Eastern Grit Chris Craggs
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Eastern Grit Chris Craggs Text, topos and crag photography by Chris Craggs and Alan James. Action photography by Chris Craggs or as credited. Edited by Alan James. Printed in Europe on behalf of Latitude Press Ltd. (ISO 14001 and EMAS certified printers). Distributed by Cordee (www.cordee.co.uk). All maps by ROCKFAX Some maps based on original source data from openstreetmap.org. Published by ROCKFAX in April 2015 © ROCKFAX 2015 www.rockfax.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright owner. A CIP catalogue record is available from the British Library. This book is printed on FSC certified paper made from 100% virgin fibre sourced from sustainable forestry ISBN 978 1 873341 08 7 Cover: Lucinda Whittaker on The End of the Affair (E8 6c) - page 414 - at Curbar. Photo: Adam Long This page: Hazel Findlay finishing off Usurper (E4 6a) - page 433 - also at Curbar. Photo: Adam Long Contents Eastern Grit 3 Introduction........................... 4 The Book, Other Guides............... 6 Rockfax............................ 7 Symbol and Topo Key................. 9 Acknowledgments and Advertisers...... 10 Logistics ............................ 12 Area Sheffield Tourist Information, When to Go........ 14 Getting Around and Area Map ......... 16 Accommodation, Pubs, Shops and Cafes 18 Climbing Walls . 20 Climbing Information .................. 22 General Behaviour and Access ........ 24 Environmental Considerations . 26 Gear ............................. 28 Ladybower Area Ladybower Grades ........................... 30 Highballs or Routes? ................ 32 Ticklists ........................... 34 Graded List ........................ 38 Destination Planner . 42 Sheffield Area ........................ 44 Stanage Wharncliffe ........................ 46 Agden Rocher...................... 70 Rivelin ............................ 78 Ladybower Area ...................... 98 Dovestone Tor..................... 100 Bamford ..........................112 Stanage ............................ 132 Stanage North .................... 134 Stanage Plantation ................. 178 Burbage Valley Stanage Popular ................. 218 Burbage Valley ...................... 272 Burbage North . 274 Higgar Tor ........................ 296 Carl Wark ........................ 306 Burbage South .................... 310 Millstone Area ....................... 328 Over Owler Tor .................... 330 Millstone Area Millstone ......................... 332 Lawrencefield ..................... 356 Yarncliffe Quarry ................... 368 Derwent Edges . 264 Froggatt.......................... 376 Curbar........................... 404 Baslow .......................... 440 Chatsworth Area..................... 454 Gardom's ........................ 456 Derwent Edges Birchen .......................... 476 Chatsworth . 494 Southern Crags...................... 504 Robin Hood's Stride ................ 506 Cratcliffe ......................... 510 Black Rocks ...................... 520 Turningstone Edge ................. 536 Duke's Quarry..................... 542 Chatsworth Area Shining Cliff....................... 543 Route Index ......................... 546 General Index and Map ............... 560 Ryan Edwards on the short and anything but Southern Crags sweet Jeepers Creepers (HVS 5b) - page 167 - at High Neb on Stanage North. Photo: Chris Fox 4 Eastern Grit Introduction Introduction Eastern Grit 5 The Peak District was the UK's first National Park and it remains one of the most visited in the My involvement with guidebooks goes back Sheffield Area Sheffield world, with 16 million people living within an hour's drive and around 25 million visitors a year well over 20 years, meaning I have had the squeezing into its 555 square miles. The central limestone core is ringed by a ragged edge of long-term pleasure of combining my two gritstone that generally faces towards the centre of the park. The eastern side of this ring of obsessions - climbing and writing. These rock is formed by a 30 mile broken banner that runs from Wharncliffe, north of Sheffield, all the fantastic cliffs now have another guidebook Area Sheffield way down to Shining Cliff, south of Matlock. The nucleus of this consists of the classic edges, which I hope will give you as much pleasure including the ever popular cliffs of Bamford, Stanage, Froggatt and Curbar. There are many and inspiration using it as it has given me Ladybower Area Ladybower lesser edges, plus a rather fine set of quarries, which are virtually all in west-facing hill-top while writing it. situations. Escape from the city is easy and great sunsets are a given - there is little wonder