Peak Trip Feb/ March 09

Well, I have just got back from a trip to the Peak District with a couple of guys from the centre. We started of by driving the five and half hours to Almscliff and spent the day bouldering there getting up to V5. The next day we spent a damp session on the boulders at Caley which were certainly very impressive but the large majority of climbs we had come to do were not in condition so we made do we what was available and had an easy morning on the lower grade climbs round ‘The playground’ area climbing up to V4. We then visited Ilkley on the same day and viewed some of the impressive trad lines and the newly climbed ‘Getty’ which stood as one of Grit stones last great problems. We finished off by driving the hour or so south to Widdopp which proved to be a very isolated crag on the edge of widdopp reservoir. We had the whole place to ourselves and I pleasantly surprised to find the boulders in good condition.

Sam on the V5 eliminate at Almscliff

Next stop was Stanage and time to get the trad gear out. Conditions went good with very strong winds and some small outbursts of rain so we passed the day climbing some of the three star routes up to VS.
The next day conditions were not good again so we passed the day by visiting some of the other crags for a look around including Cratcliff, Frogatt and Cubar. We managed to squeeze a few climbs in but again conditions weren’t that confidence inspiring and the friction was not as good as we wanted to try some of the harder lines.

The weekend was clear and at times sunny (a first for me on grit climbing) and we were finally able to get to Stanage and climbs some the E1’s we had come for. After a bit of practice we managed to climb Elephant on a dog house which is graded E1 5b. Rich later went onto solo the route which was very impressive. We finished the trip off with a session on the Plantation boulders at Stanage with ticks of the Green traverse V6 and very close attempts on Deliverance being had by some of the guys.

Sam On Sunset Crack, Froggatt

All in all a good trip and everyone went home happy if not with sore Grit bashed hands. There are some photos of our visit on the Left hand side of the page.