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13^th May 2008

Getting High

One good rule of thumb to follow is to climb on the crags that are just in condition - you can (nearly) always climb on lower crags so when the mountain crags come in get up to them as you may not get another chance for some time. A long dry spell and promises of good weekend weather led to plans for a day trip down to N. Wales.

Cloggy is one of the great British mountain crags. Limited availability only adds to its aura. Despite having done over forty routes there (some of them several times) I hadn’t been for nearly 16 years.

Two friends had been on the crag on the Saturday and had been the only people on the crag. The cafe on Sunday morning was full of talk of the routes in the slate quarries! Some people!!

Sunday was different - there were at least a dozen teams on the crag - and it was warm, stiflingly so. The weather wasn’t to last. We were two thirds of the way up the West Buttress (Great Bow Combination) when the heavens opened. Even with this deluge it was still warm and by the time the shower had passed and we were topping out, the rock was already drying. The approaching thunderstorm put paid to any thoughts of another route and we headed back down following everyone else. The rest of our team were in the halfway house (now rebuilt after the planners stopped the renovation some ten years ago) and by the time we had had a cuppa the rain had stopped.

Eager not to return with only one route under our belts we went on the slate!

6^th April 2008

Snow showers and Sunshine

The weather has been a bit bizarre so far this year. Warm and sunny early on but the last couple of weeks have seen snow! In fact there was more snow just before Easter than we’ve seen in the six years or so we’ve been here.

This has meant taking on an almost raid like mentality, snatching routes or half days at crags when you can. Then again, the forecast last Sunday was for heavy showers and it was a lovely day. Just a pity that my knee decided to begin to play up. In fact it was so bad, I couldn’t even walk! Things are a lot better this week (medication helped) and we had a nice hour and a half or so at Giggleswick South before the snow came in with a vengeance and within about five minutes the crag was wet.

Unfortunately, the six routes we did weren’t enough training so will have to do a work out at home. Such is spring climbing.

17^th February 2008

Sunshine and Rock

This year had started off really quite well, I was happily training away, had had a day on Stoney Middleton just about climbing in the sun. There was a bit of “Oomph” there, a bit of “Get up and Go”. Unfortunately it got up and went.

Poor weather and latterly a chest infection have sent me back to lower things. As age increases I find I need to be climbing regularly to keep the whole moving over rock thing fresh in my mind.

A bright sunny but cold day on Malham this weekend proved the point. We were only doing the classic HVSs on the Right Wing. After five routes of pleasant movement - if you kept your hands out of the shade, I had chance of a rope on Friday the 13^th, a short technical set of cracks. To say that it was embarrassing would be an understatement, I was struggling from the off as my hands suddenly reacted to the extra strain and the cumulative effort of the previous routes. Even the easy upper wall was an exercise in hanging on the rope.

Still it is all good training - just so long as it isn’t another six week gap until I get out climbing again.

17^th December 2007

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Getting out on rock at this time of year can be frustrating. Bright, sunny days rarely coincide with the weekend and the weather is rarely settled enough to guarantee that things will be dry.

The choice of crag and route becomes all important, unless you are in training for winter alpine routes then sheltered, south facing crags are a must. It also helps if the routes are short. In a word - Gritstone. Sort enough that you don’t get too cold hanging around belaying, plus there are plenty of opportunities to solo easier routes. There is the added benefit of vastly improved friction so you might just manage that elusive problem.

This weekend was a case in point: a cold, breezy and cloudy Saturday had followed a week of dry weather and the Sunday promised sun. It turned out to be another cloudy day but we had committed to going out. Fortunately the crag was fairly sheltered and it was only when belaying on top that you noticed any breeze. A bit of soloing to get warmed up, though for the first time in many years I wore socks with my climbing shoes.

So: the ecstasy. The friction was brilliant! Your shoes would stick to just about anything. Now I don’t have particularly good footwork but that was almost immaterial as the rubber of your shoes stuck to the rock.

And the agony? Well, as soon as you were hanging on steeper routes, you had a limited amount of time before the heat sink of the rock won over and all feeling disappeared from your hands. Fortunately I don’t suffer from hot aches but yesterday would have been a day of multiple agony if I did.

