Birk Crag - Harrogate: A chance to repeat some new additions

I like to repeat peoples new climbs, whether they are bouldering or trad, if it's in my 'grade' range!! The weather was beautiful, I only had half a day and had been at Bridestones the day-previous and was aching somewhat. I decided i'd drop into Birk Crag, near the garden centre in Harrogate. I must admit, I am a tad odd when it comes to climbing - i'm just as happy ticking at pretty esoteric crags or Kilnsey/Malham etc. I chose this venue as it was only me and i'm feeling a bit skint at the moment so the 15min drive was good - only 2 minutes past Almscliffe.

I wandered down with a single pad and a shunt rope. However, I arrived to a pleasant looking wall with the grade E6 6b **. I lobbed my pad down, did some pull ups on the sloper and then set to looking at the holds, giving the ones I could reach a good chalking. It looked like a cool rock over, a Moors sort of move. Swing low, right heel and sit with big left flag. Pop up twice on sidepulls and I was soon at mono pockets... Sweet. A quick solo up the top wall, with a drop knee finish and I was done pulling through the roof at the top. The clean rock leads up the main wall, though the right arete is totally in reach tho it's wet through and green as fuck - perhaps it's always like that? Anyhow, E4 6b for my money as even without a pad I think from the tricky moves the flat landing would be 'ok'. The start felt like a tricky, excellent font 6c+, however the previous day i'd been bouldering with Will Hunt who is a sand-bag personified! So perhaps my opinion was skewed!

I couldn't look at the other E6 as it was wet, though it's a tad eliminate at the top where the crux is, but it looks like a bold move. I'd certainly recommend 'Centre Stage' as either a boulder problem or as a slightly defined highball donning blinkers and ignoring the arete to the right. Good stuff.    

Two weekends in a row on Kebs Road

I returned to Bridestones (W. Yorks) after an absence of many years. My first visit in first year at Uni was unfortunately a claggy, misty day when nothing was climbed - we just sat around waiting for it to clear. This however early March blue skys brought a lovely day of relaxed climbing. I warmed up along side Andy Hobson on Cleopatra 7a, which after a couple of false starts I ended up flashing it much to my pleasure - a lovely boulder problem and really 'my style'. Andy finished the job quickly too and we re-convened under Horror Arete 6c. This area classic is a stonking line and high enough to add some spice. Still not actually warm, I watched Andy and James climb up to the arete before bailing. I really wanted to flash Horror Arete, i'm not sure why though, I mean it's not sentimental to me it must just have an aura. Anyway, I was fortunate and I was soon getting my feet high on the arete and slapping to the ledge - My arms actually felt a tad dead topping out - presumably because it was only my second bit of climbing for the day - however the jump off quickly got the heart racing to get everything warm.

I tried the roof crack/pocket and ledge 7a+ problem on the otherside of Horror Arete boulder. A great move but that ledge is pure sand! Never mind.

We moved back over and quickly, maybe 4 or 5 go's saw us climb the brilliant, devious Out of Sight 7a. Another cracking problem. And a short, sweet day was complete.

The following weekend, Will Hunt, Billy Lawrence and I ventured just down the road to Hugencroft AKA Hawks Stones. We had a task of wading through the myriad of boulders, craglets and highballs trying to suss out the bouldering - which was clearly going to be excellent. After a dog shit start to the day, with high winds and clag (we went down near Todmorden for a cuppa and some 'sick' good food - as proclaimed by a local delinquent) the weather soon turned and we were afforded a few hours to get stuck in. As we suspected some brilliant bouldering and highballs on only slightly scrittly rock - which makes it all the more interesting!
The highlights for me was the centre of the far left wall at about 6b, the area we dubbed 'undermined by rabbits' which is home to an easy font 5 slab / twin aretes climb, a pillar with a pocket in the middle which provides a perfect rockover/mantle and the left arete 6c+ of this which is gritstone wizardry at its finest (at a moderate grade) with finally a hanging groove at around font 6c providing the icing on the cake... Oh wait, there;s also two perfect 6b/6c aretes on the far right side past Rams Head Slab. Great stuff.

Flounder - 6c 

I'll be back to look at the trad I reckon, there's two lines which i'm not convinced have been done previously, but the rest of it looks well worth another pop across from Leeds - maybe just with a shunt to kick start a bit of life into the venue.

Vive le Tour! - 6c *

Which leg is which...?

Castleton Rigg bouldering and a new addition in the Eastern Moors

A nice sunny day out on some rocks close to home. A few new problems for me and a nice re-acquaintance with some old friends.

Castleton Rigg from Dave Warburton on Vimeo.


The following day, Franco and I returned to another venue soon to find its way into the guidebook. We'd previously developed a clutch of boulder problems in the first quarry bay from Font 5 to 6c+/7a, but the larger 'solo walls' demanded some attention on this warmer, sunny day.

A short clean and removal of any loose holds by Franco, allowed a quick ground up ascent above two alpkit thud pads. An easy start leads to a small overlap, which is turned via some small crimps and a high rock over. The upper wall is scary but steady on hard to spot crimps and ripples. A quality addition which we graded E5 6b *** as the wall is about 7m tall. It isn't really a boulder problem. The rest of the afternoon was spent on a great 6c/7a solo - a future E6/7?

