UKC

Pete Bridgwood of Leek, Staffordshire recently managed 600 solos in a day, undertaking a staggering ten and a half hours of climbing. Having broken the record for the Staffordshire Nose challenge - completing all 31 of the Western Grit Joe Brown and Don Whillans routes in a day - with Andi Turner in 2013, Pete was keen to take on a similar challenge.

Pete works as an outdoor instructor and teacher. He is a trainee mountaineering instructor and also owns the “Fingerbuzz” healing balm brand. With a busy lifestyle, how did he go about taking on such a challenge? He tells us more in this interview...

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In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant effort, 600 routes in a day is very impressive. Hats off.......

In reply to UKC News:

Its an impressive feat however its done, but out of interest are down climbs included and if so are they only included once?

In reply to Al Evans:

Each climb can only be counted once but it may be climbed either up or down to count.

In reply to UKC News:

An hour and a quarter to basically climb all of Windgather... I've been known to spend as long as that on Chockstone Chimney alone.

Impressive stuff indeed.

In reply to UKC News:
What sort of grades, i.e hardest solo of the day?

Brilliant effort!!

In reply to UKC News:

Could be the best answer to "What's he ever done on grit?....."

In reply to Clauso:

I once soloed all of Windgather in one evening with the exception of that HVS route that looked hard. I did however take 20 years and 4 attempts to finally get up Saul's Crack. A rather poor series of attempts.

Great effort by Pete.

In reply to UKC News:
Pete Bridgwad

In reply to UKC News:
Pete, you are an absolute beast. No doubt about that!

Other than the 4 hr 58 minute Staffs Nose and the 600 solos, there's also the 100 consecutive days of outdoor
climbing to add to the list (I think Pete took it to 109 days?) which are no mean feats for someone with a wife, two kids, twelve bee hives, 8 hens, 3 allotments, a full time job..........

Great to see Dave Hudson's film again too, that really hit the nail on the head.

In reply to Mark Grist:

Fair play Mark...

I still have happy memories of you dragging me up various bits of the Lakes. A good week, was that.

In reply to UKC News:
Congratulations! Great achievement. Fantastic job on the planning, the climbing and especially the endurance.

I've had a go myself at the silly numbers of solos game and once did 200+ routes in a day but stopped on personal safety grounds when I didn't have the strength left to do the first move of a mod at about 3pm).

Best wishes to you, and as other's have said, hat's off

In reply to UKC News:
I'm amazed there's that many routes at Windgather!