Rock Climbing UK » Climbing routes & crags

Inspiration on all levels

Liam Lonsdale — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:27:17 +0000

Here at RCUK we like you to see the best quality climbing videos available. Whether it be famous climbers, famous routes, excellent editing or an inspiring story, we choose the videos because we enjoy them and we hope that you will too.

The video below is a short one from DPM, a climbing website/magazine based in the USA. Their ‘BETA’ series tackles problems countrywide and helps aspiring boulderers unlock the sequences and secrets to each problem using the video. The BETA video we have for you today has a slightly different twist however; we meet Jim Toomey and hear his very inspiring story…

Stay safe, stay psyched.

Inspiration on all levels is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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Winter Trips for UK Climbers – Scotland or Abroad?

Jess Spate — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:47:20 +0000

The author taking a break on Cosmiques Ridge, Aiguille du Midi

Every year British ice climbers face a dilemma. Where to go for that one big trip- Scotland or further afield? Some might choose the Lakes or Snowdonia for a quick jaunt if conditions are good but it’s almost impossible to predict what English and Welsh ice will be like in advance, or even if there will be any to speak of at all. On the day this article was written (18th of January 2012) local sources don’t report any ice worth climbing in the Lake District or in North Wales.

Let’s look at the practical reasons to head up to Scotland first. No passports are required, there’s no language barrier, and while it might be a long drive from down south it’s still drivable without getting on a ferry. Cheap accommodation is relatively easy to find, and compared to Chamonix and other popular European winter resorts there are few crowds.

On the other hand there’s no denying that Scottish conditions are a little less reliable than those you might expect in the Rocky Mountains or most other global ice meccas. While most people get their fair share of decent conditions, poorer years might mean some unlucky visitors having to make do with dry tooling or winter walking. At the time of writing, there is good climbing to be had in Scotland, although some routes might be a little thinner than usual.

Thin ice back in Britain

The other big risk to consider when booking a Scotland trip is the weather. As the recent 160mph winds showed, the Cairngorms can be home to some of the filthiest weather a climber could hope never to encounter. It’s not just the high winds, but also a question of poor visibility and some serious wetness. Of course, mountain weather is a capricious thing no matter where you go but the longer the walk-in and the higher up the routes are, the more of a problem adverse weather can be. And Scotland doesn’t have many roadside ice routes.

If it’s roadside ice you’re after, places like Rjukan are a better bet for a winter climbing holiday. You can spend a week on good ice within spitting distance from your hire car. There’s no need to bring out a map and compass and all your energy can go towards climbing rather than walking in. However, there are plenty of climbers (many of them Scottish) who feel that the walk-in is part of the experience, part of the challenge, and who would much rather enjoy the splendid isolation of a distant peak than queue for a crowded roadside route.

Of all reasons to choose Scotland as a winter climbing destination, there is one that stands out above all the others. It’s all about the routes. There is a certain appeal in tackling the Scottish winter classics, not just for the sake of ticking well-known lines but also because some of them are truly world class. If all your mates have done Point Five Gully and you haven’t it might be time to get yourself up to Scotland and see what all the fuss is about.

Winter Trips for UK Climbers – Scotland or Abroad? is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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It’s all just too easy …

Liam Lonsdale — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:35:36 +0000

… or so it would seem for the on-form Jordan Buys at present.

Flashes of various E7′s & E8′s not to mention a ground-up attempt (resulting in a ground fall) on the grit test piece The Promise E9 7a are common-place for him at the moment. His tick-list is impressive to say the least. One of the variety of hard sends from Jordan recently is End of the Affair E8 6b/c.

This Johnny Dawes classic, which saw its first ascent in 1986, is an archetypal grit arete and one of gritstone’s greatest hard routes. The climbing is technical and of an extremely committing nature. The runners are ok… but there is some serious distance between them. The Rockfax guide says,

“Don’t fall off the last move unless you have briefed your second man that they need to hurl themselves from the ledge to stop the fall – and even then it is still touch and go!”

The video below shows Jordan on his successful flash ascent. I think the most striking thing about this whole thing is how easy he makes it look!

Enjoy.

It’s all just too easy … is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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Winter Climbing – Little Stanger Gill, A Lakeland Classic

Rob Lonsdale — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:58:17 +0000

James gets stuck in

Seeing as it’s starting to turn cold, we thought it might be nice to get you ice heads revved up about the upcoming winter climbing season. This is my account of Little Stanger Gill from last season.

