TO THE SUMMIT IN SILK HAT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17854, 24 May 1926, Page 6

TO THE SUMMIT IN SILK HAT.

THE CENTENARY OF ROCK CLIMBING. (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, April 4. Over five hundred climbers and onlookers on the Pillar Rock, or in the amphitheatres around, took part on a gloriously sunny afternoon, in the celebration of the centenary of British rock climbing yesterday. Girl and women climbers in bright but workmanlike garb were .almost as numerous as the menfolk. It took two hours for the parties to make the ascent by the old west, the route discovered by an Ennerdale shepherd a hundred years ago. The procession was led by Mr 11. M. Kelly, the writer of the Fell and Rock Club’s Climbing Guide to the Rock, Mr G. W. Abraham, author of several climbing text-books, who made his hundredth ascent of the rock, and Mr Pritchard, wearing a silk hat, were conspicuous figures among the host. The climbing was watched with intense interest by the spectators on both the east and west sides of the rock. It was not without misgiving that the descent by the towering slabby wall on the south-west side by a lone cragsman was beheld. There was hardly a single climb on the rock that did not attract attention. Two parties did the popular north, with its notorious nose and stomach traverse; only two cragsmen attacked the north-west, another of the most exposed and severe courses. Everything passed off triumphantly, and the cragsmen were unanimous that it was the most memorable of their climbing experiences in the Lake District.