A cold days gritstone climbing

Considering I've been on half-term you'd have thought I would have been out climbing earlier than this but life has been getting in the way and it's just rained alot too. However I managed to find a partner in the form of Matt Snell (SUMC Chairman) and we set off into the peak! I had originally intended to get an early start and head over to the east peak, just because there is a higher concentration of climbing there than in the west, but as chance would have it Matt pointed out that he'd never climbed at Hen Cloud. Seeing as he's lived in stoke for a couple of years and not climbed here it seems the decision was made. 

Now I like Hen Cloud, for several reasons but that main one is that fact that it seems to be constantly overlooked. You can stand on the cloud some days and look across at the Roaches and see it almost swarming with Ants (obviously they are not ants) and at the same time it'll be lonely and peaceful where you are. Having said that, it does mean that it can get a little green at times. Today was not exception and we saw no cars parked beneath Hen Cloud as we pulled up. 

After suffering the grueling walk in (about 400 metres up hill at 45 degrees, yes I am a pansy) we settle on climbing Central Route Direct (VS 4c). This is a route that I'm ashamed to admit I've tried twice before but I've never really got off the ground (I think it has more to do with my lack of effort than my ability). however this time there was no escaping it. In the bitter cold I started up the first pitch trying the save my precious cams for when I really needed them. The first set of moves was really trying and hard, especially since it was only 4c but I pushed on. The climbing felt really unstable and thought I was off loads. I guess this has more to do with what I've been climbing recently which is slabs and faces rather than thrutchy cracks and offwidths. In the end I topped out, after making a right meal of the first pitch. It was only 8 metres. Snell came up as I snuggled down into my jacket, apparently belaying in the only breeze I could find. Snell then tackled the next pitch, a offwidth crack with polished sides. It was that or a horrible little crimpy pitch. Snell doesn't like chimenys and even a offwidth was not too his taste but he blasted up it to belay on the next ledge above. He commented that we should have set up a tent on this ledge and I don't think he was far wrong. The final pitch was left up the me and it was only 4a but don't let that fool you. It was a right little thrutchy hard pitch with leff me feeling happy to have topped out. It wasn't at all bad for our first climb.

Having descend it was obvious that the next route should be Central Climb (VS 4c), the original line compared to our first route. This time we would alternate the pitches leaving Snell to head off up the first one. It's a nice pitch but the footholds are super polished meaning that it's a little hatrder than it should be. As I seconded it I managed to retrieve a sling that had been dropped in the crack by another party. This did entail a long and complicated proceedure involving a weights 240cm sling and all my nuts, but I managed it! Pitch 2 fell to me and I took this as a chance to go up the flakes that Snell had avoided on last time. They are pretty thin and I didn't feel good at all about putting my weight on them. The gear itself wasn't that great but the climbing was reasonably easy. I'd rather do this sort of climbing than hard climbing with bomber gear! I set up happily for Snell to lead the last pitch. Again Snell is not a fan on chimneys and this seems to extend to anything that has two walls either side of it. The last pitch has such a features so while I seconded up it, back and footing most of the way up, Snell tired to stay outside of the crack as much as possible. It made for interesting climbing to say the least. These is also a pretty big but loose block at the top of this pitch. I don't think it'll fall out, being pinned in by the surrounding geology but it's scary as hell when it moves when you stand on it. 

On our walk down we took a look at the routes and walls on the right hand section of Hen Cloud. Our intention was to take a look at Great Chimney, but instead we both spotted the line of Hen Cloud Eliminate (HVS 5b). Apart from being a good looking line, it's also mentioned in the guide book as one of Hen Clouds top 3 HVS climbs. It had to be done. I led it, but a few problems on the top section but overall I thought it was a good route. In the beginning it started with ahrd move off the deck, before you gained your first piece of gear, then came a painful hand jamming crack, which I felt me hand were a little too big for but it lead to a half decent rest. The final section I probably climbed completly wrongly. I ended up turning in the groove system above the wrong way round so I ended up in a thurtchy/squirmy exit. It was simply none other than bloody good fun. It's probably worth noting that UKC now grades this route E1, which I think is unfair given that it's incredibly well protected climbing followed by a series of good rests. It's probably also fair to say that Joe Brown (and ilk) wouldn't have had the fine camming devices we've got now when they originally put it up. 

Our last route of the day coudl only really be one route, Great Chimeny (Severe) and what and what made it better was that Snell led the route. He actually led it really well and only managed to freak himself out at the top section when the walls closed in a little. It's probably my favourite climb at the grade in the entire country too. So four routes, two of which were multipitch and a classic HVS too. Not bad for a cold day in the Peak.

anticipation...

