Climbing!

A Climbing Update!

Now that the weather is brightening up a little, and the temperature is reaching a point where you can feel your fingers again, the keen climbing constituent of UBES are donning their harnesses and getting a lot more climbing done outside!

A well-attended Ropes Skills session in the Union hopefully cleared up some of the more technical aspects of climbing. Some abstract horizontal climbing, roaming cracks in the rock and knot-tying practise was all in preparation for the Peak District climbing the following weekend. You could say we were dealing with the nitty-gritty skills before going out to hit the grit.

The number of UBESters who are choosing to get a little more vertical with their hill walking and scrambling is steadily increasing year to year, with our most recent Peak District Climbing Trip being the biggest climbing trip we’ve run to date. 33 people, ranging from never having climbed outside before to dyno-ing an HVS in ability, all had the opportunity to get climbing outside and push their own personal limits. A particular big shout out to all those who got in their first trad lead!

A happy UBESter in the Peak District! Jono displays colour-coordinated chiq: make sure your belay jacket always matches the rope. (Photo credit: Laurence Falconer)

More climbers means more equipment, and we’ve recently invested in some more gear so that we can cater to the fantastic enth-ubes-iasm for all things outdoorsy. Thanks to the Union Group Grant, we’ve been able to buy 10 more harnesses. This helps out a great deal at our weekly indoor sessions at Redpoint Climbing Centre, not to mention our huge Peaks Trip wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Some gnarly moves made by Ben Caley (left) and Laurence Falconer (right), harnessing their climbing power! (Photo credit: Laurence Falconer)

A fabulous Ceilidh organised by team Emily not only brought out some questionable dancing and tasteful tartan but also raised enough to money for UBES to have been able to buy 10 new helmets, another essential piece of kit for any climber. We hope to keep investing!

‘Orange you glad we bought some helmets?’- UBES in the Peaks modelling the new helmets (Photo credit: Thomas Eldridge)

The term ‘UBES Power Couple’ springs to mind when climbing with Tom Eldridge and Thom Jenkinson. With these two, bickering like an old married couple and fierce competitive aggression seem to go hand in hand. Tom, usually seen in rasta sunglasses and a snap-back hat, compliments Thom, usually spotted in multi-coloured lyrca. (On a side note, the more outrageous your leggings, the harder you climb. Fact.) This techni-colour team have managed an extremely impressive E2 down in the gorge, climbing Banshee ‘a solid and pumpy crack climb coupled with a delicate and blank mantleshelf’. Go team T(h)om! If you somehow managed to miss their blogpost, you can read it here.

A triumphant Thom at the top of Banshee (Photo credit: Thomas Eldridge)

Sunshine, Mountains and Cloud Inversions!

The Lakes in early February

The Lake District trip earlier this February was one of my favourite UBES trips. We were lucky to have beautiful sunshine all weekend, basically no wind and the not-yet-melted snow from the flurries the week before to play in (a great combo).

Saturday morning’s drive from Thirlmere to Glenridding was spectacular: low morning light and misty fields. From there, a group of us tackled Striding Edge, bumping into another group at the summit of Helvellyn who’d walked up from Thirlmere. Striding Edge was in basically summer conditions, with no ice and patchy snow; we felt a bit silly in our crampons!

We met a woman who reminisced of her student days, when her university hiking club would hire a minibus from their union for £5 for the weekend, fuel included! How times have changed.

Looking down onto Red Tarn from Red Tarn Cove (spot the UBESters!)

…Some things will never change, and we stopped at Red Tarn, after descending via Swirral Edge and a snowy, bum-slidy gully, for an inevitable lake bag. This involved hacking through 4’ thick ice and very little dignity. Luckily, Hugo’s Jetboil restored some warmth to icy limbs.

Alex’s pleasant afternoon dip

In the midst of these naked antics, we spotted Laurence, Ben and Duncan on V-Corner (III) on Red Tarn Cove.

The boiz on V-Corner (III) on Red Tarn Cove

Another group had a brilliant day on Blencathra, via Sharp Edge (involving equally heroic *assisted* (people lowering other people into icy water holes…!) lake bags), and another an ‘awesome’ epic, doing a long loop encompassing Langdale Pikes, Bow Fell and Crinkle Crags.

Team Sharp Edge

On the Sunday, Striding Edge and Sharp Edge were revisited, along with some some lower level walks. It was another beautiful day, with stunning cloud inversions.

What a weekend!

For more photos check out our Flickr page!