that Sheffield has become the home of choice for so many climbers. Chris Craggs, March 2015 Ladybower Area Ladybower I first climbed on Stanage in 1968, waking early from a cold night's camping at North Lees and wandering up to gaze at the shadowy line of dark rock running off in both directions. I can still recall the joy of those first explorations almost 50 years on. We spent the first day doing Stanage classics such as Martello Buttress and Inverted V, dodging squally showers along the way. That was followed by a day whacking pegs into Millstone's hairline cracks and slipping off the start of Great Slab. I was smitten and moved to Sheffield in 1970 to start a long-term love affair Stanage with gritstone that continues to this day. Burbage Valley Burbage Valley Millstone Area Millstone Area Derwent Edges Derwent Edges Chatsworth Area Chatsworth Area Even back then, these cliffs and their short, intense climbs had a bigger place in the mythology of UK climbing than their size might suggest. Easy access and perfect rock has Southern Crags created a playground for bold and talented climbers and a place for the rest of us to learn our trade and test our abilities. As time has passed ever more people have been introduced to the world of gritstone climbing and all its wonderful weirdness, at some of the most popular Chris Craggs, older and wiser - well maybe. To the left on Right climbing venues on the planet. If the older pioneers could see the number of people who now Unconquerable (HVS 5a) - page 214 - in 1974, and to the right on Twin Southern Crags regularly climb on the gritstone edges, they would doubtless be surprised. Chimneys Buttress (VS 4c) - page 238 - in 2014, both at Stanage. 6 Eastern Grit Introduction Introduction Eastern Grit 7 The Book Rockfax Guides Sheffield Area Sheffield The arrival of Peak Gritstone East back in 2001 changed climbing guidebooks forever. There are three Rockfax books that complement the coverage in Marking lines on full-colour photographs of the cliffs on proved to be an approach this one. With all four books you will have all the best climbing over breathtaking in both its simplicity and effectiveness. Bernard Newman described opening the whole Peak area (gritstone, limestone and bouldering) plus you the book as "like looking out of the window at the cliffs". In 2006 we produced Eastern Grit get Lancashire and Merseyside thrown in! Area Sheffield which had a hundred extra pages and 900 more climbs. Amazingly we have managed a similar expansion so this time the book weighs in at a massive 560 pages, almost twice the Peak Bouldering (2014) Ladybower Area Ladybower thickness of the original 2001 book, and includes over 4000 routes. The Peak Bouldering Rockfax is a massive book covering a huge Peak Gritstone East was photographed with a 3 megapixel camera, which limited the size area, including all the main bouldering venues of the Peak District. and quality of the topos that we could produce. This time round the photography was done Some have said that if you wrapped a bit of padding around it, using 24 megapixel cameras allowing for much larger and clearer photo-topos. Every cliff you would have an extra bouldering mat! It includes many more Area Ladybower has been re-photographed in stunning detail and all the photo-topos (okay, except for two low-grade problems than have ever been documented before, owing to tree growth) are new. The extra space has also allowed for a more lavish layout and including 17 circuits with problems at f4+ and under, and a further the cliffs have never looked so good. 21 circuits with problems at f5+ and below. The book uses 'V' Stanage grades and Font grades, plus UK technical grades for easier problems. There is some overlap with this Eastern Grit book for the bouldering Stanage which is on, or very close to, the main edges. In these cases the problems are covered in both books. In other places references have been included this book pointing to bouldering areas given full Burbage Valley coverage in the Peak Bouldering book. Peak Limestone (2012) Burbage Valley The first single-volume guidebook to Peak Limestone to have hit the shelves since 1992. The book includes detailed coverage of the classic venues of Stoney, Cheedale and Water-cum-Jolly and the Millstone Area southern crags around Matlock, Dovedale and the Manifold, plus the ever popular sport climbs in the many bolted quarries. Western Grit (2009) Millstone Area 2001 2006 2015 The most recent edition of the original award-winning 2003 Western Grit guidebook. It ranges from the popular Staffordshire gritstone Derwent Edges Other Guides edges of the Roaches, Hen Cloud and Ramshaw up onto the There are some other guides by different publishers