E Buttress presents a variety of fairly easy climbs. None of these possess sufficient individuality or difficulty to demand a detailed description; the routes of greatest interest are shown on the outline drawing facing p. 370. These climbs supply a real want on Doe Crag, and render the climbing upon it, from ‘easy’ to ‘exceptionally severe,’ graded to an ideal degree.
Beyond the North Gully there is no climbing of sustained interest, but the Real Chimney, a curious cleft enclosed on all sides, possesses unique features. It is about 150 feet above the foot of the crags, some distance to the right of the North Gully.
The North Gully itself was first climbed in 1901 by the Messrs. Barton, and again by the writers two years later. Since then it has been visited several times. After climbing to the under side of the chaos of jammed boulders which form the great pitch, a narrow ledge will be noticed running outward along the left wall. The feat of traversing along this with practically no support for the hands, and a fearsome drop below, led to the inclusion of the Gully amongst the ‘exceptionally severe’ courses, and rightly so. Just when the ledge dwindles to nothing, a good hold can be reached with the left hand, and then a severe struggle upwards discloses good holding above. Thence the going is easier, and the top of the boulders can soon be attained. Away at the opposite end of the crags, a hundred feet to the left of Slingsby’s Pinnacle in the Great Gully, and at about the same level is a fine crack which the brothers Woodhouse first climbed in 1905. The lowest 35 feet are of about the same standard of difficulty as the Doctor’s Chimney on Gable Crag; indeed the crack as a whole is about as long and of as great merit as its more popular counterpart on Great Gable, and is very well worth a visit.
It but remains to be said that the first pitch of the Great Gully can be climbed direct up the left-hand side of the boulder without the aid of a threaded rope—a most strenuous effort—and that the two pitches of the Intermediate Gully (which Mr. Jones obviated in the manner described in his chapter) are amongst the very finest in the whole of the Lake District.
Other climbs in the Coniston district have been discovered recently by enthusiastic members of the Fell and Rock-Climbing Club.
Sylvan Chimney is one of the best of these. It lies to the left of Church Beck, and is the most conspicuous cleft in the splintered mass of rock between Boulder Valley and Lever’s Water, being situated 300 or 400 yards below the tarn.
(Boulder Valley is the fine upland hollow running from the foot of the falls below Low Water in the direction of Lever’s Water.) The Chimney affords about 120 feet of fairly difficult climbing.
A few yards to the left of Sylvan Chimney is Gouldon Gully, which gives a rather longer but somewhat easier climb. A slab of about 70 feet provides excellent practice in neat footwork. Above it a 100-foot chimney proves interesting, but unfortunately is somewhat earthy in its interior.
Colonel Crag, the boss of rock at the foot of Paddy End, at about the same height as Sylvan Chimney, has also been thoroughly explored and climbed, but is scarcely worth a visit; indeed it is to be feared that the proximity of Doe Crag would lead to the utter desertion of vastly more entertaining places than these latest additions to the Coniston climbs.