By: Ali

14/10/2011

Work begins to get the first ever ICMC three minibus trip going in the morning with Joel, Kip, Murray and others completing an epic food shop. By around 4pm minibuses are in position outside Beit apart from bus 3 which turns out to be lacking a roof rack. Cue a quick cycling mission for Ali & Dan to go get a new bus from Charing Cross. Well, the cycling part was quick anyway. On the upside, by the time they make it back, the other buses are loaded and soon 3 buses and a car are heading north before 7pm, go efficiency!

After the usual arguments about routes out of London and phonecalls en-route to try and determine who’s “winning”, all the buses make it to the hall by 11:30, Ed Stott’s car scoring an unsurprising victory owing to lack of speed limiter. Lisa is picked up from Cromford train station by Ed. Turns out that the key for the hall is not where it’s supposed to be, thankfully access is temporarily gained by other means. The key eventually arrives, beer is drunk, sleeping arrangements are sorted and everyone beds down ready for an early start. There is a minor diplomatic incident when older members discover that the club’s new overlords have removed bacon & sausage from breakfast in the name of austerity. Forget bank bailouts, this is the front line of the recession right here.

15/10/2011

Porridge time comes all too soon. It’s lacking in bacon. Egg is abandoned in the name of efficiency. On the upside, the buses leave in record time owing to lack of the faff of doing a fry-up for 50. Fresher nearly causes a bus-on-bus accident with an outrageous roundabout wrong-lane overtaking manoeuvre. Ali scores a moral victory by not taking the trap turning for Froggatt and getting there first. After a bit of a wait for the third bus, everyone reunites at the crag carpark, including Andy and Lizzie who join us at the crag.

Those wanting to climb routes were quickly split into groups of 3 with one novice climber per. group whilst the boulderers set off to explore. On the bouldering front, Ape Drape (6c+) and Jet Pack (7b / Tom Coyne 6c+) saw many ascents and quite a few new climbers discovered the joys of Tody’s playground.

On the trad front Tody’s wall (HVS 5a) sees lots of action with Lizzie, Ben, Joe and Murray all leading it. Great effort from Lizzie & Joe in particular as it’s a tricky one for shorter climbers! It was also Joe’s first HVS! Ali remembered how to place gear again eventually on a shaky ascent of the brilliant Brightside (E2 5c). Ben and Tom went on to make short work of Valkyrie (HVS 5a), Three Pebble Slab (E1 5a) & The Big Crack (E2 5b), surely the hardest trad climbed by Freshers on a Freshers’ trip!

Meanwhile, the new climbers were getting a feel for climbing on grit and gear placement by seconding older members. After some teaching in how to place gear, lots of first leads were done with Gamma (VDiff), Slab Recess (Diff), Trapeze (VDiff) and many others all seeing plenty of attention. I didn’t get to see everyone who did their first leads but well played to Jack and Joel who I did see lead for the first time. Great to see so many people taking their first steps into the world of trad climbing and loving every minute.

Meanwhile, most of the boulderers headed along to Curbar to sample the classic delights of the Trackside boulder & the Guerrilla Warfare block. Not sure what got done but everyone was pretty tired by this point. Finally, Tom & Ali managed to scrape a couple of pads together for a ground-up solo of Oedipus Ring Your Mother (E4 6a). After a few test-jumps from higher and higher followed by a prompt schooling by a local, both were successful. Respect goes to Tom for dynoing the penultimate move with feet probably 6 meters from the deck. Ali lanked it but then got his comeuppance taking a pretty massive fall onto the pads whilst down-climbing back down the route! As the sun went down, there was a bit more action on Three Pebble Slab (E1 5a). Johan had a successful lead after a little trepidation, sadly Ruth (kicked her gear out) and Lisa (soloing!) were not so successful and ended up being thrown top-ropes.

Back at the hut the evening’s fun and games began (Fresher making an essential beer refuelling run on the way home). Ruth overcame intoxication in order to rig up the sock game which proved to be a big hit as usual. As usual, there were no real winners thanks to the winner stays on format but suffice to say almost everyone tasted the sweet bag wine of failure at some point that night. Murray then decided to try out bouldering mat sumo which turned out to be entertaining hazardous.

Murray promptly proves this statement by injuring his finger during the game. Chilli eventually arrives (no small task for 50) and is enjoyed by all. Sam turns up at around midnight from York!

16/10/2011

Day breaks and it’s time for Stanage, the biggest crag in the Peak District. There’s egg and porridge for breakfast this time but thankfully not at the same time. Everyone packs up and cleans the hall surprisingly quickly and we’re underway in no time. On the drive, fog around the edge causes alarm but thankfully upon arrival, the crag is dry. Lots of people bouldering this time, everyone enjoying the quality across all the grades that Stanage Plantation offers. Green traverse (7a) sees lots of attention as usual. It also sees a lot of frustrating falls right from the end as ever! A big group gets stuck into the terrifying delights of Crescent Arete (5+ but HIGH!) with Tom, Ali, Lisa and Dave all topping out with only minor psychological scarring!

Continuing the highball theme the tall Not To Be Taken Away (6c) is up next with Tom, Cheehan & Ali all topping it out. Cheehan goes on to have a very good day indeed ticking Brad Pitt (7c), Captain Hook (7b) and Zippy’s Traverse (7a+). In fact most boulders in the plantation have an in-situ ICMC group on them with everyone seeming to have a good time.

Amongst those trad climbing, Joe manages to have a particularly good day with ascents of the classic Goliath’s Groove (HVS 5a) and Millsom’s Minion (E1 5b – Joe’s first E1). After the success of his first lead at Froggatt, Jack has less luck on a VDiff at Stanage when he discovers that the finish of the route is through a hole smaller than he is! Johan does a good looking E1 (can’t remember the name, sorry) and Fresher gets stuck in some horrible wide cracks like usual.

After the traditional benightment (finishing climbing in the dark) courtesy of Luca & Tristan it’s time to begin the long journey home. Even longer for Sam who is dropped off to get a train back to North Wales – mental! After a couple of hours (and one navigator who seems REALLY keen to go to Derby rather than the M1) the busses arrive in Loughbrough for the traditional pizza stop. Many Meat Junctions are consumed and drivers are topped up on caffeine. Sometime around 1am the buses return to Beit Quad, gear goes back in stores and everyone heads home, tired but hopefully as happy as I was!

Thanks to everyone who came on the trip for making it one of the best we’ve had. Thanks to the photographers (Pedro, Ed, Jeffrey & Murray) for all the great pictures. Finally, big thanks to all of the committee who selflessly give up a lot of their time to make trips like this possible.

I hope to see all of you soon on another of our trips!