First Gritstone Solo

On Sunday we pitched up at Birchen Edge just after lunchtime, figuring that if it's going to be busy everywhere then we might as well take advantage of the easy walk-in, laid-back atmosphere and good range of low-grade routes there. Neither of us really felt like pushing grade too much, the weekend was about relaxing and getting away from work more than anything else. Especially after The Midge Incident and Lise's unsettled mind yesterday.

So we arrived at the Edge and headed straight for the far end, where we found the only unoccupied bit of rock past the Emma's Dilemma area.

Let's just boulder a bit round here first, said Lise, and proceeded to do just that.

After a few warm-up foot moves around the base of The Gangplank (M **) she thought out loud:

I could solo this, you know

So off she went, looking calm and confident all the way. As she topped out, I thought

Well, so could I!

...and off I went, without really thinking about it. I actually found it perfectly OK, with only one point where I felt the rising nervousness as I contemplated a typical gritstone mantel top-out at about 8m. But I quashed it down as quickly as it arrived, and just went ahead with the move - which was fine - and topped out with a satisfied grin on my face.

Now, admittedly it's only a Mod. That's the lowest grade anything ever gets, and it was practically a staircase - the slew of people on UKC describing their ascents as no-handed / one-legged / juggling fire on a pogo stick shows it's not exactly a difficult route by any means - but still, 10m is not a distance you want to fall, and as someone who is no stranger to what could best be termed EPIC HEAD FAIL, I felt a little chuffed at having had my first ever solo.

I'm not in any hurry to start soloing harder routes, but it did feel like I crossed some kind of threshold, having done that. I was confident enough in my footwork (thanks Jack !) to KNOW that I wouldn't fall, and that's a rarity for me on grit, where every hold is rounded and a pebble is classed as a Good Foothold. Maybe there *is* some improvement in my technique after all...