There I was dozing off on my sofa, after finishing off the remainder of the plate full of mince pies on christmas day, when I was woken by the distinct sound of a txt message coming through.

Urrrgh, now I’ve got to move my fat carcass over the window ledge, to retrieve it. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can have full 3G internet on the moon but I can’t have any signal at my house. Great!

Luckily I made the effort as it was James telling me that the rarely formed 3* Lakeland classic – Little Stanger Gill, had recently seen an ascent. This 4 pitch Grade 4 is a pure water route, no chossy gully to scramble up, proper European style stuff.

I went from barely having the energy to breathe to being psyched out of my tiny little mind. Right, where’s my gear?…….

Very, very early boxing day, James and I made the 180 mile trip to Borrowdale hoping to beat everyone else there. After a few hairy moments on route we arrived at the car park and set off up the track to the Gill. We could see it in the distance, it looked thin. Despite being there for 7:30am, to our disappointment we could hear the thwack of ice tools. We were not the first there. Damn you locals!

The first 2 easy angled pitches weren’t formed properly, however the top 2 steep pitches were, and looked amazing. We waited for the party in front to be almost at the top before we set off.

James took lead and did the first (3rd) pitch. Short vertical sections ,with good ledges in between, with a thin chimney section just before the belay. It was an exciting pitch, on good, but in places very thin ice. The belay was a spike of rock James wrapped a sling round and placed a large nut as a backup. Opting to save the screws for my pitch.

The second pitch (4th) started with a traverse from the belay to the bottom of a steep fluted wall, it looked like a church organ made from ice. I’de seen the party above break off a couple of these columns on their ascent so decided to place a screw at the base of the section and use speed and something I’m not noted for – delicate placements, to get through it quickly (as opposed to hanging around on suspect ice to place a screw). I think I held my breath throughout the full section. Only when I was on top did I place a ‘thank God’ Grivel 360 screw and slung a tree. Thankfully the rest of the climb was off vertical and although was probably 2 pitches I did them as one.

We topped out just after lunch, and after falling on my arse in the car park went to Keswick for a pint and Fish and Chips

The whole episode was captured on my Go Pro Helmet Cam and after cutting out all the swearing and boring bits I made a short film. It can be see below. Enjoy.

Winter Climbing – Little Stanger Gill, A Lakeland Classic is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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Birkett Opens Winter Line on Bowderstone?!

Liam Lonsdale — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:32:01 +0000

Dave Birkett has excelled himself again by making another first ascent of one the most famous previously unclimbed winter lines in the world.

The video below shows the Cumbrian Stone Mason putting his biceps to good use and sending the longstanding winter project Without Rime or Reason at the internationally renowned bouldering venue … The Bowderstone.

The video, shot in HD and with incredible editing, documents the ascent perfectly. The soundtrack, provided by another uber-strong beast of the old school (whom shall remain anonymous for now) creates just the right atmosphere & for me, increases the quality of the footage ten fold.

I guess this goes to show that the forty something Rock Legend still has it in him to consider himself firmly placed amongst the elite climbers of Our world.

Congratulations Dave, you have really pulled it out the bag this time.

Birkett Opens Winter Line on Bowderstone?! is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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Mescalito goes free…?

Liam Lonsdale — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:18:53 +0000

Tommy unleashing himself & throwing for the eight foot dyno

“I climb for the long, difficult journeys that have little chance of success but teach me the most. I climb to be in the environment that makes me feel like anything is possible. I climb to push myself to the limit of my physical and mental abilities, so that I can discover what I am made of. But mostly I climb because it lights a fire inside.” Tommy Caldwell

Tommy Caldwell, Yosemite extraordinaire & big wall connoiseur is back on his Mescalito project on El Capitan, Yosemite.

The Mescalito project takes an un-freed line on the biggest, blankest sector of El Cap; The Dawn Wall. Years in the making Tommy & his climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson have been working incredibly hard on unlocking the secrets and intricacies of Mescalito, a tough A2/A3 aid route. One such secret is the infamous, eight foot sideways dyno (and yes…you did read that correctly). Unfortunately, it is this dyno that has seen Jorgeson leave Yosemite recently to receive treatment on a season-ending ankle injury.

