Today my sister Rebekah and I scaled the inside of Honister slate mine with their new experience, the '
Subterranean Climb the Mine.'
At £29.95 per adult (over 16s), this two hour experience was absolutely value for money. In part, I think that this was because there were only three of us when we completed the course, and with spaces available for 12 people per excursion, I can imagine that there could be long periods of waiting for the person ahead or behind to move on or catch up. For me, however, this was a fantastic experience - I'm not afraid of heights, and some level of agility was needed, especially in the first section of the climb which was the most physically challenging.
Our instructor, Adam, was an absolute delight - he talked us through the climb stage by stage, and was really helpful when my sister had a little trouble with the height and the frosty cold bars that we had to hold on to (grippy gloves would definitely be recommended!), and he helped hoist her down, and she then joined us on the next section.
After the first difficult climb, we climbed a metal ladder (while attaching ourselves with caribina clips onto wire loops) and onto a tightrope with two handrails either side. We traversed this (see picture below) and then worked our way around a corner.
From here, we went up a fairly extensive ladder, and up to another tightrope - this one was a bit more difficult, with only a loose rope to hold onto. I found, personally, focusing on the tightrope itself allowed me to move fairly smoothly along.
Once we'd climbed across this second tightrope, we walked through the mine for a little while, walking across a plank over a drop (once again clipped onto a wire) and through some fairly low tunnels. The tunnels, incidentally, were a bit breezy - so I'd definitely recommend wearing a jumper and a windproof coat/mac.
We then climbed down a fairly steep tunnel/shaft. There were hand-holes, bars and climbing holds everywhere, and plenty of places to put your feet. This was the last bit of climbing of the experience, but it was fairly extensive - really made me realise how high in the mine we'd climbed earlier!
When we finished and left the mine, it was tipping it down with rain - if it's a rainy day in the Lake District, and you want a challenge, this is definitely something I'd recommend - those completing the Via Ferrata (which I did about 2 years ago) would (and did, today) get soaked through, and a similar experience can be achieved with the mine climb, staying significantly drier. We caught the Honister bus back to the mine, returned all of our kit, and had a cup of tea. All of the photos were taken by our instructor, Adam, and could be bought for £15 at the reception desk when we finished. You can have a look on the screen by reception to double check that they're worth buying, but it's always good to memorialise an experience like this, that you might only ever do once!
A big thank you to everybody at Honister who had a part in arranging this experience, and especially to our instructor, Adam, who was fantastically helpful and a fountain of climbing knowledge. Would definitely do this again!
January was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster: I've been having the time of my life with Chris, I visited him in the Lake District and watched all 4 showings of the Braithwaite Panto where he played Robin Hood. We walked most of the way up Grisedale Pike in snow that went up to my waist at some points. Then he came down to visit me in Torquay twice, once at the end of January when we celebrated our birthdays, and again for Valentines day in February.
