Lee Harrison Climbing

With still no sign of winter approaching Mike and me returned to Saltdean fore more bolted chalk. We met Steve Melvin and fellow LMC member Rob Marson at the cliffs. It may be warm in Scotland but at least the weather were perfect for chalk. My confidence was improving with the medium. I onsighted a route with no name (C5) between Back in Time and Day Dreaming. I followed this up with Back to the Future (C6), and The Strangeness and the Charm of the Quark (C5). Having dogged Fulmar (C7) on my last attempt I was happy to second the route behind Mike, who looked pretty gripped on lead. Another productive day. Steve climbing Back On Back Off (C5) Back to the Future (C6), left & Strangeness and Charm of the Quark (C5), right Rob climbing  Strangeness and Charm of the Quark (C5), Rob climbing Fulmar (C6/7) On a negative note, we watched a group break pretty much every rule in the bolted chalk book today. It's mandatory when climbing the bolted routes at Saltdea...

With the winter season fast approaching but with no sign of its imminent arrival it was time to forget about rock climbing and focus on bolted chalk in order to get strong. Mike and me headed to Saltdean. I put a message out to climbing partners and my London Mountaineering Club forum. To my surprise I managed to muster up enough interest for a total of nine climbers to park up at the Badgers Rest. To put this into purspective this is more people that I have persuaded to go climbing anywhere. I warmed up on Day Dreaming (C5) again in order to get comfortable with the chalk medium. With confidence growing in both the protection and my climbing technique, I proceeded to lead Back Off Back On, Back in Time, and Back Up (all C5). Rick, another climbing pal of mine, further heightened my confidence in the protection my taking a decent whipper on a route further left called Back to the Future (C6). The route climbs through a short roof to gain a steep 10m wall. Rick was abov...