First outdoor climbing of the year: Stanage Plantation

The weather was finally right for an outdoor session in the peaks, and what a beautiful day it was for it. Last year we went out in February but it was bitterly cold and we got snowed on whereas this was such a gorgeous day it was easy to forget that it was still only March.

After a quick Parkrun (new PB, natch) and breakfast at The Pie Parlour Liz, Kelly and I headed out to Stanage Plantation to meet up with Ed and Kelly.  It looked as if everyone in Sheffield had also decided that it was time to hit the peaks and we were worried about finding parking, but as we pulled into the car park​ we saw Kelly who had just arrived and quickly nabbed a spot before a short walk in.

With no major ambitions for the session other than to get used to rock again we headed to the Pebble area and started getting to grips with some nice gentle problems on the back of The Business Boulder which all went fairly easily before Big Business had me defeated as I just had no confidence cranking on the big flakes. It was then on to the Bullworker and then the Crozzle Block, where I started pushing myself a bit more.

The Crozzle Slab (f5) went on-sight, but I had to really work at the Crozzle Wall which was rated at Font 6a+ so I was really pleased when I finally got it sent.  Others in the group had got more, playing at other harder and more well known problems, but I didn't have the confidence for a lot of them as I need to get my rock head on again.

We moved on to Crescent Arête which I chickened out of even trying, instead noodling around some smaller boulders nearby, when suddenly an Andy appeared.  He was running from Sheffield to Fox House and was crossing Stanage when he heard voices he recognised so dropped down to say hello.  He didn't stop long as he didn't want to drop out of the zone, but we did formulate plans to meet him at the pub later.

We were all getting tired now so packed up and walked back to the car park, driving over to the Fox House where we had got drinks in and arranged enough chairs outside when Ceri turned up to collect Andy.  As the sun dropped in the sky the temperature reminded us it was indeed only March and a rather tired looking Andy turned up.  Now huddled in all the warm clothes we nattered and relaxed, heading back to Sheffiewld as darkness fell. All in all a good day's climbing and already looking forward to the next one.

Check out my full log over at my UK Climbing logbook for the day