Today saw Rich, Tim and Alex out on the crags at Birchen Edge in the Peak District for some gritstone climbing.
We arrived at 8:30am in an attempt to beat the crowds and failed miserably! It seems the sun brings everyone out and most of the routes had crag rats already firmly attached!
‘The Promenade’ was available, a 14m Mod, so that was my first lead of the day. Tim followed me up to pull out the gear then went back to the bottom to tie Alex on. Alex managed to put us all to shame and ran up the route in double quick time!
The next route to become free was ‘Porthole Direct’, a 12m VS 4b. Going from Mod to VS was an interesting transition with the initial moves being so easy I thought the grade must be wrong. A bulge towards the top of the route changed the feel from ‘easy’ to ‘I can smell poo’!
The rock at Birchen has good grip in the sun, the routes are interesting but the weekend shows the popularity of the crag. Mid week for the next visit, me thinks!
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