The return of Ed Lamb – Paul Highams

Many of you will know that Ed badly broke his angle in a fall last July at Birchen Edge in the Peak District. After the operation to plate and pin it, and the months of physiotherapy he is back climbing again. After a few forays indoors, and a couple of outings on southern sandstone it was time for him to get his leading head back on.The last weekend in January was set and Rob Munday and myself headed up to Derbyshire to meet Ed. The thermometer on Rob’s car was still reading -2 when we got to the crag, but the sun was out and there was only a breath of wind. We picked Baslow as our destination as the routes were short which meant we could get to the top before our fingers went numb (well that was the plan).

Ed set straight to work leading a HVD, Rob was suffering from a strained calf (muscle, not a small cow) and decided to go for a walk, so myself and Ed cracked on with the routes. I then tackled a VS which by the time I had placed gear below the finshing roof I couldn’t feel my hands, which made the committing moves rather interesting. As my fingers came back to life I had a bad case of the hot aches!

By the end of the day we had climbed 8 routes, Rob had reappeared from his walk and we were off to the froggatt hut owned by the CC, where we met GOD (those of you who were on the lundy trip a few years ago will know that GOD lives in Essex and climbs E2). The temperature never did get to zero which meant we were entitled to starter, main course and pudding.

Sunday was a bit greyer, but a few degrees warmer. We headed down to Cratcliffe and Robin Hood’s stride. The plan was to do a mix of bouldering and routes, but we had so much fun bouldering we never got the ropes out. We ended the day doing over 20 problems and feeling suitably weary. After we finished we took a walk round to the main routes at Cratcliffe and they look amazing, see the photos below to wet your taste buds.

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