A couple of weeks I wrote about the informal climbing group formed by Andy from Newark and yesterday we were back at Birchen with the second group. Hannah, Simon, Amy, Debs and Clare are all new to the sport and were very keen to have a go and pick up some skills to move their climbing forward with a view to doing more in the future.
We set up some bottom ropes and covered belaying, tieing in and a variety of movement skills. Then we moved further along the crag and the group tried belaying from the top. The weather was very changeable and just when the rock dried another heavy shower put us back at square one.
No matter. The team continued to be motivated and enthusiastic and it was a great day. We celebrated with drinks in the pub and everyone talked about visiting local walls and buying rockshoes, so it looks like we have some new climbers in the making.
Thanks to Andy again for his organisational efforts, to SPA trainee Piers for helping out and to the new Newark climbers for a fun day. It was great to meet you all and I hope you keep in touch.
I got back from Wasdale, got the biking kit packed, said hello and goodbye to the family (they get used to it!) and headed up to Snowdonia to meet Mark and friends who were visiting the area for his stag weekend. Mark was keen to do more with his stag celebrations than just drink (although I understand they fitted a fair amount of that in too!) and I’d been booked to guide them around the Marin Trail. For those that don’t know it, the Marin is a purpose made 25km mountain bike trail that starts near Llanwrst. It was recently voted one on the world’s top ten mountain biking trails - and yes….it really is THAT good!
We sorted out bike hire for some of the group (Lightspeed Bikes in Betwys Y Coed offer superbly maintained Trek 5000’s and have a very helpful and knowledgeable staff) and we headed off to the trailhead. The weather was perfect for biking and we quickly blasted half the route before stopping for a picnic lunch. Most my biking lunches tend to consist of a Clif Bar and Powerade, so cheese filled salad barmcakes and crisps made a real break from the usual (albeit a welcome one!). Needless to say that the looks from some of the passing bikers was priceless.
By the time we got to the final long descent there were some very tired legs but everyone made it down safely and the beaming smiles after the final jumps said it all. The team were then heading over to Liverpool for a night out and I was grateful to receive an email from them this morning saying everyone (including Mark!) had got back safely after a fun but hectic night on the town.
Many thanks to Jon for organising the event and my best wishes to Mark for the wedding and beyond.
Wasdale is one of my favourite parts of the Lake District. A remote location surrounded by some of Lakelands most majestic peaks.
So I was more than happy to be accompanying a local school on a residential visit to the area this week. Over the course of the week two groups came and went, and we had a great time. The children and staff were fantastic and the campsite we used in Nether Wasdale is a superb base from which to explore the area.
One of the highlights was walking the high level ‘coffin route’ between Wastwater and Eskdale. I hadn’t done this before and it is a really great walk into a ‘lost valley’ where the Wasdale villagers used to carry their dead for burial at the church in Eskdale. As well as the amazing scenery, the hills was alive with beautiful mosses, sundew and bog cotton and some stunning geography too. If you haven’t been across this route please put it on your future list of ‘must do’ walks!
Many thanks to all for a great week and I hope to see you all next year for more of the same.
This weekend I’ve been out with Ian and Sam doing some guided mountain biking while David went out climbing with returning client Kristin – given the weather we had on Saturday I’d say biking was certainly the best option!
I met Ian and Sam in Castleton on Saturday morning and only a couple of minutes chat made me realise it was going to be a tough couple of days. Marathon runners, Ironman triathletes and road cycling demons – these guys had done it all. A 38km White Peak - Dark Peak link up later and we gratefully (very gratefully in my case!) hit the Outside café to refuel and relax. A great day with two real enthusiasts, but would my legs cope with another day like it?
The weather had been so grim we hadn’t stopped for more than a few minutes so I was really keen to see how the climbers had managed. I met up with them at Lawrencefield and luckily they were very easy to find…. no one would have been mad enough to still be at it with weather like that! Even better, they reported having a ‘great’ day with some leading action, some rope skills action and ending with some abseil set up action. A great effort guys.
The great thing about basing clients in Castleton is the great range of pubs for them to explore in the evening. In this case Ian and Sam didn’t leave the one they started in (which happened to be the foodtastic Castle Inn) but that didn’t stop them downing 6 pints of Timmy Taylor’s and a couple of spirit chasers. It looked like I might have an easier day!
