Curbar, Black Lurcher & Burbage

Belaying atop the Cioch (no, not that one.........., at Frogbar)

 After a week to recover it's about time to look back on the introductory meet.  It does take about a week to recover from trying to organise over 50 climbers for a weekend trip to the Peak District.....and a similar amount of time for the body to recover from a night in the Three Stags Heads sampling their very fine Black Lurcher.  Around 20 of us headed north for the whole weekend and were joined by a further 30 for the Sunday.  As the Saturday was for new members to the club who had reasonable experience we plumped for the steep and intimidating walls of Curbar.

Just the place to encourage new members ( Straight Crack - Curbar)

Despite most of the group sticking round the classics of Peapod, Maupassant (a french author apparently), Bel Ami, Elder Crack, PMC 1 and Kayak Slab, which all saw attempts if not ascents a number of us decided to wander in to that middle ground of Curgott or Frogbar where the undergrowth gets wild and the holds become more rounded.  This didn't mean lower grades, well, not for everyone, with John and Howie making a fine ascent of Overtaker's Direct and I was pretty happy with the fine technical climbing of Baron's Wall.  Potter's Wall, Cioch Crack, Straight Crack, Calver Wall and Flying Buttress provided some interesting grit learning for the inexperienced. 

A helping hand with the learning experience which is the top out on Cioch Crack at Frogbar

After finishing with the sun setting it was on to the Three Stags Heads to get the genuine CUMC weekend trip experience of pitching tents in the darkness, consuming the strongest beer you can find and trying to ignore they guy wearing a vest in the corner sharpening knives.

The effects of the Black Lurcher setting in with the hare brandishing the shotgun starting to make the most sense

Learning just how rounded a 'hold' can be on Potter's Wall

Sunday morning saw us standing at the Burbage North car park in a state of mild confusion and panic at the prospect of a further 30 freshers arriving but luckily the 'wing it' approach worked, even being mistaken by some, for preconceived plan.  Almost perfect.....except for when I looked around to find myself lacking anyone to climb with.  The roving helper role seemed to suite my mildly lethargic Lurcher induced state which eventually eased as the day went on allowing some fun leads for me and hopefully some fun climbs for the new members to the club.  Ash Tree Wall provided my home for most of the afternoon and between a number of groups just about all the routes were climbed including Ash Tree Variations which gave me hope that I might actually be improving.  It's almost impossible to sum up what 50 people did on a crag like Burbage for a whole day but I do know that it never seemed like we were swamping any of the areas and there seemed to be smiles everywhere when I walked along to shepperd folk back to the bus so all in all a very successful trip.  I think that we may even returned with as many people as we left with.  Thanks to Vincent and Ed for helping organise the trip and all those that helped with leading and making it a great weekend.