Monday 26 September 2011

Grab a day on gritstone


Before he headed back off to Uni, Mark was desperate to squeeze in one more day of climbing on gritstone so, his final Wednesday, we loaded all of his gear in the car and headed off to Stanage. The sun was shining and all was well - until Chesterfield, when the clouds began to gather. After that, the further north we travelled, the more the clouds were gathering until at around Calver...

We didn't even bother walking up to the edge. From the car, you could see the wetness of the rock. The rain was streaming down persistently and the sky was grey from horizon to horizon!

What to do..?

I didn't fancy a day watching him bouldering at the indoor wall in Sheffield, so we decided to return home in a loop past The Roaches in the hope that the weather down there may be reasonable.

And guess what..!



It was a glorious afternoon!




Mark found a couple of easy peasy routes for me to follow him up and top roped an E2 barefoot (with me on belay) after which I settled down with my flask of coffee, while he got out his toothbrush...


...and cleaned his boulder.

5 comments:

  1. Glad you both got to climb. Gorgeous shots of the valley.

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  2. I am so in awe by the most lovely valley and rock formations. Beautiful !
    I am always amazed why people (?) who think the way to leave their mark on the world is to destroy the beauty they are looking at.

    cheers, parsnip

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  3. Found a nice spot for your next holiday. Its God's Mountain. Great climbing, excellent B&B. Google it!

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  4. Lovely photos, sounds like a good day out. I used to go and climb the South Downs when my first one went to uni. The open space and views help to put things in perspective don't they.

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  5. It looks beautiful, are you sure it is not Yorkshire!

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