First Meet of the New Term - Stanage and a Retreat to Birchen

Sheltering under the tricky 5b start to Verandah Buttress - Stanage

A weather forecast for the optimists had us heading to the Peak District on Saturday.  Quick drying had been my thought and so we plumped for Stanage.  We completed one route, the oddly graded Verandah Buttress (HVD 5b), which set the precedent for the day of using teamwork to overcome the conditions,with both seconds utilising combined tactics of get off the ground.  Vincent made an impressing ascent of a route to the right with few positive holds and ever increasing dampness.  After taking some respite from the now swirling cloud and increasingly persistent rain we decided to retreat to the shelter of Outside in Hathersage and consider our position.

Eventually I went up to help out

We decided that Birchen offered a chance of some drier rock and if not some good damp-proof routes.  Starting of with the everdry and classic Topsail and Sail Chimney we moved on to Sail Buttress and some more slaby routes on Trafalgar Wall which seemed to gain a serious edge in the damp conditions.  The most fun was saved for last with Laurence starting to trust my advice on route choice he decided to have a go at Powder Monkey Parade, a route which is apparantly 'harder for the short who will have to dangle'.  It had been quite a while since he got his foot firmly stuck while attempting to lead Hollyash Crack at Burbage, which I had advised him was an easy and fun route.

After some concerted udging and a fair bit of thrutching (techniques I wholeheartedly approve of) he made it up the initial v diff hanging chimney.  This, for me is the toughest part of the climb.  But then alas an unwillingness commit to the 'dangle' meant no further progress was going to be made.  After much contribution of good advice from below, on the best options for extrication from the route, I decided that it best I climb on up and lead through while Laurence made himself safe by jamming in to the chimney.  The fun of the traverse was offset by some worrying moves on the rather wet upper slabs but soon Laurence was following on and made it up to the top.

Laurence stepping out on to the traverse of Powder Monkey Parade

It was then Sian's turn to have next a go but unfortunately her thrutching techniques were not up to it and so the honour fell to Vincent who 'cut loose' with some wild moves to gain the chock stone before waltzing up the upper section.  I think in the end we made the best of the conditions and certainly met Job's criteria for a worthwhile trip with most of us managing to climb more pitches than we had spent hours traveling to get there.  Looking forward now to some hopefully drier Yorkshire grit at Brimham this weekend.

Vincent cutting loose with a wild thrutch and reaching for the udge before overcoming the cock stone in the v diff chimney