Sunday 20th December; Manchester Climbing Centre

Every-one getting busy!

The last CMC Meet before Christmas, and eight of us turned out, keen to get some climbing done. Once again we settled for an indoor wall, though the morning was mild and pleasant and it was tempting to risk going outdoors.

Some of us hadn't been to Manchester Climbing Centre before, so the first task was to pass the entry-test. Fortunately we could all tie our knots correctly and spot the deliberate mistakes! 

Manchester Wall isn't as high as some, but there were enough routes to keep us busy for the day. Plenty to challenge us, but some soft-touch grading so we could go home pleased with our achievements!

The setting in an old church is obvious

Tony in Action

Ian and Peter  - Christmas Cheer!

Keswick Weekend 4th - 6th December

The CMC holds an annual Christmas Jamboree in Keswick: group accommodation and a communal Christmas meal of much higher standard and lower cost than your average restaurant Christmas dinner.

Some of the cooks in action

 This year we managed to pick the weekend when Keswick experienced its worst floods on record! With rain of biblical volume, most people went for walks of the gasp-in-awe variety.

Keswick (Fitz Park)

 However, a team of three went to the climbing wall in Penrith. Not being present, I didn't like to ask whether it was climbing obsession that sent them there, or a reluctance to get wet! However, they were clearly reluctant to risk missing dinner, and set off on the exciting journey back to Keswick mid-afternoon while the road was still passable.  

Sunday 8th November: Kendal Wall

With the optimism of youth, coordinator Mike proposed a trip to the Roaches, where “the grit is of a finer and friendlier texture than that of Stanage, and has a reddish hue which glows like amber in the sunset.”

However the Met Office steadfastly refused to help us and insisted on forecasting high winds and torrential rain. With the realism of experience we settled for Kendal Wall.

Only four of us turned up, but needless to say we all put in a good session and left at closing time suitably worn out – and the forecast was correct: it would have required enthusiasm bordering on the foolhardy to have climbed outdoors.

…Nevertheless, the youthful optimists among us have fingers crossed for a cold dry sunny spell for December’s meet…

Sunday 4th October: Shepherd's Crag, Borrowdale

Ken enjoys the autumn sunshine on Shepherd's Crag

Anne volunteered to coordinate the Sunday climbing for October, but this proved a little tricky, because it had been great weather all week in the Lakes and Anne and Ken spent it in Borrowdale with no mobile phone signal and no wi-fi.
Hence we were drinking coffee outside the Lodore Farm cafe beneath Shepherd's Crag on Sunday morning wondering who would be coming to join us. Answer: no-one! A shame, because it was a perfect Autumn day and the crag was end-of-season quiet.

Anne, Ardus pitch 1

No queuing for routes so we had an indulgent day collecting classics - Ardus, Adam, and Eve - before Ken ran out of steam on the 5b crux of North Buttress, and we ended the day abseiling for his runners as the light began to fade.

Ken completes the classic traverse on Ardus pitch 2...

...and Anne follows.

Thursday 24th September: Roefield Wall

It's been a good Autumn. This is the first Thursday evening for goodness-knows-how-long that we've been rained off the crag. Six of us spent a pleasant evening at our bijoux local wall, Roefield. For the non-literati, that means "Little Gem" - it's a great place for a session every once in a while, and can be followed by a pint of the best beer in Clitheroe!

Wednesday 16th September: Witches Quarry

Tony leads Hellhounds on My Trail

With the nights drawing in we needed somewhere close to home so we could maximise climbing time. Hence, Witches Quarry. Tony, Anne and Ken were able to get away early and get a couple of routes done before the rest arrived.

Anne follows whilst practicing her breathing exercises!

Hellhounds on My trail proved tough at VS. Familiar's Fall next and we all learnt that it's not that bad if you do it the right way.

Tony placing the crucial gear on Familiar's Fall

Soon Peter and Linda arrived and joined in with the fun.

Peter follows Familiar's Fall

Linda enjoys Crucible

The Crucible next and later Ken fell off Black Mass but reached the top by adopting some 'french free' tactics.

It was a lovely evening and we benefitted from Witches being NW facing, so it catches the evening sun.

Linda leads Cracklap

The views from the top of the crag are always superb

Ribble valley

Climbing in Norway

Slab action in Setesdal

We have just got back from a six week long trip to Norway, walking and climbing. There is a lot of developed climbing in Norway, and  vast potential for more. You can find trad, sport, plaisir and of course mountaineering. Routes vary in length from single pitch to the longest rock climbs in Europe on the Troll Wall. Guidebooks are available to most places but are usually in Norwegian.

