Back on the Trad

This time last week I was at the Bowderstone cranking on it's polished holds in the hope of getting up some of the super steep problems after a day's work in the forest with Go Ape at Whinlatter Forest Park.

Truss Buttress, Gouther Crags.

Since then I've not been out on the rock so today, with a day off from both Go Ape and freelance work, I managed to get an afternoon on Gouther Crags in Swindale.

Hernia (HVS+, 5a) on Gouther Crag's Truss Buttress.

This was my first session of trad climbing in a long while and it was nice to be back on the rock dealing with the complexities of English trad climbing. We only ticked two routes in the session, which was quite good considering we'd sacked the day off as a bad job at 9:30am, but by 11am the weather had picked up so we took the gamble on the crag being dry.

Looking across to the back of Fang Buttress from Truss Buttress.

I'm back at work tomorrow, but I don't start until late in the morning so I'm hoping to get an early morning Bowderstone session in before heading back into the trees for Go Ape.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain