Gratuitous Gritstone Goodness

The aches and scrapes of gratuitous gritstone goodness have subsided enough for me to type about what we got up to last weekend in the Peaks, so here goes.

On Saturday morning, we dropped Lise in Hathersage to meet the MountainGirl crew, and - pausing briefly for much-needed coffee at the fantastic Coleman's deli - Ant and I headed up to the Edge.

Looking grim and imposing in the early October fog, it still felt like we were back - we headed for the very first buttress by the car park to induct Ant into the arcane mysteries of anchor-tying and climbing call sequences. After about an hour, with Ant fully indoctrinated into the Cult Of Malisms ("..always ask yourself, does it work? Is it safe? Can ah improove it?") it was time for him to try his first outdoor lead.

We chose Fire Curtain (VD), on the grounds that it was
a) short
b) only a VD
c) close
and
d) right next to an easy descent route, so that once he had tied his nachor and shouted "safe!" I could dash round and up to check it before seconding.

It's a thoroughly unremarkable route, but a good one for your first trad lead for the reasons above, plue it's out of sight of the hardcore elite climbers further down the crag, gleefully soloing E-umpteens as if they were stepladders.

Ant lead it without any problems, placed his protection really well, and tied a nicely equalised anchor at the top, and came down smiling, but said "I think that's about as hard as I want to lead today..."

(yeah, right!)

So off we toddled to find something a bit more interesting for my lead. After a frustrating couple of minutes trying to get started on Crack and Corner (HVD 4b ***), but failing miserably on holds as smooth and slippery as ice, we settled on Black Hawk Hell Crack (S 4a ***).

Stanage being as popular as it is, just as I was getting myself psyched up and sorting out the rack, someone - from a scan of the logbook at UKClimbing.com, it might have been Owen W-G - nipped in ahead of me and solo-ed up the damn thing, nicely deflating my ego before I started... but he did shout down the very useful nugget of advice - "There's some threads! Bring slings!". And there were indeed some excellent threads at about 3/4 height, just before the tricky finish. It was a really great route, up there in the enjoyability stakes with Flying Buttress in my book. As I belly-flopped over the tricky top-out I was breathless and pumped, but grinning like an idiot and feeling rather chuffed with myself. Ant comfortably seconded the route and likewise, came up over the mantle with a huge grin on his face, breathlessly enthusing, "what a great route!"

Encouraged by a solid second of a Severe, Ant reckoned he was up for trying a lead at that grade, so for the last climb of the day we chose The Bishop's Route (S 4a ***) - a meandering 25m expedition that thoroughly deserves its 3 stars. I was almost tempted to suggest that we did it as a multi-pitch, with the first belay on the obvious ledge behind the tree, and in retrospect this might have been a good idea - if you do it in one, once the leader has got past that ledge you can't see him, and the increased friction from the rope dragging round the corner can't be fun at the top.

But it was still a great climb, another route that, like so many at Stanage, leaves you flopping breathlessly over the mantle in a great ungainly slapping of palms, but chuckling at your own lack of grace and grinning like a cheshire cat at the exhilaration of the route you've just completed. Ant lead it confidently and capably, and still managed to tie a decent anchor despite the distinct lack of big boulders at the top. As the light started to fade and the mist began to descend once more, we hobbled our aching, abraded bodies down the crag and headed off into Hathersage to meet Lise after her bouldering course, for the traditional post-crag pint-and-pie-of-the-gods at the Old Hall Inn in Hope.