July sunshine

After last week's downpours, this week has seen a return to warm, sunny weather and improved underfoot conditions on the paths, allowing courses to progress without too much squelching around. The new guide book is out and is providing a new impetus to climbing in the area, with some fantastic photo's and topo's inspiring a new perspective of the cliffs - and a busy day Saturday, with quite a few teams out enjoying the good weather. Thanks to Andy, Anna, Alison, Jo, Peter, Andy, Alyson, Sally and Mike for their easy company.

July monsoon

The fantastic long spell of good weather finally made way for the July monsoon this week , with heavy downpours midweek, courses looked like they were going to be a challenge, however, it was a pleasant surprise turning up for climbing on Friday morning to find the cliffs bone dry ! - sheltered from the worst of the rain and with a strong drying wind, the rock was in good condition. The weather had obviously put a lot of people off and we had the place virtually to ourselves for the rest of the weekend. The new guide book for Symonds Yat arrived aswell, adding to the atmospere of exploration. Thanks to Kirsten, Gareth, Kharman and Ella for a surprisingly dry few days climbing - we even had lunch in the sunshine on top of the Longstone curtesy of Kirsten.

Wye Valley climbing

Back to the Wye Valley this weekend for some relaxed climbing in the sunshine, with quite a few people out enjoying themselves. We got a bit hot and flustered pushing our limits on some steep rock in the caves at the base of the cliffs - luckily they also provided an air conditioned rest . Whilst there we had a good demonstration of the safety system in action ,with the lead climber of a nearby team, taking a fall onto good gear and the second coping with the dynamics, with no adverse effects - they went on to complete the route. Thanks to James and Dan for an enjoyable couple of days climbing.

Busy climbing week

Another busy week , thankfully, we seemed to have missed the summer monsoon so far this year allowing some really good days out - with rock climbing courses in the Wye Valley and mountaineering courses in North Wales - its been quite entertaining for me as we had climbing movement technique as our theme for the beginning of the week - pushing the limits for some and then into the mountains for the subtle skills and decision making process for multi-pitch mountaineering routes.

Learn to lead courses

Rock climbing courses are progressing well with the continuing good weather - with this week's courses concentrating on outdoor / lead climbing - placing gear, rope management, belaying, anchors etc. aswell as climbing movement and the 'head game' - allowing some first outdoor leads to be completed in good style. Thanks to Judith, Den and Matt for their company and enthusiasm.