Lakes Climber

17/06/2026

Sea cliff shenanigans - a quick trip to Gogarth with fellow MCI Esther Foster Climbing. Lovely chilled couple of days swapping stories about work and play. Highlights included:

⭐️ not dropping anything, or anyone, into the sea!
⭐️ a double abseil into a committing route… and then climbing the wrong crack 😅
⭐️ trying hard on the wrong crack and flying off, luckily after I’d placed a few good cams 🪽
⭐️ doing some jamming… (more practice needed)
⭐️ sunny belays above the sea watching gannets and razorbills swoop past
⭐️ finding out I can hold on for a very long time on steep rock (apologies to my belayer 😆)
⭐️ and a masterclass in onsighting hard routes by Esther on Run Fast, Run Free (then managing to follow her with some semblance of style 🤩)

07/06/2026

Brightening skies - ‘Headgame’ was the theme for the third of this summer’s Women+ outdoor days

Six wonderful women trusted us to push them to the edge of their comfort zone, armed with tactics to manage the various challenges that rock climbing throws at us…

We deployed:
➡️ mental tactics
➡️ trad admin
➡️ movement skills
➡️ gear tips
to stay in control and manage the myriad of decisions that need to be made when trad climbing

Faced with steep routes on damp rock, there were a few nervous faces at the start of day… but we ended with dry rock and smiles all round as everyone surpassed their expectations 👏☀️🧗

Thank you to Kendal Wall for subsidising opportunities for underrepresented groups to access the wonderful world of trad climbing 🙏

01/06/2026

Back to school - wow, what a great half term! Lovely to see the crags busy with trad climbers, and to bump into friends old and new. It was a real pleasure to spend time with so many different people:

⭐️ took 14 people rock climbing
⭐️ 8 new rock climbers!
⭐️ 5 returning clients 😀
⭐️ 6 different crags
⭐️ 27 different routes climbed
⭐️ over 60 pitches of climbing!
⭐️ a mix of instructing, coaching, and simply taking people climbing 🧗

Plus a route ticked off my personal tick list ✅ and two new routes with the Langdale boys after work one evening ✅✅

Back to normal service today ☔️

31/05/2026

30/05/2026

New rock climbers! Jack and Isla climb at their local bouldering wall but this was their first time on rock 🧗

Lovely to see them puzzling out the moves on routes that were initially declared ‘impossible’ 🥺… only for them to be doing laps on them by the end of the day 😎

Moves were dialled, footholds memorised, and they looked very chilled on new challenges like blank slabs and steep cracks - all safely belayed by mum and dad

Days like this - where I get the chance to share my love of climbing with whole families - are a real treat. Thank you all for great company, lots of laughs, some fantastic perseverance, excellent climbing, and tasty snacks 😁

27/05/2026

Family fun - booked months ago, Zeb and Alex struck lucky with the half term weather for their day of rock climbing ☀️

They scampered and squirmed up chimneys, walls, arêtes and overhangs at Head End quarry 🧗

We escaped to the shade for lunch, and a review of recent orienteering exploits (bonus activity 🧭), then I set them loose with a selection of my nuts and cams so they could have a go at placing gear - they were naturals.

Well done for some great climbing and thank you to trusty belayers James and Bob!

24/05/2026

A few good days - a bank holiday and a sunny forecast meant it was time to seek out some quieter crags… 🤫

On Friday, .tordoff smashed it up a couple of excellent VS’s at Little How Crag (highly recommend), rewarding ourselves with ice cream on the way home 🍦

On Saturday, Alex, Peter and I headed to Brantrake (along with several other folk seeking a quiet crag 😆) to test our footwork on the steep granite slabs. Lovely friendly atmosphere and great to see folk pushing their grade 👏 Thanks for the photos !

Sunday it was time to head west for some sunny rock ☀️ A spot of leading, abseiling, bouldering…and lots of fun routes on perfect rock in a perfect setting 😎

Looking forward to lots more sunny rock in the coming week 🧗

18/05/2026

Traditional climbing - thank you to the wonderful women who joined me for the second of this *summer’s women+ outdoor trad days this weekend

*it does not appear to be summer yet

We embraced the challenge of tackling routes which involve techniques that you do not usually find in the climbing wall! Knees, elbows, and arses we deployed to excellent effect, as well as our usual elegant footwork and stylish weight transfer techniques 🧗

We also enjoyed sampling the dark art of interpreting guidebook photos and deciphering the hidden meaning behind phrases such as “…gain the ledge by an awkward or dynamic move”!!

Thank you Mel for coordinating, and everyone for your enthusiasm for rock climbing in non-optimum conditions. I was blown away at your tenacity and your ability to scurry up routes despite numb fingers and questionable friction as the rain set in… 👏

Really excited for the final day looking at how to improve our ‘headgame’ when trad climbing 🧠

11/05/2026

Wild West - snatching a short trip to north-west Scotland for some personal climbing on the beautiful rock of Ardnamurchan, Torridon and Gairloch

May is a wonderful time to climb in Scotland, with long days and no midges. The weather was not optimal this year - windy and showery - but luckily the rock dries fast! Delighted to sneak in some mega-classic routes between squalls and gusts, including:

✅ Return of the Jedi
✅ The Pillar
✅ The Bug
✅ Buena Vista

Breathtaking views and wildlife, and more rock than I will ever manage to climb in a lifetime. Scotland - I will be back…

Thank you to Duncan and Josh for great company on our mini adventure. Enjoy the photos, right to the end!!

Photos:
1: greetings from Ardnamurchan
2: high on Up Pompeii
3: high on Return of the Jedi
4: Josh enjoying gabbro slabs
5: Duncan on Volcane
6: Etna - “…hard for the short”
7-11: Ardnamurchan
12: Josh on Route Two, Diabeg
13-14: Diabeg tree and bay
15: Josh on The Bug
16: Loch Tollaidh crags
17: the team on Corran ferry
18: game over!

03/05/2026

Psyched students - fantastic weekend with Tessa and Ellen from on the uni club’s Women+ Multipitch Weekend

From sunshine on Shepherd’s to soggier conditions on Corvus… we covered a host of skills to stay safe when climbing in the mountains:

✅ multipitch ropework
✅ climbing as a three
✅ belay changeovers
✅ route finding
✅ abseiling
✅ basic self-rescue
✅ mountain navigation

Plus the important skills of snacking on belay ledges, and all of us occasionally deploying a tactical ‘alpine knee’

Thank you for the opportunity to work with such a wonderful bunch of students again. Great to see uni clubs thriving and valuing opportunities to pass skills onto the next generation of climbers and mountaineers