Pennine Lines w/c 10 June 2024

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11 Jun

Written By Dave Parry

|| Showery & cool || Not too shabby ||

Names in the rock || Almscliff, Yorkshire

|| Focus On... ||

Boulders As Art

I know it’s odd to be reaching for the thermostat mid-June but it does at least mean that, in theory, the grit season is very much still live. In many ways more live than it was in winter. However, walking around the likes of Stanage and Burbage at last light recently it’s been remarkably quiet. I don’t know if the prospect of sitting belaying in gale force winds of an evening hasn’t been an appealing prospect (we’ve gone soft!) or just that everyone planned ahead to be in the mountains or seacliffs at this time of year instead? Either way, it had seemed to be eerily quiet on the grit crags of an evening.

Whilst wandering around these deserted crags last week, trying desperately to not allow any fronds of bracken to touch my trousers lest I be covered in ticks, I was reminded what a friend had once said about certain grit problems; that the best ones wouldn’t look out of place dropped onto a plinth in the lobby of a big fancy hotel as pieces of art. Now I don’t know art, but I know what I like, and I like this theory. What nature lacks in artistic intent it makes up for with fortuitous random chaos, helped along by thousands of years of wind and rain. Good things take time to make, nature has played the long game here, making any human art project seem trivial in comparison. The Lanny Bassham block beats half a cow in formaldehyde any day.

The Cocoa Team Special / Lanny Bassham boulder || Rylstone, Yorkshire

It’s interesting to note that in certain contexts boulders are treasured and collected as artworks. The ‘gogottes’ of Fontainebleau, dug out of the white sands to end up in museums and art collections, are essentially miniature boulders. Formed by the same localised mineralisation of the sediment in Fontainebleau that gives rise to the larger boulders that we climb on, with the same characteristic sweeping shapes that we’ve come to know as uniquely Font, they’ll set you back a fair few doubloons if you fancy one for the sideboard at home. Personally I’ll stick to only bringing home bottles of that mayonnaise with Dijon mustard in it which you get at the hypermarket as souvenirs instead - that stuff will turn your ham baguette into a work of culinary art anyway.

Big Boss || Cuvier Rempart, Fontainebleau

Of course we don’t have to go as far as putting a cash value on boulders (although in the current climate I’m sure someone will), but maybe if the boulders-as-art concept catches on then we’d see a bit more care taken over some of these artworks, and less commodification, fewer instances of terrible behaviour in terms of, say, climbing on wet or damp gritstone/sandstone. There is no velvet rope between you and this sort of art. No glass, no entrance fee, no team of curators and restorers on the staff. You wouldn’t climb da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Munch’s The Scream when wet and cake them in chalk….

This is of course diametrically opposed to the getting-the-send-at-all-costs-mentality, the supremacy of trophyism, which is increasingly baked hard into climbing culture. And herein lies the rub; solving this issue, and the related issues around behaviour and honeypotting at vulnerable venues, will probably require some sort of paradigm shift in attitudes and approach. Are we up to, and up for, this challenge? On that bombshell…..etc etc.

Crescent Arete || Stanage, Peak District

|| Big Depot Fair ||

As the coming weekend hurtles towards us remember that the Big Depot event is happening on Saturday. All places for my photography workshops are sold out, but I hear there's still spaces on other sessions/skills, so check it out if you're in the Leeds area, it looks set to be one not to miss. See you down there.

|| Recently Through the lens ||

Two contrasting venues and two absolute classics of their respective genres, different vibes but it's a great time of year for either - chose your poison.