I have not posted on my blog for a very long time, years in
fact, but of late I’ve been reminiscing and it got me thinking, how did I get
into climbing and whats it all about? A lot has happened since my last blog
post. I’ve done the odd new route on the moors, fallen out of love with climbing
and got back into it, I’ve had two trips to the alps, Switzerland and Chamonix
and most recently found myself at home up on the mountain crags of Scotland and the lake
district, something I always hoped to be true but never believed was the case.
As a young lad I was bloody
petrified of heights, but I was always adventurous and loved being in the fells
and getting to the top of ‘inaccessible peaks’ seemed like fair challenge. This remains my main motivation.
Anyway, after numerous attempts to get over my fear goign out climbing with the scouts it wasnt until a good
friend found his way with heights that at the age of 13 I pulled myself together. I wasn’t going to be outdone
was I? A school trip to brimham rocks was bizarrely enough what started my interest in 'propper' climbing.
My parents have always encouraged
me to be adventurous, giving me free reign to explore on my own from a young
age – but alas neither were ever particularly into climbing as such. Luckily a
few friends’ parents have been into climbing in their youth and their parents
were equally lenient. And so it was, we would go off to a wood nearby that had
some cliffs and scramble and abseil about. Looking back I remember once lowering myself down a cliff hand over hand down
some telephone cabling we found, but you
give it a good tug and if it holds your weight it holds your weight i suppose, these days we often get caught up in following the 'prefered practice'.
The other lads however never had quite the same interest in
actually becoming ‘climbers’ as I did – Theyy had their own adventurous hobbies but like the other lads i had to find something id be the best at.
I started by getting some climbing books out of the school
library and learning a couple of basics. As a big coincidence the school
decided to build a small climbing wall in the school hall and so I joined the
after school and leasuire centre ‘climbing club’ to try and find some people
who could actually take me climbing on the crags.
It was probably only a matter of weeks before I met my first
mentor – Matt Capsey, who very kindly took me under his wing, taking me to
stanage edge. We would go on an evening
to the local crags of peak scar and whitestone cliffe, climbing in the dark by
headtorch on large adventurous cliffs the lights of thrisk shining from the
vale of york – these were some of my best early memories of my climbing and it
was the excitement of it all that no doubt had me hooked from that point onwards.
I was 13 going on 14 at the time and for Christmas I was
chuffed to get a rope. I thought I knew everything there was to know and do back I went to my good
friends Jake and Tom whom I’d spent many an hour with scrambling up the crags
in the local wood and we searched out the local crags – little did I know I was
living in the North York Moors, only the best climbing back water in Britain.
It is this next year of my climbing that I had almost forgotten until recently.
Of course at the time we had no leading gear and i surprise myself to remember
when I return to the crags that I began climbing on that I had already soloed
some reasonable routes by this point, not knowing that they were featured
in any sort of ‘guide’ or given any ‘grade’. So my parents would dewly drive us
onto the moors and leave three young lads with two harnesses and a rope between
them to try and scale whatever crags we could find.
I bought 8 nuts and a few hexes, I was 14 and this is where it all started:
I really don’t know if I knew what I was doing at the time.
My mentor and the books had taught me well, I was climbing by myself out on the
crags with my mates I did everything with. We had some gear (mostly ancient caving gear) and I felt confident I knew all there
was.
My first lead came at Ravenswick Quarry. (Entertaining video above). We picked the day
for it, it was snowy, the crag was soaking wet and we even had a camera to film
it all go wrong. I remember to this day
having to kick steps at the top, I was shitting it, but this was what it was
all about! Within a few weeks time, we were up on the moors and
leading routes we'd looked at before as impossible without real climbing gear. We rocked up and as
usual, Tom in his Whillans harness pulled out a set of pegs, he began to hammer
one in. Climbing was a completely unorganised activity with no rules to us at the time and it was only I who had mild idea of ethics - a simple fact of learning to climb in this way we were still just scrambling up our local crags looking for a bit of an adventure, we worked it out for ourselves, it was a frontier!
