Whitestone Cliffe and Ingleby Incline

Two amazing crags that myself and Franco have paid very little attention too really. Whitestone is the crowning jewel of Moors climbing, it encorporates everything that is to be expected from a quality venue; Looseness, Choss, sandbagging and most importantly, Death.

It stands facing the vale of York and anyone drivingup the A19 will be able to see it and it has a awesome attraction that can either lure climbers in or send them running never to return, im glad im not the latter.

It has an almost cult-following attracting all kinds of climbers from alpinsts and aspiring alpinsts such as Chris Woodal and Ian Jackson, to standard climbers like myself. It's towers of teetering choss, a mixture between Calcareous Sandstones, Dolomitic Limestone and the odd 'Dogger' make for an awe inspiring crag, the top section is apparntly Calcareous GRIT!.

The majority of visits are for the classic moors line, of 'The Nightwatch' which if you haven't done, you should. It's absolutely amazing and is solid taking as much gear as you would like although VS 4b may feel slightly sandbagged, if you are not familiar to the rock and it has an almost 'mountain crag' feel to it, which can be quite offputting considering the tame environment you were in 10 minutes before arriving!

I found myself being talked into Whitestone, which i was happy about but upon arriving found myself gearing up for 'Jurassic Scarp' an E3 5b on loose rock, with the odd sling runner for pro. I backed off the first pitch and franco gave it a determined attempt. He also decided against it, about halfway up.

Then it was my turn to climb 'The Nightwatch'. I have climbed on the moors, nearly a year and a half properly and i still hadn't climbed this line which is realistically 4 grades below my standard onsight level. However, it still felt up there and if i had climbed it onsight as an FA i would have been tempted to slap E1 on it! However, there are hunderds of holds in hindsight and all the gear you could want, especially thread runners...which lets face it are bomber! I think if you take your time and have ALOT of gear and quickdraws then it is an amazing route at the grade. Apparently, if Ken Wilson had known of its existance, he would have put it in classic rock.

After my ascent i walked off with the camera and took photos of Franco climbing the line Solo. He had climbed it previously and knew that there was always holds which is why, i said in hindsight it's probably VS+ rather than HVS or E1!!!.

Fantastic crag, with a superb classic line amongst others which are well worth doing. If you have ever considered going, but then carried on down the A19 to the Yorkshire Grit or the Peak, next time, spend the day here.

The next day, we travelled to a more local crag. Ingleby Incline is blessed with a 40minute walk in, which leads to a wonderfully located crag, which exhibits the legendary moors sandbag. Many of the grades, if below E1ish, are about 2 grades lower than they should be, many of hte VS's are possbly worth HVS and Extremes are about 1 less or so we've found so far!

I had been before with franco soloing many of the slightly sandbagged extremes, which are generally gearless or micro routes / unrope worthy.

However, this time i returned for another reason. This was to climbed YET another moors classic i was yet to attempt. Cozy Corner, tackles the superb wide crack just to the right of one of the largest roofs on the Moors. It goes at VD, which it probably would be if you have size 4 and 5 cams, however if illequiped with micro nuts and cams then you would probably find it a bit intimidating!

I soloed the line in true moors fashion, offwidth-ing and footjamming the central section. And topped out a happy chappy! It's a great line! :-)

After this i checked the other buttresses i was yet to see and also looked at Time Captain, a route on my wishlist. It looked doable, although i may resort to practice if its E4, but i'd rather not!Running around like a headless chicken, Franco, directed me in the direction of an idea of a new route he had. We swanned up the inital wall to the overhang and placed some gear. He then pulled around the roof and then had a minor epic topping out via a very thin crack which when i followed him up was jammed full of very poor Rp's. 'They'd be Reet' was his statement as i topped on on the slopey slab above It went at about E3/5 5c/6a.

I then set about on the same route, but with time running out and my inability to climb technically, i reached right before falling off!!! This lead into the Crack of a HardSevere, but the moves leading over the overlap and the balancy reach rightwards, meant it was still quite difficult, perhaps 5b. The gear was quite poor being shallow friends, so E2 5b seemed like a decent grade for the line however, it would probably be HVS if we stuck to moors principles.

I called it a cop out finish but renamed it on the way down as i was running to get back in time for my pickup for 5 a side football. It was a good route, as it incorperated the inital roof difficulty and the gear is dodgey (shallow cams) so we decided 'Five-a-Side Finish' was worthy of a low E2 5b.

