Back To Basics At The Stones

     The Wainstones are one of the more popular venues in North Yorkshire for climbing and bouldering.  With it's towers and the unique Sphinx there's nowhere else quite like it on the moors.  The rocks face a multitude of directions meaning it's easy to get out of the wind or find some shade and it's got a wide selection of good-sized routes across the grades all on good rock and many with decent protection.

    The crag was looking very atmospheric today with low cloud sweeping across the hills.  There were no views but there were also no other climbers.  The walk-in was cool and enjoyable, about 20 minutes from Clay Bank car park.

     I'd only led one climb this year and that hadn't gone too well.  Running through the basics and doing some easy routes was a perfect refresher, starting off with Wall and Ledge, an easy slabby scramble.  My gear placements were terrible but that wasn't too important, it's going to take a while to get anywhere near slick again.



     It was Dave's (BimbleBritain's) first day on the trad and he did well following me up Groove and Crack and so we decided to do Ling Buttress.  I had a little bit of a wobbler on the moves out of the niche, they felt much harder than I'd remembered, but fortunately it's one of the best protected routes at 'The Stones' and Dave's belaying seemed pretty good.

All in all a rather good day!


Photos : NEClimber & BimbleBritain

A free guide to climbing at the Wainstones is available here