Portland Adventures

A phone call from the boss, "You've got 2 weeks to talk off before the end of the month or you'll lose the lot".

Right then.. better get planning! I hadn't noticed the amount of holiday I'd starting acquiring over the past year, I'd already had a 2 week trip to El Chorro back in April (thanks to Kate and Wills) and that had set me up nicely for the rest of the year. Still it was a 'use it or lose it' deal, I had no intention of losing it!

A few quick phone calls later.. no one around.. working, too late notice, no cash, no more holiday left.. Gah! Then after seeing my dad the week afterwards on the Welsh trip and complaining/ranting I had no one to go out and play with he valiantly threw himself forward for a sport trip to Portland, success!

I drove down to Sheffield a day after getting back from a sailing trip (that's for another story) and we hid in Yarncliffe Quarry out of the wind, doing a few solos and the odd route. The Causy Quarry of the peak would probably be the fairest description, there is the odd gem though and after completing 'Zapple' I think we got our moneys worth!

We drove down to Portland the next day, got ourselves into a nice camping spot and did some climbing in the later afternoon, around 3pm. I found many of the routes pretty 'tough' but put it down to the travelling and being a bit tired.

The next day was hot and sunny, plenty of climbing got done although it did get too hot at one point - a rarity in England indeed! It was at this point I started to realise the grades down here are not what you would call 'soft'. Warming up on a 6a can have great consequences if you aren't prepared to have the odd 6b+ move thrown in for good measure!

I can say the climbing is fantastic, probably the best limestone sport climbing in Britian, with tufa's, pockets and crimps all in abundance. It is HARD WORK though, I would lower your expectations of what grade you can lead until you get used to the rock. I have to admit, not doing any training before hand was probably a big mistake. I don't think I'd tied onto a rope since El Chorro so I was probably asking for it and at the end of the holiday I got a 6c onsight in so I guess I'd regained some stamina by then. Still, if 6a-b is your usual grade then I'd probably stick to the 6a's or lower until you get used to it!

The last couple of days we had a treat camping outside the YHA and using all the facilities - a great spot which is close to the crags and more importantly pubs...

We drove back and had another rest day, before finishing off on Stanage on another great hot day, which thankfully didn't effect the friction too much, though we did stick to bouldering mostly!