Rock Climbing

A (very) potted history of climbing

Rock climbing in this country has been practiced since man first set foot on these soggy isles. As a sport, climbing (as opposed to alpine and winter mountaineering) was really started by gentlemen in mid-victorian times on the great gritsone crag of Almscliff (well, they might have climbed elsewhere like in the lakes or in foreign parts but that doesn't really count). Gents in cloth cap and tweed jacket donned hobnailed boots and crude lengths of woven hessian rope and climbed all the gullies and chimneys they could find. As time passed, newcomers to the sport ventured out onto the faces between the gullies and ribs, pushing standards both technical and pyschological, until today we see hugely talented (and way honed, dude) people slapping and smearing their way up some ridiculously hard and dangerous routes. Watch 'Hard Grit' for an idea of the kind of thing.

Me and climbing

All that aside, I first started climbing properly (as opposed to shinning up trees and scrambling up brick walls) when I came to Uni here in Leeds. I joined the LUU Mountaineering Soc and never looked back. Now I lead HVS/E1, and fall off 6a boulder problems. I've lead several E2s on welsh slate but that's got ridiculously soft touch grades.
Being situated in Leeds I am close to some of the finest crags in the country made of God's Own Rock, Millstone Grit. Almscliff, Caley, and Ilkley are all within public transport distance, and further afield Brimham Rocks, etc all lie within Yorkshire's borders. There's limestone round here as well but I've not climbed on any so don't expect me to tell you what it's like.

Here's a trip report of a trip to stanage, which I also posted to uk.rec.climbing a while ago.

In the Picture Gallery are some photos of myself and others climbing rocks. The probem is that I keep forgetting to take my camera with me, or when I do I forget to take any photos. I recently spent a week climbing in North Wales but neglected to take any film for the camera. D'oh! Hopefully I'll be able to borrow other people's photos to scan in.

If you're interested, the links page has links to many climby-type web stuff. Also I read and occasionally post on the newsgroup uk.rec.climbing which is entertaining.

If you want to take up climbing then your best bet is to buy a climbing magazine (in the UK, 'Climber', 'High', or 'On The Edge' are all good) and look in the back for a club or climbing wall near you where you should be able to find someone who'll show you the ropes as it were. Please bear in mind that climbing is a dangerous sport and participating in it could lead to injury or even death. So be careful. You hear?
Have fun out there.

Last update: 3/7/99