Last weekend i was offered a space in a bus down to the peak with Aberdeen Uni’s Lairig Club. GREAT I thought. I will get a chance to climb on this crazy rock called grit stone! It wasn’t till after I had agreed to go that I realised that I was in for a long weekend. Leaving Aberdeen at 5pm in a minibus full of climbers and gear with a max speed of 62mph and listening to Tom and Ollys techno and electro playlists all the way down. But I guess it’s a small price to pay to climb at one of Britain’s best grit stone venues.We finally got to Sheffield at about 2:30 where we left Pete, Anna and the rest of the folk that were competing in the BUSA competition at the climbing works at a friend’s house. The rest of us drove to stanage to sleep in a cave to climb early the next day.
We woke up in the cave on Saturday morning to see it was mighty windy and we were mighty hungry. We all agreed to drive back to Hathersage to get some breakfast and see if the wind would ease. After breakfast we were all psyched to start climbing. I decided to warm up on some HVD to test this rock with no real holds on it. I DIDN’T LIKE IT! I got depsyched on a HVD and decided to just play about and take photos. Watching Wand, Joe, Olly and Pete climbing on these non existing holds made me think maybe it is possible to hold these slopey things. After Joe climbed Flying Buttress Direct I decided to second it and I’m very glad I did it was amazing heal hooking, slopers they all worked but unfortunately it was too late we had to meet up with the others to go get dinner and a pint.
The uni team consisting of transition instructors Pete and Anna and transition regular Tom Russell came 7th out of 77 teams. Anna was also awarded 4th place in the woman’s individual scores after not holding the final hold her last problem for long enough.(She would have come first otherwise).
The next day we decided to go back to stanage, this time as I didn’t get much done on the trad front I decide that I would try some bouldering. Along with Anna, the rest of the uni team and Pete the walking guide book we headed to the plantation where Pete showed us the scary crescent arête. After most folk had tried it we moved on to Not to be taken away another scary highball problem. This started with 2 slopey hand holds which I had just learnt to hold but no foot holds. Aaaahhhh when will i understand this rock!!!
Pete sent it first time unfazed by its height or dodgy landing. None of us managed to do the first move it must be easier for the tall. We also looked at the storm but it wasn’t in good condition so we moved on to do some easy problems on a slopey little boulder. With our new grit hold knowledge we decided to try some harder stuff including The Green Traverse, Captain Hook and a couple of goes on Deliverance. After working these for a while the tips were getting a bit pink. So Pete decided to try Brass Monkey font 7c. After a couple of power screams he made it to the edge of the roof but the grit wouldn’t give in and his tips were gone. Good effort Pete. It was now getting late so we decided to go back to a nice non slopey problem called 6c. I managed it second go, Mark flashed it and Anna got it after a couple of goes. A nice wee problem to finish the trip now all that was left was the 8 hour techno fest in the crammed minibus.
All text and photo's by Ashley Dean
