Whats British Climbing About? Cafes and Wet Rock

Living in Manchester due to university gives me amazing access to some of the best rock climbing in the world(if you like your rock short and scary). As the university term starts in September and finishes in May it means I'm  usually trying to climb during the winter. Which on paper is a great idea as you envisage going to crags in your down jacket on crisp fresh days with slight frost on the ground and the gritstone being in amazing condition. The reality however is usually a fruitless search around the peak district looking for any glimmer of dry rock. At the start of 2017 a group of us from uni Sophie, Edwin, Shaun and Myself started going out on Sundays looking for dry rock. It is such an expedition looking around at all crags as the rain lashes down on the car, running to Minus Ten Wall (a really polished bit of limestone that is permadry)  eventually spending two hours trying to climb then running away to Grindleford station cafe( I could write an entire article about peak district cafes but I have only included the best one) for a mountain of chips and a pint of tea(the diet of a true athlete). These were dyer days with Shaun and Sophie never really knowing what dry rock was and never really knowing the joys of friction.

Recently I had planned to spend the weekend climbing with Freddie Cindy and Oscar the weather forecast looked amazing(well questionable it was cloudy, but it wasn't raining), So excitedly we scampered off to the peak district only to be greeted by ridiculously low cloud that had soaked all of the rock. Residing ourselves to a slippery diff and once again the Grindleford station cafe we eventually manned up and went to stanage to some super sketchy bouldering on drying gritstone. After a few problems had been sent we ran off back to Manchester to work out the plan for the next day. A trip to Malham was on the cards as its usually very dry. Upon arrival we discovered the only thing we could was wet so we played about on it for a few hours eventually bailing to another damp gritstone crag.

Classic view of a British Crag this one is Malham

Anyway back to the point as a climber of average grade in this country I could spend the wet days training inside and building up strength and becoming a better climber, however spending days searching for dry rock with friends is a great adventure no matter how frustrating. You are also learning how to climb in the worst conditions possible so when the weather does dry up you can crush everything. In theory. On the last day of the weekend trip with Freddie and Cindy they had to leave so I went to the peaks with Edwin, expecting another day in the cafe eating chips and drinking tea as the forecast looked pretty bad. But upon arrival at Grindleford the sun was out and the rock was dry and although I had a pretty bad day performance wise it was amazing to be out in the sunshine. So I have found that although spending your time in cafes and at damp crags won't make you stronger it will give you an appreciation of the days its not raining. So go forth try and climb in the rain if all else fails Grindleford station cafe serves tea by the pint and chips by the kilo.

Finally a sunny day