Posted: 21st May 2012

Friday and Saturday I stayed up in the Peaks for my third trad/lead course for Rock and Sun. The clients this time were the very affable Ben and Martin. They didn't know each other and I didn't know them but after just a couple of hours it was as if we known each other for years and we spent the next 2 days having a lot of fun. We went to Lawrencefield on the first day, a good crag if the weathers a bit iffy and after following 2 climbs they both led their first trad route. First photo shows Ben on the sharp end on Gingerbread Slab.

Day 2 after a very wet morning and lots of coffee we headed to Froggat. It stopped raining the crag dried and we were off again. Laughing was the most important issue of the day but the gruesome twosome climbed their socks off both making great leads of tricky climbs. I felt proud and the boys decided to stay another day and try going out without someone looking over their shoulder. Photo shows Martin grappling with a chimney (his first) at Froggat.

Posted: 20th May 2012

Wednesday & Thursday saw me back in the Peaks teaching trad/lead climbing to Gavin & Claire for Rock and Sun. Gavin took to trad/lead climbing like a duck to water but Claire wasn't so sure and needed time to adjust to the differences between indoors and outside. Having said that she did well and seconded just about everything that Gavin and I led in good style. On the first day we went up to Stanage and did a climb but it was freezing so we ran away. We then went to Lawrencefield for a couple more climbs before finishing the day at Millstone. Day 2 we went to Frogatt to sample the delights of natural grit.

Photo shows Gavin setting up a belay at the top of a climb at Millstone.

Posted: 14th May 2012

A wonderful weekend teaching trad/lead to 2 nice couples in the Peaks. A mixed group. Heidi from The Dolomites in Italy with her partner Victor from Spain. Aimee from Chicago and Dave from Montana. We went to Stanage on Saturday, dry but very chilly. I chose Lawrencefield on Sunday where we did a few routes before finishing off in the small quarry at Millstone. They all did extremely well and the piccy shows Victor leading at Millstone, great effort.

Posted: 11th May 2012

A great days climbing at Wintours Leap in The Wye Valley with Mike Mitch. Started off with a couple of warm-up routes and then had a go at my latest project. It's just a variation on Liquid Leather and avoids the booming flake in dramatic style. A hard pull on a finger pocket enables a vertical slot to be reached but from there you pull up to the break and the first crux of Liquid. All very pumpy but fantastic moves. Eiger Training E3 5c.

Posted: 10th May 2012

Work continues to be varied. A very wet day at Symonds Yat in the Forest of Dean showing Neil and Paul from The Warehouse a few Single Pitch Award set-ups to help them with groups they will be running themselves. The 3 of us may have been unhappy with the weather but this little blighter ran around like his tail was on fire.

The following day I was asked to look at a work harness and come up with a staff training session for a company that requires their employees to use them when they are working in cherry-pickers. It's not sexy but it's safe.