The last few visits to Stanage and my quest for the one thousand routes got me thinking. When I got home on Sunday (8 more making 985) I dug out an old diary I used to keep back in the 1970s. Rather amazingly it turned out my first visit to Stanage was exactly 40 years earlier to the very day - 17th August 1968 - and it was with Colin (and Pete Ackroyd).
I can still remember the journey down in the back of Colin's van from North Yorkshire (in the hammering rain), camping at North Lees and getting up just after dawn to walk up the road and get a first look at mighty Stanage. It must have made quite an impression.
40 years on and still climbing on the same cliff with the same partner - mind you 1000 routes in 40 years is pretty slow going!
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