Wow what a hot day for our Summer fun Climbing and Abseiling outdoors. Two families who are friends joined us today. The weather was great hot and dry and not too sunny to go with the big smiles and can do attitude of both these lovely families. We met up at the parking for Twistleton Crag, thanks to Rushtons (Ingleton), just below the beautiful Twistleton Scar. It looked quite daunting for some but after getting kitted up with helmets, harness, and climbing shoes and talking over the safety elements of the day we headed off at a nice easy pace up to meet Craig who has gone ahead to set up the anchors.
After the rather warm walk in we had a couple of mins rest and time for a “before” shot of the full crew. They had bags of enthusiasm and a willingness to give it a go, however none of them were feeling particularly confident of what was to come. However they all did themselves proud.
Claire, Michael, Thomas and Oliver decided to Abseil first and went off with Craig to the top. With Michael going first and showing how it was done, ably followed by Thomas doing a professional decent for someone so young followed finally by Claire. Oliver decided that helping out at the top on the Safety rope was better than abseiling down it and was saving his energy for the climbing.
While Debbie, Steve, Tegan and Seren headed along the bottom of the crag to the bottom of the climbing route. With the sun shining and little wind Steve was first up. An excellent assent showed the way and his pace and determination was matched by the elegant Tegan.
Being tall and flexible, she chose a different set of foot placements and handholds and instinctively realised the art of climbing was delicate foot placement and made some excellent moves. Next up was Seren.
Well Seren was not sure at all about climbing however she was determined to give it a go. First attempt got her over half way much to the amazement of the family, and after watching “Mummy” climb to the top decided it needed another attempt. Following her big sisters start this time she took her time, found her route, made a couple of moves only the most flexible of people would attempt was worrying Mum by climbing out of sight straight to the top! Totally brilliantly.
We then moved onto the second climb which was a good deal harder and yet climb it they did. Seren was not so sure this was a good deal steeper and higher so Tegan was first up this time. Another elegant assent from her gave Dad Steve a hard act to follow. However with speed, firm foot placement and focus he was at the top before you could say is it lunchtime yet? Mummy Debbie was next. With the sun blazing and the heat ratcheted up to cooking Debbie made an excellent job of the flake, however the heat, and the need for some food meant that the top needed to be left for another day. Seren then decided that she could give it a quick go before lunch and managed to get a good 6 meters higher than the first climb before deciding food was the order of the hour and coming back to base. So we headed back to the first climb for some food and to see how Claire, Michael, Thomas and Oliver were doing on the first climb after completing their Abseil.
Having helped Craig at the top of the Abseil on the safety rope Oliver was first to climb. He had seen Dad do the abseil and after taking time to review the route climbed really well with some strong moves in the middle section. Being a big fan of climbing and not so much on the Abseil a down climb was also the order of the day so two routes in one!
Thomas had waited and watched his brother manage to do the first climb and so climbed the route like a professional! Solid foot placements and strong arms knowing exactly which route he was doing. This was after his excellently descended Abseil.
As Claire had managed to do the tricky start of the Abseil with little issue found her nemesis a little lower and managed to knock her arm on the Abseil decent she gave the first climb a miss. However buy the time the second climb was to be done she made a good ascent of the flake before deciding the arm was too sore to continue. Dad Michael was last to climb and made light work of both of the climbs. After watching Dad do the second more challenging climb both Thomas and Oliver decided to give this a second go Oliver got the top ledge and decided that was enough however Thomas has seen it could be done and so conquered his fear and got over the last ledge and around the prickly bush of doom to the top. Brilliant!
What an amazing achievement by both families on a hot climbing and abseiling session at our lovely limestone crag Twistleton. Thank you for making it such a bright and cheerful day, and adding to the sunshine and heat the weather gave us.
We finished, slightly tired, rather hot but very content. We managed to squeeze in at least 3 activities each into this half day session. Well done everyone.
We hope you enjoyed the Yorkshire Dales and the climbing abseiling fun too.