[Bonjoy]

Here’s an update of Peak stuff from the last few months. In no particular order.

Millstone
I cleaned up the first pitch of April Arete which is a really good 6A+ using a peg pocket to gain a hanging groove.
March into April 6C starting on the arete of March Hare traverse left into and up April Arete start.
Gritlad outreached me on a new line starting at the pocket on AA and then heading right up the wall – May Bee 7A

June Whitfield 7A - Climb the overhanging groove left of April Arete start to join it near the top.

Mirf’s Roof

Ned climbed the right hand of the two mantel project noted in the script for this Churnet venue it’s called Journey to the Centre of the Mirf. It took him a fair few goes and he’s not shit at mantels, but it was boiling and it’s on very slopey slopers, so the grade could be anything. 7B+ would seem a reasonable random guess for the time being, but it could be anything from 7B to 7C+.

Don’t think it has been mentioned on UKB yet that Tom Newman climbed a right hand finish to Mirf’s Roof and called it Burly McMirfy. Tom gave it 8A+ and it looks every bit of that on his vid of it, but Ned found an alternative sequence which dropped it to 7C+/8A. Why the split grade – Ned tends to shrug when I ask about grades, but it’s probably harder than Witness the Churnetness, but that is probably overgraded at 8A. The new climbing can be done from a kneeling start at the good lip holds of Mirf’s at 7B+ and has a great Master Kush style helicopter move.

Blackwell Dale

Gritlad outbolded me on a line I cleaned on the underrated Black N Deckout buttress. This climbs the just off vertical left wall out to a jug on the nose then pulls back left to a solid easy topout. It’s a great highball on Cheetoresque pockets and crimps. It’s called Young Gifted and Black and goes at 7A


A few more things on the Black N Deckout buttress
Young, Gifted and Black got a couple of repeats confirming the grade and quality. We then did the obvious fillers in to the left.
Black is the Colour 6A – Left of Y,GaB. Climb flakes until a big reach out right can be made to a short juggy crack which leads to a shared topout with Y,GaB. One of those rarest of things, a really good low grade limestone problem! About E1 5b in old money
Young, Gifted LH 6C+ - The trip out onto the prow on the original can be avoided by a really long lock off the mid height crimp to the crack on Black is the Colour. Possibly no easier than the original but deffo less scary and not quite as excellent, though still really decent.
Whoa-o Black Betty (Bam-Ba-Lam) 7C – Just left of Black Hole is a decent sidepull pinch (now glued), use this and a tiny undercut to make an almighty wang for a sloper in ‘the hole’. Match the hole to finish. It was too dark to top out but it looks solid enough and not very hard. – Ned Feehally

Cave Dale

Finally got round to climbing a line I mentioned in a thread on here years ago. It’s just on the right after the gate as you enter the dale. You often hear the term board style bandied about but this deserves it if anything does, it’s at least 45 degrees, the same length as say the Motherboard and involves long pulls on flat edges and pinches. One hold and the top jug needed some glue but the whole thing is super solid now. Think I’ll call it Sheep Shifter and give it 7A+. There’s a wall with some nice Reinstoresque highball walls in the English 5c-6b range a little further up on the left and potential for more new bits on a buttress below the castle and by the path on the right further up again.

Ramshaw

Ned climbed the fairly obvious line on the lower tier of the lower tier of the Ramshaw Crack buttress. From the crack/groove on the far right trend left on good rails to a heelhook under the roof which help you through the bulge above. No name yet (working title Crack-Whore’s Ram) highball 7C was mentioned

Ram Raider 7A – Between the Old Fogey buttress and the Ladystone (banned bit above farm) is a couple of boulders in a field which is on access land. I dare say people have wrongly assumed it’s part of the banned area hence it not being developed already. This problem starts low on a massive jug on the arête and gains a tricky exit on the nose via the flared crack and rail out right. Had to clean some turf out of a hole at the top and this was still wet when I climbed it, so the grade might drop if the this proves helpful on the topout once dry.

Ramification 6C+ – Sit start right of Ram Raider. Gain the jug and another tricky topout up the blunt rib.
I also had a play on the rocks west of the road which are mentioned in the guide. There is one really good flake line to a bald exit on the farthest block which is well worth the detour if you’re after a good 6B. Closer to the road (about 5m away from it infact) is a clean undercut slab. I spent a while trying to climb the middle of this but couldn’t get my palm to stick. In the end I climbed it either side of centre, both ways about 6B, but the central line would be better.

Kinder North – Seal Edge and Stones
 
Seal Stones are the rocks about 100m north of where the Blackden stream drops down over the edge line. Some good shapes. Bob Berzins mentioned these to me and I had a look a couple of weeks back. The best thing is a double arête to a roundy exit, which is 6C or so from sitting and a similar difficulty if the left arête is climbed on its left. There’s some other nice bits here, I’ll prob put some more detailed info on pb.info at some point.

Further west (towards Chinese Walls and Fair Brook) on what is probably Seal Edge are a couple of distinctive rock mushrooms, close together, a bit like the Boxing Gloves on Ashop Edge. There is Paul Mitchell called Launch at eng6b on the larger mushroom which jumps to the scoop at the top of the flared offwidth.

Chicken & Mushroom Scoop 7A – Climb the scoopy offwidth direct with obligatory chicken wing manoeuvre. Pretty morpho in both directions.