We started in the south at Setesdal. The climbing here is predominantly slab climbing on granite with both single pitch and multi-pitch climbs. The guide book has 500 routes, so in 1 week we only scratched the surface. We started with single pitch ‘sport’ routes.  Here ‘sport’ means ‘bolted’, but very sportingly - you can easily go 10 m or more between bolts. The routes are between 40m and 50m long so you all gather at the top and then abseil off. Most of the routes we did were excellent. We also did some longer multi-pitch routes. The longest and best was on ‘Monsterwand’ and was 830m of climbing in 14 pitches, with a summit book to sign at the top.

That 'lost in a sea of granite' feeling

From here we moved on to Nissedal, a fantastic area with loads of great trad climbing. There is a long lake surrounded by forest with granite domes poking out everywhere, rather like Tuolomne Meadows near Yosemite. We climbed on Haegefjell, which is an enormous granite crag 1000m high at the highest point and 2km long. 

The top half of Haegefjell. 1000m high, 2km long.

The main route we climbed was Via Lara which is often touted as the best grade IV in Norway. It was very good, rather like climbing on the Idwal slabs, it follows a crack line all the way up. The difference is that it’s 350m long, with 7 pitches and no one else there!

Via Lara

This last point is worth noting, in our experience a ‘busy day’ in Norway is when there is another party climbing on the same crag as you. Virtually all our climbs were done while we were the only party on the crag.  Both Nissedal and Setesdal have huge potential for new routes. They both have lots of enormous, attractive looking crags with only one route on, or none at all!

After Nissedal we did some walking and driving. Three days driving in fact to get to Lofoten in Arctic Norway. You may have heard of Lofoten, it’s well known for the climbing and there is a guidebook in English published by Rockfax (though currently out of print). The Lofoten Islands are known as the Magic Isles and while it’s difficult to pin down what it actually is about the place, we found that it felt like a magic place to us and we were very reluctant to leave. 

Climbing above Solvaer

The walking, particularly in the Western part, is fantastic - but I’m writing about climbing here. Once again you can do single pitch or multi-pitch, with the majority of the multi-pitch routes being just right for a day out (8 – 10 pitches). There is great variety, sea cliff, roadside, long walk in, multi-day epic and mountaineering.  Grades from IV up to IX and every climb we did was excellent. We kind of ensured this by only doing routes from the top 50 in the guidebook. With good weather any trad climber would find Lofoten a fantastic venue. We had some days out that were just perfect. 

A busy day on Bare Blabaer

We had hoped to visit Stetind, Norway’s national mountain on the way back but after two weeks of blue skies it finally rained and we had a wet drive south.

Stetind

Obviously there were dozens of places to climb that we didn’t have time to visit but a rock road trip in Norway has to include a visit to The Troll Wall, particularly this year as it is 50 years since the first ascent. There is a pleasant campsite below the wall, from which you you can gaze upwards, but you do not get an ideal of the scale; it looks like you could easily climb it in a day! However, it is 1100m of vertical and overhanging climbing with several hours of scrambling to get to the base. 

The Troll Wall, in shade vertically above our car.

For a better experience we walked to the top and looked down; here the enormous height is all too obvious!

Peering into the void!

A great trip, great weather and loads more venues to go back to. The only problem is it was 6 days driving to get to Lofoten, and a total of nearly six thousand miles. 

Only two routes on this crag

Reine Slab 350m high. Only 2 routes on here too. Similar crags nearby with no routes on at all - enormous potential

Castle Rock of Triermain Sunday 13th September

Dave leads Gangway Climb. Peter on belay duty.

The plan was to climb on Raven Crag Langdale, but meeting in the Old Dungeon Ghyll car park, with the cloud down on the tops, it was clear the crag would be wet. Change of plan: Castle Rock of Triermain. Only problem was that no-one had a guidebook. This issue was tackled in various ways: George knew the crag well and could point out the routes, where their cruxes were, and what the gear was like.

George passes a crux.

Ken at the opposite extreme treated it like a big adventure and gleefully set off up the crag assuming there'd be a route up there somewhere!

Peter leads Yew Tree Climb

The rest chatted up other climbers and got a look in their guidebooks.

Linda at the top of Via Media

Either way, the sun came out, the rock was rough and dry, and it turned into a great day out.

