Three Cliffs

by Emily Tongue

Three cliffs
We met later than usual at Fulton house only to be greeted by a large crowd of Open University goers and 2 past committee members, Adam and Chris. This certainly was a grand experience for many of the fresher’s who had not been acquainted with Chris. After arranging cars and managing to navigate our way out of Fulton we set off on our adventure. Once some of the cars had made it to the car park (Max, Becky and the fresher’s having not yet arrived ) we set off to the crag, finding it was fairly busy with children top roping off some of the “good” routes, so we tried exploring alternatives. After a various mount of faff and Max having found us we sorted ourselves into groups and set off climbing. Having looked at some climbs in the book (and then seen them up close) we ended up returning to the main part of 3 cliffs. Here we racked up and set up, me and Laura started off in a big group as we got fresher’s up to speed with climbing outdoors and lead belaying, whilst Richard and Adam did some awesome climbs. The other guys proceeded to get a lot of routes completed with many a clean lead climb from Jack and Tim. Everyone that day got to experience the fun and wacky down climb which provides full entertainment seeing fellow member’s bum-shuffle down the side of the crag. After we stopped for lunch, a few of the guys (namely Laura, Adam and Richard) went to explore an alternative climb around the corner. Everyone else racked up once again and continued with easy going routes. It was at this point I also realised that Chris was leading in his trainers, this gave the timely reminder of our last escapade with Chris at three cliffs when he turned up with no ropes, so all day just soloed! It was at this point the very solemn faces of Laura and her crew returned, having not climbed at all, as the route was no good. A few more climbs were completed and a few made up, then we all met at the bottom and packed up earlier than usual as it was Halloween that night, whilst trampling our way pack to the car park (or slipping in Adams case) we witnessed a fantastic sunset. We met back at Pub on the Pond for food which was a fantastic way to end the day!