Pennine Lines w/c 11 November 2024
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Pennine Lines w/c 11 November 2024

One thing I’ve been pondering whilst eating up the motorway miles is the sometimes rather uncomfortable status which eliminate problems occupy in British climbing. This has been brought into focus during visits to some of these iconic old-school venues like The Bowderstone and Dumbarton, not to mention Peak Limestone. Talking to people at various crags it’s clear everyone has a different take on eliminates, ranging from leaning very heavily into them, to completely denouncing them. Climbing is supposed to be about taking the line of least resistance to the top, anything else is just stupid, right? While I recognise this is a topic which warrants a more detailed dive than I will offer up here today, I’ll offer up a few points for consideration.

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Pennine Lines w/c 4 November 2024
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Pennine Lines w/c 4 November 2024

It doesn’t matter if you’ve done everything before, there’s always sport to be had, always a traverse or a variation to be enjoyed, the almost-lost-art of playfulness and creativity still rules here. On a quick hit on a marginal day everything is a bonus, there’s no such thing as wasted time. Everything is a win - at least you didn’t give up and go indoors.

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Pennine Lines w/c 21 October 2024
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Pennine Lines w/c 21 October 2024

The quarries at Rivelin particular are one of those venues where nobody can ever come up with a good reason why the place is never that popular, unjustifiably so, given it’s potentially a reliable winter option when stuff is clean. Hence it tends to get periodically rediscovered by a new generation every few years. Those around in the 2000s will fondly remember a few routes appearing in Dan Honeyman’s films, and it’s been the scene of several brief but frenzied renaissances since then. At some point a critical mass must be reached and it obtains sustained traffic, surely? It can’t be far off. Right now there’s lot of brambles and undergrowth to negotiate but also some outstanding rock architecture. For the bold trad devotees there’s plenty to go at, but even if you’re ‘only’ bouldering there’s a few classics to check out - most obviously the problems around Happy Campus / No Class, the ‘popular end’ of the crag. But it’s worth picking your left leftwards along through the various quarried bays and eyeballing some of the blank slabs and walls.

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Pennine Lines w/c 14 October 2024
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Pennine Lines w/c 14 October 2024

As I have mentioned in previous emails and on Instagram, I am excited to be able to unveil this one to you, the loyal subscribers to my weekly email. This is a calendar of my Peak landscape images from what I think of as my neck of the woods - the eastern gritstone edges and the central limestone. It's an area close to my heart and I know it’s a special place for a lot of you too, so I hope this collection of images does the place justice but also drops in a few surprises for you. The final selection of images will stay under wraps until the calendars ship, but what I can say is none of these images have been available for sale before in any form, and all twelve images for this are shot on 5x4” transparency film. This is something I mention a lot, so for the non-photographers out there who might not be down with the terminology, what exactly does this exactly mean?

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Pennine Lines w/c 9 September 2024
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Pennine Lines w/c 9 September 2024

At this time of year I am always reminded of 2021 when, with the summer fading and gritstone prospects looking better, I embarked on the rollercoaster ride of going out up and down the Pennines shooting images for - and writing - Grit Blocs. The first dedicated photoshoot specifically for the book was down at Cratcliffe and Stanton with Gwyneth, who climbed superbly despite having about fifteen taped-up fingertips. If you can imagine climbing Egg Arete in gloves, then you’re getting close to it. But anyway, the crag of choice was fairly indicative of Septembers for me, when I look back through my September photo folders of old.

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Pennine Lines w/c 2 September 2024
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Pennine Lines w/c 2 September 2024

Let’s not linger on the fading daylight hours, that’s a given, but at this time of year there’s space to imagine if it’s going to be one of those vintage autumns. Cool and dry, the gritstone feeling crisp under the skin after the sweaty grind of summer, shoe rubber feeling sticky, and the limestone crags staying dry well into November. Confidence running high, momentum building, and maybe a few long-term projects will fall? We must be due a good ‘un after the last couple of warm and damp autumns. Last year in particular was terrible but I’m determined to not look back in anger.

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