Still, it was good to be out on rock again. I just need to avoid putting any weight on over Christmas! Now what are the chances of that?

12^th November 2007

It’s that time again!

When folk see a dusting on the tops and head out to get the first winter route of the season in.

So what’s the problem? Well for a start, most if not all routes just won’t be in condition. The classic style routes won’t have any build-up of snow so definitely aren’t in nick. And the modern, mixed routes? Most of these rely to some extent on frozen turf and it’s unlikely that this will have frozen enough to allow an ascent without serious damage to the very medium that provides the route in the first place. In addition, places like the eastern side of the Helvellyn ridge are designated SSSIs so attempting to climb routes in areas such as this is likely to annoy quite a few people.

It’s a similar story when there is a big dump of snow - folk immediately expecting things to be in condition without giving the snowpack time to settle. The old adage of leaving things for 48 hours still applies.

The stock riposte to this is: “My spare time is precious. I don’t want to be spending it walking rather than climbing.” Well the truth is that we have far more free time than previous generations and they managed to get plenty done.

So what to do? Well, this time of year is the time to head out for a walk in the fells to get some winter fitness in. Winter climbing is different from rock climbing in that the days are much longer and you need to have more in the tank than the walk-in to Stanage is going to give you. I use the time to get my body, particularly my feet, used to the boots again. A long day (8hrs or so) Munro bagging or similar whilst carrying a decent sized sack with kit will be better than a session at the wall. Who knows - maybe you’ll spot a new crag?

5^th November 2007

There’s More than One Way

There appears to be a significant number of climbers these days who look for the “One Way” to do things: setting up a belay is a good example. The inference is that nature provides the same setup for every situation when it plainly doesn’t.

Continuing with the belaying theme, how many times do you see someone scratching around for their recommended three points of security, ending up with perhaps one good nut placement and a couple of sketchy ones when right by them is a twenty tonne boulder around which they could simply hitch a bight of rope. Notwithstanding possible damage, the same can be said for a large tree. The recommended three belay points is obviously a good ideal to work towards but one shouldn’t overlook the obvious!

Perhaps it is having done plenty of climbing in the Alps where speed is of the essence and belays need to be simple because of this that I find the fact that someone can take five or ten minutes setting up a belay when it can be done safely in a minute or less. No wonder people manage so few climbs per day (and that Brits have a poor reputation in the Alps).

5^th September 2007

A Sense of Adventure?

Is it just climbing? Or are all “adventure” sports becoming diluted by practicioners who need so much hand holding or emotional crutches?

No doubt there have always been such individuals but they do seem to be much more prevalent these days. Unable to make a decision for themselves, it makes you wonder how on earth they manage to get out of bed in a morning. This lack of initiative manifests itself in several ways from “What’s the gear for route X” to “Where should I go for my holidays?”. Without knowing everything in advance they seem unwilling to commit to anything. The idea of just heading off and doing something is anathema. The excuse then being that “Time is precious”, as if it wasn’t precious for Brown and Whillans with perhaps two weeks’ holiday a year.

Then there is the idea that you need a huge rack of kit to do anything, a double set of wires and a full set of cams is the absolute minumum needed to climb you know. A couple of years ago I was reprimanded by a colleague for going out in the Lakes in winter without the full paraphenalia of axes and crampons. The fact that I was running didn’t seem to be of particular concern to him, it was my irresponsibility in not being properly equipped.

Perhaps it’s not a recent phenomenon - “Today’s climber...carries his courage in his rucksack...Faith in equipment has replaced faith in oneself.” - Reinhold Messner from many years ago. Doug Scott’s classic book “Big Wall Climbing” from the early 1970s used a picture of a climber with a moderate (by today’s standards) rack to cast doubt on just how much gear was needed for a short gritstone route. The irony of this being in a book about the most gear intensive side of the sport was probably unintentional.

Where are the Tilmans or Menlove Edwards of our generation? People who’ll drop everything on a whim and head off in search of some adventure, not because of the kudos but for the adventure itself. Failing that, people who just get on with it, have a good time and don’t worry that they haven’t got all the right gear. Perhaps they are out there, keeping quiet, happy.