True to form, undeterred, regardless of the fact that the odds begin to stack up against him, Tommy is up there now with his wife, Beth (nee. Rodden) who herself is no stranger to hard climbing. Beth became the worlds youngest women to onsight 5.14a (f8b+) at just 18 years old in 1998. Rather than being on the sharp end this time, Beth is on belay duty whilst Tommy works hard on putting an end to the saga & leaving the ultimate mark on what is possibly the most famous & coveted big wall in the world.

The hand drawn topo put together by Tommy & Kevin

An update from Tommy on Sunday confirmed that he is on a full redpoint attempt and in two days had freed all of the pitched up to pitch 9. On Monday he made a further update whilst making the most of a well earned rest day.

Below is footage of Tommy & Kevin making early attempts a couple of seasons back. I think you will get the idea pretty quickly…they haven’t dubbed this ‘the hardest route on El Cap’ for nothing:

On behalf of the whole RCUK team: Come on Tommy, crush this thing once and for all!

Mescalito goes free…? is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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You Don’t Need to be Steve Mcclure to Set a New Trad Route

Gareth Hanson — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:09:12 +0000

Me climbing at a totally unrelated venue - forgot the camera!!!

A couple of weeks ago I arranged to head out for some climbing with Craig, a friend of mine who I met on Twitter last year sometime (@activemindcoach – good follow suggestion for those of you into Twitter). We threw a few ideas about for a trad session, but then Craig came up with the genius idea of heading to a lesser known crag to investigate putting up some new routes – exciting stuff!

I won’t say where this particular crag is because I know Craig is keen to claim at least a couple of first ascents. During the walk in Craig explained that he had visited this lesser known crag on a few previous occasions, and that I shouldn’t expect too much from it. He went on to say it had been looked at in some guide books but largely ignored.

It was a warm and dry day, so it was nice to walk into a small but deserted crag in the knowledge that nearby mainstream venues would be packed with other climbers. On close inspection the rock appeared to be really nice, with excellent friction.

Craig showed me around and pointed out some potential lines. We agreed on a steep, slabby block with a fairly obvious line at its right corner, an almost blank front and a very tricky looking line at its left corner. We used some static rope to set up a nice, secure top rope and set about the first and easiest line.

Craig went first, armed with a brush to clean up the holds a bit. We had decided to tackle the easiest line first on the right corner. After about half an hour he’d pretty much cracked it. He came down and I tied in to give it a try. After I reached the top we agreed that with cleaning the route would go at around VS 4c/5a.

Next we decided to tackle the blank looking piece of rock further toward the left corner. We spent a fair while trying to take a direct start from the ground, but it just proved too difficult, so we ended up starting at the base of the previous route and traversing left after the first 2 moves. The middle part of the climb was excellent, with really tricky moves on the tiniest of holds, testing our ability to hang on, to the limit. Our only problem was that on reaching the same horizontal break as the previous climb (which would provide gear placement), we hit a wall. Both of us tried and tried to find a way to move past the break and over the final section, but to no avail. Just too hard (at a guess, around E5)! We decided to pack up and head to the pub, with a view to returning to claiming the first ascents.

I really enjoyed the process of trying to work out new routes, and the point is that anyone with a bit of climbing experience can do it. So if you know an abandoned crag that nobody bothers with, why not have a go? It could turn out to be that secret gem that you and your mates can escape to on days where popular crags resemble theme parks.

Just one note of warning. Make sure you do your research; access rights, flora and fauna, nesting birds or other animal habitat must be considered.

Have fun, and I look forward to hearing about your new routes.

You Don’t Need to be Steve Mcclure to Set a New Trad Route is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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A Massive Dartmoor Midsummer Challenge – Guest Post by Dominic Jeff

Dominic Jeff — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 07:19:36 +0000

Luke looking at Hound Tor

Fed up with the shortness of the routes on Dartmoor, Dominic Jeff and Jerome Taylor decided to make the most of their local crags by stringing them all together in one mammoth Midsummer challenge.

FOR the second time that day the wind tried to tear me off the rock as I enjoyed the hand jams in the rough granite of a Dartmoor tor.

By that time our Midsummer challenge, salvaged from the rain of another unpromising weekend, was hopelessly behind schedule, but the next stop was the pub and we could work out our options over a pint.

