Lazy Summer Days

The trip list said Peaks Limestone so we headed up to Froggatt to do some grit climbing, who believes the trip list anyway? Froggatt is in my opinion the best gritstone crag in Derbyshire, full of nice routes with just the right amount of difficulty. We arrived about midday , made the usual wrong turning on the way to the crag and did the usual stumble through the under growth to reach the bottom of the climbs. Both Steve Harris and I where looking for some nice easy climbs to sort out our various "head" problems, Steve's caused by a run of bad luck and mine stemming from seeing Dave take a dive at the Dewarstone. Angela on the other hand fancied a nice weekend away and Flo's mind was probably filled with thoughts of food.

We started on Grey Slab, a nice straight forward climb with cracks that swallowed protection and held on to it for dear life, nothing hard just a pad up perfect grit and a little thought about surmounting the finial wide crack. After a spot of lunch we did my favourite climb of the crag, Allan's Slab, with its long traverse on small but solid holds, and then onto Stickle buttress, yet another climb that I'd never noticed before. And so the day went on with Steve and I picking out the easier climbs. We ended the day on Green Gut a demanding crack which forced you to find every hold.

All day we had been expecting Sarah, Laura and Trevor to arrive and finally at 8:00pm they arrived. Steve and I went to find a campsite leaving the others to make the best of the perfect weather with a little bit of evening bouldering. It was then that we found that Derbyshire was full! The only nearby campsite that had places was the Eric Bryne light weight campsite which was a very long walk from the car (no cars are allowed on the site). After many trips to the car we set up camp at dusk. Laura, Sarah's three year old, had a wail of a time running in and out of our four Wendy Houses whilst we ate our meals and planned the next day.

The plans we made where not to be. On Sunday in true Derbyshire fashion we had showers followed by rain and then drizzle. There was only one thing for it, retail therapy. We wandered off to outside to watch Trev select a new pair of boots for his up and coming Alps trip. After two hours the novelty of this experience had worn very thin. The rain had dwindled to light drizzle so Angela, Steve and I we for a walk. Needless to say we got very wet and gently steamed all the way home.

Pete