Climbing expedition no. 2 ft. Andy Swann
My wife and I learned to climb from Andy Swann in the heart of Northumberland.
Buzzing from the rush of outdoor bouldering with J.W., I told my wife, J.Y. that I wanted to take her climbing outdoors. Out where the only sounds were those of birds, and the lively cheers of your spotter as you make your ascent.
“I want to learn from an expert first before I would let you take me”, proclaimed J.Y. silencing my cries of protest. My accounts of Route 2’s ascent did not help in the slightest.
So when I was chatting with Jacob, an instructor at Climb Newcastle, he recommended his examiner who happened to help beginners get started with outdoor bouldering. So the next day, I shot him a text from the cafeteria of Ikea. Moments later I received a reply and we got to discussing next steps.
“I will let you know closer to the day what the weather looks good enough for climbing”, said Andy. So began a period of waiting, not knowing whether we will get to learn from Andy.
We are code green
In the lead up to our outdoor climbing day, the weather report was not looking promising. There was a bit of rain in the forecast for our selected day which made me nervous. I found myself wondering whether the weather would hold.
Day T-2, I get a message from Andy informing us that the forecast was looking good and to get ready to go climbing outdoors!
The night before I was a bit nervous. Would I get enough sleep? Would my skin be alright? Will by sweaty palms cause an issue? All these questions were swirling around my mind. I tried my best to leave those thoughts be and closed my eyes to get to sleep.
Off to Bowden Doors
Like all things in life, the day of reckoning arrived. We got up early, packed our gear which now included a couple of bouldering pads loaned by J.W. There was a mix of coffee, adrenaline and cortisol coursing through my veins.
As we approached the coordinates supplied by Andy, we saw a middle aged, slightly overweight man on his phone standing by some bouldering pads next to a parked car. We nervously smiled and waved at him as he awkwardly mirrored us. “Andy?!”, I thought to myself as I tried to find a good spot to park the car.
As soon as we passed potential Andy’s car, we saw a van with writing that read climbingforlife.me on its side. At the driver seat we saw a tall, well-built gentleman in his 60s smiling and waving at us.
After a firm handshake and some small talk, we strapped on our bouldering pads, packed our climbing gear, and made our way towards Bowden Doors.
Caption: Andy Swann at Bowden Doors.
"Watch your step, there are three species of snakes around these parts", said Andy. He recounted a tale from when he was bouldering by himself in a crag nearby. He was climbing a fairly high boulder which had a very good hold at at the top. Once he reached for the hold, he peeked over to check what was up there. Charging towards him was a viper! Acting quickly, Andy managed to intentionally barn door out of the snake’s way. The snake fell to the floor and slithered away before Andy could get a picture in his camera.
With our minds on the story of the flying snake, we made our way towards quiet boulders which we were going to ascend in a few moments time.
The Sheep Pen crag
After about 10 minutes of walking, we reached a small sheltered area which is known as Sheep Pen. Apparently back in the day, shepards used to bring their sheep here to shelter from the wind. It was a sizable boulder both lengthwise and heightwise. We popped our mats down and got ready to get on the wall.
Andy explained the process of spotting. He explained that the objective was not to catch the person falling. We humans aren't designed to be caught like a cricket ball.
Instead, the objective was to direct a falling climbing towards the crashpads, such that they dont 'boink their head' as J.W. said in the previous session. We were instructed to stand with one foot in front of the other, and our hands aiming at the climber's hips.
We completed a few drills and warmups. Andy talked about how the warmup was an integral part of the routine to get both the mind and body ready for the stresses they were about to endure.
As we were limbering up, a family passed by us and one of them stopped by to have a chat with Andy. Afterwards, Andy informed us that the guy he was chatting with was Ben Moon, founder of Moon Climbing. Andy retold tales from their youth when they used to be rivals.
In the first ever bouldering competition held in Leeds, both Ben and Andy competed. Both climbers made it all the way to the final. In the final, on one of the problems, Andy made it up to the second-to-last hold. He lunged towards the top hold, touched it, but did not manage to hold it and fell to the ground instead. Ben on the other hand managed to top that boulder, which meant that Ben won the comp with Andy at second place.
He talked about how they'd been rivals all their competing lives, but as they got older, the pressures of competing had faded away and they’d become good friends.
The first top of the day
After much time spent warming up and learning the basics of bouldering outdoors, it was finally time to try topping one of the boulder problems.
Moments before, Andy had shown us a sequence of moves that we needed to execute to make our way up to the top. He made it look like it was a walk in the park.
When it was my turn to have a crack at it (not literally!), I established myself and started trying the sequence that Andy had demonstrated earlier.
Luckily this route was mostly formed of jugs for our hands and ample ledges for our feet, which reminded me of Route 2. It was also fairly high, maybe 3/4th the height of Route 2.
Slowly but surely, both of us topped the boulder. Andy pointed out some good technique demonstrated by J.Y. She has a way of finding unique moves to overcome her short reach.
Quiet please!
After warming up at Sheep Pen, it was time to move our gear further towards some other crags. We settled into one, the name of which now eludes me.
At this point in time, it was getting close to lunchtime and many people had the same idea as us and were making the most of the good weather. I readied myself to make an ascent of an interesting boulder problem which involved a some intricate footwork.
As I made my way towards the challenging bit of the problem where we had to jam our feet into a crack, a pretty loud group of people decided to pass by us. They probably thought to themselves “Oh this lad … he’s got this under control. He looks like he knows what he’s doing. Surely he doesn’t mind a bit of white noise from our conversations.” Little did they know what was actually going through my mind.
Despite the crashpads at the bottom, I would much prefer not to make use of them. Therefore, I had to zone out the noise as best I could and focused on my footwork, to not slip or to make any clumsy moves.
Caption: J.Y. climbing the very route where I was pulled out of my trance by onlookers!
After what felt like an eternity for the group to pass by, I managed to make my way to the top and let out a sigh of relief. I would live to see another boulder problem (at least)!
Ravens Crag
After spending some time at various boulders at Bowden Doors, it was time to switch crag.
We packed our gear and headed towards Ravens Crag, which was across a stream from where we were. We even ended up having to place one of our bouldering pads on the stream to cross without drenching ourselves!
Given it’s out of the way location, this crag was virtually empty, with only the sound of a skylark to keep us company.
The boulder was secluded as it only had one approach, with the other completely overgrown with fern and nettle. It comprised of an overhanging bit followed by an inclined low gradient climb up to the top. There was also a bit of heather between the overhang and the top which made for some interesting climbing.
Both of us managed to top multiple routes which felt satisfying. The views towards Wooler were stunning and the warm sunny day meant we were in no hurry to get back.
Caption: J.Y. at Ravens Crag.
After about an hour of bouldering, we decided to call it a day. There were so many stand out moment from the day that I will cherish for a lifetime. It was also an honour to learn from one of the greatest climbers of all time. The experience certainly gave us the confidence to venture out on our own in the future.
This post has been over three months in the making! I'm glad I finally got around to writing it. The experience of bouldering with Andy was so great and I wanted the post to reflect that.
Hope you enjoyed the post, feel free to share the URL with anyone who might find this interesting. You can also subscribe to my blog (either through an RSS feed or email). Feel free to email your comments to tony(at)tonytriesstuff(dot)com or comment on Mastodon.
Until next time,
Tony
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