The original idea had been to walk from Jerome’s house in Bovey Tracey to my place at Buckfast on the south edge of Dartmoor, climbing a route on as many outcrops as we could possibly include.

In the end we hammered out the details of the challenge the night before over a beer and agreed that we would start out as soon as it was forecast to stop raining – 10am on Sunday.

We would walk up the river Bovey and approach Haytor from the more scenic Black Hill route, climb Hangover, E1, and then descend to Low Man and do the three pitch girdle traverse at E3. Then we would walk to Smallacombe Rocks, find an obscure micro route we had seen in the guidebook the night before, and climb that before crossing the valley to Greator and Hound Tor – climbing routes on each.

The plan was to travel as light as possible, with one half rope and a basic rack, and buy our supplies en-route. The burger van in Hound Tor car park and later the Rugglestone Inn in Widecombe-in-the-Moor would provide more than adequate sustenance.

From Hound Tor we would take the road to Jay’s Grave and cut across to Chinkwell Tor, to do another route we had just noticed in the South Devon and Dartmoor guidebook, Widecombe Wall, E1, improbably listed as 70ft high.

And what a climb it was – a good 50 feet of climbing on it in three contrasting sections, the upper being the jamming crack exposed to the elements.

But by then we had already torn up the plans. It was about 6pm, and we still had to have a pint, walk the four miles or so from Widecombe to Lukey Tor, climb an E2 there, ford the Dart – which we suspected all along might be impossible after two days of rain – and scramble up to Bench Tor to finish on a route there. Then we had a five mile hike back to my house.

In fact, we had soon realised that we should have started at 6am at the latest to stand a chance of success. The hike up to Haytor had been nice but took nearly two hours. Hangover, which I’d done before, was straightforward, but the girdle traverse took another two hours to complete.

Duncan Cambell on Widdecombe Wall

At that point we had made an executive decision and scratched Smallacombe and Greator from the list to concentrate on the better and bigger climbs. Spurred on by the scent of burgers in the wind, we made excellent time to Hound Tor and bounded up Hob Hound, E2.

It was 4.30pm when we got our burgers, and the climbers we spoke to were sceptical of our chances of completing the challenge. We made it to the Rugglestone for seven, but when we looked at the map we knew we were beat.

What we were faced with was basically a lot of walking for not much rock. It would take a good 90 minutes to walk to Lukey Tor, but lying at the bottom of a steep wooded valley, and being notorious for seepage and sandbagging, it would most likely provide an ignominious grave for out challenge. Much better to head straight to Bench Tor high above the Dart and finish up Hostile Witness, described to us earlier as “the best E2 on Dartmoor.”

We looked at the map spread before us and counted the kilometres – at least ten if we could get across the stepping stones at Dartmeet, more like 15 if we had to use the road bridge. We’d be lucky to get home for midnight. We decided to phone a friend, but first we had to walk out of the Widdecombe valley, which is even more charming for not having mobile phone reception.

Toby found us sprawled by the bridge at Ponsworthy, smoking. Luke, my border collie, had rolled in a variety of interesting excrement, yet still the good man drove us to Bench Tor. We got there at about 9.15pm, feeding time for the local midges.

The route looked intimidating – a lip traverse 20 feet up, escaped by a slap for a flake and some irreversible pulling. We doubled up our single rope to cope with rounding the arete, and the astonishing bucket hold on the corner of the overhang gave me the confidence to commit to the moves. The rock was a joy, as it had been all day – there’s nothing like a jug on Dartmoor granite.

Jerome followed in the failing light, topping out shortly before 10pm as I lay back on the slopping rock at the top and watched the trees on the opposite slope fade into the darkness.

Routes

For those wishing to try a whistle-stop tour of Dartmoor, here is a list of routes to suit various abilities:

Haytor

Haggis 40ft HVS 5a
A fine slab topped with impressive overlaps, this route climbs the middle of the third buttress from the right, on the main face.

Hangover 50ft E1 5a
A line of least resistance through the big buttress on the left, with a number of possible starts.

Direct Justice 60ft E5 6a
Round the corner from Hangover is a steep wall providing several hard routes up shallow crack systems. Direct Justice gains the bottomless crack on the left from the faint central groove, follows it to an abrupt end at a peg, and then balances boldly up the wall above.