So I just checked the weather. It looks like it'll be ok for the next few days which is good because I'm hoping to get out climbing. I think tomorrow is a peak district foray but I'm really looking forward to getting back to wales. The new slate guide is out (though I know it'll be the same old rock) but I've been reading it alot and can't wait to get back out on it. But more importantly we're heading back to our cliff to try for a coupel of new lines. They both (on the photographs) look a little hard, or at least a little more runout than the one we put up previously. Either way here to hoping...

The New Slate Guide... finally!

Long have I been waiting for the new slate guide to come out. Long enough actually for me to appreciate how good my old '92 slate guide is... and it's additional purple folder! Allow me to explain. I'm only a youngster when it comes to slate. To be honest I've only been climbing for the last 9 years or so of my life (climbing has seemed to dominate those years though) but I've been climbing on the slate for something like the last 3, but I've loved it. I actually recently fell out of love with that series of big purple-hued-grey holes in the ground that surround Llanberis because I'd reached bit of a ceiling. It wasn't that I'd climbed all the routes in there that I could climb, but more like I wasn't inspired to climb them. Soames a few months ago came along and changes all that by getting me the crux of Khubla Khan (I got rained off and I've not been back). But my love of that slatey goodess is back.

When the new guide was announced last week, Soames was the first person to tell me about it.I followed the progress of V12 in getting the order and when a chance came to head to wales climbing for the weekend, I jumped at it. My first impressions of the guide after a brief flick through were that I was impressed. It was clear that a lot of work had gone into this book, and judging by it's thickness (compared to the last guide) there would be a host of new routes and topo's in there. But wait a minute, why has it taken so long for the slate guide to be released. I think that there are a few reasons, well two really. There has been considerable development in the past couple of years throughout the quarries. If you've been following the slate wiki then you'll have seen routes going up all over the place. I guess that they've been trying to grade check all of them. The other reason for the held release date, I think, is the access situation. During the filming of "Clash of the Titans" we can all remember the quarries being closed. Also there was a few incidents with Dali's Hole. This eventually calmed down once the fence went up and the low grade sport routes were taken down (I still think this is a good thing). 


Sadly quarry access is something I've been following with a little interest (primarily because I like climbing there and don't fancy the idea of being banned) but seeing as a lot of investment (both financial and time) has gone into this guidebook, it makes more sense to release it when the access situation is good. Seeing as winter is coming and autumn generally has rather poor weather the quarries will take a beating this time of year. With the release of a new guide, how many people do you think will flock there? I just hope that access is sorted.




Things that hit me straight away are the excellent photographs throughout the book, seemingly the same construction (and therefore quality) as the Gogarth North and North Wales Rock guidebooks. The guidebook construction is something I'll tackle later and good pictures don't make a guide. Having said that I was so please when I opened it and started reading. The best place to start is the beginning and the opening sections about what slate it like as a rock type and what gear to carry I thought were very well put (it did recomment skyhooks as fair gear but mainly useful for bailing in the rain). Then each section is well described (like each area of the quarries). The maps are well drawn and seem pretty simple to use (although this might be a little biased as I know my way round the quarries pretty well). I plan on testing this when I go slate climbing with someone who not been there and make them find the route.


What really impressed me was that the main wall of Twll Mawr, Gideon and the Nant Peris quarries (heaven forbid you'd want to climb there!) had decent topos and frank but excellent descriptions. Twll Mawr really does come across as the very dangerous but equally fascinating place to climb and the Gideon Slab actually looks like I'll be able to climbing on it finally (I've never been able to work out where any of the lines go based on the old descriptions). 


The grading seems to be pretty good throughout the quarries. There haven't been that many grade revisions or changes (from sport/trad etc) but the ones that have I've ran over with Soames (who may as well own the quarries as he's climbed there so much) and he agreed with them. Interestingly there's routes in there graded with British Trad, French spot, Drytooling, Aid climbing (mit peggage) and Clean aid climbing. There's still a good few routes as the magically enticing grade of XS and they've still include the obscure alpine grade of ABO for one route. I don't know why but I like this. I really seems to show the broad diversity of climbing in the slate quarries, which is something I like about them and should stay. I think there's enough rock in there that you don't need to retrobolt every route going. The specific style of traditional slate climbing is so important to maintain and (and I'll make a big claim here) so unique to the British climbing scene. 

