Spiritual Home

If British rock climbing has a spiritual home then it's at Stanage. This relatively diminutive (30m at it's highest) cliff is 4 miles long, stands 458m above sea level at it's highest point (the aptly named High Neb) and yet, with its collection of over 1500 climbs on 'God's Own Rock' - Gritstone to the uninitiated, it's a place that every British climber has to visit at least once.
For me  - I've been returning here for over 25 years - some routes are like old friends - some offer a new challenge. Climbing on gritstone is a strange mix of thuggery and delicateness of balance - but most days end with a case of the infamous gritrash - a kind of sandpapering of the hands and extremities that many don't notice until they relax into a hot bath at the end of the day.
For the aficionado's of hard climbing cool weather is a must - but for punter's like us it's a fantastic social place to chill out, watch the other climbers and maybe push ourselves a bit too.
I'm looking forward to heading back already.