Stanage - Climb & Camp

Present: Chris Williams, Trudy Young, Dave Wylie, Al Metelko, Andy Grantham, Christine Stark, Roger Dyke, James Oswald.

 

I turned up at North Lees Campsite on Friday with somewhat mixed feelings, the weather was not looking that fantastic, having been away I had not spoken to any members recently, many KMCers were either already in the Alps or were about to go. Would I spend the weekend bouldering by myself? So it was with great relief that as I registered I noticed some familiar names had booked in for Saturday night! All was not lost! This was shortly followed by an enthusiastic call from Trudy confirming she was coming with "rent a crowd". (The crowd didn't quite make it in the end but never mind!).

After a rather damp start on Saturday morning the weather picked up enough to head off for High Neb. Trudy soon arrived and we started off with Eric's Eliminate followed by an exhausting struggle up Eckhard's Chimney - never again. Trudy led Boyd's Crack and was determined to place every piece of gear in her rack, just to make sure! Around midday Dave arrived closely followed by Al, Andy and Christine who made all sorts of excuses for being late... something about buying a tent for a trip to the Alps?

A whole raft of routes were ticked off by all those present including Twisting Crack, Tango Buttress, and the classic top 50 climb High Neb Buttress. Al showed us all up by soloing several of the routes in bare feet, but the start of High Neb Buttress Variations proved to be a worthy struggle for him. As usual the KMCers were last off the crag and regrouped in the Little John for an excellent meal, when it arrived! The happy campers, Trudy, Chris and Dave retired to the tents for cheese and wine while the others drove home.

The weather on Sunday was not quite as bright as the previous day, but the three campers were soon joined at Crow Chin by Roger and James. Dave made easy work of Autumn Gold together with Trudy and Roger, followed by a bold lead on Bright Eyed. October Slab and Kelly's Eliminate along with several other routes were tackled by the group. James was hungry to test his new found lead skills and did an impressive job on several routes. Urged on by all of the group he rounded off climbing on the crag with a very impressive onsight (almost) of The Marmoset, demonstrating the joy of youth. There was a distinct lack of volunteers to second the route so it was fortunate that James didn't need to place any gear further up! Roger and James were keen to climb longer so walked along to High Neb where they both led another route each.

All in all it was a great weekend out on some classic grit. We enjoyed the sun on the odd occasion it came out but it did remain dry, which is something for this summer! Even the midges seemed to stay away which was a relief!

Chris Williams