Next along the line of things I feel the need to comment on is the historical section. If you read anything I've written about guidebooks before then you'll know my stance with regards to the historical sections. They are important. They stop climbing being reduced down to a number and a grade and keep the flow of stories and history behind each route alive. Since the slate quarries are relatively young (with regards to a lot of the mountain crags in North Wales) they're history is 1, quite well recorded and 2, quite brief and 3, a lot of the people around in the original boom are still alive. The guidebook itself doesn't really have a dedicated history section, instead preferring to spread the history out over the book. These come in the form of "Diary of a Slatehead". These little diary style entries look back at how little sections of the quarries were developed and who put up what routes. Coupled with a sort of "Character Profile" of prolific slateheads throughout the book this gives a great overall history of the quarries and an insight into the driving force behind their development.


Wow! that's a lot of writing about one guidebook but I guess you can imagine that I've been waiting along time for this to come out. Slate climbing is something special and I think on the new guidebook they've done a really good job!

Millstone Edge

Went climbing at Millstone Edge in the Peak District on Sunday. My Saturday was spent wondering around Cannock Chase, disturbing wild deer (which I've still not got a decent picture of) climbing trees for elderberries, picking black berries and finding a surprisingly small amount of mushrooms. I was very disappointed with my poor haul of mushrooms (about 4). Rach found loads of fruit so she's made loads more jam (blackberry, elderberry, wild pear and wild apple) which is good!

Sunday as I said was spent at Millstone Edge. I'd planned for an early start based on the fact that I only had one day and wanted to make it a good one. This plan went a little out the window when I picked up Ronnie, who was still in bed and therefore forced me to make a cup of tea. Once that was drunk and Ronnie awakened, we then went to the next pick up point Nat's house to pick up Tim and Andy, who were well both asleep. More tea was consumed and more people arrived and eventually when it started raining we sent off.

It's started raining, you say? You might be wondering why we jetted across the peak if it was raining. Surely it would be better to make more tea and play xbox whilst enjoying the rain as a spectator. This wasn't to be as everyone in my car was psyched to get out and try and go climbing and the other car didn't have much choice but to follow. We did actually stop outside Buxton to make a final decision (based on the information gathered from a borrowed iphone). It said good weather would be there in the afternoon and seeing as we were still in fog with a visibility of around 50 metres I had faith in the met office, we voted (5 for climbing, 1 against) and then carried on.

It like it when life pulls little stunts like this. If it wasn't for Ronnie being in bed, Tim and Andy being in bed, several cups of tea and waiting around for people then we'd have probably either binned going climbing or arrived at millstone to find it encased in cloud. Instead we arrived find it's golden walls bathed in weak autumnal sunshine and the promise of dry, clean rock!

We ended up splitting down into two teams of three for the climbing and I set off up Embankment Route 2, dressed in garish lycra (the less said about that the better). Needless to say the thermal properties of lycra leave something to be desired and hence my change back to my regular climbing trousers. Embankment Route 1 gets VS 4c and I'm not going to lie but I had a really hard time on it. I couldn't seem to get a decent finger lock in at all and my jams felt all off. It was quite nice to be humbled on such a route. Ronnie and Andy Finn (new guy to climbing) seconded it with few problems, Ronnie mainly laybacking the whole route. As we climbed with Tim climbed P1 of Embankment Route 1 (VS 4c in it's own right) with Andy and Scott. There was a definite crux that stumped him for a little while while he lead it. Once we were all on the edge we opted to abseil off a tree (no directly obviously). Once I'd actually abseiled down I realised the error of our actions and made sure that I didn't abseil at all for the rest of the day. There was just no need to abseil and I'm sure it took us longer to all ab off rather than just walk down.

Ronnie took the lead for the next route and headed up Embankment route 1. Considering Ronnie is normally against trad climbing and prefers bouldering he lead the route really well. I think his talents are wasted on bouldering! He made short work of the crux which was great fun to watch. I seconded and the crux was had. It was like a 4c stopper move which was really unbalancy and awkward. Instead of trying to do it nice and technically making all the moves easy, I just grabbed and pulled (shamelessly) upward. Our next route was a little more awkward. Ronnie had spotted the what he thought was the continuation of our route on the wall above and set off to start leading it. The downside to this plan as that we'd not really looked at the guidebook and knew that there was a VS line and an E2 line somewhere up there. He started up the route, got a couple of pieces of gear in and then decided that it looked very hard and sustained for a short section. In the end he downclimbed and offered the lead up to me, which I took. 

