The White Scoop and Waves of Inspiration

Franco and I have enjoyed developing the moors over the last couple of years and towards the back end of the summer managed to 'put up', two of our self-appointed best routes. My addition was the very bold, break-away line from 'Central Crack' (E2) which i headpointed over two days and decided on a grade of E7 6b***. Franco, over the same time period cleaned up and climbed a slabby wall, featuring beautiful scallops from the quarrying. This dynamic and arguably morphological climb was grade E7 6c/7a*** with Franco deciding on 6c after some musing.

We were both fairly confident about the grades and quality of our lines and looked forward to someone repeating them. In October, local strong-man Richard Waterton headed out of a pleasant day shunting the lines and got in touch to seemingly confirm their quality and grades. This was a pleasant surprise and the dialogue can be seen on Franco's Blog: http://www.francocookson-climbing.blogspot.com/2012/02/bit-of-moors-grading-re-jig.html.

Dave Warburton on the F.A of 'The White Scoop'

The take home comments were that the franco's Waves was indeed around E7 6c** and around slabby F7b+. He suggested that the climbing was very good on excellent rock.
While Richard commented that my style on The White Scoop was indeed worth around E7*/**, however he questioned whether it was not worth climbing higher and placing gear off a left hand crimp to create a 'less suicidal' climb at around E6 6b. Also suggesting the climb was spoilt by sandy rock at the start. Basically questioning if 3*'s were applicable. However, it would seem these days that 3* has lost its 'national significance' meaning and would appear to reside with 'area classics' - We wouldn't want to the Moors to be left behind in the star-revolution!

"Going back to placing gear in the crack - when I top roped the route I followed the same line that you did (I didn't try traversing left higher up or anything) - my point was that I didn't think you'd have to climb up and down the crack to place a higher runner, but might instead be able to do this by reaching right off a reasonable crimp on the wall left of the crack, before moving left and doing the crux sequence up into the scoop. I didn't however test this out as I was busy trying not to fall off!"

Dave Warburton on the F.A of 'The White Scoop'

I would suggest that any future ascentionists check the top out is clean and enjoy it in any style they like. A moderately high runner at E6 or at the top of the crack at E5? to make a safe and excellent pitch, which i must admit crossed my mind but decided the FA was best done in the style i did it in... As i say, go and enjoy it in any style you like!

Richard didn't say any of the other lines were crap either! Except that 'Barry' the E4 on the largest boulder was extremely poor rock quality, which i must admit, i totally agree with. You'll be able to find a better E4 on the walls of the quarry somewhere, i'm sure!

Franco on the F.A of 'Waves of Inspiration'