Canyoning Sessions in The Lake District. Church Beck 27th August 2015.

Lat Thursday saw the Hickey family undertake their last half day Outdoor Activity Session with us.

The family had enjoyed a session kayaking on Windermere and also, a caving trip to the Yorkshire Dales National Park. For their final session, it was to be a toss up between Abseiling or Canyoning. Iain felt they would get more out of the latter, so photo one sees Elliott, Marcus & Mick kitted up and ready to go Canyoning at Church Beck near Coniston.

So what is Canyoning? Canyoning is descending a mountain stream abseiling or being lowered down waterfalls; or jumping down waterfalls in to deep pools.

We issue the same equipment for canyoning as we do for all our Ghyll Scrambling Sessions although whilst we may not always need to use a harness when Ghyll Scrambling - you'll definitely need to use one when being lowered down a waterfall just like Mick is - in photo two!

Photo three was taken some time after we had started the Canyoning Session in Church Beck. Iain had lowered Mick, Marcus & Elliott down the waterfall seen in photo two. We had then taken a short jump down beside a waterfall in to another pool and then walked under Miners Bridge to arrive at the fall in photo three.

Iain had then lowered the trio down this fall before we headed on to the narrow ravine downstream where the "Top Jumps" are to be found.

Photo Four sees Mick about to join Iain at his stance above the "Top Jump". Many groups jump off from the boulder where Marcus is currently sat although this is in to a very narrow slot and we have seen countless people bash elbows & ankles against the walls on either side as they have plummeted into the pool below. Not good, we feel!

Your safety is foremost in our minds at all times so we do not permit this jump - instead, we rope you across to the stance from where this photo was taken and then lower you 6 feet to a point where you can safely jump into the pool below.

Below that point, there is another fall that we climb down to avoid the big rock in the bottom - swimming the pool beyond to enjoy the "Chock stone Slide" beyond that. Downstream of that, there are a waterfall that can be climbed in ascent; and a "climbing traverse" around the back of a deep pool where failure to stay on the rock results in a soaking. And lastly, we climb out of the bed of the gorge to do a high jump into the pool above the Chock stone Slide allowing us to attempt that slide one more time.

Canyoning is great exhilarating fun and costs just £45 per person for a half day (four hour) session for a minimum of two persons. You can view two previous posts to give you a flavour of what this great activity is all about here and here. Contact us here to book your canyoning experience, we look forward to working with you!