I made reasonably good progress up the route placing a lot of gear as I went. I very soon came to the conclusion that this wasn't the VS line at all. At my high point there was a pretty hard move I had to make, running my feet quickly up the wall on smears with a layaway from my hand. This would (hopefully) enable me to reach up and slap for a big large hold (by passing a tiny intermediate crimp on the way). Sadly I was getting hopelessly pumped so instead of committing to the move, I down climbed as steadily as I could and took a rest at the floor as my forearms screamed. I had a little wonder about the ethics of down climbing a route, but not weighting the gear. I mean it's clearly a very different ascent to a pure onsight, but it doesn't break the rules of the onsight does it?

Eventually I couldn't put it off any longer and I dived back on lead climbing to my high point and smashing straight through the crux moves. Like most things the crux wasn't as hard as I'd originally thought and I probably could have done it on my first attempt (before the downclimb). It didn't stop me being as pumped as hell for the final section though. The top-out also left much to be desired. It was loose, like a lot of the tops of routes at Millstone, but this was seriously loose. Ronnie and Andy flashed the route on second, and were both really careful at the top. I did wonder why neither had a helmet on?

Once back at the floor (walking off this time) we checked the guide book and found we actually climbed the second pitch of embankment route 1 an E1 5b pitch. We figured that we'd need a break and some food. I think we both knew what route we would be up for next (Great Portland Street) but it had just reached that point in the afternoon where we'd would chill out and enjoy ourselves. I had a good think about the last route (whether it was far to claim the onsight) and about the rack. I've used Ronnie's Rack for the route and therefore was without my 6 million pieces of gear. I think I might need to put my rack on a diet again. 

Eventually we actually go round to doing some more climbing, as the sun was standing low in the sky. We did Great Portland Street (HVS 5b) and I incorrectly took an gear larger than a size 2 cam. This was a slight mistake on my part ad it meant that the bridging/mantling crux was done with some less than perfect gear but I managed it anyway and carried on right to the top. I was really beautiful climbing as the sun was setting and all the walls glowed with a golden hue. I think this is why I like climbing in autumn so much.

Left Edge

I don't think there is much to say about this route. Actually having just written that I feel pretty bad, like I'm doing the route a injustice or something because I've little to right about it. What I should actually say is that each pitch is as hard as the one before it. There seems to be almost no change in grade thoughout and even if it is only graded VDiff, who cares. It's not often you get a route of such nice quality that is also so long (something around 183 metres, according to the guidebook). The best bits about this route are probably that one, no-one ever seems to be up there and you can do it in the rain, quite happily! Enjoy the pictures below. 

The death of the climbing guide?

Well it seems like it's happened. A iphone app has been developed for use in the quarries, therefore meaning that all of those with a iphone can now download said app and use it instead of a guidebook. I feel sad as although it might be a little old fashioned I like owning a guidebook to an area.

At uni my friends would be a little surprised when we'd be discussing route idea for the day and they'd say something like "whats that classic VS down the Nant Gwynant Vally?" and I'd pipe up with "you mean Bovine right? or Oxo, or oxine?". I like to read guidebooks. Apart from being stuff full ot routes they usually have a history section or a local geology section (or even local plantlife etc). I found that they are usually really awesome to read. Take something like the Cloggy Guide. It's a small guide which contains all the winter and summer lines on cloggy. Now apart from being a very well set out guidebook and very neat, it has a history section like no other. I'll appreciate that Cloggy lends itself to a good history section (what with so many stories surrounding the cliff like the Indian Face Saga etc) but the point is that they didn't have include this rich history that adds to the cliff.

I think that maybe books appeal to a certain type of climber. I value the time spent in the pub reading up when a route was first put up, who the first ascentionist was and all the little tit-bits that get included with decent guides (like why they named the route as they did, see the old '92 slate guide for examples of this). It's nice to see who did what and at what time the route was put up. For example Bengal Buttress was climbed in 1930, and it's still a hard route today, but at the time it must have been a massive achievement! This kind of stuff is put in guidebooks.

I know quite a few climbers who wouldn't dream of reading thier climbing guide. People who'll use it as a guide to get them to a crag and then up a route (infact I know a few climbers who use them to get them to a crag, but don't fully read the route descriptions!). They'll treat it as a guide rather than the wealth of information and this saddens me.

So is this the way it's going? Am I going to be an old climber, sporting a patchy beard and still climbing with traditional protection (scorning the bolts that adorn my beloved cliffs) and thumbing through a tatterned up well cherised stack of bound paper while young hip cool climbers pause on thier belay ledges to check the route on thier iphones and update thier facebook statuses about who the last pitch was. I hope this doesn't happen...

