Courtney on Stewpot, Almscliff (HVD)
The last couple of mondays a few of us have gone out with the aim of having some very easy going evenings where people could have a first go at trad climbing, get back into practice or just chill out a bit and have an easy evening. Our first session was at almscliff, where Jamie and me introduced Courtney to the delights of english grit. Contrary to popular belief, Almscliff does in fact have some easier routes, and nothing we did was at all strenuous (apart from the final chimney). As Courtney had never climbed trad before Jamie led most of the routes, Courtney seconded. Courtney has sport climbed in the Swabain Alps, which is limestone but she seemed to have no trouble at all adapting her style to grit, and flew up Easy Way, Stewpot and Fluted Columns on second. Then the foolish girl revealed she quite liked chimneys, say no more, we headed for South Chimney as the last route of the evening. Courtney found it "awesome", Jamie declined to follow (not a chimney fan then).
This monday we headed for Brimham with Dave Shield and the Lesser Spotted Cef. Cef announced this was the first time he had set foot on british rock this year! Didnt stop him leading a route, and his long climbing experience came in very handy later on when….Courtney led her first trad route ever. I went up the route first, pre placing sufficient good gear to safeguard her (daves cunning suggestion), then ran back down to belay while courtney led up placing the rest of the gear, Cef supervising the belay at the top. It was quite a hard lead for Courtney, Heather Wall (severe) as it has a bit of a thin slabby start, but she was very cool and calm, and her gear was all solid; I was impressed.
Hopefully the weather will let us get a few more sesssions like this organised over the next few weeks.