UKC

First coined by military reserve members, the phrase "Weekend Warrior" is used to describe those who spend their weekends chasing after their personal passion and sharpening their skills once the work week is over. In climbing, It's definition is attributed to those who travel great distances, often forfeiting sleep and guzzling copious amounts of coffee in order to get their fix of rock fondling.

Gaz Leah offers a proud tribute to all of the Weekend Warriors out there.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=7188

In reply to UKC Articles:
Need more campfire debauchery and a teleport device.

In reply to UKC Articles:
I often moan about living in London because of the distance to decent climbing but when you speak to a lot of Americans it really puts it into perspective. I was speaking to some Americans in Spain the other day who said they would sometimes drive 8 hours to Red River Gorge for the weekend. I can get to anywhere in England that quick and a lot of crags in Spain! By American standards nowhere in the UK is that far! Having said that I am not looking forward to the 4+ hour drive to Malham early tomorrow AM.

In reply to JM:

Yep, I used to live just south of London and we'd often go to the Peak or Wales for the day. Or font for the weekend.
Finished work at three in the afternoon once and went to birchen for the evening but in hindsight that was probably a bit much, even for the super keen.

In reply to deacondeacon:


That's just brilliant! What time did you get home? I fail even to make it to Harrisons of a summer evening, put off by the prospect of the M25. Clearly not made of The Right Stuff.

In reply to seankenny:

I can't remember what time we got home but it was in the height of summer so if we managed to climb until ten then we would have been home about 12.30.
I honestly don't remember the long drives ever being an issue, unless there was some serious delays, and London to the Peak really isn't that far, we lived in Sutton and it'd rarely take more than 2.5 hours to the Peak.

I live in Sheffield now and am going to Tremadoc tomorrow, it'll defo take longer than the drives we used to do from London.
And as for not going on Southern Sandstone in the evening, you should be ashamed

In reply to deacondeacon:


Sterling effort!


I have heard these sorts of claims but have very rarely managed to make it up in less than three hours.



I know, terrible! I'm never quite convinced it's worth the effort for an evening...

In reply to UKC Articles:
escape is escape and an adventure is an adventure, no matter how far how long or how short.

In reply to deacondeacon:

Nice, I thought Ramshaw from Hertford was a hike for an evening climb. Nothing like bouldering by the light of midge repelling candles.

In reply to UKC Articles:

"The difference between the English and Americans? The English think 100 miles is a long way, the Americans think 100 years is a long time."

(Can't remember who said it.)

In reply to UKC Articles:

Just had my first weekend warrior 'weekend'* of the year.

Have to say I struggled with the drive back (4.5hrs of not fun) and wouldn't do it again (at least not without stashing some coffee or energy drink in the car). I've only once before driven so far north and back over two days and the other time I only did one short walk (poor weather) whereas this time I had the weather dreams are made of.

*Friday and Saturday

In reply to UKC Articles:

Considering fatigue is a major contributor to a significant number of fatal/serious road accidents, maybe this is not something to be promoted.

http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/adviceandinformation/driving/driverfatigue/...

Noting the quote: "sometimes putting our lives at risk"; the stats mentioned in the above link mean that by doing this you are probably putting other road user's lives at risk too.

Nevertheless, it's hard to resist the temptation to make the most of our weekends, but try to be safe with the driving.

In reply to UKC Articles

Mildly confused by this, how else do people go climbing? I live in Birmingham and usually every other weekend it's either Lakes (4hrs) N Wales (3hrs) Peak (1.5/2 hrs) in a hut or camping. Go on Friday night, back Sunday night. Plenty of single day trips to the Peak as well. Do people not usually bother going if it's just for the weekend?

In reply to TomGB:


I would agree, my life is somewhat more leisurely now and less tied to work times etc. but for a good 20 years anything under a 2 hour drive home on a Sunday evening was considered a bonus.

In reply to UKC Articles:

We spend 7 hours in the car to get 5 hours at Portland! Roll on Saturday and Battleship Edge!

In reply to UKC Articles:

Aside from the evening trips to Ramshaw that I used to do with mkean as he mentioned above, I think my best ever was a winter weekend trip last year to Torridon, from Cornwall.

We left normal time after work on a Friday, got back home for a couple hours sleep before work on the Monday morning. In between we managed to get the main ridge traverses of Liathach and Beinn Alligin done, plus got blisteringly drunk on the Saturday night. The ridiculousness of it was bought home to me by my mate Chester who in the small hours somewhere near Aviemore on the way there, turned to me and said "we've got to drive home tomorrow!"