(Edit: Franco returned 4 days later and polished off this class bit of movement, a fine addition climbing direct up the 'groove' ever so slightly left of centre of the wall. Excellent.)

Ivanhoe - E5 6b ***

Another Goathland addition

This crag has turned out to be a very useful find. Super fast drying, which is an absolute must at the moment! With Franco home from Germany and Matt Ferrier and I returning from University for the weekend, we got a good afternoon in at Grey Earths Scar trying to understand the remaining projects. After an hour or so warming up and attempting The Prow Project, which Franco is certainly closer to getting than me, we turned our attention to the other project I had in mind.

The imposing, steep 'ships bow' arete is found a little way down stream from the big angular prow and I thought it was going to provide an E6 6c / Font 7a+/b. After a bit of a clean and chalk, we struggled to negotiate the top section for fear of falling off and not stopping til the river was met. However, eventually a final lunge for the top was unlocked and overall a grade of E5 6b / Font 6c was decided upon. Absolutely top line, great climbing and an excellent highball above some pads which certainly keeps its spice.

Goathland, quite the crag.

Smugglers Terrace & Goathland Guides

I decided to make a couple of mini guides to Smugglers Terrace and the newly developed stuff at Goathland

Should be accessible from the following links:

Smugglers Terrace - November 2013





The Smugglers Terrace guide is already out of date, with the addition of a few lower grade routes, notably Mackerel Crack MVS 4a *, Chiasso E1 5c * and the Salmon of Doubt HS 4b *.


Goathland - Grey Earths Scar

Enjoy!

The Huntsman

An aesthetic block in beautiful countryside and next to an ancient Roman road, which has three problems on perfect rock. Good stuff. I say three problems, they are all variations on a theme - the theme being traversing from left to right, which is 7a+ and called The Hunted...

Lee 'Betaguides' Robinson added the first line, an obvious traverse on good crimps with big feet which started at a flake crack. Lee then returned with Steve Ramsden, who added the 'extension' which is one move to the left, but does add a little bit to the original traverse. I decided it would be nice to tackle the holds on the lip without getting ones feet up onto the slab, so a lower level traverse was established.


The Huntsman 7a, The Hunted 7a+ and Blood Sport 7a+ from Dave Warburton on Vimeo.

2013 Round Up - Highlights and proving myself wrong...

2013 was a mixed year. I was employed full-time and didn't have access to a wall or convienient bouldering centre, however, once the nights pulled out a bit I was able to get some Moors bouldering in on the way home from work.

Early season highlights saw 7b's, two 7b+ and also a 7c (defo soft done as a crimp problem not a dyno) ticked at a variety of crags such as Clemmitt's, Round Crag and such like. There was also a bit of exploring, with the discovery of the Finkelstones where my 7a+ and 7b+ additions of Labyrinth and Aurora's Encore were particular highlights. I really enjoyed In the Bag (7b+), mainly due to me thinking it was crap with awful holds and not being a good line. Anyway, I totally retract all those statements - it's good!

Pussy Riot SS - 7a **

Early season trad also started in a similar vein with some highballs classics like 'A Reach Too Far', another route that's been on my hit list for far too long! Similarly over the summer we opened up some new routes at Kettle Howe, Hillhouse Nab and so on. Just highballs, but King of the Hill E4 5c *** was exquisite in my opinion.

A couple of harder routes were added too, Franco despatching the difficult and sustained Panda to the Masses E6 6c * at Stoupe Brow and I later added Damascus Waits, which I began to clean just as the U.S were planning to wade into the conflict in the Middle East. It was just the 'project name' but I never got around to changing it and it's stayed as Damascus. Two great routes at Stoupe Brow which added hard and safe to the Moors - the number of these routes is increasing now - which is good!

The Chain - A nice eliminate arete - 6a+

The season ended with me returning to Leeds University. I've been ticking a few routes I never got around to at my first time at the Uni, routes like Blood on the Shamrock E6 6a, Naked Edge E3 5c, Great Santini and Full Throttle, both E4 6a, Daytona Wall E5 6a, Dead Babies E5 6b - all routes i'd fancied doing first time round!

A Plaice Lost in Time - E3 5c 

I finished the season with some bouldering on grit and sandstone, with a few first ascents - I reckon they are from the cleaning and rock removal - at Goathland.

Goathland from Dave Warburton on Vimeo.

Also a couple of additions at Smugglers Terrace, with some more lower grade routes from HS to E3.

I remember in September writing the following blogpost...http://davidwarburton-climbing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/there-are-no-more-crags.html. Anyway, a bit of psyche and poor weather has resulted in some walking around and map scrounging. The current high moors team have gone and found another three crags, which were much more than just 'one climb buttresses' that I believed was all the Moors had left to offer... Oh, I do hope I can remain in the North East following the completion of my masters, hopefully a a second opportunity at YP will result. A lot of crossed digits for the next few months.

Here's to a productive 2014.

Sinn Fein - 6c+ / E4 6b