Hamer Brothers Climbing Blog: April 2015

Finally spring has come! Its been a long wait, but yes it is finally here.

It’s been a cracking last month or so out in the Peak District with blue skies, warm sun and dry rock. What more could you ask for! Its been awesome and I managed to pass a little milestone in my climbing yesterday, which was ticking all the '50 Best' Gritstone routes in the East of the Peak district in the Rockfax guide which was also my first guidebook I ever bought. Its a fantastic list of routes of all grades ranging from Diff all the way up to E8 on all the gritstone cliffs in the eastern peak.

I climbed my first one Croton Oil (HVS) up at Rivelin back in 2005 which was also in fact my first trad lead and then over the years tried to tick off the rest of them not knowing how many I can get done. Finally yesterday we did Goliaths groove at Stanage and then shot over to Cratcliffe to do the two pitch Extreme rock tick Requiem (E3). It was an awesome end to the day topping out the final headwall in glorious sunshine over looking the wonderful Peak district feeling really proud to have climbed them all. I've found that having a list such as this is really important and keeps you focussed on your climbing ambitions. So thanks Rockfax!

Other than that, I've been heading west side with a couple of days up at Wimberry and Ravenstones with local boy Mike Hutton showing me around. After a fair amount of cleaning managed some classic lines such as Over the Moors (E5) and True Grit (E3) at Ravenstones, then over at Wimberry: Double take (E6), Wimberry Overhang (E6) and the incredible line of Appointment with Fear (E7). Looking forward to more visits up here!

Also took part in a Boreal photoshoot up in Yorkshire the other day with Jordan, Naiomi and Andi Turner. Showing some of the great climbing shoes that Boreal have got out this year.

Last week I was down in North Wales doing my Mountain Leader (ML) training up in the hills of Snowdonia. Was awesome to be back in such a wild place leaning some news skills for taking people out in the mountains.

Then lastly wrote a Destination article for UKClimbing about the stunning climbing in Waterval Boven that we experienced last summer. Go check it out and get yourself out there for one amazing adventure. http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=7240