The inspiration for these personal challenges was the ’50 at 50’ trip in 2019. Jim and Smokey Dave celebrated turning 50, and Andrew and Keith supported Jim in climbing 50 trad routes in 5 days. Keith missed his ’60 at 60’ last year because of injury but decided to go for ’61 at 61’ while Andrew tried for ’70 at 70’. In 5 days, that’s 14 routes each day. Jim offered to support us both, and Nigel offered to film the whole trip.
Tuesday: 2 routes
It didn’t start well. The planned blitz of easy routes at Windgather was aborted before we arrived because of the rain. We convened at a café in Whaley Bridge and decided to head east in the hope of some dry rock. After two ticks at Birchen, we gave in and went away to dry out.
Wednesday: 8 routes
The forecast was for rain from about 10am, so we got out early and drove to Burbage North – quick access and retreat and plenty to go at. The rain arrived promptly, and we spent the rest of the day buying food for the AGM weekend. We were beginning to doubt whether we could get anywhere near our targets, even if we kept going through to Sunday.
Thursday: 29 routes
With a much better forecast, Jim persuaded us (as only Jim can) that 30 routes in a day was a definite possibility. We went back to Birchen and cracked on. Danny came over from Manchester to join us for the day, and we developed a relay system of moving from route to route. In the afternoon we went back to Burbage North and kept going until the arms stopped working on route 29. Still, back in the game!
Friday: 13 routes
Another day of good weather, so we returned to Windgather and did 11 routes in the morning. New member Simon joined us for the last few climbs, and we decided to head to Stanage in the afternoon, wanting to be near the DPC hut at Stoney to meet members arriving for the AGM. A good plan in principle, but it all took time and we only managed another 2 routes.
Saturday: 18 routes
We set off early to Stanage, with the rest of the AGM group following later. A forecast of rain by 2pm turned out to be optimistic. The rain arrived mid-morning and the crowd thinned out. We stuck it out hoping for some breaks in the cloud. Leading Heaven Crack in the rain was a highlight of the day. And then the sun came out and we enjoyed some of the best conditions of the week. We finished with three surprisingly good routes at the east end of Stanage Popular (Physiology, Cool Groove and Anatomy) and the challenges were complete. We could relax for the evening.
Huge thanks to Jim, Nigel, Danny and Simon for support and encouragement. Nigel is busy editing 60 hours of video but there are photos on Flickr.
There’s a full list of the routes climbed on Andrew’s UKC log at:
