[r-man]

If you were a foreigner and wanted to come over and climb hard problems, what would be the best month?

I was asked this recently, and actually, I don't know the answer. What are people's opinions?

[dave]

probably feb, except feb 2010.....

[psychomansam]

you can get quite reasonable long-term and monthly forecasts, and better 5/10 day ones, so whenever it's not pissing it down.

[Jim]

what dave said

[Johnny Brown]

If they can handle the cold, Feb.
If they can't, April.
If they can't do spring, want to see the landscape at its most beautiful and don't mind a gamble, November.

[The Sausage]

I've done all my best ascents (very few) in feb/march. It's always going to be a gamble.

[Johnny Brown]

I'm pretty sure February is statistically the driest month of the year in the Uk. So not a huge gamble if you come for longer than a weekend.

[cofe]

Feb/March. Even this feb was fine from mid month onwards.

[Stubbs]

If you want to come over and have a good chance of climbing hard problems I reckon you need to leave yourself 6-8 weeks, otherwise you run the risk of just climbing at the Works/Stoney for a month! I seem to remember when Team America came over they didn't get that many good days in all the time they were here.  I'd concur with Feb/March as optimum crushing months.

Cofe wasn't a lot of the Peak still buried under snow in Feb this year? I can't remember when it started melting...

[cofe]

depends on where you went in feb. things improved a bunch from mid feb.

[Bonjoy]

When I go bouldering abroad, especially for a first visit to an area, I tend to favour sacrificing the chance of optimum conditions in favour of optimising the number of climbable days. First visits are all about picking off the amenable classics and getting an overall flavour of a place. So if I was advising someone with the same agenda as me I’d probably suggest late Sept early Oct, or late March early April. This has the added bonus that if it does end up being too hot you can always go to somewhere like Wales instead, if the weather craps out in Feb you are likely to spend a week indoors.

[r-man]

Found these little graphs on the web:

Temperature



Rainfall



February looks like the driest, but it is horribly cold.

[dave]

I don't think feb is that cold really, because there's less rain and hence sunnier, so the temps often feel that bit warmer than they look on paper.

[Mike Tyson]

Didn't Toru climb pretty hard in not perfect temperatures last year? Not that I am denying February is probably the best month but it shows harder things can be done at other times. Whenever I have visited it seems to be late Autumn/early Winter and I always remember good conditions but bitterly cold. I remember going to the Roaches and not actually climbing as it was so cold. What a wimp.

[Jim]

you can get good conditions all year round in the uk but they are more reliable in febuary

[slackline]

Didn't Toru climb pretty hard in not perfect temperatures last year?

Yep, E8's and E9's in late August/early September.

Met him in the Millstone one evening as he'd been climbing with Zaff that day (he was on soft drinks being too young to be served/not interested in booze), he was having a great time and was completely unphased by conditions having done Parthian Shot and Meshuga in between showers that day.  Put my punter bumblings at Millstone that evening to shame!

[kingholmesy]

February might be best purely in terms of bouldering conditions.

However, April is cold enough to boulder yet warm enough to get a rope on if you fancy it.  Plus it is generally just less grim than February, when it feels like it has barely got light before it's getting dark again.