CityLife

Sheer thrill of being a rock star

REACHING FOR THE STARS: A climber on the wall

FOR an absolute beginner with no head for heights, I manage to scale the wall at the Manchester Climbing Centre in super-quick time.

I peer over the top of the peak – plant my imaginary flag – then abseil back to the floor in seconds.

I’m unscathed, pumping with adrenaline, and filled with pride. A natural? Should Sir Chris Bonington be preparing to eat his heart out?

Err, not quite.

For my personal notion of success has far more to do with getting the ordeal over with as quickly as possible than any innate mountaineering skills.

I’m simply glad it’s all over but.

Fortunately, my life was in very safe hands indeed.

Helping me to learn the ropes were the rock star professional mountaineers climbers James Pearson, 23, from Matlock, and Gaz Perry, 36, from Bury, two young men fortunate enough to learn a living from mountaineering.

Both are sponsored by outdoor clothing company, The North Face and spend the days when they’re not conquering peaks with a photographer’s lens in their faces attempting to convert people to their sport.

They’re at the former Gorton church which houses the Manchester Climbing Centre as part of a roadshow which sees them talking to people like me.

Over the 40-day Summit Series Roadtrip, the climbers will tackle a series of different and exciting routes.

After Manchester, the tour continues through 14 countries, covering a distance of over 11,000km and finishing on May 10 at the MelloBlocco bouldering festival in Val Masino, Italy.

Sideshows

In each country there will be a mixture of challenging climbs, sideshows, master classes and demonstrations – with 20 summit days of climbing 20 of the best 8a routes in Europe, and 20 “approach” days, talking to young climbers and the public.

The aim of the road trip is to inspire and to encourage, enabling people to discover climbing through listening to, talking with and learning from some of the best climbers in the world.

And it seems that my ordeal isn’t quite over. This time I’ll climb to the ceiling using only the purple pieces of plastic to pull myself up.

Gaz and James explain a little more about the way in which the climbing harness works and how the shoes I wear have to be tight to the point of causing me cramp so that my toes are better able to cling to the “rock surface”.

Overhanging derriere

Two massively important tips are to let my legs do the most of the work and to lean into the rock at all times so that the centre of gravity doesn’t switch to my overhanging derriere and send me stumbling in to mid-air.

I almost make it to the top, but can’t quite bring myself to stand on one lump of plastic while holding another with two increasingly sweaty sets of fingers, and call time on the experience.

It’s definitely a good workout, and mainly because there’s no choice but to exert yourself – a case of do or die. My muscles will remind me of that fact for the rest of the day.

But you know what? I can now see why people do come to love climbing, and none more so than Gaz and James.

James caught the bug when he was tiny and has had deferred an astrophysics degree to carry on climbing.
 
“I used to climb everything when I was little,” he says. “Then, when I was a teenager, I went climbing with a friend’s family. It’s a way of life. Everything I do is informed by how it might affect my ability to climb. It really does lead you to take care of yourself.”

“The best climb is nearly always the last one,” he adds.

“There are always new challenges.”

Gaz started caught the climbing bug while scrambling through the countryside with his dad and insists that the climbing shouldn’t necessarily be considered a risky business.

“The risks you take are calculated,” he says. “Just as people walking along the road don’t tend to suddenly collapse, I’m totally aware of my abilities as a climber.

"Probably the worst thing that can happen is if you break a hold while out on a cliff face. That’s just about the only thing that you can’t do anything about.”

It’s been a great experience. Fun even. But Gaz and James are now off to climb far more precarious peaks in the great outdoors.

And I certainly won’t be joining them.

For more information check out: www.manchesterclimbingcentre.com.