PEAK DISTRICT

Climbing guide Paul Lewis recalls a childhood learning to navigate the rocks and boulders of central England’s storied peaks

I was brought up just outside the Peak District, near Stockport. My friends and I started coming here as kids, and it was that classic thing — you see a bit of rock and you want to scramble up it. In those days we didn’t know anything really, had no knowledge or skills. It was just the pure adventure of it. I started climbing with ropes aged about 10. We didn’t get any instruction or training — it was basically if you survived, you learned something. It certainly wouldn’t be a method I’d advise, but it worked for us. We’d learn from watching other people on the crags.

I moved into the national park about 25 years ago. I love the freedom of climbing, being out in nature, but also the physical element of it. When it’s done well, it’s a very flowing, movement-based sport, so there’s a lot of joy in that. The other big thing is feeling connected. When you’re holding on to rock you feel a connection to it, to the history of it.

With climbing and bouldering, you’ve got no headspace for anything else — you’re focused purely on the climb. It can be quite a solitary, soulful activity at times, but at others it’s very sociable. There’s a sense of achievement, too. If you can’t quite work out the sequence, you keep trying and trying, then if you turn your foot this way, or use your fingers that way, eventually you unlock it. I’ve still got problem areas around the Peak District that I’ve been working on for ages. One day I’ll work them out.

That’s the beauty of this area. There are almost endless different places to go and they’ve all got their own character, but if I had to pick my ‘Desert Island’ crag, it would have to be Stanage, purely because of the variety and the quality there. For rope-rock climbing and bouldering, it has so many choices. peakmountaineering.com peakdistrict.gov.uk