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El Chorro '25

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At 16 Wyresdale Road, rain was lashing against the window again. The sun had set long ago (current time 5pm), and I can't feel my hands from yet another bone chilling commute home. I haven't even climbed this month, with my last log being a freezing outing to Wolfhole on the 30th November where each toe became a little icicle - all the British rock is too cold, wet, or seepy to do any meaningful climbing in December (and no, bouldering isn't meaningful!). Feeling beyond hope, I pop the kettle on to try and tease some feeling back into my blue hands, but that's when it hits me! I'm off to El Chorro next week!! Of last year's squad, Tom and Chris had "ticked" El Chorro, feeling that they didn't have much to come back for, and Jonathan had to work on his dissertation over Christmas. As a result, only Sam and I were keen to go again this year, with Tom and Chris heading on the Brown family holiday to Siurana instead. Sam is an organisational beast and ...
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Best crag in England? Five summer days in North Devon and Cornwall

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  Probably the first thing to get out of the way here, right at the beginning, is the whereabouts of Lower Sharpnose Point. It's in England, that much is for sure, but unfortunately (according to the maps) it's also in Cornwall. Now, as a certified Devon fanboy this news did come as a terrible shock, but it's something I'm willing to admit didn't really detract from the experience, and certainly doesn't detract from the climbing. For these five days, I'm climbing with Tom Waddy; probably one of the two people who can really be credited with teaching me to climb. For a very scared and relatively weak climber like me, climbing with Tom was always a bit of a mixed bag - his main strengths of freaky flexibility, deft footwork, and fiddling in good gear don't always translate to encouraging newbies like me up their first leads or taking them tight when seconding a tricky move, but that's okay. As a recently (slightly) more developed climber, I'm start...
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El Chorro '24

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British winter is awful. Damp, slimey crags and cold drizzle offer little in terms of real enjoyment, even for the most psyched of climbers. The solution for many is to jet off to sunny Spain to clip some bolts in El Chorro! The famously warm, dry, and reliable conditions attract a huge gaggle British climbers, including us! Tom, Chris, Matt, Jono, Sam, and I are the only folks from a large groupchat of punting prospecters who actually get around to booking some flights (mostly living together also helps!), and we agree to fly out together on the 15th December, pretty much as soon as the university term is over. Day 1 - Sunday 15th After a radically early 10 o'clock bedtime for me on Saturday night, we walk exitedly down to the bus station to get the 2:40am coach to Manchester airport, crossing paths with many people just finishing their night out. At the bus stop, we're approched by a street performer who asks keenly if we're going hiking or something. When we tell him we...
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