Please note:
DATES ARE ROUGH - LOCATIONS ROUGH - THIS IS BEFORE A MAJOR ANKLE ACCIDENT
I've pondered about whether to add this but Instructors who have been helping me over the past few years recommended I add it.
During the early 1990s in my late teens I became very interested in climbing and became a regular. I had never had formal instruction - nor had my friends (I remember the rack and gear we were using were largely my mate's older brother's old gear).
But being young, slightly more flexible and 'invincible' we were leading some hard grades at Stanage and elsewhere in the peak. We went roughly a weekend each month for about two years in the spring-autumn months. We got past Severe pretty fast and amongst us as a group we were climbing generally HVS/E1. I was more VS/HVS. I did lead an E3 which I found "a bit tough" at the Wainstones on the North York Moors but when we got down we looked in the book and I was on the wrong route - the one we intended was next to it or at least nearby and significantly lower in grade. I've been back to the Wainstones recently and cannot picture which route it was. But that was over a quarter of a century ago.
Then Uni took over and my research career for the rest of the 90s. But I found someone in my research department (Exeter) who was into climbing and decided to give it a go in the early noughties. I remember going a few times but had a major accident resulting in a number of operations and physio to learn to walk again. I've never regained leading confidence since the accident and have also had a string of major illnesses and operations in the past three years. So I'm cautious but slowly gaining confidence. I think my reason for signing up for the SPA (as was) was to know more about the tools of the trade to enable me to concentrate more on the actual climbing.
I've climbed on and off infrequently since the early noughties (depending on where I've lived as I've moved around a fair bit) and recorded what I can remember retrospectively when I decided to register for some of the MTUK awards. Since then I've recorded everything apart from more recently - Mods/Diffs I've soloed. I have most definitely led many more than the required 20 Severes for RCI - though perhaps not all of them can be recorded for the above reasons as they were so long ago.
I have recorded more recent ones however. So whether this is taken into account or not is up to MTUK and my assessor
However the kid who climbed well back then is not the same climber now!
Area :
Peak District Grit: Stanage Edge
Simply the finest crag on grit with well over 1000 routes of all grades and styles. The most popular of climbing areas in the UK with a huge number of classic routes. We have split the area into the same divisions as used for UKC logbooks, namely Stanage Popular, Stanage Plantation and Stanage North. Bouldering activities should be entered into the 'Outdoor Bouldering' section of DLOG. Routes on other gritstone crags, such as Burbage North, should be added to the relevant Area as noted in the Area titles.
