What a beautiful start to the outdoor climbing season I thought, amazing weather, a bit chilly, wear a jumper. A pandemic, we can just stay 2 metres apart. It’ll be fine.
I planned to go to the Lake District, Wales, Lundy, Croatia. To go outdoors twice a week, to do a day course on gear placement, to climb better than last year. That wasn’t super ambitious as last year my climbing was on hold for a while when I broke my foot falling off my bike on a German cobble at 3 in the morning.
So I started with a tiny trip to Windgather rocks because that’s how I like to start a new climbing season, it’s familiar, little and cosy. All was well and I managed to lead a severe called Mississippi crack quite nicely which seemed like a good sign.
That was the day after I finally got told to work from home because of my “underlying health condition”. Finally told by managers who don’t spend their time visiting lots of community venues where all kinds of coughing and spluttering and bobbing back and forth to Northern Italy was happening.
The following day everyone who could work from home was sent home, which meant I’d been told I could work from home an entire day before my colleagues, my day off. There are many reasons why I like my job: seeing colleagues, helping learners and volunteers, meeting members of the community, cycling, the fact that every day is different. The bit I don’t particularly like is when I have to sit in front of a computer and do admin. That’s the bit that I can do from home š
On Saturday it looked like climbing near to home, being extra careful (we’re pretty super cautious on a normal day) would be responsible and fun so we went to Castle Naze. There were three people in our group and we only saw two other climbers there all day. It was warm, not too windy, the view was fantastic. It was almost spookily quiet.
I was the last to arrive, Rob and Paddy were on a route called the Niche. Chosen by Rob because it has “good steep climbing on solid jams” I decided to try and do it without jamming which Paddy said would make it harder but at least I got to keep the skin on my soft winter hands.
I got to choose the next one so I chose easy and nice, Zig a Zag a (if you wanna be my lover…) I would like to be able to lead its neighbour Zigzag Crack by the end of the year.
Our new young recruit Paddy is a super duper boulderer and a really good climber but fairly new to leading trad. Rob tricked him into a route that in his definitive guide was an HVD (Hard Very Difficult for my non climbing friends) but in my book it’s a severe 4b, I think it was called No name and I struggled with the first section. I think my book is right. And it has better pictures.
I managed to lead a severe 4a – Combs climb with the power of my blue inhaler which you can see in the picture. I did faff about leaving the ground but then I quite often do. The ground has this really strong pull doesn’t it?
As it was so quiet we put a top rope on Scoop face which Paddy did delicately and with panache, Rob did very competently and I fell off about 6 times. On about the seventh time though I did it quite well. Thanks to Rob and Paddy for their patience and good advice. I had to put all my weight on my right foot, stick my elbow out as far as I could and rock over to grab a tiny chalky hold. I really like the rest of that climb, I just can’t get to it very easily.
The last climb involved Rob disappearing into the rock and swearing while me and Paddy looked on in amusement. Footstool left it was called if you want to avoid indignity.
As we drove off in our separate socially distanced cars and I lost sight of my friends I felt really sad. It’s probably going to be at least 12 weeks until I get back on the rock, last night we were told to stay at home and I realise that my chances with the virus aren’t great so I need to be wise. Thanks Paddy and Rob for a fun and memorableĀ day and to Rob for the pictures.
idrathereatgrass 