A brief history of my climbing career

The Early Years

One of my lifelong passions has been climbing. Since the age of 14 I have been climbing in one form or another. Mostly adventure style rock climbing (as against sports climbing).

I started climbing at school (I went to a boarding school in Wet herby for several years), and used to cycle to Armscliffe most Sundays. I soon was able to lead about VS, no nuts in those days, just slings in various thicknesses. So VS was pretty scary at the time. I was lucky enough to meet Robin Barley there and did the odd climb with him when I had no one to climb with. These initial forays to Armscliffe and surrounding crags taught me how to jam properly. If you cannot jam at Armscliffe, you won't get up much. Plus a love of gritstone climbing that lasts to this day.

A one week holiday was spent with friend in Wales. Starting off in the Ogwen valley to start with, we polished off Soap Gut (in the rain) and Bellevue Bastion (in the dry thank god). Feeling confident saw us moving to the Llanberis pass where we really upped our standard with Slape, Brant direct, and finally Cenotaph corner.

When I was 16 we moved to London, and I joined the North London Mountaineering club. The day I joined another person also joined Alec Taylor. At the time the Club was not very active, and as neither of us had any transport, and we were desperate to go climbing, we ended up taking the train to Groombridge every Sunday To climb at Harrisons rocks. This had the dual effect of making us firm friends, and giving us both a love of sandstone climbing (perhaps my favourite rock still). For the next couple of years except for the odd foray to Wales, and the peak district, we mostly climbed on sandstone. At that time there were quite a few regulars, including such luminaries as Ian MacNaught Davies, Al Alvarez. As we were climbing there a lot, we soon started noticing The unclimbed gaps, and so started my interest in new routing. A fierce competition soon ensued between our group, and a group of talented young lads led by their teacher Trevor Panther. My best routes at Harrisons include The Flakes, Limpet, and West Wall Eliminate (Woolly Bear). I also at this time met my life's soul mate, future wife, and regular climbing partner Marion.

At 18 I was lucky enough to be able afford transport (a grey minivan), enabling trips to other areas to start. Wales, Peak district, Avon, Wintours leap mostly with Marion. About this time a group of keen and able climbers joined the club such as Jim Browne, Tony Wilmot, Mike Spring, al Baker, Dave Johnson, Dave Edwards etc. Tony in particular was very talented. He soon started doing new routes, mainly in Avon and Wintours Leap, with a few forays to Wales.

Baggy Point

In the autumn of 1969 he went to Baggy point, and came back raving about the scope. So much so we drove down the very next weekend. So started a virtual blitzkrieg of the crag. All that winter and the following spring we were down most weekends. With about 35 routes bagged between the North London MC teams. The most memorable climbs for me were the first 2 we did. Twinkletoes Given vs now it felt harder at the time as we were a bit overawed by the position stuck out in the middle of the wall with a rising tide, Giving a sense of urgency. Then the next day we went to see if we could get onto Long rock slab. As the tide was in we had no idea one could start from the bottom. After a lot of debate, and dithering (all of us being on the short side) Dave Johnson fell across the gap and committed himself. Marion took one look and said "no way", and so it was up to me to follow. Even worse than leading as the rope is going the wrong way. So there we were committed to the slab, luckily it went reasonably easily, except for some steep vegetation only climbing at the top.

Gogarth

In the early 70's we moved to North Wales, and hence climbed there a lot. By the end of the 70's we had climbed about everything we were capable of and were hunting around for new rock. 77 saw Marion and me starting to comb the Gogarth cliffs for new routes, we found a few fillers in on the upper tier and main cliff. So to the summer of 78, I was gainfully unemployed and climbing with Joe brown most days, while Marion was off in the Karakorum with a women's trip. The weather was not very good for the mountains so we were going to Gogarth a lot, and on our trips we kept bumping into Jim Moran and his mates. They were systematically combing the Gogarth cliffs for new routes. This spurred Joe and me to give the cliffs a closer inspection to see what we could find.

Highlights were Smurf zawn, found by Joe on his sea level traverses a great little zawn near yellow wall. Named because we were both short and stunted! Some great little routes, sadly not very popular, as it’s difficult to get to now with the way the top has been fenced by the current owner Next it was on to red Wall, first with the "enemy" Jim Moran Anarchist, a pleasant E1 on left hand red wall. Then with Marion back from her trip the three of us did Infidel. On which I had to give Joe a tight rope (he must have been having an off day as it’s the only route I have ever seen him struggle big time on). Then were onto perhaps the biggest of the routes (at least to lead) Rapture of the deep. We had spotted this sandy line left of red wall route, but knowing that the worst rock on red wall is the sandy stuff, we were nervous. Rightly so one of the scariest routes I have done, and was I glad to seconding. Finally perhaps the best of my routes Fantasia, great climbing in an amazing position.

Pembroke

Next up is Pembroke, it all started at the 1980 BMC Buxton conference. Pat Littlejohn had a few too many and let the cat out of the bag, raving about miles of fantastic clean rock with hardly any routes done! So Easter being shortly after the conference about 80 of the then current cream of British rock climbing turned up to prove him right. As Ken Wilson stated at the time "Routes were going up like machine gun fire" with over 30 routes going up over the one weekend. Certainly for us (Marion and I) it was the start of a love affair, and we went on to climb over 70 new routes in the area of the next few years. Unfortunately the sea as clawed back about 10 of these in the last 30 years.

Perhaps the two routes I am most proud of there are Star Wars on the outside wall of Huntsman's leap, and Jabberwock in Box zawn. Both routes are big leads in great positions.

Morocco

During the 90's every time we saw Joe Brown, he was raving about the Jebel el Kest area of Morocco near Tafraoute where he had been climbing every march. "Acres of unclimbed rock, crags like 600 foot Castell Helen's, and near perfect rock. Unfortunately March was a busy period for work, so it was not until 2000 before we got there. We spent a wonderful week, repeating a couple of routes and finding a couple of new ones as well. That was it we were smitten again. Since 2005 we have been going there at least once a year and lately twice a year. Joe was right there are hundreds of new routes to do of all grades. In 2007 a new road was driven across the north side of the range and opened up to new valleys and tons more rock. A small group of us including Mike Mortimer, Jim Fotheringham, Paul Donnithorne, Emma Aylesford, and more recently Pete Johnson and Lun Roberts, along with Marion and me. Have been busy developing the north side big time. With close to 500 new routes since the beginning of 2007. Joe is unable to still go because of knackered knees, but his mates are still active notably Claude Davies, Derek Walker, Paul Ross, Les Brown, Pete Turnball, Chris Bonington all of whom are in their 70's but still putting up the new routes. I am currently collating information for an online guide which we hope to have live in the very near future