The weather hasn’t really encouraged any outdoor forays recently, apart from the ever-resourceful Andrew and Buxy who circumnavigated the hills above Warton near Lancaster in search of a few square metres of dry rock. Two hours later they found some, while a group of the older and wiser members enjoyed the dry, indoor challenges of the excellent and spectacular Lakeland Climbing Centre at Kendal.
A keen group traversed the Pennines one dark night after work to meet at Harrogate Wall and had a very good session where we welcomed new member, Adam, from Clitheroe into the climbing group. He is the second caver to have joined our ranks in the last 12 months and I am delighted they have both “seen the light,” so to speak (joke).
Preston has featured regularly in our midweek schedule and last week Ian G made his long-awaited comeback and joined us at West View for a typically strenuous session. Welcome back, Ian!
Sunday 12th February was “Climb with George” time and he selected Kendal Wall for our first full day session there for quite a while – and an excellent choice it proved to be! There has been a lot of investment and it must now rate as one of the best walls in the UK. Once we’d got over the shock of the entry fee, the climbing was superb, varied and challenging and we all thought the route-setting was imaginative and realistic.
The show-stopping lead of the day (pictured below) had to be Linda’s ascent of the overhanging tufa system (stalactites in everyday language) which hangs menacingly from the ceiling in the main hall, nearly 50 feet above the ground. This is a disorientating, upside-down world where it’s easy to get confused about where to head for to reach the belay and at one point the entire room watched with bated breath as she appeared to be running out of strength with a runner not clipped and the rope wrapped awkwardly behind her back! Somehow, she untwisted the rope, made the clip and summoned enough strength to reach the belay to the great relief of everybody watching below!
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