Posts Tagged ‘Peak District’

The Roaches, An Atmospheric And Challenging Gem

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! [...]

Crags: Yarncliffe Quarry – A small but surprisingly good climbing venue

I’m a little bit hesitant about reviewing Yarncliffe as it is already popular and has already been overused as a learning venue for novices. Abseiling and top roping in inappropriate footwear has caused premature aging to many of the best routes.

Peak District climbing – Wharncliffe

Wharncliffe is a bit of a dark horse.

With it’s lowly aspect overlooking the steel rolling mills of Stocksbridge, and the fact that most of its routes are only between 8 and 14 metres you might be forgiven for overlooking it as a decent rock climbing venue. I urge you to take another look, I climbed there last Sunday and I have to say I thought it was actually really rather good.

Peak District climbing – Birchen Edge

I think I would have enjoyed my day rock climbing at Birchen Edge if it hadn’t been the consolation prize for what should have been a full weekend’s climbing in North Wales. David and I had driven over to the Llanberis Pass on the Friday night, only to leave on Saturday morning after a night of torrential rain and gale-force winds. The weather was OK on Sunday morning so we opted for a trip to the Peak District.

We decided to call off at Hathersage and visit the Outside climbing shop as we needed some new kit, so we looked in our climbing book for routes nearby. We had already climbed at Millstone and Lawrencefield, so we elected to give the fairly nearby Birchen Edge a try.

Climbing book review: Eastern Grit (ROCKFAX)

Eastern Grit is a really comprehensive climbing book, covering a massive 2950 climbing routes over 19 crags in the Peak District.

Lawrencefield – The Peak District

Lawrencefield is a fantastic crag. It has what I consider to be the most important attributes of a good climbing venue:

* It’s quiet
* It’s tall (for the Peak District) – some of the climbs are almost 30m
* There’s some really fantastic climbs, whether you’re a V Diff or E1 leader

If you can lead up to HS standard, you will absolutely love this venue as there are some really pleasurable and rewarding climbs in the lower grades.

Nova HS 4b, Lawrencefield, Peak District

This was our second trip to Lawrencefield, and it didn’t start too well. We got all the way down to the crag and I realised that I had left the guidebook in the car – doh! I had to run all the way back to the surprise view car park.

We started on the Gingerbread Slab, David kicked things off with a pretty easy V Diff called Snail Crack, which we had climbed on our previous visit. I decided the raise the stakes and go for a HS called Nova.

Climbing book review: Peak District Climbing (Vertebrate Publishing)

I was immediately drawn to Peak District Climbing because it’s published by Vertebrate Publishing. I have 3 of their mountain biking books and they have all been top-drawer. This book is no exception.