How to have a climbing adventure:
‘ Your 71yro mum is your climbing partner
‘ Your guidebook is a 1991 black and white sketch diagram guidebook
‘ Choose the hottest day of the year
‘ Make sure lockdowns stopped you doing any exercise up til that point
‘ Start the day with a frenzied stomp in the vague direction of where you hope the crag is.
‘ That means uphill, carrying rack, rope and personal kit
‘ Make a guess at which bit of rock the crag is. It’s further uphill.
‘ Finally leave the path to walk further uphill up scramble turf
‘ Squint at the crag. Is this the same one as the 30yro drawing?
‘ Yes. It is. Have lunch and drink half your water.
‘ Rack up, rope up, then take it all off, have a wee and put it back on
‘ Climb the first move of this starred Diff. Nice.
‘ Discover the second move isn’t protected and feel more like Severe. ¬
‘ Surprise yourself by not falling off and dying
‘ Reach the first belay and wonder if the mothership will make it.
‘ She makes it. Happiness and confusion all round. Up you go!
‘ Enjoy a pitch, you deserve this. Belay next to 1000 ripe bilberries.
‘ A pitch no gear, great swing potential but easy moves. Tread carefully.
‘ The top! Walk over miles of grass to a belay rock and bring up your second.
‘ Ok… Now how to get down?
‘ Discover you need to teach your mum to move together to get off the spur.
‘ Once off the spur, realise there’s no gear so you might as well untie.
‘ Have a gnarly walk down the hill, fall over in a bog and get a wet bum.
‘ Descend down the massive steep hill, exhausted, hungry and eager to get home.
‘ Return and tell everyone about the fantastic days climbing and how they really missed out. £
Climb: Sunshine Arete, Little How Crag, Levers Water. Mostly Diff with a Severe move at the bottom.
Originally posted on Instagram