So long as you just keep telling yourself that it'll be worth it, then once you arrive you're always proved right

In reply to TomGB:

(Walking for me, not climbing but...) a 2 hr trip each way for a day trip is fine. Up to 3 hrs for an overnighter. Usually for 4 hrs plus I'd be looking to spend at least 2 nights away. That's by myself so no-one to split the driving with.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Carbon footprint anyone?

In reply to UKC Articles:

I've drive to North Wales or the Lakes many a times from Somerset to get my fix of winter or rock. Winter 2013, i was up in N.Wales pretty much every other weekend: drive up late Friday night, sleep in the car or bivi, full days climbing saturday and sunday, then get home LATE sunday night. Long, tiring but totally worth it.

Scotland is too hard really as it's organising time off work and getting the right conditions. And i prefer the mountain multipitch than the somerset Road side stuff.

In reply to JM:


Driving in America is a very different experience though!


Chris

In reply to Pylon King Against Capit@lism:

Carbon footprint anyone?

Agree it looks bad, but it's only really the ratio of carbon released/time spent climbing that's bad. Overall the impact is no worse than if you were to go away for a week say, rather than a couple of days. Unless of course you were doing these sorts of drives every weekend or something - which would be mental. For my part it's more that I drive long distances for a weekend rather than say a week as I can seldom afford much time off.

In reply to TomGB:
That's normal though. Beyond 4 hours is 'far' I'd say. But that's relative to where you live I guess. If you're in Essex, 4 hours is probably the minimum! Whereas from Birmingham the only places further away than 4 hours I are West Penwith and Scotland. Just been to Scotland and back on my own (meeting up with someone there) - a bit gruelling on the way back!

In reply to JuneBob:




Having 2 drivers doing short shifts (say 2 hours each) sorts that out and means car sharing. With 4 drivers you're only doing 2 hours driving to get to a lot of the UK from Manchester.

In reply to UKC Articles:

When I first moved to Dorset I spent every single weekend for the first 7 months travelling to the Peak, Wales or the Lakes. The trip north was always a rush to pick up mates and make last orders somewhere, the trip back was always listening to Annie Nightingale with regular coffee stops along the way. 4-5 hours each way. Monday mornings were always grim, though diluted with the afterglow of having had a great weekend.

More recently it took more than 8 hours to get to North Wales from Chippenham once - I've not done a weekend up north since. It was less driving to get to Fontainbleau.

In reply to steve taylor:


you are lucky to still be alive.

In reply to Mr-Cowdrey:
I managed to get the coach to aviemore from Victoria on a Friday evening in jan, spent the weekend and got the coach back Sunday night and went straight to work on Monday. Wouldn't want to do it every weekend, but is feasible monthly.

In reply to harrydavies:

I suppose you can sleep on the coach, but that's not a bad idea what you did there. Might give it a go next season, or see if flying is cheap enough.

In reply to Mr-Cowdrey:
The coach was £25 return with tesco vouchers. Sleeping wasn't too bad, no worse than falling asleep on the sofa.

In reply to UKC Articles:

God I love living in Sheffield.

In reply to Scrump:
Good for the Peaks but a bit far for a weekend in Cornwall...

In reply to Misha:

Nah it's just round the corner
five hours Sheffield-The Lizard, and Tom said earlier he did Cornwall-Torridon for a weekend.

In reply to deacondeacon:
Five hours, that's fast! Birmingham - Bosigran is usually four and a half.

In reply to Mr-Cowdrey:

In the 80's we used to go from Sheffield to Scotland most weekends. Leave Sheffield about 6:00pm and stop off at Bridge of Orchy. The waiting room in the station was a good bivi site. It had a one bar heater with one of those push button timers that switched the heater on for about 15mins. A bit of duck tape over the button meant we got heat all night. Saturday morning would be an early start for a route on the Ben, followed by a night at the Onich Hotel and sleeping at the Red Squirrel. Sunday would usually be a route in Glencoe, or if conditions were really good another slog up to the Ben.

I used to sleep on the floor in my lab at work (Hallamshire Hospital) on Sunday night. The 37C incubator room was a good place to dry out wet gear. Most of Monday was spent in a daze.

In reply to wilkesley:


Now you're really talking my language.

I suppose the ultimate long distance for climbing is fly New Zealand - London, do one route at Harrisons, fly back.