically for above a hundred feet.
The way lies up a vertical arête, which recalls most strongly some of the Coolin Ridges. The holds are sound and rough, but none too large—just sufficient to leave a fair margin of safety in a very exposed position. This delightful stretch gives out at an excellent belay, beyond which the interest continues unabated for 50 feet or so, until it ceases on a wide grass platform. Shortly beyond this the Easy Terrace is again reached.
Before dealing with the easy climbs of the E Buttress, mention must be made of three fine chimneys, two of which have been climbed since Jones wrote his description of the Easter Gully. On page 235, after he had ascended the first pitch of the Gully and attained the ‘great hollow’ above it, he refers to ‘splendid branch gullies up to the ridges on either side.’
Two of these branch gullies were climbed many years ago, that on the left-hand wall, now called the South Chimney, by Mr. H. C. Broadrick, and its counterpart on the North Wall by the brothers Woodhouse.
This latter is known as the Black Chimney. It is deeply cut, and looks most forbidding. A closer acquaintance dispels most of its terrors, for the holds are excellent, and the fearsome upper capstone can be rounded on the right-hand side with comparative ease. It is, however, well worth a visit, and the continuation up the E Buttress is not lacking in interest.
Lower down than the South Chimney—a pretty problem in ‘backing up’—a rectangular opening in the crags, almost immediately above the first pitch of the Easter Gully, claimed the attention of Messrs. Woodhouse, Westmorland, and the writers in April 1910. A heavy blizzard of snow and hail, which fell at the time they made its first ascent, suggested the name Blizzard Chimney, and this was adopted. It has always seemed rather a pity that the majority of the names on Doe Crag are so prosy; the latter-day climbers have lacked the happy knack of giving distinctive names to their exploits.
G. P. Abraham & Sons, Photos Keswick
THE BROADRICK’S AND HOPKINSON’S CRACKS DOE CRAG
The most awkward part of the Blizzard Chimney is at its foot; to effect an entry is not easy, but once attained and an exposed bulge climbed by the crack on the left, the rectangular opening is reached, and the way lies up the left-hand wall of this. After about 90 feet of moderately difficult climbing the chimney gives out on the D Buttress.