Cringle Moor

It's a shame this crag is north facing, as it has some stunning looking lines. I had wanted to visit for sometime to look at the 'largest roof in Cleveland' which is climbed by an E4. However, when finally seeing this line i was disapointed. In all seriousness, its a great looking line! but it wasn't quite as i imagined. I expected overhanging jamming however its more like a 4metre roof over a corner. Fair do's, its a line i certainly want to do, but whether or not the start crack will ever dry with these crap summers we have, is another issue.

Franco and I decided to solo a couple of routes to warm ourselves up, as the freezing fog was doing its best to wet everything and make us cold. We soloed 'The Voice' a delicate E1 that stops half way up the crag and then climbed 'Tell Chris Cragg's Nowt!' a HVS F.A that we put up on the upper tier. The name originates from the old UKC days, when we made our dislike for Rockfax guides apparent - however, it was all in good humour.

After Franco then, annoyed about not being able to climb 'Wedge Route' set about on a First Free Ascent of 'Terry's Dilema'. The Dilema, was commiting to the overhanging crack off a very poor slopey, filthy ledge. However, the climbing is protectable and you fall into space. As i found out!

Rylstone

This was my first trip to the grit crags of Yorkshire, although i've been to Brown Beck crag and Slipstones, these are most definitely North East crags and don't count as Yorkshire Grit. (After recent events on UKC, i will clarify this. I believe Slipstones is a Moors crag, as it was pioneered by lads from Teesside and it doesn't have the feel of Yorkshire Grit at all. The Definitive guide is also the north East England guide, not the Yorkshire Grit guide. That is my arguement, you don't have to listen!)

I drove down to Rylstone, really really hoping to get a good day on the grit and hoping that my recent lack of climbing wasn't going to be too noticable.

Franco had been once before, with the Ian's and wanted a good day at the crag as his experiences last time were mainly wet and cold.

Looking up from the road i could see the monuments and i got a feeling it would be a good day for us, expecially with it facing north west the sun wasn't going to be too unbareable or reduce the friction.

We arrived at Monument buttress and i looked at 'Monument Crack' (E1) which i decided was probably a very good climb well worth doing. But it also looked like the kind of E1 which can give you are very hard time if you a tad out of practice. I left it alone.

Franco decided to 'warm up' on 'Pocket Battleship' a micro E3 to the right. It looked hideous, pulling on slopers around a bulge and i decided it wasn't for me. Franco persuaded me to climb 'Monument Crack' and i did really like the look of it.

I climbed to the roof and decided i was far too lazy to try and place some gear so i reached the jugs and pulled around the roof. I then 'scraped' my way up the next section to the rest and placed some gear.

No handed rest in the niche was very nice and franco walked around taking some photos. I chalked up and got ready for what i thought was going to be the crux. Electing to jam rather than pull on the side of the crack, i climbed the last section with ease getting lovely 'sinking' jams.

We then walked over to 'Dental Slab'. What a climb this is, seriously if you haven't done it, do it and if you have do it again. Currently loving jamming, i jammed all the horizontal breaks and rocked over onto them to reach the next. I don't know whether this is the way to climb it, but it certainly was enjoyable. The mantle to reach the flutings was good fun solo as well. A classic that definitely failed to disappoint!

We then climbed another couple of crag classics. 'Crazy Diamond' was a route i really wanted to do, due to the fact i like Pink Floyd and Shine on you, Crazy Diamond is such an amazing song and also the line looked challenging. The initially techincalities were quite straightforward and then the upper slab was good fun, standing on pebbles. It did feel abit E3- 5b while on it. (edit, we climbed the wall to the left of the arete)

We then climbed the 'easiest E1 on Yorkshire Grit' which is 'The Hot Line'. I decided to 'Jazz' it up abit so i alternate lead it with Franco, who actually quite liked the look of the route, so i was happy to sit on the big ledge and look at the view while he climbed. :-)

We then climbed Veteren, which was quite bold but at a 'just to say' friendly angle. Very escapable though.

Then over to Poetry in Motion, which was a bit disappointing really. We walked down in the dark and then drove to Harrogate to get a pizza! 2 for 1 in some overpriced shop, which worked out to be.... like buying two pizza's...