27^th August 2007

Decline and Fall

How the mighty are fallen! A visit to one of the best limestone crags in the Peak, Chee Tor, this weekend revealed a sorry state. What was once a popular well travelled crag has fallen into disuse - the victim of changing tastes.

It didn’t look good from the moment I stepped onto the old path from the bridge (my companion had elected to wade the river), fifteen minutes of jungle bashing left me hot and sweaty and looking like a suitable stand-in for Indiana Jones. A virtually non-existant path, fallen trees, head high nettles and brambles made for an interesting experience in a well travelled dale. The crag didn’t look much better, being closer in appearance to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon than the crag of old. Given that some of the routes are among the best of their grade in the Peak, including sub-extreme routes which is unusual for limestone, it was quite depressing.

The ground underneath the crag told its own tale - it’s fairly fragile for the most part so any use soon keeps it in check, yet the same brambles and nettles were everywhere. Well nearly everywhere, the start of the girdle and the area beneath Mortlock’s Arête were bare, a sign that the Girdle seems to be the only route getting done with any regularity.

So, what’s going on? Well the draw of convenience climbing in places like Horseshoe Quarry may be partly to blame, but there is also the honey-pot effect where the crowds swarm to the latest (and greatest?) venue promoted by the magazines, websites or guidebooks. On the times that I have been to Peak limestone this year, it appears that anything not bolted is being ignored, regardless of its quality.

Cleaning as we climbed, plus a few bits on other routes done as we abseiled off, we sorted out some eight routes. Some looked as if they hadn’t been climbed for years as the grass sods were so big. So as we left at least one part of the crag looked more hospitable, the crag just needs a bit more traffic. Get to it!

Fixed Abseil Points

3^rd August 2007

There appears to be an increase in the calls for permanent fixed anchors at several locations on mountain and sea cliffs. As ever, it is not a simple case of black and white; lazyness and convenience vs tradition. To some extent climbers have always sought an easy option in getting back to either their sacks or the base of the next route so the “problem” has been with us for some time. The arguments for going towards permanent fixed anchors (read bolts) is much newer and such calls have increased in recent years, partly due to the increased numbers of climbers coming from indoor climbing walls and expecting similar facilities outdoors, and partly due to increased environmental pressures from larger numbers climbing.

Many of the fixed anchors using pegs and threaded slings tend to date from the 1960s when the current range of wires simply wasn’t available. The slings get replaced or augmented periodically, the pegs less frequently. Over time everything becomes a bit of a mess as the amount of tat builds up and the pegs rust away.

Staying on the visual side, a bolted abseil station is undoubtedly less visually intrusive than twenty multi-coloured slings swaying in the breeze, but would this be offset by the increased erosion as more teams head out to enjoy the slightly sanitised experience?

Paradoxically with modern kit there is often little point in trusting to fixed gear and rather than rushing into providing fixed abseil anchors wherever they are requested, one of the ways forward may be to remove all fixed anchors, thus forcing climbers to think about how they approach things rather than assuming that “All is well”. Though no doubt someone will come along and replace them as a “service”

Some mountain crags already have slings or chains installed to facilitate an abseil back down to the foot of the crag, Gimmer above Langdale is one such, but it is debatable as to just how much time these save, especially on a busy day where throwing your ropes down a crowded rock face is unlikely to win you any friends. Again, in reality, even these are unneccessary as you can set up your own abseil point for the day and remove it after the last route.

Having said all that, there may be the occasional location where bolts may be necessary or actually be the best solution, though other than the bolt on top of Froggatt Pinnacle I cannot think of any at the moment where this is the case. There isn’t a “One size fits all” approach that will work, each location needs to be assessed on its own terms with regard both to local ethics and environmental concerns, only by going back to a clean slate can we do this.

Finally don't assume that just because something is bolted, it is safe and sound, I did a route last weekend where the bolt protecting the crux of a route was in a 1.5m x 0.5m x 15cm block that moved! I suspect that having 200Kg of rock slide down the rope towards you is not an experience that most people wish to have.

Climbing safely is ultimately about managing risk not removing it. Whatever the setup and equipment used, take care.