Stamina of a Seal 6C – Hug up the arête left of C&M with one hand in the scoop.

eatswood

One from a good while back this - Witch’s Milk 7B – Steep and technical roof thing on the far left of the cave. From a specified holds start (see topo on pb.info) climb into the exit moves of the eatswood Traverse. Would make a good hard start for Kristain’s or Hat’s for Weasel’s.

QED II – Left of Seismic Start is a vertical face characterised by the eponymous enigmatic graffiti and two diagonal breaks. An obscure established 5 climbs  between these and thence the top. I’ve added a low start (stand start on holds below the break) bumping it up to a respectable 6C and given it the obvious name.
Bong Smash 7A – Ned climbed from the same start (hint: use RH to undercut low on arête) out to and up the Seismic arête.
Also whilst waiting for clouds Ned added a sit start to The Grimper pushing it up from 7A+ to 7B.


Pics and vids to follow.

[r-man]

Brilliant, sounds like loads of good stuff. Hadn't spotted Tom's video till now, looks great.

[Scouse D]

Nice lovejoy, I'd forgotten all about black and deckout. Proper good problem that, in fact all of that buttress is very good.

[Bonjoy]

Had a go at B&D after doing the probs further right (all good) but bottled it as on my own with only one pad. It seemed class.

[Bonjoy]

Went to Millstone and did the remaining line next to April Arete. OP updated.

[Three Nine]

Nice lovejoy, I'd forgotten all about black and deckout. Proper good problem that, in fact all of that buttress is very good.

Are there topos/vids?

[turnipturned]

Katzy has also done a new hard problem (in the 8's range) at Churnet in the Spellbound area. I am sure details will emerge soon.

[Bonjoy]

Nice, good bit of wall that with various obvious things to do. Lots more hard stuff yet to come out of the Churnet I reckon.

[Bonjoy]

Three Nine - no topo yet but all probs are on pb.info


Some pics. More to follow.

Topo of Millstone stuff:





Ned's new Ramshaw highball:




Young Gifted and Black:

[dave]

There is a hand drawn topo for that Blackwell dale buttress that I did years ago but it's never been in the public domain, bearing in mind climbing on that side of the dale is technically banned.

[PipeSmoke]

been casting an eye around Churnet, is there anywhere that says open and closed projects in a bit more detail?

[rainbow]

I /we have had the churnet all to ourselves for years so in my mind all projects should be open now. Go find and climb and send all info to me as we still have time to get them added to the guide. Bonjoy I'll be intouch in a few weeks just to clarify if I've written the new additions correctly

[Bonjoy]

Ok nice one. I sent some info to cofe a while back but there may well be more to report.

[tommytwotone]

Hi Bonjoy, any beta for parking / getting to Seal Stones?


Very keen to get on your offwidth prob but it'll most likely be a flying raid when I can get a pass out.

[Bonjoy]

Park in one of the laybys just before the Snake Inn. Follow a footpath through woods to the bridge. Follow path down to confluence of the two streams. Cross Fair Brook and take the long straight diagonal path heading east along the side of a hill. This leads to a small clough (Gate Side Clough) with a path up it which takes you to an east-west path just below edge line. Go west about 400m looking out for a pair of rock toadstool close to the path. It's a fair hike of about 50mins. One pad is enough.

[tommytwotone]

Nice one, cheers - will try and get up there and do those probs / get 'em on film.

[T_B]

That Ramshaw problem was an obvious LGP. Did he do it ground up? It would be desperate to TR, which I reckon might be one of the reasons it's not been done until now... good stuff.

[Bonjoy]

No it was roped first. It was a bit sketchy at first due to the crucial heel being very sandy, which would have made a GU pretty gnarly. The heel is stabilised (superglued) now and it would be bold but ok to GU with a decent number of pads (we only had two).


Shoddy pic of Sheep Shifter with line shown:

[Bonjoy]

There is still an amazing looking possible line to do below Ramshaw Crack - starting as per Ned's then continuing the traverse all the way to the cracked arete out left or through the roof at it's widest. It's hard to tell how just feasible this is from the ground (hence pic in old guide of Nick Dixon looking at it on a ladder). That one would be v hard to toprope.

[T_B]

Maybe that was what I was envisaging. Still reckon someone (Tommy) should put some effort into the crack right of the crack.

[dave]

That sheep shitter thing looks boss. I've scoped put cave dale a few times before, don't know how I missed that.

[tomtom]

Nice one, cheers - will try and get up there and do those probs / get 'em on film.

Gimme a shout when you head up 3T - its not too far from my Mancheseter abode..

[Seb]

Regarding Sheep Shifter. I had a look today and it looks good. I started on the left of the wall and used the block for feet, is that the wrong start? Also I couldnt figure out the last meter or so before the jug. What was your sequence if you remember?

[Bonjoy]

We didn't use the block out left.
From sitting with LH in obvious polished hole and Rh slot, RH to big pinch, get in a right facing egyptian and reach LH to slot pocket, RF heel hook, RH poor pinch on right, LF in start pocket, LH edge, LF white ramp, RH good edge (glued though you might not be able to see the glue), LH another edge (one with notch in the middle), big lock RH to jug on the shoulder where the are curves back left, LH glued jug, match.
I did try going further left via a big undercut layaway but it led to a hard bit. Think this left way will go but it will be a touch harder and with the crux at the top. The crux is about midway the way we did it.

[Seb]

Thanks.