Stanage

After our day working on the Downes hut we were lucky with the weather, it had stayed dry! After a little debate about where to go, some faffing packing up our decorating clothes, and a short wait for the birthday-boy Boris to arrive, we decided to head off for the Peak’s premier gritstone crag – Stanage.

When we got there, despite the grey skies and strong wind, it was packed. The popular-end car park was already full. After finding a parking spot a bit further down the road, we walked up to the edge. Even on the busiest of bank-holiday weekends the Lakes are never this busy. Sure, Ambleside and other hot spots can be busy with tourists and walkers, but the crags never see this much traffic (with the one exception being perhaps Shepherds Crag in Borrowdale). Of course one benefit of this is that you bump into all sorts of people you know to say “hi”. Our first encounter was with Paul and Adele. Being out and about with Richard always guarantees meeting lots of people he knows! Ah, such celebrity, later I even learnt that the BMC’s Stanage guidebook has a “Richard Wheeldon’s favourite five routes” feature in it! 😛

Birthday-boy Boris hadn’t been out climbing for over two years – some excuse about a knackered big toe or the like. :zip: Anyway, he seemed to enjoy being back on the crags – he climbed a respectable three-quarters of a Ganley with Laetitia.

While Paul, Richard and I enjoyed a number of classic routes finishing up with the photogenic Cave Arete.