Pennine Lines w/c 12 June 2023
|| Hot, too hot || Easterly winds for a few more days ||
The Wave || Climber: Rob Smith
|| Focus On ||
Heat
We're only a couple of days in to the genuinely hot weather so at this point I'm reticent to go all-in on the woe-is-me patter about it being too warm in the Peak. Especially because if previous summers are any indicator of what's to come you can guarantee in a few weeks time we'll be looking back on today's weather with a sense of nostalgia for those days when it was comparatively cool.
So I'll just leave these images here to sum up the current situation - dusty esoteric Peak limestone, warm, airless, dreaming of cool gritstone, but at least we'll still be getting out. Cold beer in the evening as a reward, whilst opening a browser tab for one of those big white Makita drill battery fans that I take the mickey out of but secretly would quite fancy right now but don't want to have to carry it around to the crag along with a huge camera bag. And so the cycle continues.
James/Ned's Problem || Climber: Dave Parry
Pert Bloke || Climber: Julia Mariella
|| Stanage Far Right ||
Massacre
Although it is tempting to completely write off gritstone when it's warm, there's a lot to be said for just shifting our expectations and falling back on a few choice utility venues and pick our moments. High summer is when local knowledge and the ability to nip out at last light really pays off.
Stanage Far Right (aka Hamper's Hang Area) is an overlooked area that anyone in Sheffield would do well to remember on these warm summer evenings. Although most of Stanange faces south west and hence gets a lot of sun, the line of the crag starts to curl to the south east around here; in fact once you get to the Cowperstone you're facing due east. So no matter what the sun or wind is doing you can turn up on an evening safe in the knowledge that you'll be able to find some shade if required, and you will often be catching enough breeze to keep the midges at bay. Since you're on a locally prominent highpoint, almost facing all available directions at once, if there's any breeze at all you should be able to benefit from it here.
One thing Hamper's Hang area lacks is any true famous big name problems, compared to the rest of Stanage, which as it turns out is completely fine in summer anyway. It's just a great spot to work your way around, following your nose and seeing what takes your fancy. If it's warm, there's no pressure to perform, just enjoy moving on rock, so it's kinda liberating. Easier problems like Pert Bloke (above), testing low traverses, odd unnamed favourites, it's all good. Hamper's Hang itself is actually fairly unpleasant, a grim inelegant grind, it's hard to really recommend, but the real star around here for bouldering is just the wealth of great little innocuous fun problems at the low to mid grades.
The High Road || Climber: Rachel Briggs
There's also few standout bigger highball lines, like the mini-expedition of The High Road (as seen in Grit Blocs) and those sort of short routes that gritstone does especially well. Lines that due to the landings or the nature of the climbing don't really feel like boulder problems, yet they're over too quickly to feel like routes. You probably wouldn't want to fall off them, but you could probably get yourself out of trouble one way or another if it doesn't work out. The walls and cracks around Real 20ft Crack are all excellent in this regard.
A favourite of this particularly brief solo genre is Massacre. Taking an intimidating traverse line out into space across a sheer blank quarried wall it's all handholds and no footholds, but thankfully its aspect saves it from the heat of the afternoon sun. It's given E1, formerly HVS, and wouldn't make an especially enjoyable lead OR pure boulder problem. But treated as one of those go-for-it-or-reverse short solos, basically just you and the rock, it's exquisite. Just as strength and confidence is in danger of fading a committing high left foot way out by the arête brings more big holds to reach just in time, before you wake up and realise what you're doing. It's a fairly wild trip for the grade, with the point of no return occurring above the biggest drop and as the safe landing prospects truly disappear, but to be honest the meat of it is actually over in about four moves. Just a superb line and really what gritstone is all about - a mini adventure condensed into just the essentials. Absolute winner.
Massacre || Climber: John Coefield
|| Grit Blocs Giveaway ||
At the beginning of July the British Boulder Championships come to the Cliffhanger Festival here in Sheffield, and to mark this event Vertebrate are giving away a 10-problem Grit Blocs download for free and 25% off a copy of the book with signups to their newsletter.
|| Supported by ||
It's great to be able to announce that Pennine Lines is now supported by our friends at Beta Climbing Designs here in Sheffield. Their iconic original blue clipstick/brushstick was de rigueur for many many years and set a standard for others to follow - in fact mine's still going strong - and they're constantly innovating with the latest designs, so it's great to have Beta on board.
|| Recently through the lens ||
A bit of a Dovedale taster. More to come.....
|| Fresh Prints ||
As it gets warm it's perfectly reasonable to just hunker down to some training in front of a big fan and wait for autumn. I wouldn't blame you - so to keep the psyche going here's a couple of School hold shots from the Print Shop.
