UKH

It’s great that many are getting out to climb in these difficult times. I’ve not managed it yet but interested in how others are managing?

Are you just climbing with people who you live with?

Are you climbing with others but succeed in adhering to strict social distancing and infection control protocols?

Are you trying to social distance but you’re only climbing with one other person and you both know you have been careful in other aspects so it’s ok and no harm done when you get close or handle the same surfaces?

In reply to kevin stephens:

So far I've got out twice. Went to Anglezarke and Giggleswick South. I'm fortunate to that my girlfriend climbs.

Both times we have found that other climbers have been very good at following social distancing. Pretty much the crags just got informally split and we stuck to one area per pair/group. When we did rotate we just had a quick conversation from a distance about it. 

I took hand gel with me and used that frequently to minimise risk. All in all its been great to get back out and see others enjoying themselves again. 

I should also add that we are both working from home and have had no contact with anyone else at the moment, we fall into the low risk age/health group and there's low risk of us infecting anyone else i.e. we aren't shielding.

In reply to kevin stephens:

My partner is out of action with a broken leg so I'm climbing with a shunt. Not brilliant but at least I'm getting out and climbing.

In reply to kevin stephens:

I'm getting out most days.  Fortunate enough to have lots of local crags.  I'm either soloing or shunting.  The wonderful thing about a shunt is you don't have to justify your terrible performance to it afterwards!  Off to Willersley Castle crag shortly.

In reply to kevin stephens:

"Socially distanced climbing", an interesting concept, it makes me think of the tiny narrow stance after the Shield on Coronation Street (WW) (E1 5b) - I can imagine pulling on to that stance as a second and saying to my leader "OK now back off 2 metres please"...... not going to happen

In reply to kevin stephens:

If you climb sports or single pitch Trad it's possible. And of course use anti-bac hand gel and avoid putting equipment in your mouth too.

In reply to kevin stephens: I decided to make sure that I didn't put the rope in my mouth whilst clipping. That lasted till the first crux!

Seriously I feel that the choice of climbing partner is as important as the venue or style and am climbing with fellow retirees. 

In reply to kevin stephens:

1) Get Shunt

2) Find local crag with accessible top with anchors.

3) Dangle static rope and get to work doing reps.

This is a big part of what I've been doing - no social distance worry attached.

In reply to profitofdoom:

That's OK, you can't climb Coronation Street until September anyway

I was terrified on that belay, I'd never felt so exposed in my life.

In reply to kevin stephens:

I've been out bouldering a few times now, used local crags so basically places off the map so we've had the place to our selves or my self. Climbed well with in myself and work lots of problems from sit startes to make the hard bit the first bit often. 

Climbing within ur limits is key at the moment I think. Basically take responsibility for urself. Well we always do...

In reply to Hooo:

The restrictions are 16th March to 30th September so not till October.

In reply to kevin stephens:

The sooner we all admit that we are not social distancing when we climb the better. It’s a ludicrous claim to make when we are all touching the same holds, using the same gear and leaving blood, sweat and saliva on bits of gear as well as the rock. 
 

While I’ve been out climbing these last couple of weeks I haven’t seen any climbers social distancing at any point. 

In reply to Hooo:

Yes, it's quite exposed, isn't it. But what got me was hanging and pulling on the Shield just before the belay and realizing "This thing is going to suddenly pull off one day"

Great climb, felt like a good day out

In reply to kevin stephens:

I think choice of partner is key. If both you and your partner are at relatively low risk of having Covid (eg WFH / retired), that's a good start. If your prospective partner or their other half works in a hospital or care home, that's going to be high risk, so probably inadvisable to climb with that person at the moment.

Of course we should do the best we can to maintain SD but no need to go to extremes. So no sharing cars or handshakes/hugs and stick to single pitch. If you want to be purist about it, use separate gear and do separate routes, so the leader strips the route and the belayer leads another route - perfectly possible on quiet crags.

Personally, I'm not too concerned about using the same holds and gear - it's outdoors, there is sunlight, rock is rough which is not conducive to the virus hanging around. I do avoid putting gear in my mouth. Harder not to do it with rope but the two climbers can easily use different ends of the rope to lead. Came across one gate on Monday and used the clipstick to open and close it - again, the risk is probably low but many walkers had used that gate, so it's going to be higher risk than holds on a route which only I and my partner had been on that date.