Low Man

Raven Wing 70ft VS 4b
Climb the obvious corner which splits the crag for 10ft, then pop round the arete and enjoy the featured wall above.

Aviation 130ft E1 5b, 5b
The line of least resistance up the main face. A pillar of fine grained rock 20ft right of Raven Wing leads to a coarser crack followed by a delicate traverse of the mid-height break to belay on a shield of rock. Pitch two tackles the widening crack above.

Like most of the excellent routes on this face, Aviation can be enjoyed “in a one-er” with the careful use of two ropes.

Low Man Girdle 200ft E3 5a, 6a, 4c
Start at the bottom right hand corner of the crag, saunter up easily to the mid-height break and follow it to the Aviation belay. Follow the same break across the steep Interrogation wall to gain a large ledge on Raven Gully. Hop round the arete and make your way towards the top left hand corner to finish. Or do one of the better routes of the same grade.

Hound Tor

The routes described here are on Perched Block, thirty yards down towards the car park from the main summit.

Suspension Flake 30ft VS 4c
From a boulder on the left, pull onto the steep sweep of rock that faces the main tor and let the line of jugs lead you to the top. Run down and do it again.

Hob Hound 30ft E2 5c
Just round the corner from Suspension Flake, two shallow cracks in an innocuous slab lead to the same belay, via a rounded finish.

Toltec Twostep 30ft E5 6b/c
Gain the top jug of Suspension Flake direct, via some powerful climbing and, often, a pre-placed wire.

Chinkwell Tor

Widecombe Wall 70ft E1 5c

Climb the lower wall on its right to gain good flakes and traverse to the base of a green groove on the left. Ascend this with difficulty to the bulging hand crack, making the most of this cragg’s height

Other routes here would require some vigorous brushing.

Bench Tor

Suspended Sentence 55ft HVS 5b
Climb the grove formed by the jutting overhang of immaculate granite which dominates the right of the crag. At a small capping overhang, traverse right onto the main face and trend further right to finish.

Hostile Witness 50ft E2 5c
Follow Suspended Sentence to the base of the groove, from where a magnificent bucket hold on the lip can be gained. Hand traverse right, grab a good small flake and mantel it. Follow the easy crack above, then traverse the sloping top to a suitable finishing jug.

Judge Dredd 50ft E5 6a
From the same start as the previous two routes, gain the hanging arete which both traverse, and climb it on its left hand side. Carry on up a hanging grove to a rounded finish.

More info

A FREE guide to Hay Tor and Low Man is available on Dave Henderson’s excellent website, which also includes a comprehensive guide to Dartmoor bouldering, among other useful things.

For everything else there is South Devon and Dartmoor, by Nick White, which is now old enough to have spawned a new routes supplement, elegantly attached with a rubber band.

There is a decent campsite at Cockingford, about a mile south of Widdecombe-in-the-Moor.

The Rugglestone Inn, just outside the village itself, is the more rustic of Widdecombe’s two pubs. It has an idyllic beer garden which can get a bit nippy when the sun drops behind the hills, serves wholesome British food at a reasonable price and might even stock lager.

The Hound of the Basketmeals is a converted bus which serves burgers, tea, cake and the likes in the car park at Hound Tor. It’s usually there when you want it but doesn’t stay all that late.

A Massive Dartmoor Midsummer Challenge – Guest Post by Dominic Jeff is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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James McHaffie Sends The Big Bang 9a, Lower Pen Trwyn, North Wales

Gareth Hanson — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:31:57 +0000

Check out this video by Chris Doyle.

James McHaffie, sponsored by Wild Country and Red Chilli talks us through this historic second ascent of The Big Bang, 9a on Lower Pen Trwyn, North Wales. This route has waited 15 years for a successful ascent, and has fought off attempts from both Jerry Moffat and Ben Moon.

Watch out for the 8a warm-up!!! Quality.

Read more about James at Wild Country’s web site.

James McHaffie Sends The Big Bang 9a, Lower Pen Trwyn, North Wales is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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The Roaches, An Atmospheric And Challenging Gem

Gareth Hanson — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:12:07 +0000

Right Hand Route (starts at the chalk marks)

I’ll start this review by explaining that I’ve done nowhere near the level of outdoor climbing this season that I had hoped to have. This will hopefully go some way to explain why a day at The Roaches resulted for us in such a low number of climbs at low grades. That’s my excuse anyway!

