Tag: PeakDistrict

Stanage VS Challenge

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Attempted on 18th May 2024

A little background, the VS challenge is a climbing challenge of 36 VS routes from one side of Stanage to the other, about 4km long. The 36 routes are all from the 1989 Stanage guidebook. My friend and me are both around E2 climbers, my friend had done most of the VS’s before which proved a massive bonus. I on the other hand had done bout 8 of the routes before! Should have recce’d more!

We started climbing at about 7:30 at the far North of Stanange. We had a small rack of cams, wires, and 4 quickdraws. Worked out well. We started out wearing crack gloves and had them on all day, life-saving shit right there! The first climb was Crab Crawl Arete, an easy start.

In the end, we managed to do 31, ran out of daylight, plus energy, strength, and the will to live! I like the sunshine, but not when you’re trying to do a challenge.

The climbs we got done

  • Crab Crawl Arete – Easy climbing
  • First Sister – Easy CLimbing
  • Cosmic Crack – Easy Climbing
  • Inaccessible Crack – Easy climbing and very nice
  • High Neb Buttress – Easy climbing and very nice
  • Titanic – Easy climbing and very nice
  • Central Buttress – Easy Climbing
  • Counts Crack – This is a very nice crack climb, worth doing
  • Fern Crack – This was bird banned, replaced with Sauls Arete
  • Wall End Slab – This was bird banned, replaced with Wall End Flake Crack, lovely climb
  • Fairy Steps – Easy Climbing
  • Seesaw – Easy Climbing
  • Valhalla – Easy climbing and very nice
  • Pegasus Wall – Easy climbing and very nice
  • Paradise Wall – Easy climbing and very nice
  • Wall Buttres – This is a HVS, it’s easy when you know how, but awkward!
  • Cleft Wing – Go practice this one, just powerful moves!
  • Cleft Wing Super Direct – Go practice this one, just powerful moves!
  • The Punk – This is a lovely hand traverse
  • The Nose – Lovely strange VS climbing, every hold is a jug
  • Step-ladder Crack – Worth a practice, knowing the moves makes this easy
  • Hell Crack – Its fucking hell, not much else to say
  • The Louisiana Rib – Classic Stanage climbing, very nice
  • Mississippi Buttress Direct – Again, a great classic
  • Via Roof Route – This is a bit brutal for a VS challenge, thrutchy
  • Twin Chimmneys Buttress – Nice climbing
  • Robin Hoods Cave Innominate – one move at the bottom, the rest is lovely
  • Rubber Band – Nice traverse
  • Ellis’s Eliminate – Always a nice climb
  • Inverted V – Good climbing, easy
  • Narrow Buttress – Good climbing, easy

We only had 5 easy ones left, Hargreaves Original, Centarl Trinity, Via Media, Gargoyle Buttress, and Heather Wall.

I’m not sure what we could have changed, start climbing earlier for sure, hope that it’s cloudy. But just saving 2-4 mins on each climb is an extra 1-2 hours. Me knowing more of the routes instead of on-sighting would have helped. It meant I was trying to read the route before the climb and on the climb, takes longer.

Good day out though, definitely worth a go, and 31 climbs in a day from one side of Stanage to the other is still a big day without completing the challenge. I’ll have another crack next year.

If anyone is fancying a go, reccy the routes and the downclimbs back to the routes, you’ll save time!

January’s training log

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So after a slack Nov/Dec regarding with the run training, i thought i’d better actually start seriously in Jan. Building up the milage and the elevation. My first real event isn’t until June, but they all have quite a bit of elevation in them. So starting in January would give me a good kick on for the rest of the year. I’ve also tried to maintain my strength and conditioning work at the gym (been trying to get at least twice a week), along with still being able to climb a few times a week.

So i’ve started slowly and built up to about 25miles a week. I haven’t started any actual hill training yet, so the elevation for the week is just whats included in the normal runs.

I’m building up slowly as i have the time to do this before any serious races, and because i don’t want to get injured or worn out!

I had a fell race in January, which was the Tigger Tor. It was 16km with around 500m elevation, i recce’d this run twice also as its a non marked course, but you have to hit all the checkpoints. I also changed running clubs from a triathlon club to a fell running club. So i’m now part of the Dark Peak Fell Runners.

So for Feb, i have another fell race on the 8th, this is around 28km, so will be the longest i’ve run for a while! with a few few hills thrown in. I’m hoping to get around 30miles in per week from now on, for most of Feb. I have booked in a winter climbing break from 22nd to 27th Feb, so i’ll use these days as run recovery!

I happy with my progress so far, no aches or pains which is good! Looking forward to see how feb goes. I’ll keep up the strength training of squats, lunges, core etc. And the climbing is amazing for the core work!

run, climbs, adventures update!