Anyway, I’ve lost track, I climbed my first proper lead in
rock boots on that day at oak crag, a VS. We worked our way
along the cag and I climbed another. I understood the order of the grading
system, but I had no real idea what the difficulties really meant.. After that I led an HVS slab, I got to the top
and all my wires fell out, I shat my pants quite frankly, but I got to the top. Next up of course was an E1, I put the gear in and
attempted the crux, I fell off, all the gear fell out and I landed flat on my
back. It knocked my confidence but looking back I'm thankfull I learnt that lesson early on really.
Climbing at Camp Hill Crag just as I was getting into it.
For my 15th birthday I persuaded my parents to
drop me off at the famous almscliff crag. Id climbed there once before with
Matt Capsey but I remember still how miss guided I was about the routes. I had
on my list to do great western an HVS, and then after that western front, an e3
I have still never done. What I now know of course is that I had no chance, but
I was ambitious and they would be climbed one day.
That Easter the three of us got dropped off at stanage edge,
we spent three days living in a hole and fending for ourselves. We had a better
idea of what routes we could climb, we had the gear, tom still wanted to peg the
routes like the old boys, but we had a great time. It remains one of my best
memories. I was beginning a new chapter in my climbing and over the next few
months I would meet some of the most influential people in my climing to date,
however reluctant I might be to tell them this!
Fern Crack.
Around the same time that I discovered the recordings of the
routes in our local areas I discovered two names: Franco Cookson and Dave
Warburton. At the time I had assumed they were quite a bit older than me, as I
suppose they were to a 14 year old. I’d read their blogs and it was only then
that I began to discover what climbing there was to explore. I also stumbled
across Lee Robinson who was trying to discover the bouldering of
the north York moors and produce a guide. I got in contact and somehow it
happened that my mother dropped me off in a random carpark on the top of the
moor to go climbing with this random middle aged man. With Lee I discovered bouldering and we made
several discoveries of good bouldering venues, including the potential at
clemitt's crag. It was also through Lee that I ended up running into Franco and
Dave at ravenswick, and via some unclear circumstance I ended up in tow around
the moors in search for the next unclimbed line.
Early Days of the Ravenswick Massif
The great thing about following Franco and Dave was it
really allowed me to see how possible it was to climb at the higher grades.
They too had come into climbing in a similar fashion to us as far as I can
tell, they were only further along in their apprenticeship. Over the next
couple of years from the age of 14 to 16 I worked my way up the grades, I got into new routing and began climbing all over the country with Jake
using public transport and cadging lifts where we could.
Luke, Franco and Dave
Fathoming Multi Pitch climbing with Jake at Peak Scar
Shepheards Crag
Sea cliff climbing on Jersey
Rory and Jake enjoying a bivi by Ulswater in the Lake District
Trying to free Mars Bar onsight at whitestone cliff - a stupid idea.
Very entertaining aid climbing video^
A block pulled out trying to onsight new routes at Smugglers Terrace - Very Scary
A new route in Newton Dale, I thought it was e1 at the time but i still cant repeat it on top rope...
Valiant at Danby Crag
Starting up Tophet wall on Napes Crag
Warrior - the second E2 I ever led and easily still the hardest.
Cooking at Ravenscar during a weekend doing new routes at the Smugglers Terrace with Dave and Franco.
Trying to climb Mane Vision E4 6b, this didnt end well after a bit of a bad fall.
New routing at Roseberry Topping
An entertaining picture of Myself Dave Franco and Matthew, whos doing what is unclear.
Whilst researching on the internet I stumbled across the
names of two other young lads from the ‘other side’ of the moors of a similar
age and so it was that we met at the wainstones. I began climbing with Matthew Ferrier a
lot over the following year or so and he too got very involved in the moors new
routing scene.
