This year we elected to visit the Roaches for our traditional ‘Get Out On Rock Day’. Of course, many of our members have already been climbing outdoors this year. Indeed some of them have been lucky enough to start their climbing season on Spanish rock. However, this day is aimed to suit climbers of all abilities from beginners to the more experienced, and the Roaches provide a perfect venue for this. Plus there are some great walks to enjoy as well!
There was a good turn out on the day. Some of our newer members came along and we hope this will be the first of many SMC meets for each of them. Amongst them were several who are new to climbing rock outside, including Dasha, Henry, Robert, Matt, Kirsten, Sam and Humaira. They were assisted on the day by other SMC members including Holly, Richard, Roger, Misha, Ed and Mark plus Tony who brought with him his friends, Ilya and Tim.
As our Meets Secretary Mark commented
‘In total nineteen people came to the meet so not a bad turnout! All the new people got up a collection of classic three star routes from Diff to HS and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. We had good weather and no rain – it was a good day out!’
Jo G along with Andrew, Chloe and Lunar the Labrador did a walk along the Roaches ridge and across to Ludd’s Church (a deep, narrow gorge formed by a fault line) and back along the ridge. On their return they joined the climbers for a while, just in time to patch up some classic grit stone injuries! Chloe did her first outdoor climb in her trainers, and Jo could not resist doing a couple of routes, even though she did have her walking boots on!
So all in all, it was a very successful and well-attended meet. Let’s hope this is great start to a fabulous summer season for us all. A big thank you to everyone else who helped organise the day especially Mark H. Also to everyone who arranged the car sharing and who assisted on the day too.