Climbing on the cold but grippy granite of Hound Tor, Dartmoor
This week end I had a day out climbing with Simon and Liz, after a summer working towards their summer ML up North, they had travelled down to Devon and Cornwall for a bit of sightseeing and for Simon to undertake his SPA training. After this was done they were keen for a bit of a fun day out on the moors. Liz who had only climbed indoors was keen to see “what it was all about” and look at the process of leading and setting up belays, whilst Simon was keen to lead some harder climbs and pick up any new “top tips” for instructing.
We always like to err on the side of caution when working with new clients, so we had a look at good and bad gear placements and developing a scoring system, bringing two or three quality placements together to build a belay using the rope and also using one or two slings. This was the first time Liz had ever set anything like this up, but with her knowledge of basic rope work from her summer ML she made it look easy. Next it was Simon’s turn to have a lead, we climbed Paddy a great little climb with good gear but some tough movers near the top, I think the tricky part of this climb is getting off the summit block safely, so Simon lowered Liz back down and then we set up an abseil. With us all back on the ground we had a go on Liars Dice, a pumpy, little server and great climbing. After this it was starting to get dark and a little cold so we headed back to the cars, unfortunately we were 5 minutes too late as the Hound of the Basket Meals Burger van had just closed up for the night. This was another great day’s climbing on Hound Tor reminding everyone that we can climb sunny routes down in Devon all year long.
