I’m quite obsessed with climbing and when not working (I work part-time as a pharmacist), I spend most of my time doing, thinking or talking about climbing.
I love both trad and sport climbing and think the two compliment each other. I’ve on-sighted/ flashed 80+ E5’s on a variety of rock types and situations, from the sea-cliffs of Lundy, Pembroke, Gogarth, the Outer Hebrides and Reiff, to the mountain crags of Wales, Lakes and GlenCoe, and not forgetting the beautiful sandstone crags of Northumberland and my favourite, the Yorkshire limestone. To the popular question – what’s she ever done on grit?, I’m afraid the answer is not much, my hardest routes being Big Greenie and Wall of Horrors at Almscliff. I have still to discover the delights of gritstone (although I’m starting to enjoy bouldering on the Yorkshire grit). Moving on to harder trad and I’ve on-sighted/flashed over 10 E6’s (Yorkshire, Lakes and N.Wales), as well as Death Wish E7 6b at Blue Scar and was pleased to get the 4th ascent of Vlad the Impailer E7 6b at Dove Crag. On the bolts I’ve flashed several F7c’s (all abroad) and have red-pointed some of Yorkshire’s longest routes including Huecool F8b and Supercool F8a+ in Gordale, and The Groove F8a+ at Malham. I will be moving onto some shorter ones when I find some power!
I’ve also dabbled in the competition scene for many years, starting way back in 1992, with several good results; including 2nd place overall in many a BICC series (most recently 2006). My best year was probably 2002/3 when I finished 4th overall in the BBC’s and won the Sunderland BICC (the only round I entered that year). I do enjoy bouldering but aren’t really very good at it (I tend to potter about instead of bearing down), so the hardest I’ve flashed is V6 and I’ve scraped my way up and along the odd V7 and more recently Cubby's Lip V9. (I’m quite good at traverses!)
Some of my favourite climbing areas include the Outer Hebrides, Yorkshire limestone and Northumberland.