Woman's Hour on Radio4 had a package about women and climbing on Tuesday. Llisten to programme, 10 minute segment. The segment starts with some interviews at the Castle of women climbers and then there is an interview with Gwen Moffat, who was the first female British mountain guide, and Anne Arran, who was UK climbing champion a few years ago. They make interesting points about the role of women in climbing, the main being that it is more or less an equal sport now, many woman can climb as hard as men and often do it with more finesse. The sport has also changed radically since Gwen started climbing in the 1940s. She has written a book, Space Below My Feet, which collects her experiences from the earlier days of climbing.
climbing: August 2003 Archives
Regular readers will know that I like to hike and climb. One book I have found essential in these endeavours is a decent book on stretching. My favourite book is Bob Anderson's book, Stretching which has been released in a 20th anniversary revised edition. It is only 9 quid and a bargain.
Clearly written and explained with simple line drawings, he explains how to do each stretch and what you should feel. He covers about 15 sports in the first edition I have, the newer version should cover more.
If you go to the gym, hike, run climb or bike then buying this is a great idea. I've recommended it to several people and they all like it.
Short review of North Lees campsite.
North Lees Campsite:
Detail map from streetmap and overview including route from Chesterfield, nr J29 on M1
Phone number: 01433 650838
This is the nearest campsite to Stanage Edge, as you can see from the maps above, it is literally a 15 minute walk to the cliff.
The campsite is really quite nice and a great base for climbing on Gritstone (the rockfax book).
The picture above is of the main shower and washing block. It has one shower and three toilets and sinks for both men and women, but the shower is excellent, better than many in some hotels I've been in. Also it is free with hot water on demand. There are two big deep sinks for doing the washing up in too.
The site is clean and well looked after, with platforms made from pallets for cooking on, to avoid scorching the grass. The ground is nice and soft, so easy to get tent pegs into, though the site gently slopes as in the picture above. There is parking for about 30 odd cars and there are three main areas for picthing your tent in, most of them are not beside your car. The main area behind the block is probably the best, disabled access information.
The site is run by the Peak District National Park and they have specified a good maximum number level of around 60 pitches, which means even when full the place is quite spacious and pretty quiet. They also have a small family of quite cute black cats who get a lot of fussing.
It is not too expensive at 2 pounds for a car and 4 pounds for an adult. Highly recommended for a place to stay whilst climbing.
I like mountains, you might have noticed. However to get to real mountains I usually need to fly, this is not very good for the environment and is heavily implicated in global warming, there is a good comment section on climate change, on the guardian website.
The Alps are falling to bits around Mont Blanc and on the Matterhorn, everything is falling. Most of the classic snow and rock routes are unclimbable. See this thread on the uk climbing alpine forum, it has been written by someone who is in Chamonix at the minute.
So am I destroying the environment by flying too much. I like cheap airfares as much as the next person, but will these quick weekends in France destroy some of what I travel for? Can flying be made more accountable in terms of the pollution it creates or will it always be a protected industry because of the benfits of tourism to the country. No country is going to impose high taxes on aviation fuel first, as they will loose out immediately. Though flying is not the main contributor at less than 5 percent, it is the fastest growing one. Recent reports have also said that even cutting green house gas emissions to the levels specified in the Kyoto treaty might not make any real impact, not that the USA or Australia even agreed to those minimal reductions.
I try to save electricity when ever I can, I recycle and use public transport, but it all seems small beer in comparision. Global warming as a weapon of mass destruction, perhaps this does not over state the case.
Neil Gresham on hard climbing from last weekend's Observer. He is interviewed on how to climb at the hardest level in the UK. In a very short article he talks about the psychological aspect to it, thinking you will climb the route and also talks about the physical aspects of it too. Interesting to see climbing getting reasonably high billing in the sports world.
