When I started to get into climbing more it was primarily down to a group of 3 friends Oscar, Freddie and Cindy we had many a fun climbing trip in Freddies awesome Mitsibushi Colt, it was because of this we named ourselves Colt Mountain Adventures. I ended up living with Oscar in my second year and had a great time as Freddie and Cindy lived round the corner so we were always hatching plans of where to go climbing. All the while slowly improving. As I was/am the worst climber in the group I always thought it was good to get out with better climbers, as that is the easiest way to do routes that are too hard for me. At the end of the year Oscar had finished uni and had moved out and gone to Ireland cycling with his girlfriend. So myself Freddie and Cindy went on a road trip to Scotland that involved amazing adventures up Agags Groove where I got soaked/hypomthermia, we had a great day on Tower Ridge and a sunny scramble across the Aonach Eagach none of these routes were harder than VDiff(Stupid British Trad Grades Lengthy Post to Come about that but its pretty easy) and we came away with some superb memories as well as many tick and midge bites. Then the summer started great to be back home in North Yorkshire and seeing the family. But although my dad climbs it was still easier for me to head to the cliffs and spend an afternoons soloing by myself. Once uni started again as my core group of climbing partners were no longer in Manchester I started the search yet again for more people to climb with. Being part of the university mountaineering club is a great way to do this and I got climbing with various people yet again. But due to the winter being a bit dyer its being hard to get a good days climbing in still some good memories with friends searching for dry rock. Also a great week in Scotland with the club scrambling tradding and bouldering, but these amazing memories quickly fade when you are down New Mills Torr alone trying to boulder in the rain and wind.
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| Me Topping out on Valkyrie with Freddie belaying Photo by Cindy Lin |
So back to the point our club trip. All of my friends from the club were there including Colt Mountain Adventures and on the Saturday optimistically the club headed to Froggatt Edge in the Peak District for some sublime sweeping slabs and cruel contorted cracks we had an amazing day (apart from one slight mishap regarding someone fracturing their spine) everyone got some good routes in. For me there were two highlights one a damp disgusting route called Cave Crawl which funnily enough involved crawling through a cave, Myself and Eric did it and its so grim you just have to laugh but you laugh twice as much watching someone else go through it, the other was Valkyrie a classic multi-pitch route that I lead with Freddie(as the air ambulance was arriving) which involved a steep crack (nice lead Freddie) a homoerotic switching of leads and a daunting second pitch which I lead. Cave Crawl is HS 5A and Valkyrie is HVS 5A(beware the Joe Brown HVS). I know the trad grades can be confusing for non-climbers or non UK climbers, but these are routes that may have once being ground breaking but are now trade routes classics of the crags everyone can do not especially hard but memorable especially when surrounded by friends. I have found itt comes down to finding the balance between climbing on your own and enjoying the solitude and sharing the experience. Friends are not just pieces of gear used for getting up routes they can help make a sufferfest worth doing.
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| Colt Mountain Adventures L-R Freddie,Cindy,Me,Oscar Photo by Freddie Waters |
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