Climbing

I have always been fond of climbing. From an early age I always climbed the nearest rock, tree, cliff face, or anything that looked scalable. My dad was always a great help — though never a climber himself, he was a great assessor of risk, and taught me likewise. However, my mum was the real reason I climbed everything — in her day, she was just the same. She said it’s a mother’s job to worry, but fortunately (for her) that mostly wore off!

In secondary school, we were twice taken to Bewerley Park, an outdoor pursuits centre in the Yorkshire Dales. I was given a chance to climb Yorkshire gritstone for the first time! Unfortunately, my interest was to be left by the wayside until university.

In my first year at Durham, I joined my college climbing club. Our first meet was at Kyloe Out (above), a small crag in North Northumberland. This was my first attempt at real roped climbing, but I threw myself at it and found that I very much enjoyed the challenges posed by the various routes.

The club mainly focussed on indoor climbing due to the weather, so Sunderland Wall (below) and occasionally Berghaus Wall in Newcastle were our main venues. Berghaus is entirely a bouldering wall, whereas Sunderland is mainly top-rope and lead climbs. The routes ranged from the walkable to the insane, and there were a wide variety of heights and angles to climb.

In my second year I took over the presidency of the club, largely due to most of the previous members graduating. My first year running the club was understandably slow, with very little provided for the members, and the weekly trips were invariably to Berghaus. This was OK for more competent climbers, but it is definitely not the place to teach new ones. Also, there was no chance to teach anyone about roped climbing, so it seemed our services were not required!

In my third year, however, we managed to get transport and expert assistance from an old member. We got a much better response from the freshers, and organised taster sessions to Sunderland to train them up. We could also spend some of the club’s grant on equipment. Over the course of the year, we consistently managed to get 2 full cars to Sunderland each week. We also managed to get an outdoor trip to Slipstones near Masham.

In the Easter break, I managed to get outdoors: we ran a few pitches at The Cow and Calf, and took a few pictures. I also managed to get out to Brimham Rocks and Almscliff.

In October, our fourth and final year of both the university and the club, a great number of people showed an interest at the freshers’ fair, and sessions were organised both to Sunderland and Berghaus. It took over three years, but by mid-November I nailed the Berghaus route that had daunted me since the beginning! The Leap of Faith™ is a formidable leap from a free-standing boulder to a section of the main wall. Thankfully I brought my camera along, so you can view my attempt, along with some other routes from the same afternoon.

In March, we went to Summerhill bouldering park, where eight free-standing boulders have been formed from concrete and pose a number of challenges ranging up to 6b. For more information on this trip, you can view the pictures.