Pennine Lines w/c 15 april 2024

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16 Apr

|| Wild but drying off || Keep the faith ||

Honorary Caley, Stanage || Climber: John Coefield

|| Focus On... ||

The Best Crag In The World?

There’s a saying in climbing, attributed to the late Alex Lowe, that the best climber in the world is the one having the most fun. Not to be misconstrued to mean that, at present, Adam Ondra has more fun than the rest of us (could actually be true to be fair…), it sort of distils into a soundbite the idea that the whole point of this bizarre past-time / sport / existential quest [delete as applicable] is to enjoy what you’re doing. Similarly, since the point of being a climber is to go climbing, to climb ideally as much and as often as you can manage, the best crag in the world is the one only ten minutes away.

Never has that been more true than in this sort of weather we’ve been having, where relentless wetness has reluctantly given way to merely every-other-day torrential gale-force storms. The silver lining to this is the wind; when it’s not driving the rain right through the fabric of your trousers as you sprint back to the car, it is at least drying the rock off nicely while the rain holds off. The longer daylight hours make a difference too, so as annoying as it is to have to retrieve your pads after being blown across to the other end of the crag, it is at least providing an improvement in climbing prospects.

Flying Arête, Almscliff || Climber: Frances Bensley

This is weather for the locals; the quick hit, the snatched evening session, the last minute sprint out to the crag for 45 minutes of dry grit before the next wave of showers hits. I often hear people laying out the case for various cities miles from climbing by saying “XXXXX is a great place to live as a climber because you’ve got [insert list of areas] all an hour and a half drive away”. You wouldn’t drive 1.5hrs for this weather, but 15 minutes is worth chancing. It’s the 15 minute crags that sustain you as a climber. Keep the psyche going, give you the marginal wins, keep you sane when the weather - or just life in general - tries to beat you down.

Banana Finger Direct, Burbage || Climber: Jim Pope

Maybe that’s why those quintessential locals' crags, a short sprint from the cities, are so fondly regarded. The Burbages, the Stanages, the Almscliffs and the Caleys of this world - or wherever your local crag is. They’re not just about the quality of the rock, or the convenience, or the quality of the climbing - that’s almost incidental to it - it’s about something more than that. Not just consuming climbing, taking the tick and running. Necessity dictates that these local crags are the ones you go back to time and time again; you see them in all seasons, all weathers, the good days and the bad, year after year, a relationship is formed and develops over time. A sense of place, a grounding point. A space to decompress and reset in an ever-more chaotic world. This is why these places are special, and this is why they are The Best Crags In The World.