A days climbing at the Roaches

I have been incredibly lucky to spend three days climbing outdoors with guidance and instruction from Rob at Essential climbing. During my time climbing with him, I have learned a great deal. We have gone over various things, from safety, placing gear, climbing technique, setting up abseils and ascending. One of the highlights of these days was successfully top roping Chalkstorm- an E3 5C! I couldn’t believe I managed to get up it, but I did with lots of patience and encouragement from Rob! He has been excellent at building my confidence, especially with my fear of heights.

On this last day we really consolidated prior learning- going over building anchors, placing gear and the introduction to using an ascender on a static line. This was key for me as I have been enjoying taking photo’s of people climbing outdoors and learning this skill will help me with this style of photography in the future. I also had a go at leading on a ghost rope, this experience with my plan to lead indoors over winter will leave me in a good position to start leading climbs outdoors next year. Fingers crossed anyway!

If you want to start your journey climbing outdoors or improve your skills, you can find Essential Climbing on Instagram and Facebook. I am sure I will book him for more ups killing next year in the summer.