Take a look at our video from our trip to Cornwall, where John became the first blind person to climb commando ridge.
Graded a V-diff, it’s well within our capabilities but some routes are more blind friendly than others. Bosigran ridge is firmly on the less-than-friendly side with out-of-sight belays and lots of gaps and boulders to hop across.
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been climbing again (carefully). We want to be as safe as possible so sensible route and crag choices has been important. It’s so nice to get away from this new normality and forget about what has been going on for a short while. It’s not about pushing grades – it’s about spending time outdoors doing things we love.
A video from our day at Harborough rocks
We’d love to know where everybody else has been climbing or having adventures now some of the restrictions have been lifted!
We don’t think winter heatwaves are a good sign for our planet, but nevertheless, when the weather is right, you have to make the most of it. When the warmer weather hit, we headed to the peaks for some classic grit climbing at Stanage Edge (video at the end of this post).
We working towards being better and bolder trad climbers and more often than not it’s a real head game. Trad climbing or ‘traditional climbing’ is a style that involves placing your own gear and protection in the rock face. There’s no fixed protection or bolts so you have to wedge small pieces in cracks in the rock, thread ‘slings’ through holes and try not to fall off!
Usually in climbing, the grades are only down to how difficult a route is, but in trad climbing, how well a route is protected is factored in too. Up until now, the routes we have been climbing have been low or ungraded on the technical side and up to HVD (hard very difficult). This means the climbs are usually straightforward and well protected. Our aim has been to move up to the next grade and beyond which is Severe (S), Hard Severe (HS), Hard Very Severe (HVS).
At the end of last season we’d just managed to creep up to Severe on Limestone in Symonds yat. The rock type affects the style of climbing and on limestone there are lots of pockets, crimpy edges and polished footholds. A month or so later and we headed to the peak district for some gritstone climbing. Grit is characterised by very grippy but slopey holds, large cracks that require ‘jamming’ and sparse protection. We decided to take it easy and stick to HVD or lower while we got ourselves used to grit again.
Come end of Feb, the heatwave happened and we drove to the crag to make the most of it. Joined by our friend Anita, we picked a bit of wall from the distance and picked something to climb, well, Anita did and she chose a Severe to start with (Wild west wind). We were arguing about who should lead it and in the end, it looked like Lauren’s sort of climb so she went for it and it was ok but the first half was completely unprotected. This is where the headgame comes in. The technical grade was 4a and what would usually be a warm up with the safety of a rope, but without it, it feels a lot different.
John led a route of the same grade with an awkward bulge and struggled to find the awkward cam placement early on the route. Lauren was pleased John led that one as she had to take a rest when seconding it!
So, it’s early in the year and were on the severes already. Looking forward to more climbs!
Back at the end of October, we visited Bear Grylls adventure in Birmingham. It was a seriously busy day jam packed with activities…so much so, we barely had time to film anything. Instead, we went on highropes, did survival mazes, obstacle courses, archery and snorkelling.
We were supposed to go scuba diving, but because of John’s hearing aids, we need a note from the doctor first – watch this space!
The great thing about this place is that on the whole, they were really up for letting John do everything without a second thought or with some extra thought into how to adapt things slightly. The managers looked after Daisy (the guide dog) when we were on activities and apart from scuba diving (which needs a medical for the ears rather than eyes) we did everything.
Looking forward to going back.
A few weeks back we hit the grit up at Stanage and did a few easy climbs. It was great to be joined by Anita for a couple of hours too!
The plan was to get ourselves used to being on Grit again. It’s a completely different ball game to limestone. The holds are small, but grippy and you have to trust your feet a lot. Big run outs towards the tops are the norm but it’s fun!
Here’s the video:
And here are some pics:
We’ve not long launched our social pages but we’ve been up to quite a bit the last few weeks. Here’s all of it in a single blog!
Our first proper little adventure was one leg of a 1000 mile journey around the UK’s waterways on a waterbike to raise awareness of litter and plastic. We rode 10 miles from Birmingham city centre to Majors green and took it in turns to pedal. When John was riding, he had to have directions from Lauren which weren’t always perfect!
The next big thing we did together was take a trip to Symonds Yat. A limestone climbing venue in the Wye Valley. We had a real laugh on this one and had a few epics too (what time does the carpark close?). Best just to watch this one..
Our next little venture out was to the Peak District for a first aid course run by Al over at Gritstone adventures. John needed his for his CWI assessment and Lauren’s was due to expire. We’d spoken on the phone to Al about John being blind and we weren’t totally sure how it would go before we got there but it actually went incredibly well.
Apart from occasionally kicking the casualty (or body as John sometimes called them!) his first aid skills were top class. Al did a great job of providing some plain text documents with the important information so John’s iPhone could read it fine. Lauren sometimes had to describe things but on the whole we think blind people have the potential to make great first aiders!
Here’s a video from our celebratory trip up Mam Tor!
The last thing to catch up on was our visit to the Petzl UK Gri Gri tour at Redpoint Birmingham. We had a good chat about belaying and then tried out soft catches. Climbers..head to a tour date if you can!
