Climbing in England (2) - 03/05/2007

Climbers: Joey
Venue: The Castle, England
Featured friends: Hannah, Yun, Ming

Nothing strikes you more than the realisation that you are going to pay for your excesses the next day. No, I haven't been out drinking myself silly. It has, however, been 3 weeks since my last climb (due to a shoulder injury) and we didn't exactly take it easy tonight!

Tonight, we were at our usual haunt - The Castle, North London. A converted castle which used to be a water pumping station, the castle has a range of bouldering, top roping and lead climbing routes. Overhangs, 30' walls, traversing walls, exercise/ development area, the Castle is mid-sized but perfectly equipped.

Hannah and Yun checking the length of the rope for kinks

Yun pointing out the route

After warming up with some traversing and 5c top roping, we were off on our way to test out Hannah and Yun's newly-bought, first length of rope.

We decided to take it easy and start ourselves on a 5+ route. Before long, we were ambitiously trying out 6a routes (pretty unnerving when you haven't got a top rope holding you up!). We were, of course, all squabbling over whose turn it was to climb/belay (lead climbing still being a relative novelty to us!) - this might be a sign that we should invest in another length of rope before this one is in tatters from tug-of-war rather than actual climbing!

(Top) Me on a 5c climb - no comments on the size of my toosh please!; (Bottom) Look at the state of our shoes! Donations, anyone?

Anyhow, due to the sheer number of people at the Castle tonight (or maybe just laziness) we only climbed for 3 hours instead of our usual 4 on a Thursday night. Gawd knows what state I'm going to be in tomorrow, let alone on Saturday morning (our other regular climbing day)!

J xx

Climbing in England (1)

Climbers: Joey
Venue: Symonds Yat, England
Featured friends: Hannah, Yun, Ming

So I've finally been granted access to posting in this blog - big day for me, but I still had to think of what to write for my first post! Bing asked me to write about climbing in England, but climbing indoors is probably much for muchness whichever country you're in, isn't it? After much deliberation, I've decided to go for my first outdoor climbing experience - just to be a bit different ;)

Last September, my friends, Hannah, Yun, Ming, and I went to Symonds Yat in the Wye Valley, Gloucestershire (West of England). It was a wet, rainy day, and being a limestone area (slippery at the best of times; worse when it's wet!), it probably wasn't the best introduction to outdoor climbing (girls, if you treasure your nails and are afraid of getting muddy and dirty, this is definitely not for you)! Still, we consoled ourselves with the thought that if we could climb there, we could climb anywhere.

The area is very large and features a great variety in rock features (quite a lot of nice jugs!) and routes across the different grades. Set amongst beautiful surroundings (you can even hear the River Wye rushing by) it's very popular with middle grade climbers. The routes range from VDiff (4a) to the occasional E6 (beyond the scale!).

Being hardcore(!), our guide started us off on a Severe (French 5c) climb in a crag on the Kipper Crack, which we each climbed up and absailed back down a couple of times, before moving on to a VS (French 6a) climb. You'd think this was ambitious for our first time, but I can't stress enough how different outdoor climbing is from indoors. Anyone, no matter how tall/short, can potentially do any climb. Forget 'following the colours' - outdoors, you grab anything within your reach!

(Clockwise from top left) 1.Getting ready for the first climb; 2.Where's my next hold?!? Bring the colours back! :( ; 3.Yun looking all calm and relaxed despite the strain the rest of us are feeling; 4.Reaching the top - see the relief on my face?!? (Bing says I look dorky in my helmet, but be nice or I won't post again!)

We spent the whole day there and by the end of it, you'd never seen a muddier, more bruised or tired bunch of people in your life - but it was definitely worth it! Unfortunately, we went before we learnt how to lead climb, so we were forced to resort to top roping (by tying very long ropes off on trees at the top of the crag).

This Summer, I'll be climbing in the High Pyrenees (Spanish range of mountains). It's a granite area and having now learnt to lead climb, I can't wait to try it out for real! I hope I live to tell the tale!

J xx