Rock Climbing at Silverdale - Iain on route 1 of the day
Rock Climbing at Silverdale
Our normal winter program is to head south for 3 months or thereabouts and hide from the vagaries of the Cumbrian winter. Well this year that hasn’t happened quite the same.
Kate now has two grandchildren and they were coming to visit for Christmas. As anyone can imagine, that’s a pretty big deal and much preparation would be required, mostly huge amounts of cooking and baking - the cakes have been rather delightful.
So instead of playing my usual trick of staying in Spain whilst Kate pops home to visit family and friends, I too came home. This was to be my first time flying for around 7 years and I really wasn’t looking forward to that part of the journey. It was a bad as expected, with delays at both ends and a missed train as a result, oh the joy.
Anyway, the point is, we were at home in the Lakes and as it happened, the weather was absolutely glorious everyday for a fortnight. Crisp air, clear blue skies, freezing cold, but dry. Total bliss. Meanwhile in Spain there were storms raging, you just couldn’t write it.
Thankfully I had taken a few bookings for the Christmas period and this helped keep me out of mischief. Thanks to all those who joined me out in the hills.
There were still free days and amazingly a couple of these turned out to be outdoor rock climbing days. At the end of December, in Cumbria, this seems somewhat far-fetched.
A venue I’d been keen to visit for months were some small but well positioned sea cliffs on Silverdale beach. I can actually take the train to these from home and I think when the days are longer that’s what I’ll do. This time I met with good friend Iain of Lakes Outdoor Experience and whilst at the crag more friends in the form of Rachel and Nick arrived to make up a team of 4 intrepid climbers.
Rock Climbing at Silverdale - it's all about the views
We parked carefully and with consideration for local residents. The approach walk is all of about 10 minutes along the part sand/part rock beach. Although we later found a much closer parking spot, for anyone really averse to walking!
What did we find?
These climbs are all bolted, it’s all sport climbing. We knew this in advance so packed appropriately. The 6 routes we climbed were well bolted, on good quality solid rock, and had double bolted anchors at the top. Some anchors were shared with neighbouring routes, for us on this visit that made things more convenient as were were able to ‘top-rope’ a couple of the climbs instead of leading all.
The climbs are all short, no more than 10m, so it is possible to do lots of routes in one visit. For me, the climbing wasn’t the main attraction of this place, it was the outlook and situation as well as the possibility of sheltered climbing in the middle of winter. It’s December, we are on the beach and looking out over Morecambe Bay as the sun dips ever more from its low winter perch. The light is magnificent, the setting perfect. And as always, it’s simply ace to be out sharing these adventures with good, likeminded friends.
Rock Climbing at Silverdale - me leading first route of the day
Thanks to the FRCC for producing the topo for this crag and to the people responsible for the bolting.
If planning a visit to the Lakes or surrounding areas and wanting to try out some rock climbing or many other fun and adventurous activities please do get in touch
Thanks for reading
Mark
Rock Climbing at Silverdale - Rachel topping out on a route