Learn to lead practice, Mary has only seconded once or twice outside on trad and would like to learn to lead.
We began the day by doing a series lead on Beta Crack, S4a. Mary found the climbing easy but the crux move committing.
We then changed to parallel abseil, this allowed us to review gear and place extra pieces where we thought it would make the route less committing.
After adjusting some gear and selecting the strongest pieces Mary desired a lead of the route. She led it cleanly on preplaced gear, I met her at the top allowing her to remove the gear to help her revisit the gear placements.
Providing the option to continue in this style or lead an easier route Mary chose to lead Alpha, this went really well with very well placed gear.
Toping out I had a prebuilt anchor for the right hand chimney Mary Topped out a left hand groove instead. Meeting her at the top we adjusted the anchor so she could belay myself up the climb.
We progressed on top placing gear on top rope on a harder climb.. a HS 4b. But Mary found it a little too much progress so we lowered off and moved on to another Mod Lead. This went really well .
Take home notes... be aware of progressing too quickly, maintaining a little more control on route choice encouraging extra practice when needed, also be aware of secondary options that a client may take when topping out.
Next session we are going to look an anchor building after revisiting gear placements.
Area :
Peak District Grit North-East, inc Agden, Bamford, Dovestone, Rivelin, Wharncliffe etc
Notable crags in this Area, between Sheffield and the Derwent Reservoir, include Rivelin, Agden Rocher, Dovestones Tor, Back Tor etc., and also Bamford Edge further south. Also included are the crags to the west and north-west of Sheffield which are just outside the park, such as Wharncliffe and Bell Hagg.
