UKC

Jules McKim reminisces of summer days discovering the joys of a local towpath bridge traverse, which brought together a (socially distanced) band of climbers and passers-by in a testing time...

Happy New Tier! And with that, the climbing walls shut again. Back to the bridge we found in the summer, where the road goes over the water. A thirty metre dry-in-all-weathers traverse on slopey crimps. I'd cycled past this wall years ago and noticed historic chippings on the left-hand end, creating the start of possibilities, but the rest of the wall looked and felt way too hard. Where there's a wall there's a way.

Reminds me climbing in Warsaw, Poland in 80s/90s. We had no climbing walls and no crags near by. There was a ~100 meters traverse like that, over very busy double carriageway road in the city center. Somehow, authorities accepted that people climb there. This is where I learnt climbing and miraculously avoided lead poisoning from car fumes.

This, my friend, is great writing. It encapsulates it all; why we do it, what we get out of it. And the fact that it's about some mingy graffiti-covered wall makes it brilliant and clear; no heroism, no pathos, just the essence and the joy of it all. I'm in Berlin and have my own urban playgrounds; they've kept me sane and fit and as you say: finally sending that sequence after weeks or months gives you just as much of a buzz as ticking some big route on the rock. We're living to the full when we get to escape for a couple of hours and torture our fingertips. Weird sport, weird times.

Thanks for this, and keep writing! 

More than 40 years later, I remember this place with such affection. We give so much of ourselves at these seemingly insignificant little venues; in time, they become part of us.

Mick

1981 Bridge Road railway bridge, Lancaster,
2021 Acton Grange railway bridge, Warrington

Thanks! That means a lot. It's made a nice change from writing for work. Hope you're getting out there: buildings or crags!

Great article.  Reminds me of student days in Cambridge climbing on 'The Was' (aka Fen Ditton Railway Bridge) which I'm delighted to see is logged in UKC.

Hi Mick, hope you’re ok! 35 years for me since I first climbed there, and Red Wall and the hard extension which wasn’t part of the traverse, and the wall in Endcliffe park, and the school wall outside St Just in Cornwall that Geraldine showed me for wet days, and so many bits of building all over the world. Like you say Mick, part of us.

And always will be.

Am bimbling along, bimbling along. Hope all's well with you, Paul.

Mick

Lovely article. One of my favourite climbing genres. Low, sideways and handy, or should that be fingery? This has inspired me to find some more walls around Halifax.

Let us know if you find any, preferably warm and dry!

Hi Carl,

Have a look at the side walls of the flyover, town side below big roundabout for a start. Right up your street, long and techy trav.

Not under cover unfortunately but quick drying.

PM if you want an intro.

Ian 

One of the best pieces of climbing writing I've seen in a long time. Thank-you.