Not the Ashover show

Yesterday saw the 82nd annual Ashover show, an event that brings approximately 16,000 visitors into our usually idyllic little corner or rural Derbsyhire.

So we went climbing for the day.

It was our usual exploring team, Gemma, Rocky, and myself. Not much else to say really, just wanted to share some of the cracking photo's that Gemma took of Rocky and I being adventurous. Enjoy.

Surveying the first route of the day.

Rocky opted to lead, he usually does, he's the better climber of the two of us.

Placing some kit.....

....and more.

Starting to make some progress.

Shortly after this shot was taken Rocky's handhold gave way leading to a fall, it's the first time he's fallen on my belay so it was kind of nice to get it out of the way. It would've been even better if part of the rockface hadn't come down with him, a little too exciting for a second. No-one was hurt though which is the important bit, and we both feel a little more confident about climbing together too.

After retrieving the kit we decided to move on in search of a different spot.....

...."down there maybe".....

....."I'll have a look"......

......"yeah, this'll probably do"......

After a little bit of a trek around and down we chose a route and got it rigged.

Rocky setting off up the climb, checking as he went for loose rock as it all looked a little bit sketchy....

....too sketchy. Shortly into Rocky's climb a seemingly solid piece of rock broke away, a rock that we'd both checked and decided was safe. If that rock came away so easily then there's no telling what the rest of the face would be like so common sense prevailed and we called it a day. We lived on to fight another day.

All in all a cracking day out, we didn't manage a great deal of climbing done but we checked out a couple of spots that we've been eyeing up for a while, and explored a little bit more of Derbyshire. Best of all we avoided ending up in the beer tent with the prize winning local heifers. Happy days.

Bye for now,

Stuart.