Peak District – Trip Report

First trad climbing meet of the year – woo!! Please find highlights from both days below.

Saturday:

• Windy and overcast at Froggatt – definitely not hotter than Greece!
• A plethora of GMC nutters (JP, Peter N, Chom) leading Brown’s Eliminate, a strikingly bold E2
• Laura’s cold fingers and Anthony’s climbing desire
• Paul’s text book gear spacing on Heather Wall – every 1.87m each and everytime
• Chom’s hardcore approach to gritstone, which meant he had to take a (rare) shower solely to “wash the blood off his hands”
• Warm welcome to new introductory members Peter and Matt – and a swift goodbye to their alcopop
• A chillaxed evening in Falcliffe Cottage – which was warmer on Saturday than Friday!

Sunday:

• Sunshine and warmth at Stanage’s popular end
• Tim D led for the first time – and fell for the first time, on his first piece of gear! Lucky it held and he got straight back onto the route – well done!
• Sally also clocked up some super first leads
• Bramble’s case of mistaken identity – for she was told off by Curly Rich for nosing around people’s lunchboxes when actually ’twas Fergus
• Catherine climbed an unprecedented number of climbs (and still found time to have a nap with Brams in the sun)
• Dave W finished off on Inverted-V described as “brilliant and lush” … and even made the Chairman hand jam for the first time!
• A collective GMC spanking on the Tippler (E1, 5b) – four GMC’ers tried and still it did not yield
• An unfortunate ending to the weekend, was Tristan’s “faster than expected descent” (JP’s words) on abseil, leading to a fractured ankle. Get well soon Tristan…