The Roaches started looking interesting when Harry became unable to
drive due to an accident. Lacking a driver we went searching, to no avail. We
planned a test for a member in anticipation of Yorkshire, but with the time
restraints we had we couldn’t get a driver through the test in time for the
Roaches. Thanks must now go to Amy Hare, Amy Mason, David, Jack and Yasmin for
volunteering their cars for the trip. Mason picked up the gear and Jim while
the rest of us congregated at the Charles Wilson ready to pile into the cars.
Jack and Yas followed their own route, using their own navigation methods while
David and Amy went together after ending up on the same route. The motorways
were interesting due to large tailbacks, but the traffic stopped as soon as we
left the motorway and got on the A roads. We met in Leek and travelled convoy
style to the Hut.
We got a nice surprise when we walked in. Mason wasn’t the only old
boy present :D. Lidiya, Talbot and Wiil were also there. I had a nice walk
around the lower tier due to congestion at the door. When I returned people
were still unpacking and settling in so I decided to look at the upper tier.
Amy came with me so I gave her a run-down of some of the famous routes and
showed her the great slab, and the primary tick for me for the weekend; The
Sloth. We returned to a happy drinking group of people. I spent the next hour
or so talking to the old boys about recent happenings before I joined the main
group. Ironically after being ‘anti-social’ for the start of the trip, shortly
after I joined the main group I left with half of them to do some light soloing
around Commander Energy. Boots made this slightly interesting but a few of us
managed to grovel up a HVD chimney. Much fun and jokes were had and were back
inside with no one hurt fairly quickly. With it being Alister’s birthday there
was a fair amount of alcohol flying around and some dirty pints were concocted.
Alister had one, as did Lally who got caught up in the mess when Mason got
confused as to the name people sang (Ali – Lally). Lally however was much more
messed up after a significant amount of gin, but he was looked after well and
slept pretty soundly. The night overall was a little more interesting than a
standard meet, but would not have been out of place on a Christmas trip.
Saturday
The day dawned well, but with a fair covering of snow and a biting
snowy wind that did not look like it was going anywhere. We pottered around
trying to come up with plans and eventually settled on a walk around a nearby
reservoir. Bullock, who had arrived in the morning, offered an indoor trip to
Stockport which had a rather low subscription, and using his old-boy wiles,
managed to persuade me to join him.
The main group had a strange walk, which was changed halfway through
when they encountered a wall where the path should have been. After a few hours
though, they were back at the hut, and trying some top roped routes in the
snow. They all seemed to have fun :D
The Stockport trip went well … 23 meter walls are long. Paired with
frosty I tried various routes and managed to flash a route he fell off, which
was at least a grade harder than marked and then almost lead a 6c on the
massively tall lead wall. We climbed till 6ish before returning to the hut and
the fun and games. After everyone sorted their food we got out the boulder mats
and started trying the kitchen boulder problem. Thanks to Bullock we eventually
started in the correct alcove and were making some progress, despite the damp
rock and a muddy pocket. The crowd diminished over time as we kept falling.
After a while it was just a few of us still trying. Various techniques were
used but to no avail. While some people had got to the pocket, it was just too
wet and muddy to hold. We sacked off the attempts and went back to the living
room. People were already hitting the sack though so the night ended pretty
quickly with most people in bed before 1am … madness.
Sunday
Sunday unfortunately was no better than Saturday, even worse in
fact… It was actually snowing when we woke up. With no good prospects we again
thought up alternatives. Most people opted for an indoor wall on the way home
but a few people went to a pub to watch the rugby match that was on in the
afternoon. The hut was emptied annoyingly slowly but we were out the door and
on our way ‘home’ before 11 which is fairly good in my opinion.
With our wall decided to be Redpoint we made our way to Birmingham.
Most people did a mix of bouldering, top roping and leading, but for some
reason I just bouldered, mostly in the large overhanging cave. I had a good
training session, and hopefully helped several members learn some new
techniques. The trip ended as the wall was shutting, with roly-polys down the
inclined mats. Scarily good fun J. We went
home again without much incident. There may have been a wrong turning around
the M6 but we shall brush that under the covers :P
Despite the weather being more suited to alpine/Scottish climbing,
we still managed to have a good trip and got some climbing done. J Until next time.
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