I'm more concerned about picking up Covid from a door handle in my apartment block as several hundred other people live there, so I'm very careful about using a glove and/or washing hands. Same at petrol stations.

The way I see it, I have a kind of 'Covid risk budget'. Where possible, I will do things in a way which use up as little of the budget as possible. For example, not going out of the flat more than once a day, not meeting friends in person, being very careful about hand hygiene. That way I keep my budget to spend on climbing days out but again I will take sensible precautions.

At the end of the day, it's a personal choice. If it doesn't feel right to you, you don't have to do it.

In reply to kevin stephens:

I've been getting out quite a bit but only top rope soloing. I'm potentially vulnerable myself in addition to also shielding two others who also could be. I've been trying to stick to quieter crags and only on weekdays at quieter times but not every choice was the best I'll admit. The latest accent's feature on the logbooks in addition to the one for individual crags has been useful for gauging how popular a crag has been to plan where to go and which routes might be safer choices. If I know an area has been used, I'll tend to avoid it for a few days to stay on the safe side but also keep an eye out for chalked holds as I'm sure a lot of climbing isn't logged. I've managed not to see any other rope climbers so far, a few boulderers on distant crags.

Like others, I'm trying to sanitise hands before and after each route and obviously avoiding face touching. The more I think about it it though the more I realise that it's virtually impossible to eliminate all risks (even if I knew for sure which things are actually a risk). A few things dawned on me pretty quickly. Climbing involves so much more than just hands and feet touching rock; arms, legs, backs, bums, especially in cracks and chimneys (I change my clothes before getting back in the car). Scrambly descent routes should be considered the same as routes, even more so if they are also a path for walkers as well. You have to put your stuff down somewhere too. Your rope ends up touching so many different surfaces, especially when rigging anchors and throwing ropes down etc. Cuts and scrapes are also inevitable, I spotted my finger was bleeding at one point and almost instinctively just sucked on it like I normally would have before deciding to sanitise instead. Bit disgusting but I felt a bit bad when a running nose dripped on the rock mid-route, it happens...

In terms of possible (or not?) risks posed by others, it seems everyone has a different sized comfort zones (physically) and while most people just give each other a wide berth some just assume that you are happy with their own idea of safe distance. There are a lot of folk out in the country right now who may not be all that familiar with the environment and things like the country code are not always such a given as you might see from the increased amount of litter (which many of us would pick up for others usually).

I had one particular incident where I topped out to find a bloke urinating just metres away from my anchors who seemed genuinely surprised to see me right there despite having spoke to me (a friendly chat) just minutes before at the base of the cliff before I began the route, ropes already up. Once he'd finished his business he wanted to come right down to me and peer over right where I was topping out, essentially cornering me dangling from the edge until I asked him to back off. In his defense he offered me a hand which I graciously declined . He was also constantly spitting, just a great chap! A lot of dogs off leads that I'm not overly keen on jumping on my stuff.

Anyway, these are just my experiences and reflections since the easing. Many of these things might not be an issue for you unless you are wanting to be really especially cautious or if you're personally vunerable or shielding others that might be. In the end we all have to decide what we consider might be a risk and how much of it we are prepared to tolerate or manage.

In reply to Frank the Husky:

I agree. The best you can claim is that you're creating your own social 'bubble' ahead of government guidance. I'm not judging, just making a statement.

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Whatever you want to call it, we can comply with government guidelines whilst doing some climbing activities. Touching holds that someone else has touched does not contravene the guidelines. Multi-pitching and even single pitch routes must be a near impossible challenge though. unless you live with your climbing partner

I bouldered the other day and other boulderers at the crag didn't come within 2m.

In reply to Holdtickler:

This reminds me of the walker / tourist  at Water cum Jolly on Monday who must have known a bit about climbing as he asked me which crag I was at and where some other crag was. I got the guide book out to have a look at the map and he decided to come over right next to me and peer at the guide book as well. I would have told him to keep his distance but it happened so fast I didn’t get a chance. I doubt it was an issue as he was near me for a matter of seconds but as you say it shows that some people have their own ideas.