At the start of March six of us headed to the Roaches in the Peak District for a Trad climbing weekend. We stayed in a beautiful cottage on Hazel Barrow Farm with fantastic countryside views and close by to the crags. On the Friday evening, Dave V and Sarah M were the first to arrive and had a short hike to scout the surrounding area. They were later joined by Alice M, Alastair G, Bob M, as well as some mutual friends, Andy, Jo, and Jess, who were camping and living the “van life” outside. 

Bright and early on the Saturday morning Alastair completed the Leek Park run marking his 100th park run at 100 different locations, which was celebrated with some well deserved and aptly decorated ginger bread men! By the time the rest of us had risen, we were greeted by blue skies, rays of sunshine, and a moderately temperate day - that really felt like the start of spring! We made our way to the Roaches lower tier crags, where we were joined by John S. We started the day at Chalkstorm, where we climbed Prow Corner and Prow Cracks, Sarah had her first outdoor climb and John worked on a bouldering problem below. Later in the day we moved on to the upper tier and climbed the Inverted Staircase, where we were greeted by a beautiful sunset at the first pitch. In the evening, we walked to the “Winking Man Pub” (fittingly named after a nearby rock formation) for a hearty dinner and pint(‘s). We proceeded to stagger back…

We were blessed with more beautiful sunny weather on the Sunday, albeit with more of a chill on the air. We started the day on Heather’s Slab that had some fantastic views at the top and after climbing we abseiled down. We followed this with Chicken Run and Rooster, lead by Dave and Alastair, which was somewhat nail biting to watch. After a full day of climbing we were treated to tea by Bob’s parents who very conveniently live in Leek!

Throughout the trip we conversed with the Leeds University Mountaineering Club who were staying at the Don Whillans memorial hut. 

 I would like to extend a big thank you to Alastair for organising a fantastic trip and to everyone else for making it so enjoyable! 

Kind regards, 

Sarah M