Pennine Lines w/c 15 July 2024
So in the short term you have to just go with the flow of the dull grey damp days, mix things up with a trip away if you can, and take the little wins when they arrive if you can’t. For a start, the bilberries are out; salvation arriving in the form of tiny droplets of dark sweetness. And where you can’t win, you can always double down on the grimness - the crimpy sharp greasy limestone. Fight fire with fire. If you don’t experience it in terrible conditions then you can’t really appreciate the good days when things cool off. I sometimes think it’s possible to actually climb better in poor conditions anyway, as the weight of expectation is lifted. Or failing that, just count the days till you’re next sat outside a French gite, baking in the sun, like Jerry, semi-ironically serenading the dull British weather. The cycle continues…..
Pennine Lines w/c 8 July 2024
I’m not big on these challenge sort of things in climbing or the outdoors in general, but the great thing about doing the Stanage VSs is it occupies a niche where it’s too hard for casual outdoors folk, no big-mountain appeal, but not fashionable enough to garner any social media traction. Very Severe is not, and never has been, a sexy grade. It’s a grade from back when people climbed in nailed boots with their mum’s washing line tied around their waist. You’ll not find it perennially cropping up in lazily-thrown-together climbing mag “Top 5 British Scrambles / Mountain Ridges / Multipitch Adventures [delete as applicable]” filler articles. The benefit of this is you’re not likely to get stuck behind a group of Royal Marines dragging a grand piano up the routes for charity, neither are you going to find yourself inadvertently stumbling into some fancy-dress clickbait climbing YouTube video by mistake either.
Pennine Lines w/c 10 June 2024
Whilst wandering around these deserted crags last week, trying desperately to not allow any fronds of bracken to touch my trousers lest I be covered in ticks, I was reminded what a friend had once said about certain grit problems; that the best ones wouldn’t look out of place dropped onto a plinth in the lobby of a big fancy hotel as pieces of art. Now I don’t know art, but I know what I like, and I like this theory. What nature lacks in artistic intent it makes up for with fortuitous random chaos, helped along by thousands of years of wind and rain. Good things take time to make, nature has played the long game here, making any human art project seem trivial in comparison. The Lanny Bassham block beats half a cow in formaldehyde any day.
Pennine Lines w/c 27 May 2024
Why am I plugging this, you may well ask? Well yours truly here will be running climbing photography workshops throughout the day. We’ll look at some technical skills, thought processes and problem solving, lighting and composition, with plenty of hands-on shooting too. If you’ve got an interest in photography but never really managed to make it ‘click’ (pun intended) with climbing, or you’re new to climbing and naturally want to take nice photos of climbing, or just want to raise your climbing photography game a little, this this is for you. Spaces for each session are limited - no passengers - so don’t forget to book. I’ll also have some signed copies of Grit Blocs on sale on the day too, so get involved.
Pennine Lines w/c 20 May 2024
It’s jarring to hear Honnold’s name bandied around at Rubicon especially. You or I would not expect the arching walls of finger-wrecking crimps and glazed footholds, all held in place with industrial epoxies, to really be up Honn Solo’s straße, but soloing speaks to everyone at an elemental level so all such contextual considerations of genre go out of the window. Or maybe the passing walkers are much more knowledgeable on Peak climbing trivia than I give them credit for and are in fact referencing Quentin Fisher’s famous attempts to solo Caviar back in the day? I guess we’ll never know. One thing is clear though; soloing is a great leveller and captures the imagination of climbers and non-climbers in a similar sort of way.
Pennine Lines w/c 11 March 2024
You might expect that, mirroring the recent vinyl boom, print guides might be on for a comeback? As climbing is reaching commercial maturity there are no shortage of brands keen to flog you all manner of high-margin must-haves in an increasingly crowded market; bluetooth recruitment gauges, capybara-hair brushes, anatomical leggings, any number of Japanese artisan chalk formulations blessed by a Shinto priest (absolutely not all from the same quarry in China), even plant-based performance beverages - thankfully consigning those meat-based energy drinks like Bovril Sport to the history books. But yet brands notably aren’t falling over each other to produce beautifully designed, lovingly and painstakingly researched grassroots definitive guidebooks.
Pennine Lines w/c 26 February 2024
Because of course if there’s a problem with sunrises it’s that they aren’t very user friendly. This is not like getting your kicks from on-demand streaming, there’s not an app to hook you up with a willing local sunrise any time of day or night. They’re too early most of the year, and when they’re not that early they’re freezing cold and hence in direct competition with a warm bed. Putting a thick quilt on a comfy bed is like taking voluntary redundancy from winter sunrise photography. Gotta sleep shivering under a thin sheet with an achingly full bladder really to force yourself to get up. Monumental levels of motivation are often required. Not all heroes wear capes etc.
