Foreword
I haven't done a report for a while and since I have wanted to do this explore (not sure explore is the right word) for a while, figured I'd wang it in. It'll be short and sweet though. I was more interested in making sure the ropes were set up right than my camera! For obvious reasons. There are a few phone snaps in here.
I did the explore with Matt Ellinson after we got chatting in a mine about a cool trip of high stuff we could do over a weekend.
History
The Angel of the North is a contemporary steel structure of an angel 20 meters tall with a whopping wingspan of 54 meters wide. It over looks the A1 and A167 roads into Tyneside, something you're acutely aware of as you climb the bugger. It cost £800,00 to make, was started in 1994 and finished in 1998. So, it's not especially high, but it is still incredibly impressive and it's something to say you have sat on it's wings (or stood, as others before us have done, some even standing on its head).
The shenanigans
After half getting up something earlier and having to make a hasty retreat, receiving a history lesson from a very keen local and driving a good number of hours, we rocked up late at night in the car park for the Angel of the North. It still wasn't dark though and there were lots of people milling about, taking photos on their smartphones of them standing next to the main event. It took hours before we were sure everyone had fucked off and fell properly dark, before we could go about rigging our assent. It never went properly dark on the northern horizon though and, as it turned out, we had a small window of opportunity to get it nailed before the sun rose again.
It did not take long to rig. Matt had done it before, so kindly let me zoom up in case anything happened and only one of us got the opportunity. While I was sitting on the wing, a car pulled into the car park and seemed to sit watching. So I took a couple of phone snaps and made my way back down. Then Matt zoomed up and down again and we were done. We packed up, stuck the stuff in the car, got verbally abused by the drunk people in the car that pulled in, grabbed our hammocks and set up camp for the night as the sun rose.
The snaps
Cheers for reading.
View attachment 768095
I haven't done a report for a while and since I have wanted to do this explore (not sure explore is the right word) for a while, figured I'd wang it in. It'll be short and sweet though. I was more interested in making sure the ropes were set up right than my camera! For obvious reasons. There are a few phone snaps in here.
I did the explore with Matt Ellinson after we got chatting in a mine about a cool trip of high stuff we could do over a weekend.
History
The Angel of the North is a contemporary steel structure of an angel 20 meters tall with a whopping wingspan of 54 meters wide. It over looks the A1 and A167 roads into Tyneside, something you're acutely aware of as you climb the bugger. It cost £800,00 to make, was started in 1994 and finished in 1998. So, it's not especially high, but it is still incredibly impressive and it's something to say you have sat on it's wings (or stood, as others before us have done, some even standing on its head).
The shenanigans
After half getting up something earlier and having to make a hasty retreat, receiving a history lesson from a very keen local and driving a good number of hours, we rocked up late at night in the car park for the Angel of the North. It still wasn't dark though and there were lots of people milling about, taking photos on their smartphones of them standing next to the main event. It took hours before we were sure everyone had fucked off and fell properly dark, before we could go about rigging our assent. It never went properly dark on the northern horizon though and, as it turned out, we had a small window of opportunity to get it nailed before the sun rose again.
It did not take long to rig. Matt had done it before, so kindly let me zoom up in case anything happened and only one of us got the opportunity. While I was sitting on the wing, a car pulled into the car park and seemed to sit watching. So I took a couple of phone snaps and made my way back down. Then Matt zoomed up and down again and we were done. We packed up, stuck the stuff in the car, got verbally abused by the drunk people in the car that pulled in, grabbed our hammocks and set up camp for the night as the sun rose.
The snaps
Cheers for reading.
View attachment 768095
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