Pennine Lines w/c 15 September 2024
PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry

Pennine Lines w/c 15 September 2024

I have to say actually receiving a physical copy came as something of a surprise, as part of my personal magazine expectations baked into my psyche stem from the late 2000s. In many ways this era ushered in the decline of the UK climbing magazines, where along with not being paid very much for image use in magazines in the first place (that is if you got paid at all, or paid without having to chase them up a few times first) I distinctly remember actually having to go out and cough up a few quids worth of that hard-won cash and buy a physical copy of the magazine to even see your my work in print - hardly surprising then that a lot of us just stopped bothering submitting images to the mags. So it was great to see a couple of my images in print again in Klettern, although it does expose the fact that my grade C in GCSE German doesn’t go very far these days in terms of actually reading the magazine. Still looking for an article containing directions to the Bahnhof, taking the first straße on the left, then ordering two beers and a coffee mit sahne.

Read More
Pennine Lines w/c 6 May 2024
PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry

Pennine Lines w/c 6 May 2024

I’m sure much will be written about Shauna Coxsey’s ascent of The Boss in due course, but for the minute I’ll just point out that I know Shauna had already climbed Font 8b+ as long ago as ten years since, so it’s easy to forget that the ascent pushes the rarefied heights of female gritstone standards forward several grades. Even if by some clerical error The Boss went into a guide at Font 8a+ instead of 8b+ it’d still be the hardest female ascent on gritstone (if anyone knows of any harder-than-8a female ascents on grit let me know). Such leaps are very uncommon, if not unheard of, as climbing and training for climbing matures and the talent pool expands. It may be that the sit-start to Voyager might well turn out to be 8c after holds have broken - who knows - but since there’s nothing currently harder on grit (at least on paper) it puts the top end of female ascents right up there at the top of male grit standards, and I’m not sure that’s ever been the case before, certainly not in living memory.

Read More
Pennine Lines w/c 18 December 2023
PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry

Pennine Lines w/c 18 December 2023

There’s a saying or rather a sentiment expressed in climbing which we hear time and time again, offering comfort to anyone who’s just failed on their project, or fallen off something, other otherwise taken an ego-bruising; “Never mind, just come back on another day, it’ll still be here next time”. This works great, until we hit one of the rare instances where something isn’t there next time.

Read More
Pennine Lines w/c 28 August 2023
PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry

Pennine Lines w/c 28 August 2023

But moving beyond the nuts and bolts of relaying information to you, guidebooks at their best are passports not only to X, Y or Z problems on the ground; long before you even set foot at the crag they are fuel for the fires of the imagination to burn. Although the pages of any guide are crammed full of words and photos they act as a sort of blank canvas to sketch out any one of thousands of possibilities played out in your mind’s eye. We can all be heroes when reading a guidebook. Every day is perfect weather, every hold feels good, every move made with confidence. Anything is possible.

Read More
Pennine Lines w/c 19 June 2023
PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry

Pennine Lines w/c 19 June 2023

When you've lived in the same place for a long time it's easy to fall into complacency and routine. Now, I'm not saying routine in climbing is necessarily wrong, and in fact I'm a strong believer that building a relationship with a place, with a crag or venue, can be a very a positive thing. Generally speaking it's got a lot going for it instead of the fashionable but consumerist approach of just flitting around picking off low hanging fruit. However, I am as guilty as anyone of falling to the trap of frequenting the same places each year almost by default.

Read More
Pennine Lines w/c 24 April 2023
PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry PLWeeklyEmail Dave Parry

Pennine Lines w/c 24 April 2023

The woods at the north end of Froggatt were for too long overlooked, but in recent years have seen some new development attention and produced some really great lines. Despite relatively easy access and offering some chance of shade on a warm day it’s rarely anything other than very quiet there.

Read More