Introduction

The Roaches is a popular venue which resides in the far west of the Peak District. Along with its immediate neighbour, Hen Cloud it offers some extremely diverse and atmospheric climbing for all levels of climber, from newbies trying their first moves on rock at The Prow area, seasoned intermediates pulling over the roof of ‘The Sloth’ HVS 5a, to battle-hardened rock warriors squaring up to ‘Painted Roof’ E6 6a.

The Crag can be viewed as 3 distinct tiers, the Lower Tier, The Upper Tier and The Skyline. There’s also some excellent bouldering. This all makes for a really interesting day’s climbing.

The Roaches features some popular and well photographed gritstone classics. In fact The Roaches hosts 27 of the Top 50 routes in the Rockfax guide books! Watch out for the guidebook / magazine cover, 2-pitch classic: ‘Valkyrie’ VS 4c, be prepared to take a ticket and join the back of the queue though.

If you’re planning to have a day at the Roaches and you can’t be bothered to take a pack-up, fear not there’s a cafe by the roadside on the way in, and another one right there in the middle of The Lower Tier! Awesome!

Our session

HS that David led, name to follow

Having not done a great deal outdoors in the UK this year, we elected to start really easy. We headed over to The Prow area and I led ‘Prow Corner’ VDiff (I said we started easy!).

After quickly dispatching said route we moved over to the left, behind the tea room. David elected to lead a HS (the name of which escapes me and David has the guide book. I’ll fix this as soon as I get it back), This was really interesting, a steep little wall below a roof, where you traverse out to the right, round a corner and onto a block. From here it’s up onto a platform where you move up over a big bulge and into a wide body-jamming crack to complete the route. An entertaining climb.

I decided I might have a bash at climbing ‘Rhodren’ HVS 5b, described as a mini version of ‘The Mincer’. I’m afraid I ended up only getting a third of the way up it and having to down-climb. A disappointing effort which I’m still annoyed about now!

After my crushing defeat at the hands of Rhodren, we decided to give the Upper Tier a go. Seeing as I only managed a paltry 1/3rd of a route it was down to me to pick another lead. I chose ‘Right Hand Route’ HS 4c on the Blushing Buttress, not to be confused with the V Diff named ‘Right Route’ on the adjacent ‘Sloth’ buttress (I only say this because I overheard someone telling his friend that in his guide book it was listed as a VDiff). Actually in the guidebook we were using, the climb was graded Severe but on the Rockfax web site it gets a HS (I’m going to assume that the hike in grade is due to the polish at the foot of the route). It actually took me three duff attempts to start this route before getting properly established, the third leading to a string of expletives being screamed at the rock. I was finding it hard to place a cam with my right hand whilst lay-backing the crack with my left. Once the cam was in place I was off and completed the route without further incident (despite some bloke stood behind us, telling a youngster he was with about someone falling off the route and dying. He managed to span the story out for my full ascent – thanks mate). It was an interesting route with a pretty airy finish over a kind of mini-roof. Overall highly entertaining.

The view from the skyline

By this point we were surprisingly a bit tired (early start perhaps). David chose to lead the VDiff (or so we thought), to the left of the route we just climbed, aptly named ‘Left Hand Route’. In our guidebook this was graded VDiff, it has now been elevated by Rockfax to HS. David made light work of the first part but got inexplicably stuck in the middle due to some kind of minor mental meltdown. He lowered off and I finished up. Not a bad little route!

All that was left by this point was a play on the boulders. We didn’t have a mat and the boulders at The Upper Tier are highly polished so we didn’t do anything too brave.

Access and approach

The Roaches and Hen Cloud sit on Blackshaw Moor, just off the west side of the A53 (Buxton Road) between Leek and Buxton (about 1m from Leek, 8m(ish) from Buxton). The road in is a bit odd, and it’s easy to drive straight back round onto the A53 if you’re not careful. Drive past the Engineering company then bear right, you should be able to see Hen Cloud at this point. Keep heading toward it, you’ll pass Roaches Tea Rooms on your left (excellent spot BTW, well worth calling in for refreshments), keep going past Hen Cloud until you see The Roaches on your right. Pull up in one of the marked laybys at the side of the road and follow one of the obvious paths up to the crag.

Enjoy!

The Roaches, An Atmospheric And Challenging Gem is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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