Trees as fixed gear?

I've already posted this on UKC because I thought it provoke an interesting discussion (or at least an interesting argument) among the posters but I thought I'd get it down here as well.

Basically the new slate guide has come out and thumbing through it with Rach we spotted a picture of Mark Dicken and Ioan Doyle doing Giddy Variations on a Theme (E2 5b) on page 303 (if anyone whats to know). Apart for suddenly catching my imagination almost completely this picture started a little discussion between the two of us.

Rach: So what grade [Giddy variations on a theme] is it then?

Me: E2 5b

Rach: Why though? It's just a slab, isn't it.

Me: Yeah, but it's probably sustained 5b climbing for most of the route and [referring to the original picture] there isn't much gear in it and there is some long run outs.

Rach: So, why isn't it just bolted then?

Me: What? Why would you bolt it?

Rach: Well because it's in a quarry, why else?

Me: but but it's a slate route, it's different, what about designer danger [see end] ? whats about it's history? what... what...

And as you can probably guess my argument trailed off seemingly based around noble ideals like not bolting things just because it's a quarry, giving the rock a sporting chance and "what about the routes history". However Rach couldn't see why a route wasn't bolted in the slate quarries and thus I explained about slate ethics and the original boom period in the 80's, the slate head and the concept of designer danger and then the recent, and I hesitate the use the word, renaissance where many bolted routes of a more sport climbing nature have been developed. Soon enough she muttered something like "well slate is just a bunch of unbolted sport routes" anyway.

So of course bolting had been brought up and thus a discussion probably took a turn for the worst (bolting is always a bad discussion to have with me, I get quite enthusiastic/enraged). This then extended to all kinds of fixed gear. The concept of "designer danger" came up and Rach finally ended with:

Is is ethical to plant a tree in a crack, so that in 20 years when the tree has grown it can be slung as a piece of gear?

Literally I was stumped (excuse the pun) and I've been wondering about it ever since...

University Mountaineering Clubs

Well it's that time of the year again. The time when helpful people post on UKC that your favourite crag is going to be descended on by hoards of freshers being taken out by their university mountaineering club. Seems to me like it's the time to head a little way into the mountains or off the beaten track to avoid these groups of people, but are they really all that bad?

From personal experience yes and no. I've been in a UMC myself, which for my time as an official member and student wasn't that bad. We had our own indoor wall and I got taken out at least once and shown the basics of building belays. This has stuck with me forever, but for my part during my time at uni I wasn't very active in the club or in fact very helpful (I didn't pay my membership for the year I was kit secratary, then I lost a load of kit. It was in the years afterward that I realised what a great opportunity the club represented and it was during this time that I've been most active. I've been taking people out, running days out on freshers trips, trying to push the older more experienced members and basically trying to make up for my second year (when I lost all the kit). 

When I've been out with my old uni club they've been reasonably well behave. There have actually been no accidents, on offical club trips. There have been a couple of accidents along the way with members on non-official trips but these have always be dealt with excellently. When we've gone away to wales or a lakes I've always tried to pick crags that'll keep the club out od peoples way. 

Sadly this isn't exactly the case with all student mountaineering clubs. It just happens that I got to see Manchester Uni MC at Birchen Edge the other day. It seemed that the majority of the older members of the club, and what I can only assume was the chairman (as he was the loudest and most obnoxious) just sat at the top of the crag yelling down to everyone else. They just wouldn't shut up. I don't mind a bit of shouting and yelling at the crag, but this was excessive to say the least. Then the slightly more concerning parts occured. It was actually Rachel who spotted and lad who was leading a route. He wasn't on the route he wanted to be on, but he still got to the top but it was his second who turned up along the base of the crag, tied in wrong and then tried to set off without actually double backing his harness that really annoyed her (and me). She then had the chance to witness someone start climbing before the belay was even built, and the rope taken in. 

This might just be one group in a hundred but it give Uni.MCs a bad name. I see other mountaineering clubs at crags around the country, those not affiliated with a university and they seem to behave well, climb sensibly and look out for each other. I see groups of friends who I climb with, but other who are just brought together by thier want to climb who manage to be sensible, safe and have fun at the crag. 

(my old uni club, messing around at least 5km for anywhere else)

New Routing recognition!

Soames found this on the V12 website the other day. It's quite nice to see the routes we've put up getting a little bit of publicity. I'm hoping that they will get some subsequent ascents and then we'll be able to see if our grades are confirmed. The downside it that we better head back over there and get the rest of the new routes finished!