England Sept 15-16

Hey, I'd like to find a partner for some weekend climbing in the South East. I have a conference to attend on Monday in London, so it would be great to do a bunch of climbing over the weekend. Trad is preferable, but sport is also cool, to 5.11/VII - sorry, no idea what that is in British grades.

- Brian

Hey, the South East of the UK is a bit shitty for climbing unless you like top roping on the slipperiest of slidey sandstone. I recommend doing a weekender somewhere slightly further afield, the Peak District has some excellent gritstone trad single pitch, whilst nearer Bristol you have the Wye Valley, Avon Gorge and Chedder, all home to some multipitch trad. I’m more than happy to join for either (I’m based in the Southeast) but I’m not leading anything near a 5.11a-d trad (I think that equates to anything from E2 6a - E5 6b; yeah our grading system is weird).

There’s also ukclimbing.com which has the routes, areas and a partner finder if you’re looking for somebody a bit more hardcore!

Enjoy your time here, Francesca :)

Hey Francesca, Thanks for the info. I hadn't looked much into the SE area other than seeing that there was a lot listed here on MP and that it was convenient from London. But from your advice, I think I'll check out the Peak and Wye areas. 5.11-ish is definitely at my peak, but if you're interested in something up to 5.9/5.10 perhaps we could make something work. Do you know how reasonable/expensive it is to get out to either of those areas from London/the SE?

I know the drives from London to the Peak District and Bristol are about 2 1/2 to 3 hours traffic depending, but I’m not sure about public transport. I don’t mind lift sharing but it would have to be out of London, for driving within that city is likened to attempting to escape the depths of Hades whilst flaming wrath of one way streets, bus lanes, hash markings, congestion charges, crazy cyclists, fines and lunatic deliveroo drivers are thrown towards you.

I can lead up to 5.8 trad and follow much higher.