11-13 October
An alternative to the club trip to The Isle of Rum, fourteen of us went to Thorpe Farm bunkhouse near Hathersage in the Peak District.
A few went up early on the Friday to get some climbing done, Lee and Kieran (K2) climbed at Milestone. Tom, Naomi, Neal, DaveC and Dan went to Birchen. Lee and Kieran failed miserably at Great Portland Street (HVS), but very much enjoyed Covent Garden (easy VS 4b but with a very exposed 2nd pitch up and arete over a void with gear below your feet), Embankment 1 (pitch 1 only, a hard work but very enjoyable Vs 5a crack climb), and Svelt (A varied HVS climb with a nice mixture of slab, overlap, corner and laybacking.
The rest of us all arrived on Friday night.
Saturday Tom, Naomi and Mary had a nice hike to Grindleford via Higgar Tor, while Loz led a 14 mile hike with Gill, Juan, MichelleW, DaveC, Dan, AndyB, from the hut up to High Neb, Ladybower, White Tor and back Thorpe Farm via the pub (necessary energy boost). Of course there was mixed weather, it’s the Peak District, but we all had a great day with fantastic views once the cloud lifted. There was a 55 mile ultra marathon going on at the same time, it was inspiring to see all the athletes doing their best. Hardcore climbers Lee and K2 spent the day climbing at Burbage North.
Saturday evening we all went to Little John Hotel in Hathersage, and we were surprised and delighted to be joined by Charlotte and Adam. The food was good, even Dan’s pizza was good once he eventually got it!
We returned to the hut and had a game of Cards Against Humanity with the usual hilarity.
On Sunday Lee and K2 went to climb at Wildcat, DaveC went off to visit family and MichelleW, Dan and Juan parked at Bamford and went for a walk, visiting the climbers along the way. The rest of us (also now joined by Keith, Brad and Malcolm) all climbed at Bamford Edge in good weather. This was AndyB’s first time climbing outside and he said he enjoyed it very much. Sunday evening when Lee and K2 finished climbing they accidentally gatecrashed the Lights of Abraham trail and had to be escorted out because they didn’t have tickets!
A superb weekend.
Great trip and some quality climbs. And some extensive abseil practise!