Almscliffe. The very mention of the name in trad climbing circles produces one of 2 reactions......either their eyes light up and a broad smile appears across their faces, or, their eyes glaze over, maybe a tear appears, as they remember the one and only time they went to Almscliffe and had sworn never to return! the latter is by far the most common reaction!
It has a bit of a reputation does Almscliffe you see. Back in the day, it was not uncommon to see competent peak VS leaders retreating bloodied and mauled from an Almscliffe V Diff! Nowadays, the guide book Gods have tamed the beast to a great extent, with all routes now pretty much graded correctly. But that doesn't mean the place should be taken lightly. It's walls are steep, it's slabs are few and blank, it's cracks will swallow you and your gear as soon as look at you. It is gritstone of the finest quality though and wonderful stuff!
Having had my first coaching session on the Thursday before this trip, I was keen to transfer my new found skills onto rock.
Nathan and myself travelled over together and met up with 2 other members of the Lancashire Climbing and Caving Club (yes a Lancashire cross border raiding party......I even had on my 'Lancashire Rock Revival' t shirt!) Tony and Sarah who very kindly organised the meet. It was my first proper meet with the club and it was good to meet other members and even better that everyone I met were lovely folk!
We'd brought both trad gear and a bouldering mat Nathan and myself, not really knowing what to expect either weather wise or in terms of how we were climbing and what we fancied doing. In the end it was a sort of hybrid day, some trad some bouldering.
We started by warming up on a boulder. Just getting used to the feel of rock again after so long indoors on concrete, savouring the gritstone friction that no concrete hold will ever be able to reproduce! It was just great it really was, being back on rock and with my new found skills too. It was all feeling so natural, the movement and precision, the balance, I felt like I could actual climb.
We decided to have a bash on the main crag and Nathan took first lead up 'Fluted Columns' HVD on Low Man. A nice route, with decent protection and a typical grit top out on rounded holds. Nathan was soon up with no problems and I followed in similar style.
My turn to lead and I chose another HVD along the wall to the right, 'Stew Pot'. The route takes a direct line up a wall passing a hole to a break. A tricky move on rounded holds leads to a ledge from where a short crack finishes the route off. I really enjoyed leading it and it felt well within my comfort zone which for my first lead after 6 months, I was really quite pleased about. Nathan flew up after me and we descended to our kit and a brew to decide our next plan.
In the end it was quite an easy decision. The crag was now busy, very busy, with teams on pretty much all the popular routes. So we decided to put away the ropes and get the mat out once again and try to find a quiet spot away from the masses.
We found a little slab with 4 or 5 different problems up it and bounded by a side wall with another decent looking problem with a crappy landing. I've no idea of the grades but none felt particularly difficulty, an arête on the slab being the most tricky. We had fun flashing them all though!
We had another peek at the main crag to see if we could seek out a final route of the day but it was still covered in climbers and after pottering around a while longer, we decided to call it a day and head for home.
We'd only done 2 routes and yet I had a fantastic time. The weather was perfect, t shirts in March. I was climbing well, nothing at all hard, but it all felt good. The company was excellent, I'm looking forward to more meets with LCCC. Another excellent day in th'ills!
No comments:
Post a Comment