Pennine Lines w/c 18 December 2023
|| Wet and mild || Roll on spring ||
Heely Selassie || Climber: Omar Rose
|| Dovedale ||
Boardwalk Reboot?
There’s a saying, or rather a sentiment, expressed in climbing which we hear time and time again, offering comfort to anyone who’s just failed on their project, or fallen off something, other otherwise taken an ego-bruising; “Never mind, just come back on another day, it’ll still be here next time”. This works great, until we hit one of the rare instances where something isn’t there next time.
Usually once a guidebook is published it’s the local activists who immediately put it out of date, but since the Boardwalk cave featured in a print guide (Rockfax) for the first time this autumn it’s now out of date for a totally different reason - word has reached Pennine Lines HQ this weekend that there’s been a fire in the Boardwalk Cave in Dovedale. The perpetrators, motives and general circumstances surrounding this incident can only be guessed at, but what we do know so far is along with a lot of soot in the roof there’s also some fairly catastrophic rock damage to some problems, particularly around and including the start of Bury My Heart. Others may have gotten off lightly, fingers crossed that the entire place hasn’t been ruined, the soot can be cleaned up and some problems are salvageable. But still for anyone who’s visited the cave it’s very sad news to receive. Those of us who’ve been climbing long enough to remember the fire in Roadrunner Cave in North Wales will understand the sort of damage a fire is capable of doing to rock given half a chance.
Levi Roofs || Climber: Shauna Coxsey
For many years the Boardwalk Cave hadn’t really gotten on to many people’s radar, being fairly out of the way by Peak standards, with a 30min approach walk, and seemingly not many problems to go at. And critically for a limestone cave there’s always a question to be answered, namely is it actually any good? Is it worth the effort? For most of us, most of the time, those questions were left unanswered.
But in the last couple of years the place seems to have reached a critical mass. The number of good problems on offer at 7c and above for the strong-and-keen community was enough, and as the number of people who’d been creeps up, the reach of the odd video or two grows, and before you know it you’re never more than a couple of degrees of separation away from someone who can personally tell you “yeah it’s good, worth going once you know it’s dry” sort of thing.
Good scenes || Boardwalk Cave
I wrote about the Boardwalk cave earlier this year, saying amongst other things;
“…Boardwalk cave is exactly the sort of place I'd always found a good reason not to bother checking out. Didn't take the risk, played it safe. ……..our efforts we have been duly rewarded with some enjoyable climbing, and the kid-in-a-sweetshop experience of a entirely new (to me) limestone bouldering venue…… maybe we'll just get an old-school British summer; damp, humid, uninspiring, with the limestone never truly drying out. Until that point arrives, let the good times roll. New problems, finding new challenges, meeting new people.”
As it turns out, we DID get exactly that kind of crap damp British summer once we were into July, so it’s with a certain sense of wistful nostalgia that I look back on the sessions there in May and June of this year. For a period of time the crag was bone dry, the conditions were fine (by summer standards) and for an obscure crag with a fairly niche appeal and a long walk in it seemed to be attracting steady traffic, without being rammed. It was rare to turn up and find the place empty, or to not bump into someone you knew at the carpark, or just arriving as you were leaving. There was a good crack about the place, a nice little scene for a while, and unlike some of the other limestone crags going there always felt like a nice day out, it was never a chore. Even now, deep into the shivering dark depths of the grit season I was actually looking forward to visiting there again in the summer and earning another amply-proportioned ice cream from the little shop place on the way back to the car.
Assuming there are no more fires (!!??!!) there will probably be a bit of a cleanup effort early summer and then we’ll see where we are vis a vis surviving problems. Fingers crossed the place isn’t ruined, as it would be a real loss for Peak limestone bouldering, so let’s hope the crag just needs a reboot and the good summer scene continues next year.
Heely Selassie || Climber: Jim Boughen
|| Vertebrate Discount ||
A final reminder that our friends at Vertebrate have kindly shared with us a 30% discount code in the run up to Christmas. The code is valid until the 21st December (thursday this week!), and should work on everything on their site including Grit Blocs, and all the other good books they produce, which is a lot!
The code is:
VPSUBS30
|| Recently Through the lens ||
Another preview of a large format Velvia 5x4" film image which will be appearing in the Coast Of The North gallery in the new year - this one is from the beach at Bamburgh, with Lindisfarne Castle just visible in the distance on the right.
|| Fresh Prints ||
During this bad weather spell it's maybe time to buckle up and embrace a bit of training in advance of the spring season (which is the best time of year, should you need reminding), so get some classic Schoolroom inspiration from the Print Shop.