I drove home and franco snored, i was impressed with my navigational skills on unfamiliar roads and at night, with headlights (when dipped) which are absolutely shite!

Gehenna

This is a climb that is coverted as one of the best in the region and the fact it was a jamming line made it appealing. This would be a stuggle. UKC logbooks showed that there had been some attempts recently but non of them were clean leads. It certainly sounded like a classic moors sandbag.

We arrived for our first trip to Beacon Scar. I liked the look of the place, certainly need to go back and do Mongol, Tremor and no doubt franco will want Fat Bastards Last Fling, a bold looking E5.

Looking up at Gehenna, i liked the look of it. It was a proper jamming line, a nicely sized crack with very little either side for the feet. It certainly didn't have the 'feel' of getting on a HVS.

The climb starts with a Niche, which you can arrange protection in before exiting it up and leftways, via some rather awkward moves on shallow jams on slightly damp, green soft sandstone.

The jams kept going for longer than i was expecting and i reached the horizontal break after about 7 or 8 jams (i looked like 2 or 3 jams would have got me far enough from the ground!) I placed some gear here as the run out from the niche was too far for comfort and i was tiring.

Luckily, you can rest on a good jam here and after placing a nut and cam i got my final jam, gastoned the crack and reached into the lovely pockets at the top. A truly great climb. Harder than it looks and it looks hard! but funnily enough HVS doesn't seem too bad for it, perhaps E1.

Another moors classic ticked and i was happy that the climb was a struggle. We didnt have enough time for anything else and i was tired anyway, pleased that i felt i could jam. This inspired me to visit yorkshire grit the next day.

End of the Summer

The last week before College, we managed to get across to the lakes for some decent climbing. The weather was reported to be hit and miss so we took our chances. I however felt decidedly ill but it wasn't too bad.
On route we stopped off at Healheugh and also Lamb Hill Quarry. The former provided some good gritstone cragging in a remote setting which was quite a nice break from driving. Lamb hill however was a little bit disappointing though we might drop in again next time we go to the lakes. Saturday we got up and drove to Gimmer where i climbed Springbank (E2-) which i thoroughly enjoyed as i climbed it feeling very sick and very dizzy which made the fact i climbed the slabby start all the more pleasing.
Franco and Luke tried 'Eastern Hammer' but neither of them could get past half height on this pumpy problem.
We retreated to Catherdral Quarry. Franco and I were interested to see how it compared to Welsh slate... It's alot more frictiony!
It began to rain and i felt very ill, but luke was 'psyched' for Darklands (E3 5c) which he despatched very efficienctly, in the rain as well. It was quite impressive.
Next day we went to Black crag (Wrynose) which was nice, albeit small. We did the usual stuff there, including 'Glass Slipper' (E2-) and Needle Arete (E3-) and some solos. This was a good day for me as i again felt like shit, but still got some climbing in. I knew once i felt better, the weather could deteriorate. It did, but not after heading to Hodge Close Quarry and then Parrock, where we just messed around on some bolted, slate slabs.
The next two days were shite, as it rained quite a lot so Luke left with Rob and Lotte and the next day Franco and I returned to the North East...

Brown Beck Crag

The day news broke about Ian's death, Neil and Myself were planning on journeying to Goldsborough, but we called this off. Unfortunately the weather had been awful for the week before and it continued to remain shite.
However, finally there was a break in the weather and i decided that it was too late to arrange to climb with anyone else so i raced to Brownbeck Crag to take advantage of the dry weather. I did just this, but i forgot my guidebook.
Luckily, i study my local guidebook a little too much and i could remember the lines and grades for a lot of the routes at Slipstones and Brown Beck crag.
The climbing lived up to the expectations i had for the place, with 'Pella' VS 4C*** and 'Wichita Linesman' HVS 5b** being extremely good routes which would be amazing if a little larger!
There were some other good aretes and 'E' numbers at the crag, but the VS and HVS would make a trip there worthwhile!
I also dropped in on a bit of a Daemon at Slipstones. 'Seven Up' and it's direct start E2 and E3 respectively had evaded my grasp for some time and i knew i could climb them! I did just this and it made my day to be honest!
I intend to climb at Goldsborough this summer and also maybe Healheaugh. I also wouldn't mind climbing some proper limestone, but a local very good looking crag appears to be closed, so im rather disapointed about that.