An update of the things i’ve done and should have blogged about!

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Been a slack year on the blogging front! Lets start with what didn’t happen.

So i had to drop out of a few races due to injury, which is annoying, but shit happens. I thought it was better to think about the positives of this and not get too annoyed at not being able to run or train. I couldn’t train at all for about a month, from there i had to build up from around 5km onwards!

I completed the Hardmoors 55, which i was super happy at. But i missed the Lakeland Trails 50km and the main race i wanted to do which was the Dales Way Ultra. 86miles from Windermere to Otley.

But the time off enabled me to climb more and have more outdoor adventures in the Lake District, Snowdonia and the Scottish Highlands. I managed to complete about 60 more Wainwrights, a few mountains in Wales and few Munros in Scotland. So a lot more hiking!

I haven’t really started back with the running, i’ve been doing between 10-20miles a week. Which i know is quite a bit, but not enough for what i want to do

Next Years Races are already booked.

  • May the 4th Weekend (2 trail marathons over 2 days)
  • Scafell Sky Race (42km)
  • Lakeland 5 Passes (32miles)
  • Pinnacle Ridge Extreme (28km)
  • Lakes in a Day (80km)
  • Montane Cheviot Goat (88km)

Year of climbing!

So, with being no running i started climbing again. So my year in climbing has been very successful i would say! I managed to get quite a bit of indoor lead climbing and boulder in when the weathers been bad, but i managed to get a fair few days out on the crag’s.

I logged my outdoor climbs on https://www.ukclimbing.com/user/profile.php?id=263397 This lists all the outdoor climbs and scrambles i’ve done. It also lists my best onsight climbs, which currently stand at Indoor Lead 6c+, outdoor Bouldering f6b+ and trad is HVS.

All together its about 55 climbs and a couple of scrambles in 2019. Not bad to say the first time i hit the outdoors was 15th June. I have a couple of winter climbing/mountaineering trips booked in for Feb & March next year.

My targets for next year is to lead a trad E1, i have a few on my wish list, so fingers crossed. And i’m wanting to get an indoor 7a lead. I’m not concentrating too much on the indoor stuff though!

Some pics from climbing on the Crags, some pics are of Philippa Hill, who i said i mention to make famous!

Trips and Training

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After the Hardmoors i had a week off and felt good for it. The first run i did was a steady 10miles down the Pennine Way, taking in Kinder Falls and back. The legs felt good, bit tired towards the end. Last 2 miles was a push but it was downhill and on nice flagged moors.

From there i had a trip into the Lake District planned. This was part of the new Trig Ring unveiling on top of Blencathra. And it was also a chance to meet a few people off of Instagram. So there is a Whatsapps group that is full of people off Instagram that are into the same kind of stuff, hiking, running, climbing, anything outdoors really. On the Whatsapp group everyone plans trips and meet ups, kinda cool. Using social media to actually be social!

So my plan for the Lakes was get up there early Saturday morning. Go for a 20km run in the fells, then a spot of bouldering. Sleep in the YHA then on Sunday meet up and head up Blencathra.

The run was pretty good. Started just outside Keswick, up Walla Crag onto Bleaberry Fell, High Seat and High Tove. Obviously  bagging a few Wainwrights along the way! The run from Bleaberry Fell, High Seat and High Tove was pretty much a big fest, and made for some slow running and wet legs!

But i got 20km in, with 644m (2178ft) of elevation, in 2hours 30mins. So considering the bogs and wet lumpy ground i was pretty pleased.

The Sunday was all about Blencathra, we headed up to the top around 8:30. With the unveiling happening around 11:00. The planned routes were up Halls Fell Ridge and back down Sharp Edge. These are two awesome routes for scrambling. And i will defiantly be back up in the winter with crampons and ice axe in tow.  If anyone is heading up Blencathra, take in these two routes.

At the top for the unveiling was Stephen Birkinshaw, he wrote the book ‘There is No Map in Hell’ about his running journey taking in all the Wainwrights in 6days and 13hours. He’s still the current record holder, so i took the book up and got him to sign it!

After that i’ve had a couple of local small races, one being the first Trunce Race and the first Spencers Dash. This weekend i also volunteered for the inaugural Pennine Bridleway 57km. I was one of the race sweepers, it was a really nice day and great route. I did about 30 miles of sweeping, but i started getting a twinge in my groin so i got a lift back while the other sweeper, John, carried on the last 5 miles. So in effect i DNF as a sweeper 🙂 The race was along the Pennine Bridleway through the Peak District, mainly along old railway lines, so it was a pretty flat course.

Next up is the Great Lakeland 3 Day event! Beginning of May, bag myself some more Wainwrights! Although i need to get back into a training routine and sort my diet out. They have both been a bit lax recently!