Rock Climbing

Rock climbing has been a passion for quite a few years now. For the first few years I climbed extensively in England and Wales and in more recent years, I have climbed on the continent including many less frequented crags in Norway and Sweden as well as often returning to climb in Britain. I regularly lead groups on single pitch crags, including groups from local schools. I also run trips for Hjerm Climbing Club (Hjerm Klatreklub) and instruct on the climbing wall. If you are interested in getting started climbing and would like tuition, a climbing wall course, or an introduction to rock climbing, see the Courses section. For more information about the climbing club, see below. This page provides a brief history of my rock climbing background and there is a link to a page describing several rock climbing venues along the west coast of Sweden. The first crag I climbed at was Twistleton Scar near Ingleton in Yorkshire. Polished limestone and Yorkshire grading are not the most comforting when you are new to climbing. My second day out climbing was at Dow crag above Coniston in the Lake District. Dow is a large multipitch crag where the exposure is increased by the fact that the crag stands over a long scree slope down to Goats Water some 100 vertical meters below. Luckily I was not leading, somebody experienced was. My first lead was Pocket Wall, VDiff, at Hobson Moor quarry on the eastern outskirts of Manchester. This was in the days of climbing with the SUMC. Looking through my logbook, we climbed nearly every weekend at a different crags in NW England, in the Peak District, in Yorkshire, Cornwall and in North Wales.

Left: Early days with SUMC. This is at Ravenstones Edge in the Chew Valley. If I remember rightly there is Sam Bixby bottom centre smiling as he always did, Kane Martin with the yellow pants (I don't think he had any taste at all), Matt Smollet centre, Little Rich (Rich Rayner) in the black top behind and Dave Parkin reading the guidebook.

Right: My friend Steve Golley, who got me started climbing after I got to know him while studying together at university, climbing Phantom Zone E6 6b (F7c) at Chapel Head in the Lake District. This is a limestone crag with an excellent selection of bolted routes. Below: Steve, cleverly disguised, while attempting to do some bouldering in the Lakes. This is at the Langdale Boulders in the Langdale Valley - raining as it does in the Lakes, roughly 200 days a year.

Left, training on the climbing wall at my local club not far from where I live in Denmark. Click here to see more information about the wall and club and also to see my climbing wall project - a must for anybody who is interested in building a wall at home.

Left: Leading Gunnars Skräck at Fjällbo in Gothenburg, Sweden. Click here for pictures from crags along the west coast of Sweden. Right: Placing wires textbook style at Slipstones Edge in Northumberland, England

Above: Trowbarrow quarry in Lancashire, northern England. The obvious smooth wall in the centre is the 30m high Main Wall. Jean Jeanie VS 4c *** runs up the centre of this wall. The limestone quarry has 113 routes, the first of which was climbed in 1967.

Left: On Vita Lögner, 7-, at Klövaberget near Halmstad in Sweden. This excellent 20m route gets very pumpy near the top with all the holds sloping the wrong way.

Below, two pictures from Setesdalen in southern Norway. David (pictured) and I visited the area in the Autumn of 98. We camped near the town of Valle and climbed or walked in the area. Rock climbing here is interesting - very long routes on smooth slabs - as you can see. The wall behind the car is Nomelandsfjellet and is 400m high. The guidebook Setesdal by Hans Weninger is in German but has an English introduction and is reasonably easy to figure out. However, If you don't like friction climbing or like good, regular gear placements, then don't come here. The crag below is Løefjell, about 16km south of Valle.

Right: Climbing at Stanage Edge Northern End during the short days at the end of November. The autumn and winter months are excellent for climbing on gritstone as the cold increases the friction.

Bowles Rocks is one of the most popular sandstone crags in southern England. It is situated between Tunbridge Wells and Crowborough near the A26, south of London. It is one of many sandstone crags formed by the Central Weald belt of rock in this part of the country. Bowles is privately owned by an outdoor centre who keep the grounds in excellent condition and open the crag to the public. The centre charges a small fee for climbing and the crag is only closed on rare occasions. We climbed there on a Monday in late July during our summer holiday. The crag was not particularly busy, which it is at weekends, especially when the weather is good. The climbing is almost exclusively with the use of a top rope to protect the rock from damage. Sandstone is a very soft rock and one should be familiar with local ethics before climbing on sandstone crags. It is good idea to get hold of a guidebook beforehand. There are 146 routes at Bowles, certainly a few visits worth, even if you can climb at the grade required. We climbed about 10 routes during our lazy day in the sun. A local TV crew also turned up to do some filming and quizzed us about climbing for a programme they were working on.

Left: Susse belayed by Matt on Pig's Nose, 5a, and below: Steve watching, with his second, no third, love after climbing (filter coffe) and Kate.

Above, on Scirocco Slab 4b and right, on Netwall, 4a.

Three pictures from a climbing trip to the crags around Kristiansand and Grimstad on the south coast of Norway, luckily for me there is a ferry connection an hours drive from home directly to Kristiansand. The rock is fantastic and most of the routes are bolted although there are the odd trad route which are also excellent. The crags are 8 to 25m high and are mostly south facing in idyllic woods. The guidebook for the area is called Sørlandsfører (see the links page).

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