Yesterday, halfway through my morning coffee, I realized I had the day free, looked at the weather forecasts, thought fuck it, printed out a sheaf of timetables and maps from the internet, ran out of the house and got on a train to Sheffield.
Several hours (and a bus ride and a walk) later, I was at Burbage South Boulders, climbing on gritstone for the first time in my life. It was one of the better days I've ever had in my life.
I think by pure luck I got perfect gritstone weather, cold and frosty and dry, and people are not kidding when they say the rock becomes like Velcro. It's completely different from anything I've ever climbed on before; it tends not to have holds as such, but you hold onto the rock and it's like it grips you back.
I fell in with some local boulderers and got use of their mat and their sage advice on gritstone footwork, and my mind is suitably expanded.
And the light across the valley and the moorlands turned everything gold. The colours in that vid are not a lie. Good god, it's an extraordinary piece of landscape.
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branchandroot
SO MUCH GLEE
Date: 2011-01-28 09:41 am (UTC)Several hours (and a bus ride and a walk) later, I was at Burbage South Boulders, climbing on gritstone for the first time in my life. It was one of the better days I've ever had in my life.
I think by pure luck I got perfect gritstone weather, cold and frosty and dry, and people are not kidding when they say the rock becomes like Velcro. It's completely different from anything I've ever climbed on before; it tends not to have holds as such, but you hold onto the rock and it's like it grips you back.
I fell in with some local boulderers and got use of their mat and their sage advice on gritstone footwork, and my mind is suitably expanded.
And the light across the valley and the moorlands turned everything gold. The colours in that vid are not a lie. Good god, it's an extraordinary piece of landscape.