Pennine Lines w/c 25 November 2024
|| Cold and clear || More of this please ||
Adults Only || Climber: Crispin Waddy
|| Focus On... ||
Polarising Plantation
Climbing psyche is a funny old game. Sometimes I wonder if life would be easier if I could exist as one of these perennially psyched superhuman nutcases who can generate unending goal-driven enthusiasm for whatever is on the cards, for any length of walk-in, and any length of siege, for any amount of discomfort along the way. Like a robot, never question your programming, just execute the code.
I’m perhaps being uncharitable in the above characterisation (after all social media rarely paints the complete picture), but still, the rest of us actual humans have to navigate the ups and downs of psyche levels though, and sometimes that means just rolling with it. When on paper at least going to try a particular route/boulder problem or visiting any given crag makes sense, all your mates are keen, but you’re not feeling it? It happens. Conversely, sometimes, despite having no specific agenda, certain crags just feel right. There’s a lot to be said for getting tuned into this. Not just the seasonality, or conditions, or weather, or the gaps in your tick-list, but more about the way all of the above intertwines with what you need from climbing at the minute - again, a movable feast, and one that can be hard to digest.
The Plantation through a polariser || Stanage
Certain venues can swing in and out of favour in a polarising way. For instance I often think I have a love/hate thing going with Stanage Plantation. But saying it’s a love/hate relationship doesn’t do the place justice. Proper love is unconditional, for a start. It’s more a quite-like/mild-annoyance relationship, but not like you’d have with a friend or an acquaintance, more like a family member. Still got the love for the place; doesn’t need to be said, it’s already gotten under the skin long ago, independent of superficial feelings on any given day. But the place still infuriates me at times.
It wasn’t by accident that I pretty much skipped over the Plantation in Grit Blocs; I hate that it gets busy, and can’t stand to see the trashing it gets when people climb when it hasn’t fully dried, and the way the rock quality often isn’t as strong as the lines. Never really been comfortable with the proliferation of fairly poor landings, and hate how the few flat areas beneath classics are eroding away once again, with the BMC-coordinated ground work seeming like a distant memory (checks notes - it was 2005/6, which explains why it feels a long time ago). I hate the way the rock has an especially nasty habit of tearing fast-moving fingertips to shreds in slightly-too-warm weather. The way you’ve basically always got to be on your game is brutal and uncompromising, unreasonable. And when the smothering bracken is up in summer, and the wind drops? Hate that.
Careless Torque || Climber: Leon Joyce
But most of all I hate it when I’m not psyched for it when I should be. Seeing everyone else’s photos online, perfect gritstone day etc. Don’t want to be there. Too much invested emotionally over the years; what if you turn up and you’re not feeling it, bottled it, having an off day? It’s like going to your favourite restaurant and having a bad meal - soul destroying. It is better to never try? The lingering shame of not being able to trust the smear you always used to trust implicitly, or to have to walk heavy-footed down the flagstones on the main path with either a bruised ago or a bruised coccyx, having slipped off a warmup and taken the ride right onto the rock-filled landing you never used to worry about, an ample stack of foam sitting undisturbed merely feet away, allegedly surplus to requirements. Been there, done that. One star out of five at best - would not go again.
Doesn’t take much to flip it around though. A half-overheard conversation at another crag, a post the social media algorithm serves up, an old photo you stumble upon on the hard drive whilst looking for something else. Finally noticing some route or line you’d overlooked, or a boulder problem you’ve never seen chalked before. Or just the realisation that it’s been too long. Although sometimes Stanage Plantation is the last place you want to go, at other times it’s the only place it makes sense to go. A Plantation circuit, just what the doctor ordered. Technique tune-up, clear the head, enjoy being engaged. That’s the theory at least. A certain gravity exists, a pull that will reel you in eventually, unless you maintain the right speed in the opposite direction (what I like to think of as The Burbage Trajectory). So you will go, and something will spark the psyche once again. That long-term frightener project might just seem that little bit more approachable. The smear might stick. The approaching rain storm misses the boulders, hits High Neb instead, and the wind whips up the friction in your favour. Any given problem that always shuts you down could just click. Those days are magic. Put us down for a couple this winter please - where do I sign?
|| 2025 Calendar - Shipping In Progress ||
WE HAVE CALENDARS!
Those of you who opted for postage - you should have received an automated email with the tracking number, and by the time you read this they will be in the post. With a bit of luck you'll have them in your grubby mitts by the weekend.
Local collection orders - I'll be in touch in the next day or so. Sit tight.
|| Recently Through The Lens ||
A bit of steep bouldering at Curbar before the snow, and some tree-shaped forms in the snow. It's funny the similarity between plants at both the large and small scale.
|| Fresh Prints ||
As promised, and long overdue I will agree, but I'm pleased to have just added a dozen new images on 5x4” film to the Print Shop in time for Christmas ordering. A few of these are below, but there's more on the website; there's grand vistas, close and intimate details, and something from every season in there.
Also a general reminder about the last ordering date for Christmas: you have until 11th December for Christmas delivery for prints via the Print Shop. As always, if you’re after something different that you can’t see on the website or something bespoke, or a print of any of my images you’ve seen on Instagram or on these emails then drop me a message. I’m always happy to do one-off prints, especially in the run up to Christmas.