Pennine Lines w/c 12 February 2024
Facing away from the afternoon sun, with boulders lurking among the twisted boughs of the trees, slow to dry but offering welcome shelter from strong westerlies in winter, with a few tall crag-based lines looming above the boulders, on the right day it’s a great spot to find a bit of peace. This part of the South Peak didn’t find its way onto the cover of Grit Blocs by accident.
Pennine Lines w/c 4 December 2023
Nevertheless, even a hint of snow demands some thought when it comes to choosing your venues. Crags at a lower elevation are generally favoured, as they usually get less snow to begin with. If the crags offer some problem-at-the-base-of-a-trad-crag type action, not topping out and protected from above, then all the better when it’s snowy. On this side of the Peak that usually means the lower lying crags around Stanton and Cratcliffe are preferred, similarly the Amber Valley is at a lower elevation, along with Rivelin - often a winter sun trap - and Wharncliffe. Even opting for, say, Curbar over Stanage in heavy snow can be a winner, especially as such classics as Sean’s Arete and Walk On By are, barring dripping from above, completely snow proof.
Pennine Lines w/c 27 November 2023
There’s often a lot said about the ‘perfect gritstone day’, typically implying solid clear blue sky and the sun out. Even better; the crag bathed in the last orange light of day, with someone heroically questing up a highball spine-chiller, as above. Classic gritstone, you can’t knock it.
You’ll see a lot of these on social media, living your best life, inspirational content etc etc. You can’t move for it when it happens. During the long dark drudgery of winter that little window of sunshine can do wonders for the soul, and conversely it’s guaranteed to make the blood boil of anyone unable to get out, stuck at work or whatever. But it’s not all about the perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good.
Pennine Lines w/c 6 November 2023
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.
Pennine Lines w/c 23 October 2023
I will say that since climbers increasingly get into the ‘sport’ (it isn’t a sport obvs) via indoor walls rather than through a sort of casual apprenticeship via peers/friends/family, logically a large part of the moral imperative to ensure climbers are equipped to climb outside responsibly should fall onto indoor walls. And in fact even onto brands and companies who also make money off climbing and growth in participation. It’s also no surprise that most brands associated with climbing do next to nothing to actually take this kind of responsibility on
Pennine Lines w/c 16 October 2023
When you first start out in climbing you improve pretty fast. So your available universe of Things To Do expands away from you at an exponential rate. Every time you go climbing you get better and better, and the almost infinite possibilities offered by the world of climbing await you, like one of those big kids’ play mats with all the roads and houses and shops printed onto it being unrolled in front of a toddler with a box full of new toy cars. Every guidebook you open is like unfolding the menu of your local takeaway having just discovered that Indian food exists. A kaleidoscope of possibilities which will take you three lifetimes to devour.
Pennine Lines w/c 18 September 2023
Grades are one of the things about climbing that we can’t live with, but we can’t live without. They are inevitable to some extent, but we often use them badly, we ask too much of them, and we use them inappropriately. Granted, at best they are a noble attempt to form part of a theoretically democratic dialogue, to convey information usefully, and can give people some form of inspiration and maybe much need validation, provide a lot of talking points over post-climbing drinks in pubs and online.
Pennine Lines w/c 3 July 2023
In climbing circles we talk a lot about the rock, understandably, but at this time of year it’s really two types of vegetation which are dominating the scenery of the moorland grit crags. Firstly, my least favourite aspect of the Pennines: bracken.
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.
Pennine Lines w/c 12 June 2023
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.
Pennine Lines w/c 22 May 2023
This week I’ve returned from the Isle of Skye to find that climbers’ access to one of the Churnet’s finest crags, Wright’s Rock in Staffordshire, has been completely removed. Anyone following this development can’t have failed to notice the accompanying handwringing and gnashing of teeth online on the state of climbers’ disrespectful behaviour; the fact the Churnet apparently gets busy with climbers up from London, or that everyone climbs stuff when it’s damp, or that the rock and crags here simply can’t cope with this level of traffic.
Pennine Lines w/c 15 May 2023
Another hotbed of poor mobile coverage is the deep dank dales of the White Peak, so I'm simply offering up here a few images of limestone bouldering to keep the psyche rolling until I get back and normal service is resumed.
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.