Anne finishes off Kleine Rinne

By evening the valley was looking gorgeous but the midges were ferocious, and the last of us left by 6.30pm.

Skiddaw and Blencathra, as seen from the crag

Thursday 6 August - Wilton 1

Well is was only nearly dark when we left, so no climbing by headtorch last Thursday.

Good climbing had by all.  Mike on Wombat Chimney and Lazy Friday, Jenny on Flywalk, Dave on 999 and Tony on Orange Peel and Cameo - plus multiple swapped seconds.

Dave leads 999

And Linda seconds stylishly and colourfully

Mike on the start of Lazy Friday

Jenny follows Mike

Thursday 30th July

This being holiday time, we were only five (plus dog) for our regular climbing meet, but what we lacked in numbers we made up with age, guile, looks and enthusiasm.  Linda, Jenny, plus guest Charlie, Dave and Tony visited Woodcutter's Buttress at Giggleswick North.  We took kit for trad and sport but ended up spending an evening on bolts.  Means we can go back for the trad I guess.

A range of routes saw multiple ascents:
Stumpy 5c, Tong and Groove 6a, Debbie Direct 6a+, The Craftsman and Fellsman Revisited (both 6b+) and Retro-killer 6c.

We got in a full evening - arriving around 5pm and with the final ascent made by headtorch (like we said; enthusiasm).

Charlie

Jenny and Dave

Jenny by headtorch (with flash making the whole crag lighter)

Thursday 23rd July: Attermire Scar

Perfect evening light, dynamic climbers in various coloured jackets... and we forgot the camera. (Picture courtesy of Google) However, six of us met at Attermire to enjoy the climbing and endure the cold wind - a bit tough for those of us that were climbing in 36 degree heat a few days ago! Departing as usual in the dark, we got lost on the walk-out and when we reached the lane we were nearly mown down by tractors working late on the haymaking - all contributing to a fun evening out in the Dales.

Thursday 16th

So - no photographs. Ah well. We were an all male party - or parties - so we we couldn't organise a photo shoot in a studio and multi-tasking was right out the window.

Yesterday we had a split site thing going on.  Those who could get away a little earlier (Mike and John) headed to Trowbarrow where they climbed Jean Jeanie, Aladdinsane and Cracked Actor (the last led by Mike late in the gathering gloom and seconded by John in the dark, with a torch in his mouth so he could see the holds; wished we had that photo!)

Those of us who were constrained for various reasons to a later start headed to Giggleswick North Upper Crag where we climbed a range of routes from HS, through VS to HVS and E1. So we covered most of the bases really.

Normal photography service will be resumed as soon as we get our acts together.

After much deliberation and weather watching, Stanage North was the final venue for Sundays climbing meet. 7 people, 2 bouldering mats and 1 dog set off from a wet damp Clitheroe car park (with hindsight an 8:30 meet was possibly a little early).

On arriving at Hathersage (still wet and damp) we decide to partake in a cuppa at Outside and wait for the sun to come out.

Luckily (for Linda) the sun arrived and we headed to the High Neb car park at Stanage. The 'boys' (Michael and John - new member) headed off and did Quietus (E2 5C) on High Neb and with their bouldering mats did the high ball Crescent Arete at Not To Be Taken Away, then worked hard on The Green Traverse at Plantation (with prior instructions not to be late for the return journey!)

Linda, Dave and Peter had their eyes on Crow Chin, whilst Tony and Amanda fancied a look at Incursion on End Slab. However once we all reached the latter we found it was horridly green/unattractive and decided to head back to Crow Chin, where the 5 of us spent a pleasant afternoon, although the wind at the top of the climbs was far from pleasant. Linda's favorite was Bent Crack, HVD (10 points go to Dave who was the only climber who didn't use his knees on this route). Tony preferred to do a little soloing plus the VS and HVS of Spring Sunshine and Perforation. Amanda loved the challenge of being back on grit (!).
We all headed off home around 5pm (yes Anne before dark!) in time for tea."

Thursday 9th July: Twistleton Scar

It was clear, windy and cold at Twistleton tonight - didn't feel much like July, with thermoses and lots of layers being the order of the day.

 

Dave and Peter spent their night battling the polish on left hand crack and right hand crack, whilst the rest of us were slightly further along the crag, around Priority.

Priority, VS 4c

Priority Corner, S 4a

Sickle Arete, VS 5a

Twistleton in the evening - Dave and Peter are somewhere on there on right hand crack.