Even better, the weather was looking peachy too – I love it when a plan comes together! A great Derwent loop blew away the hangovers and the guys headed home with a real taste of the great biking the Peak has to offer. Climb of the weekend must go to Sam for his epic roadie legged blast up to Rushop Edge whilst the award for best fall certainly goes to Ian for his Olympic standard somersault cartwheel roly poly flip thingy on the descent to the Snake Road. Thanks to you both for a great few days and it was a real pleasure to meet you both.
Needless to say, Kristin and David had also used the good weather to full advantage too. A grit morning at Froggatt was followed by a trip to that home of slippy Peak limestone….Stoney. More leading, more gear placement practice and a cluster of crumbly white climbs (well Stoney is a bit loose in places!) and hopefully Kristin is well prepared for her future adventures. Great to catch up with you again Kristin and a mega thanks to you David for your much appreciated hard work.
If you’ve been following the climbing media over the last few weeks you will undoubtedly be aware that Dave McLeod’s E11 from 2006 has had 2 recent ascents. Rhapsody is an awesome looking endurance route that climbs the steep headwall at Dumbarton Rock northwest of Glasgow. Dave’s attempts at the climb became the subject of the brilliant docu-film ‘E11′, and the following trailor gives a taste of the commitment needed to pioneer a route at this grade…….
Then, a couple of years later, visiting Canadian climber Sonnie Trotter landed in Scotland to have a go. Sonnie has an awesome portfolio of hard ascents under his belt and his dedicated approach to training and hard ascents is legendary. 14 days (spread over 4 and a half weeks) and 24 fifty foot falls later Sonnie bagged the second ascent on 10th June. This YouTube of Sonnie on the first ascent of Cobra Crack at Squamish gives an idea of his calibre……….
Finally, Steve McClure, the UK legend who seems to be permanently on awesome form, arrived to take a look. Only 4 days of attempts spread over 2 weekends and on June 15th Steve had the third ascent in the bag. Steve has been the hitting the headlines recently for his ground breaking sport routes but this effort shows he is just as effective on trad. Here he is on ‘The Elder Statesman’ at Curbar………..
So the book of Rhapsody has a few more chapters and the UK climbing scene stays as vibrant and exciting as ever. Don’t you just love this sport!!
But before I go, here is my favourite climbing YouTube at the moment. It’s that man Sonnie again. This time on ‘The Path’, his 5.14R route at Lake Louise, Alberta. Enjoy…..
A few weeks ago Andy, a climber from Newark, contacted us to book an introductory climbing day for some new climbers. It turned out that he’d been keen to encourage people in his local town to get involved in the sport so he’d produced some posters and put them up around Newark.
He’d been amazed at the response and his original group had now turned into two and he was still receiving calls several weeks later. Since then he’s even started organising a website so everyone can keep in touch and the local newspaper has interviewed him for an article about the project.
Yesterday we headed up to Birchen for the first intro day and had a ball. The group ranged in age from 9 to 52, their experience ranged from ‘never seen a rockface’ to ‘tried climbing a couple of times’ and their confidence level varied from ‘I could show Spiderman a thing or two’ to ‘I get nervous climbing stairs’. Luckily the common thread was loads of enthusiasm and a ‘go for it’ attitude.
The sun shone all day and by the time the team headed to the pub at 5pm we had covered a range of key skills as well as blasting 7 Birchen beauties. Of course the aim was to encourage more people to get involved in the sport and the conversations on the way to the cars said it all…………”What sort of rockshoes should I buy?”, “Which other gritstone crags are worth visiting?” (all of them of course!) and “when is the next climbing day?” - job done!
A massive thanks to Andy for his inspired idea and for his hard work in getting everything organised and well done and thanks to the Newark posse. Just make sure you keep it up!
The last of this weeks climbing sessions was finished by lunchtime so I headed straight over to Glossop to take a ‘research’ ride for an upcoming ride guide (if you call it research you don’t feel so guilty about all the other jobs you are avoiding!).
Dom and I had noticed lots of bog cotton during our day on Kinder earlier in the week, but as I drove over the Snake Pass today the Bleaklow Moors were absolutely alive with it. Bog cotton is also known as cotton grass (although its really a type of sedge) or hares tails and it loves the boggy peat moors due to the high water content and rich nutrient supply. Its fascinating to watch on breezy days as the long stems stand proud of the peat allowing the fluffy white seed pods to blow majestically in the wind. At this time of year the stems are green but in autumn they change to a deep crimson red which brings the moors to life again for one last time before the arrival of winter.
