Pennine Lines w/c 6 November 2023
|| Cooler, with good spells || Gritstone is on ||
HMS Daring || Climber: Adam Long
|| Focus On... ||
Stay Classy - Behind The Scenes
Someone seems to have had a word with the big man upstairs recently, and arranged that the good weather will happen on a Sunday every week now. Not sure how long this undeniably convenient arrangement will last but it does at least make juggling domestic life a bit easier. Now you know to keep that day free every weekend, and Saturday will always be a write-off.
On these Sundays-after-bad-weather a bit of breeze, a bit of sun and a lot of patience usually does the job in terms of providing dry prospects, and can often give some of the best conditions, once a bit of the rain-washed scrittle is brushed off your slopey topout. Not everyone got the memo though and it doesn’t mean you won’t see groups turning up mob-handed on a wet Saturday to Stanage - presumably buoyed on by the knowledge it’s a ‘fast drying crag’ - and just cracking on with climbing on wet problems, as folks were reporting last weekend. ‘Pffftt, it’s only the Plantation’ I hear everyone north of the M62 cry. Well, yes, but next week it could be Caley, or Brimham, or Widdop. First they came for Deliverance, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Peak local. Etc etc.
BTS of the Stay Classy video || Climber: Flo Brailsford
In all seriousness though, we all make mistakes and bad calls now and again, but it feels a little bit like climbing is reaching a sort of critical mass now where at certain locations and at certain times things can explode and get a bit silly, increasing participation numbers being as they are. Bouldering in particular is so accessible, with such a low bar to entry, and such an intense activity, it’s particularly vulnerable. At some crags you’ve got the situation where, say, ten handholds out of several thousand get 90% of the traffic at the crag. And on those fleeting winter good weather days everyone wants to jump on the same projects.
With increasing number of climbers getting into climbing via indoor walls it often felt that there’s a lack of the sort of peer mentorship where nuggets of info around general good practice when you’re climbing outside - not just wet rock - are passed on. What’s the done thing and what isn’t, how do we not trash the place, how do we get on with everyone else living, working or recreating in the outdoors? It's easy to take for granted that wet grit is fragile, or excessive chalk use is a bad thing, or that parking can be contentious, or whatever else it is. But you need to know these things are issue to begin with before anyone can expect you to play nice. Once you do know, there’s no excuse, but before we get to that stage there’s clearly a knowledge gap that needs addressing.
A 'fast drying' problem || Crescent Arete
With this in mind, after a few conversations earlier in the year the Depot have been keen to work on something to try and address that a little bit, as there’s a vacuum in this sort of space in terms of building a bit of mentorship. Climbing is good business right now, but there’s not a lot happening yet in terms of walls and outdoor/climbing brands putting a bit back in, trying to make a difference on the ground, and pulling their weight here. With this in mind it’s been great to work with the Depot on this; specifically hats off to Steve for getting behind the whole idea and really being on the same page in the first place, Marsha for the video skills and James for the marketing nouse to make it happen. If you follow the Depot’s various channels you may or may not already have seen this article I wrote for them, and this video put together in late summer to try and just distil some of the points from the article down to a digestible format for the short-attention-span community (and is IS a community). You’ll be seeing some clips from this pop up on the Depot’s feeds over the coming weeks, and if you’re visiting any of the Depot centres this winter you should see the odd poster or two about this.
It’s a bit daunting when you stick your head above the parapet on a project like this, but I hope everyone will watch it and take the message to heart and look past the fact I look fairly uncomfortable delivering semi-scripted material to camera. Ray Mears I ain’t. And I'm sure some people will find something to moan about with it. But despite my awkwardness on the other (i.e. wrong) side of the camera I think the video came out pretty well and hopefully this might prompt a few more walls, brands and influencers to get thinking along similar lines and just generally echo the message of responsibility. Or at least get people talking and thinking about it. The one good thing about social media - and there is only one good thing now, other than those videos of old cartoons lip-synced to hiphop records - is its capacity to amplify a message if it gains a bit of traction. That’s where we need a bit of help from you guys - share the article, like the posts, leave a comment on the video, stick links in stories, retweet stuff or whatever it’s called on whatever platform you’re seeing it on, and do whatever you can to generally help get the message out there. So now it’s over you you - thanks!
|| SUPPORTED BY ||
|| Recently Through the lens ||
Taking advantage of the scheduled Nice Sunday by dusting off the techy gritstone feel skillset by revisiting a classic from Grit Blocs at Birchen, and the neighbouring committing highball of Gritstone Megamix. Imagine doing this without pads - John Allen was a legend.
|| Fresh Prints ||
When climbing we're often obsessed with the minutiae of the tiniest of rock features, one way or another, so here's a couple of detail shots from the Northumberland coast, away from the climbing, untainted by chalk - both from large format Fuji 5x4" transparency film originals, currently available in the Print Shop.