The lads at the wainstones
Matthew climbing ornithology
Ali Baba at the Wainstones
Winter climbing was of course the next stage in learning how to scale the peaks of the alps and beyond and once again Matt Capsey stepped in taking me away for a weekend in the cairngorms. I learnt some invaluable skills here, I nearly fell through a cornice, I had to do a genuine self-arrest and it remains one my most memorable climbing experiences.
Winter climbing in the cairngorms
On my 16th birthday the natural thing to do was
buy a moped and so this really opened up the possibilities. Every weekend I
would be up on the moors, searching for new routes and new crags. It was just
the same as when I started only I knew what I was doing a bit more.
Searching out New Crags
A nasty fingure injury whilst trying to put up our new route Beaver Direct E4 6a
Tense moments as Franco climbs Fly Agaric E8 7a
Fever Pitch at Ravenscar
Onsighting a new route 'Swift Tuttle' E5 6b up on the moors
A recent video taken after a climbing new route in rosedale
Whilst climbing at a local crag, I met two other local lads
who were also into their climbing. They like us we just the same in that they didn’t
know what the hell they were doing when they started out. Infact when I met
them they were setting up a zip wire from the top of the crag. One of these
lads turned out to be Jack Hodgson who over the next few months became one of
my main climbing partners.
Wee Nippers in Pembroke
Black Crag in Borrowdale
An absolute disaster trying to climb on an icy Raven Crag
Alas, two years later I got rid of the moped and my climbing all but stopped over a-level exams. That summer however saw me go on my first trip to the alps with Jack. At the time this was the big one, its what I had read about when I first started climbing, a trip here in my eyes would make me a ‘real climber’. On heading to the Alps, it was very much the same situation as all of my previous climbing, I’d read the books, I’d asked for information, but essentially I didn’t have a bloody clue what it was all about. Our aim was to climb the North Ridge of the Piz Badile, a technically easy but long objective with a relatively large amount of commitment compared to the rock routes of Chamonix or such places. The alps were everything I’d hoped for, not very well planned, an adventure, cold bivuacs, long committing routes, sharp rocky ridges, scary snow sloped and a true summit. We climbed the route in good time and its totally changed my climbing ever since.
A rather luxurious Bivi
Good memories in Switzerland
Summit of the Piz Badile - Only 4 hitch hikes and 2 rains back round into Switzerland
That September I started university at Leeds providing the
perfect opportunity to get back into my climbing and over the coming year I did
so, all be it a bit slower than I had hoped. The following summer I travelled
to Chamonix, this time with George Newham, a member of the Leeds Uni
Mountaineering Club. The weather wasn’t ideal and we couldn’t complete our
objectives, however on the other hand it give me the opportunity to try some
more technical alpine rock routes, which together with a recent trip to Skye
and glen coe really semented my love for climbing on the big fells.
An E3 up in Coire Lagan
George enjoying some mountain trad in Coire Lagan
A very old route on the Etive Slabs - Initially I found myself out on the slab to the right of the picture which I now know to be an E6 6a, thankfullu I realised something wasnt quite right...
High up in Glen Coe
Le Ticket on the Aiguille du peigne
The Envers
George Seconding one of the crux pitches of 'Echec et Marx' ED2/7a+/E4(with the odd pull on a bolt)
A good Belay
So where am I now? Well, Ive climbed a good few routes here and there. But at the end of the day climbing always me right back to the
start. Climbing for me has never been about the moves or the gymnastics of it
all and to call it a sport is something that I still find something difficult
to understand. Climbing in the sence I had always imagined it is dying out. And
whilst I was excited when I discovered a climbing community actually existed
several years ago, with rules and ethics came a side to the past time that
remains frustrating, for it was all about the lack of rules, to be able to do what I wanted,
the danger, the tenacity and the adventure that came with it. It still feels to me the same as it did when I started out though, it’s a bit of
rock, and to climb it would mean to reach a point which other people cannot
access, a real adventure, a challenge, no more and no less.
Was it down there Jake?
There was no Piggy to make sense.
