Whilst visiting old friends, Phil and Sarah at their home in Nottingham, Phil suggested a walk in the Peak District as an alternative to the extreme shopping that Sarah and Marina had planned. But not just anywhere.... 'what about going to Curbar Edge. It's nice there..... and isn't that where you has your little climbing accident, Martin?'.
So Curbar Edge it was. It was 2 and a half years since Martin fell from not far up one of the crag's small but demanding routes, 'Bel Ami' and had ended up in a helicopter with a fractured skull (in two places), cracked rib and broken collar bone. So...
We drove over to the Peaks, parked the car and set off on foot along the foot of the gritstone crag. It took a while before Martin was sure we were at the right place... the route was of course smaller than he remembered! But no doubt, this was the place.
Still, rather than bring a flood of emotions back like in the movies, it gave Martin a chance to critically appraise the route again... and the causes of the accident. Sure enough, the route is *very* poorly protected lower down, before you get to the big crack line. Possibly there's a flake on the right hand face that could have been used? Maybe not. And the right hand face looked somewhat *green*.... this is what Martin's foot had been on when he slipped.
Jack's response when he saw the route was classic. "Is that it?!!!" he said incredulously. But as wise old Phil so wisely said (with wisdom)..."you can drown in 3 inches of water". Or to put it another way "it's not how big it is that matters"!
Conclusion? Martin definitely intends to climb the thing some other day. Possibly on a top rope first before leading. But it has to be done.
So, route inspected, we continued our walk along the crag and eventually, much to everyone's complete amazement... found ourselves in a pub :-)
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| Jack with Phil bring up the rear |
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| Bel Ami follows the corner line |
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| Note the big rocks at the foot of the route which "cushioned" the fall! |
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| The crack is too wide for gear until you're much higher up.... before that there's just a very narrow crack (size 1 wire) by where Martin's feet were at the time of the fall |
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| OK, "crash scene investigation" completed, here's Phil on the rest of the walk |
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| Jack, motivated by the thought of classic British pub food...i.e. a bag of crisps! |
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| The Peak District's very own version of beauty |