Cracking weekend in The Peaks

Myself, Vianney, and Pete made an early start on Friday, getting to Millstone for late morning. Friday looked to be the better day weather wise, with rain forecast for Sunday, so we wanted to make the most of the dry weather. Millstone is an awesome crack climbing venue with some real test pieces. We climbed The Mall VS 4c, Embankment II VS 4c, and Bond Street HVS 5a. I then tried to climb Dexterity E1 5b, which proved too much for me, but Pete followed clean on second.

After this we retired to the hut for Pete’s now famous spag bol, drinks and few rounds of Monopoly Deal.

Saturday morning we headed to Stanage Popular. We had no real goals; we just wanted to get as many routes in as we could. We warmed up on the super classic Flying Buttress VD, followed by Zigzag Flake Crack VS 4b, Queersville HVS 5a, and Eliminator HVS 5b. At this point Viannay decided he had enough of climbing and decided to walk the 3 miles to the The Fox House pub for a well-deserved pint. Pete and I continued climbing and bagged Heather Wall VS 4c, Inverted V VS 4c, and Mississippi Buttress Direct VS 4c. We were now pretty tired so headed back to the hut, picking Vianney up along the way. With the car dropped at the hut, we walked up to The Robin Hood pub for some food and beers.

Sunday morning started with the hut fire alarm blaring. A climber from another party decided to have an early breakfast and burn his sausages! Needless to say, he wasn’t too popular after that. During breakfast we found that the forecast for the day had improved, so we headed to Lawrencefield. Here we started on Three Tree Climb HS 4b and Great Harry, both excellent climbs at the top of their grade. In my opinion Great Harry is a contender for the best VS in The Peaks. Vianney then did a good job leading Snail Crack HVD. The last climb of the weekend was led by Pete. Pete did a great lead of Delectable Direct HVS 5b in the guide or E1 5c on UKC. At this point we were all pretty sore, so jumped in the car and headed back home. The rain started soon after leaving the crag.