Jude and Nicola – Portland Climbing – 21st Sept 2020

Nicola contacted me after purchasing an adventurous outdoor climbing gift voucher for her boyfriend. They had both been climbing for a while and were keen to get the skills to be able to abseil and sport climb independently. We decided to head to Portland and try out Cheyen Weire climbing area. The aim was to cover threading the anchors at the top of a sport route and abseiling. Jude was already happy with indoor lead climbing. These two main skills would mean that after the session, they could be totally independent and climb any sport route on Portland and the world!

After a chat in the car park and doing a little session on what equipment choices they had, we headed to the climbing area along the Dorset coast path. I set up some super easy top ropes as a warm up and footwork practice on the Neddlefiled climbing area. Once they were happy and understood the principles of lead outdoor climbing in Portland, Jude got on the sharp end, lead his first outdoor route and retrieved all the climbing equipment. Once Jude was happy we had a choice to make. One was to carry on climbing at the same venue or the second choice was to explore abseiling in a safe environment (on the floor) and put into practice and descent 40ft onto a small edge above the deep blue Dorset water. Then the challenge was to climb out and put into practice all the skills they learned in the morning. This was a great way to cement the days learning and to finish on a high – above the sea.

Here is Jude’s and Nicola’s feedback from the session

I cannot recommend Eddy highly enough! His tuition is so thorough yet always fun; he ensures that learning and growing as a climber is exciting more than scary. We always felt extremely safe with Eddy, and we came away being much safer and more confident climbers. Before the session, Eddy took the time to listen to what we wanted to focus on, and then crafted a full day entirely around this, with his own extra (really useful) bits that we didn’t know we needed, but now are grateful for.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Eddy to anyone looking to work on any aspect of their climbing, and I imagine he’s equally great value on any of the activities he offers, as he’s passionate for what he does. We came home with huge smiles on our faces, both for the great time we’d had with Eddy, and for the excitement of what we’d learned and can now practice on our own.

“I won’t be seeking climbing tuition anywhere else!” Jude
“Eddy is brilliant – we had such a fun day out with him and learned a lot too. You don’t need to go anywhere else, Eddy is your guy!” Nicola