Bog cotton is said to have had several uses in the past. Highlanders supposedly collected it to fill bed mattresses, apparently it was also used to make candle wicks and even used as a wound dressing. But certainly the most bizarre idea we have heard of was a brainwave to collect the white fibres and spin them like cotton to make garments. In the end it was not to be because the fibres were found to be too brittle and kept snapping when it was spun. Even today bog cotton has an important role providing food for grouse and heath butterflies.
If you are passing the moors or have time for a walk over the next few weeks it is well worth a look. Have a great weekend.
Talk about attitude! This week we are running a series of climbing sessions for a big education project that works with year 6 children soon to move into secondary education. These children are fantastic. Most of them have never climbed before but they are super keen and really up for a new challenge.
We have just finished this mornings session and that group are winging their way back to their primary school before another group join us in the afternoon. I felt so inspired I thought I would make a quick blog entry while eating my lunch (any tips for getting grated cheese and mayo out of a laptop keyboard ?!).
All the children come with different expectations, very few know each other and they inevitably have different confidence levels. So the beauty of climbing for this type of group is that it encourages team work whilst allowing the children to achieve at their own level. Some get to the top of every climb whilst others only get a short way up, but it really doesn’t make any difference to their enjoyment or sense of achievement. Even better, they belay each other, encourage each other and share the enjoyment with each other - it really is all good!
We have a session this afternoon then one tomorrow morning and I have to say I will be genuinely disappointed when they end.
Probably another reason I’m buzzing at the moment is the weather. Its been great all week and on Wednesday evening I went to join some friends for a glorious evening at Stanage. A nice breeze meant no midges and we cruised a dozen routes before hitting the pub. Stanage is the daddy of gritstone crags and my favourite - great routes, brilliant situation (if you can ignore the view of the cement works) and so much choice you can find lots of quiet spots no matter how busy it is.
The only downside is the attitude of others. As an idea that sprung from part of our recent environmental audit I’ve started taking a bin bag out on cragging sessions and 15 minutes at the end of our session on Wednesday almost filled a bag - why oh why do some people not take rubbish home with them?! If you feel inspired please do the same - you really do feel like you’ve earned that first pint once you’ve humped a bag full of junk down to the car……………especially if you are climbing at Stanage End!
Oh well. Lunch is over and the next group of future stars is en route - back to the day job. I hope you are making good use of this weather wherever you are.
Cheers,
Paul
I spent Monday on a navigation skills course with returning client Dominic. Again the weather was fantastic and we had a great day on the Kinder plateau. Dom is an experienced walker and scrambler but he felt a little unsure about his navigation and wanted to brush up on some aspects.
As always with these courses, it was fantastic to see Dom’s confidence increase over the course of the day and he got to a point where there was a permanent smile on his face as he found feature after feature! With such good visiblity it was easy to spot anything that was raised above the plateau so, in a bid to make things more challenging, I asked him to get us to a small pool.
A good attack point, confident compass bearings and bang on pacing brought us to an open area with no obvious sign of water and I saw Dom beginning to wonder whether he’d made a mistake. No chance. When he looked closer he saw the pool was there but hot weather and spring growth had just obscured it. Confident navigating. You betcha!
Thanks for a great day Dom. It’s always a pleasure…..now keep practicing! Oh yes…and of course he’s not really from Arabia - more like Glossop!
After spending 2 days indoors on my LPIOL training (albeit at the lovely Bell Heath Study Centre near Birmingham), I was ready to get out and enjoy some of this fantastic weather we’ve been having. So Sunday couldn’t come too soon….
I met up with clients Alex and Phil for an Introductory Mountain Bike Skills Course and we headed to the Derwent Valley to enjoy a brilliant loop of the valley in awesome weather. Alex and phil work for a fantastic organisation called ’sporting futures’ which is a charity that provides sport development activities for young people. They are considering running some mountain biking activities in the future and wanted to pick up some key skills.
We looked at a variety of relevant skills and enjoyed some fine riding although it soon became clear that the guys didn’t need any input on descending….they were blasting those slopes! They certainly had tired legs at the end of the day - but were still smiling. I hope the day was useful for you guys and best wishes with your new grant applications.
Sporting futures is definitely a charity worth supporting and if you want to find out more please check out their website at www.sporting-futures.org.uk.