Summer 2008 - From bad to worse

On the way up the Ben. Ian was soo excited, but he wanted a picture with some Deer first!
Not particularly flattering, but the memories from Smiths Route will last forever!
Ian Soloing 'Inverted V' at Stanage. This seemed very impressive at the time, i was envious!
Again, not exactly flattering, but a hell of a trip and a very good laugh!
Just before Ian fell a fair distance after 'giving up' on the wet upper cracks. Again i was amazed with his climbing

What a fcking, shite summer this has been. Not only has the weather been awful, but my friends have been at the Alps climbing amazing routes while i was left in the UK unable to go aswell! However, as you may have heard a friend of mine, Ian Jackson tragically died in the Alps while climbing. This truly has been a summer of unrivalled sadness. Ian was a good lad, a heck of a climber and he made an impression to everyone he met. The thread on UKC after his death, proves this. He will be missed by everyone that knew him and his loss will be felt, probably forever.

My Summer - 2008

The soloing trip to the Lakes kept me contented for the first few weeks, but i became restless. Desperate for good weather and a new crag i started to look at even more esoteric venues that were easily reachable. Luckily one evening Franco's dad, Neil decided that he was able to go climbing, this was much appreiciated and we went to the nearby safe-bet of Camp Hill. There Neil ascended the good Severe and VS that he wanted and made a determined attempt to second me on the very nice HVS called 'Cling Wrap', something he is going to lead in the future and something i think he will have no problem in completing.

I also, decided that it was time to try 'Ace of Winds', this amazing looking climb has put me off several times, for one because it doesn't LOOK HVS and two, because i had to downclimb from the blank wall at half height!

This time however, i managed to reach the loose blocks. I arranged some decent protection then made a lo-o-ong reach to the top. There was nothing but sloping rock; on Grit this would have been enough, but Camp Hill isn't quite Grit. It's alot courser than the rock at Scugdale or Wainstones, but it didn't have the required friction. I eventually managed to get a high foot lockoff in a small crack under the roof and a blind reach around the roof to, luckily a good lip on the top. This was enough. I topped out on a great route, one that has repelled me two or three times, but i was right, it doesn't look HVS and it isn't!

The next day, i dragged budding climber, Matthew 'Mini' Cooper from Sleights along for a 'introduction' to rock climbing. We spent the day looking at rope technique, climbing technique and placing gear. He is a quick learner and i soon had him seconding me up routes and soloing some easy safe lines. He then lead, albeit dogged 'Longbow' but he was happy enough and i was ecstatic with what he had achieved. I then, asked if he would do me a favour and take a photo or two of me on a line i was yet to try. 'Pinnacle Face' HVS 5c, just looks stupid. The start is definitely 5c or harder and then the upper wall is difficult to protect and not ALOT easier. The guide also says 'use the right arete, if you must!' Personally, if you can't use the right arete, then it is totally eliminate as it is making you do very unnatural moves! Anyhow, the exposure was nice, but it wasn't the line i was hoping for!

Rejuvinated, with the recent improvement in weather i requested that Lewis would come to Eston Nab. Hardly Esoteric in the sense of the word, with it's views across Teesside and it's well used footpath above, popular with the local inhabitance. Parking at the Cross Keys on the A171, (to avoid parking in Eston!) we walked across and i got my first glipse of Eston Nab. "Oh well, it doesn't look too bad" i said, in fact i actually found the backdrop of Teesside an interesting change from Rolling moorland. The dockyards were certainly a better setting than a large group of houses.

The climbing was a tad dissapointing, i was hoping for higher buttresses. Luckily, the trip wasn't a waste, as i soloed alot of lines and then lead a VERY good HVS called, 'The Other'. This line takes a corner crack to a small ledge, then gear can be arranged up some criss-crossing cracks before undercutting a roof and traversing rightwards to allow a pull over to the top. Immense!

Lewis, didn't fancy it. I don't know why he did the hard bit reaching the roof the top section was the reward, but i lowered him anyway.

It was from about 1pm that things got bad. We walked to the monument and i climbed the 'back wall' at E1. Then the air became cooler and then rain drops started, we quickly set off for the car, but we were caught in a heavy rain storm. From this day onward, the summer has been wet, miserable and quite frankly woeful.