On a cold and dark Friday evening 32 aspiring climbers loaded up into cars and mpvs and began the drive up to the Peaks, having confirmed that Joel did indeed have the required experience to drive an mpv. After getting stuck in a solid traffic jam on the M42 everyone made it to the Thorpe Farm Bunkhouses by 11:30pm.
Having got a minimal amount of sleep we woke up on saturday to ideal weather for climbing on the gritstone of the Peaks: very dry and very very cold. Everyone wrapped up warm and headed out to Stanage Edge.
The boulderers of the group spent the day working on a range of different problems including 'Deliverance' (unsuccessfully), 'Green Traverse', and 'Not To Be Taken Away'. At the same time the trad climbers spread out along the ridge and tackled a number of different routes. It was found that some of the most interesting routes involved a tight squeeze through the ridge, including routes 'Devils Chimney', 'Verandah Crack Inside Route', and 'Helfensteins Struggle' (which caused particular problems with Abbie getting stuck for over 40 minutes!). Raffi rounded off his day of trad climbing by attempting a nice and easy V0 bouldering route, proclaimed "oh that top out is actually horrible" and proceeded to jump off, spraining his ankle.
Following the day at the crag everyone got back to the hut and began cooking dinner, which included at one point 5 seperate pans of pasta on the boil at once. Early in the evening a small group went for the traditional Saturday night run, going out to the stepping stones (which Harry found quite difficult, ending up in the river), and after a small loop ending up back on the stepping stones due to a slight navigation error by James. With the run over everone gathered in the social space to do "absolutely nothing at all" which was enjoyed by all (especially Thomas and Ben showing off their splits!), even if it did cause some minor bruising. Luc then cooked up a vat of warm milk before everyone (eventually) made it to bed.
Sunday began for me with a 6:30am mpv trip to A&E to drop Raffi off (having found an A&E at the second hospital we visited), while everyone else packed up and cleaned the hut, ready for an 8am departure to Burbage to get some bouldering and trad done before the weather came in. Several people, including Tom and Abbie, managed to do their first trad lead climbs before it started raining. The whole group then headed to hathersage for a coffee shop and went on to Sheffield for some indoor bouldering at The Climbing Works, before heading home at half 4!
A successful trip was had by all, and Harry "wet fart man" Jackson even gained a new nickname!
Thanks for reading, thanks to Alesia and Raffi for organising (and especially Alesia for her many many spreadsheets), and if you came along thanks for making it a great weekend.
Matthew Lake
Treasurer 2025-26