So, like, I'm here a mere 3.5 hours away from the land of Hard Grit, and what do I do but sit on my arse all the time?! That ain't right. So I invited myself to a climbing trip that some old friends, some newer friends, and some soon-to-become friends were putting together in the Peak District, UK, this past weekend. Oy!

This is Stanage Edge. It's kinda like a squeezed Gunks - squashed vertically, stretched horizontally. Very similar horizontal striation, but on rock that feels more like, er... nothing I've touched before. JTree is maybe the closest in coarseness, but not really the same.


The grittiness of this here gritstone means you don't really need holds, I'm told by the locals. You're supposed to kinda plaster yourself over the face and use the friction generated by your body area to hold yourself in place. I'm also told that the British grades are different and "E" stands for "Easy" and the easiest one is "E10". Well, that's clearly too easy for me, so I climbed things with grades like "Very Difficult" and "Severe" (they even had some holds!).







Man, even easy, well-protected grit is hard! I'll have to go back to get my head around it. When's the next trip?