2012 – My Climbing Year Simon Pape. March 2013         

All the books suggest that setting objectives is a good thing to do to guide one’s climbing (or any other) activity. I’d done it once or twice before, and it does seem to help. It’s also recommended that if you tell others about your objectives you are more likely to attain them, so I emailed most of my regular climbing partners my objectives in early January. The objective that seemed to capture most 5 peoples’ attention was the list of trad routes. 50 routes to be attempted on the lead, a mixture of routes from VS to E2. 15 Peak gritstone, 15 Peak limestone and 20 routes from other parts of the country – these last 20 could be changed for similar routes, depending on where I went and what the weather was like when I got there. The routes were a mixture of routes I’d failed on in the past, routes I really wanted to do and routes on crags I’d never visited, but felt I should.

I still find gritstone hard. You’d have thought living so close to the Eastern Edges I’d have got the hang of it by now. The Gritstone list was mainly “classic” routes that I’d either been too scared to try leading before or I’d hadn’t been able to lead cleanly in the past. The File fell into the latter category, I’d had many rests when I tried it last year. I didn’t deliberately rest on it this year, but when my hands slipped out of the top crack I found myself resting on the rope anyway. Twilight Slab isn’t a classic route, but it’s a pleasant HVS at Turningstone Edge, one of my favourite Gritstone crags. I’d tried it last year, but didn’t trust the gear so escaped onto the Vdiff to the right. I then spent 10 minutes getting the dodgy gear out – it was much better than I thought! So, no worries about the gear this year, just a matter of standing up “as if in balance” and reaching the top.

 I’ve seconded Saul’s Crack a couple of times. It’s not too bad if you (a) know the trick and (b) can reach the hold! So, no problems when the evening meets list finally coincided with a dry Wednesday.  Similarly Valkyrie – the Froggatt version. Brian suggested I got someone else to lead the crack so I could do the top pitch. When I went to Froggatt that evening, all the cracks were running with water, so we found drier routes. No matter, I got back later in the year with Brian. And yes, I did send him up the crack. The long reach came handy again on the Scoop at Stanage – the sort of gritstone route I do like, long reaches between breaks. The breaks get a bit rounded at HVS though.

Neb Buttress is probably the pick of the 3 neighbouring 3* HVSs at Bamford. Chris led the other two for good measure. I’d been avoiding Peapod for ages, but there was no backing down this year. I got into the chimney, but struggled to get out of the top of it – like a lot of people I believe. From there to the top was easy enough, apart from throwing a few wires 6 at Roger. I missed.

I got onto Long Tall Sally at the end of a damp day at Burbage North. The sun had finally come out and it was the best bit of the day, but I couldn’t make the moves up the top corner without pulling on the gear (and Richard was late for his dinner date).

It may not be fashionable, but I do enjoy the traditional climbing on Peak limestone. Stoney is polished, but it’s got some fantastic routes. St Peter takes the arête between Gabriel and Parachute. I’d tried it a couple of times before – the first when it was wet and my gear fell out as I escaped right! It was at least dry this time. The crux is short lived, it took me much longer to commit to the moves than to do them!

I’d never climbed The Thorn at Beeston. I warmed up on the first pitch and quickly dispatched the second. Then I tried Deaf Dove, the E2 up the centre of the slab. I could see how to do the moves to get to the thread, but didn’t feel comfortable doing them or see what to do next. I took the easier way out and escaped right up the E1.

I did a bit better at High Tor. Highlight went cleanly, without pulling on the peg, on a cold evening in March when I couldn’t feel my fingers. I got on Original Route on a warm June evening – it proved to be a fight but I got up it cleanly. And then Martin and I managed to do Delicatessan. We soloed up to the Castellan cave and he led the first pitch. I couldn’t see what was going on, but he seemed to take ages. Turns out, he was waiting for Angela and Roland to vacate the belay! Not used to busy evenings at High Tor. The second pitch was mine, some delicate moves to start, but once I clipped the peg and got a cam behind a flake I felt happier. I soon scampered over to the familiar territory of Original Route – it felt much easier approaching this way!

The rest of the Derwent Valley proved too challenging. I fought God at Willersley, but lost confidence when my foot slipped, so I lowered off. I tried Nosferatu at Pic Tor, but missed the hold around the arête and, guess what, I lowered off. And the least said about Go-go Grooves at Wildcat the better. The tale involves a long approach on a short evening, a dud headtorch and an even longer walk out. I didn’t get into Chee Dale at all and there were access problems at Staden. I did try to climb in Dovedale, but it was too hot and steamy, when it wasn’t actually raining. So, 9 out of the 15 limestone routes attempted, with 5 successes.

I’d avoided Boulder Ruckle the only time I’d been to Swanage before, and part of the challenge was to visit new crags. So I found myself abseiling in with Brian on a sunny January Saturday. The warm-up route didn’t exactly go to plan – I backed off the first pitch, but I did manage to lead the second. We moved the abseil rope and headed down to the foot of Aventura, my target for the day. I went for the first pitch again, a slightly overhanging chimney. There was a little wibbling as I recall, but the holds and the gear seemed good, and eventually I 7 pulled out onto the halfway ledge. Brian seemed to struggle a little on the top pitch; it seemed OK with the security of a top rope.

After a couple of wet and/or cold weekends away, my next successes came on the club trip to Northumberland. Saturday was cold and damp, but I tried Callerhues Crack, although I needed rescuing from the top (thanks Ruth). Sunday was dry and sunny, and I managed Gargarin’s Groove and the Elevator at Kyloe.

