Pennine Lines w/c 23 October 2023
|| Mild-ish, damp || Take your chances ||
Stanage Plantation, late summer || Climber: Jon Tweedlie
|| Sneak preview ||
Staying Classy
Short email this week folks, far too much socialising going on, and a certain 11yr old's birthday cutting into the writing time, not to mention the weather (I saw a guy in Baslow loading two of every type of animal onto a big boat). So I will just offer up a sneak preview of something coming up soon.
As we now get into the damp claggy days of the arse end of the year, clocks about to go back, when even the ‘quick drying’ grit venues can dry slowly, this signals the start of what I refer to as Silly Season. Because if you head out on a marginal day between now and, say, April, you are almost guaranteed to find someone trying a damp problem or caking a wet problem in chalk in a desperate attempt to render something climbable. This is seemingly done in complete ignorance of the fact it can lead to irreversible damage to gritstone and sandstone in particular (and FWIW limestone is not immune to damage when wet).
With this in mind, and a broader agenda of just raising the general bar on responsible bouldering and use of outdoor spaces for those new to climbing outside, a little project has been ticking over in the background involving the folks at the Depot and myself. No detailed spoilers at this stage but hopefully it will increase the visibility of a few issues, including but not limited to wet rock, and stimulate a bit of discussion in general on good practice when out and about. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here in terms of the knowledgeable climbing cognoscenti like your good selves who’ve opted to receive this weekly email, but nevertheless keep your eyes on the Depot’s social media channels over the next few weeks. All shares, comments, retweets (are these still a thing?) or whatever you wanna do to help spread the word when this thing is out will be greatly appreciated. It's all well and good us doing something like this but without a bit of wider support and reinforcement from the don't-climb-on-wet-grit community (and it IS a community) it won't come to much, so we're relying on you guys and gals to do a bit of the legwork on this too!
Brushing off chalk || Climber: Flo Brailsford
I will say that since climbers increasingly get into the ‘sport’ (it isn’t a sport obvs) via indoor walls rather than through a sort of casual apprenticeship via peers/friends/family, logically a large part of the moral imperative to ensure climbers are equipped to climb outside responsibly should fall onto indoor walls. And in fact even onto brands and companies who also make money off climbing and growth in participation. It’s also no surprise that most brands associated with climbing do next to nothing to actually take this kind of responsibility on, so it’s great that the Depot are willing to step up and get involved to try and spread a bit of good practice in what is otherwise an industry-wide silence at present. Hopefully this might kick a few other brands into gear and with a bit of luck try and make sure we’re all just thinking a bit more about looking after our crags, routes, and boulder problems.
Marsha Balaeva bossing the video situation || Stanage
|| SUPPORTED BY ||
|| Recently Through the lens ||
Nearly there on the gritstone conditions front, a White Edge stag looking fine in the mist, and one of the most iconic pairs of carved holds on grit - something I'll maybe dig into deeper in a future email.
|| Fresh Prints ||
Very much indoor climbing weather as I type this, so lets go with a couple of School classics from the Print Shop this week.