We spent the Jubilee week on the sea cliffs of Reiff. I’d hoped to be on this trip when setting my objectives, but wasn’t certain of it, so only picked a single route – Black Gold, a 3 star VS. For a 25m route, it packed a lot in. A corner, a traverse, some long moves on good holds, leading to a few balancy slab moves right at the top, which provided the crux for me. Everything you could ask for from a 3 star route. Whilst I only had one defined objective for Reiff, my substitution rules allowed me to claim a few more. Hy Brasil was a very nice arête, Skullsmasher a sustained steep wall with a worrying finish. Eeyore was similar, steeper, but a slightly less worrying top out.

The Gogarth meet came in July, with a relatively good forecast – for 2012! Sure enough, it was dry on Saturday morning and Martin was happy for me to decide where to go. I first went to Wen Zawn was last year, when I was “made” to do Dream. Chris and Snod had raved about Concrete Chimney, and I was keen to give it a go. The first pitch was just my sort of climbing. It never felt too hard, not steep enough to tax the muscles, just enough gear. And a fantastic sense of exposure up the edge of the slab. Martin quickly led the top pitch, not quite so fine, but intriguing climbing nonetheless. A quick bite of lunch whilst Martin had a look at the guidebook. He really wanted to try “Toilers on the Sea”, a two pitch E2 on Britomatis wall, but there was no way to see the route without getting on it. Still, the worst case would be an escape up Britomatis itself, a route that neither of us had done, so we abseiled in anyway. The guidebook implied that the meat of the route was in the first pitch, so Martin headed off. From the belay, I had no sense of what was happening on the climb – I could see nothing around the arête, just the steady pull on the rope as Martin progressed. Eventually, a call of “safe” and I could finally see what was what. 8 The initial traverse felt taxing, after sitting on the belay for a while, and should have been the easy bit! The main crack was straight-forward enough, steep but well-protected, no wonder Martin had a big smile. The second pitch was also graded 5b. It didn’t look too long, or steep, or difficult, and I thought I could see a few gear placements. I lingered over sorting the rack to let my arms recover and then I went for it. The start was easy enough and I managed to get a couple of iffy pieces of gear in, but nothing really bomber. I then faced a thin move to stand up on a good foothold, but little in the way of hand holds. Or gear. Still, I didn’t fancy downclimbing, so I went for it. Gradually I inched my weight up, until eventually I could palm on a small overlap. I was stood up. I hadn’t fallen off and the way forward was much easier. I’d led an E2.

My target for Sunday was Gogarth itself. I’d done the route before with Richard. He’d led the harder pitches and we’d been 2 hours late meeting Maggie and Dawn. We barely survived! The route itself isn’t particularly hard. Martin’s pitches are both about VS, whilst my first pitch was about HVS. It’s the final pitch that adds the spice, a traverse, followed by tough little crack. It took me a few goes to work out the correct sequence, but it’s well protected and I eventually sorted things out. It eases a little above that, but is fairly sustained all the way to the top.

August Bank Holiday took us down to Pembroke. The forecast was mixed; the campsite was so wet we couldn’t get the caravan on it. Between the rain I managed to get some good stuff done. We went to St. Govans on the Saturday, the forecast was for showers so we abseiled down the chimney to make an escape easier. That meant the E1 up the normal line of the abseil was free, so I did it. Sunday took us to Stennis Head. I’d fallen 60 feet off Manzuko last time I’d tried it. I was terrified when Jeff told me to get on it. That soon went when I started climbing, the crux went easily, I got loads of gear in, and I didn’t need any of it! For good measure, I led the neighbouring Cool for Cats too. Jeff took me up a couple more E1s on the Tuesday before I led Galactic Co-ordinator at Triple Overhang.

Derek probably picked the best weekend of the year for his Clwyd meet – two genuinely sunny days. After a day’s bolt-clipping we went to the traditional crag of Dinbren on the Sunday. The rock was a little polished, but the E1 “Colour Games” did look appealing, and didn’t present too many problems.

Besides the trad objective, I had a grade-based objective for outdoor sports routes, a F6c pyramid; in other words 8 F6a+s, 4 F6bs, 2 F6b+s and a F6c. Things started really well, a F6b in March whilst in Spain. A week in Kalymnos over Easter almost finished the F6a+s and the F6bs. Then things went downhill. The plan was to work the harder routes whilst at home. I’m a trad climber at heart; when I’m on a trip I find it hard to work routes repeatedly. I’d rather try lots of different routes of an easier grade. Whilst I managed to get onto sports crags fairly often, it was often because rain was imminent. I had little opportunity to work routes. The consequence was that I made no progress on this objective until I returned to Kalymnos in October. I did manage one F6b+, onsight since I was on holiday naturally. I tried another F6b+ and a F6c, got to the top of both of them but not without rests, so another heroic failure!

So was I successful? Despite not actually achieving any of my objectives, I think I  was. I certainly enjoyed myself. I climbed more routes in 2012 than I ever had in a single year before, despite the rain, and I generally pushed myself onto harder routes than I would normally, as well trying routes I avoided in the past. Would I do it again? Certainly would, and if I’ve got round to it, several of you will already know my 2013 objectives. I would like to thank all who supported me in this endeavour. There are too many names to list, I believe there were 14 different partners involved in the 36 traditional routes. There were many others I climbed with on other occasions, as well as all those who kept me motivated by enquiring about my progress.