[Nigel]

Just to let all the chuffers out there know, I've been doing a bit of cleaning in the Rivelin Quarries of late and it seems like this Sunday might be a good time for others to share the quality - forecast is for torrential rain tomorrow followed by a nice day on Sunday, unfortunately with very high winds. Perfect for the quarries! Why get blown about like a rag doll on the natural edges when you can luxuriate in a sheltered sun trap 10 mins from Sheffield on the finest technical challenges on quarried grit? Routes now clean and ready for your ascents are:

Earthboots **E6 6c
Jack The Groove **E6 6c
That's My Lot ***E8 7a/highball 7c???
Portnoy's Complaint ** E2 5b
Flex ***E6 6c
Final Overthrow Of The Green Devil **E5 6b
Feet Neat **E5 6c
Teddy Bear's Picnic **E4 6b
The Bear Necessities **E5 6b
Paddington **E4 6a

Along with a host of other stuff already clean. As a bonus I've cleaned a project arete above the Font 7a Glom Onto which I can't do but will go at E7 7a-ish to someone tall and handsome.

To sweeten the pill if all goes to plan I should be there first thing to put chalk on everything, I'll also bring my 7 pads for people to use. I'll also probably leave the gear in Earthboots all day while I seige it, so others can try the ground up. I'll also dish out sequence knowledge for this, plus a tentative sequence on That's My Lot from a play on a rope today. If we pad this out well and we get good nick perhaps a hero could get it ground up? Ned/Dan/Ryan are you out there?

P.S. Please can I request that this thread does not contain any mention of the now passe N**'* W***, I think we've heard enough, plus this is a purely routes thread. I'm happy for people to wax lyrical about That's My Lot though - one of THE best climbs I've ever tried. An outrageous and inspired ascent from Nik, cruelly underrated. Hopefully this will change.

[yorkshirewarcry]

Good work!

I'll see if I can sort a partner for Sunday.  Had a play on Flex a while ago, so keen to get back on that.

[nik at work]

I am weirdly going to be in Sheffield on Sunday so may pop in to the quarries to say hello. Whats the current parking situation, last time I drove past the pub was for sale so I'm guessing the roadside convenience is gone.

Good effort on cleaning, if I do call in I'll give you my beta for That's My Lot. I'll have my two year old son in tow though so won't be climbing. Anyway if you see a short scruffy bespectacled chimp like creature leading a small child through the tree's do say hello.

Seriously people should go here, I know I bang this drum a lot but take the opportunity and get on these truly brilliant routes while they are clean.

[priscilla wimbush]

Earthboots **E6 6c
To sweeten the pill if all goes to plan I should be there first thing to put chalk on everything, I'll also bring my 7 pads for people to use. I'll also probably leave the gear in Earthboots all day while I seige it, so others can try the ground up. I'll also dish out sequence knowledge for this.....

Good work for cleaning and enthusiasm.
I thought Earthboots was E7 7a - It (like Niks wall) has shut down some pretty notable suitors. Not sure about this 7 pads pre-geared seige open day, although I guess the style is out in the open. Will this be third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh.....ascents?
Would be good to see That's my lot on video if anyone does do it - I hear it's a 'second gen move.'
 
Have a good day.

[Nigel]

Whats the current parking situation, last time I drove past the pub was for sale so I'm guessing the roadside convenience is gone.

Park in front of the former pub as before, spaces are still there. Enough for about 6-8 vehicles? Have PM'd you regarding sequences.

I thought Earthboots was E7 7a - It (like Niks wall) has shut down some pretty notable suitors. Not sure about this 7 pads pre-geared seige open day, although I guess the style is out in the open. Will this be third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh.....ascents?

You're probably right about it being 7a. Regarding style, I don't have an issue with leaving the gear in a route for others to enjoy. Hopefully it will see that many ascents eh?!

Fingers crossed for the weather!

[Nigel]

Just a quickie to let interested parties know that I put a patio landing beneath That's My Lot this afternoon. It is constructed of fallen birch logs that I found about the quarry floor and has built up the dip between the fallen tree and the rising ground to create a flat platform for pads. The idea is to allow this to be padded out more effectively as a highball rather than an ankle breaker - it will still be very ballsy though! Hopefully we'll get to try it out! If not then its there for future use. On the other hand if AndiT wants to deconstruct it it shouldn't take long, it only took an hour to build. 

[Sloper]

Have you got the Upvc double gazing in yet?

[Nike Air]

Which guide are the quarries in ? The Eastern grit guide i ve got only contains info on the edge itself.... Plus are the harder routes pretty new and not in any guide yet? Well done on all the cleaning BTW, takes some doing!

[Drew]

Get yourself a decent guidebook

4. Earthboots **E6 6c
5. Jack The Groove **E6 6c
14. That's My Lot ***E8 7a/highball 7c???
27. Portnoy's Complaint ** E2 5b
28. Flex ***E6 6c
29. Final Overthrow Of The Green Devil **E5 6b
41. Feet Neat **E5 6c
43. Teddy Bear's Picnic **E4 6b
46. The Bear Necessities **E5 6b
47. Paddington **E4 6a

It's got all the routes!

[nik at work]

I met Nigel out there today (in the rain) and surveyed his patio-ing efforts. And I'd say nice one Nige. The landing has been vastly improved and a team with several big mats and spotters could highball this now I think (ground up perhaps?). Apparently after I left the patio was further developed, utilising some neanderthal regression, and that's all good. This is, if I do say so myself, one of the stand out lines on quarried grit and it has stood unrepeated and pretty much un-attempted for 10 years at a crag with a short walk-in a few miles from Sheffield, it's even on a bus route FFS! If this improvement to the landing means more people attempt the line then brilliant. I doubt they'd be ticking a three star E8, but they'd certainly get a three star Font 7-something-ish tick, and that's a good thing. Is it bad that the landing is patio-ed. IMHO no, the work can easily be reversed should the prevailing ethic of the day dictate it and in it's current state it fits quite nicely in the highball-able grit pseudo-route bracket which appears to be currently in vogue. In fact it probably makes more sense as such rather than as a short bouldery route which gets E8 due to a hideous landing.
So bravo to Nige for promoting the place and making efforts to raise interest. I'm almost tempted to wad him again for his efforts, what the hell I think I will.

P.S. I'm still taking the E8 tick OK?

[TobyD]

nice one Nigel, I am extremely keen to go check some of that out. T'as just got to stop raining for more than five minutes first!

[highrepute]

this is really great stuff. I was really surprised how good the quarry was when I went down for the first time a few weeks ago and now some spring cleaning. I shall definitely be making a return trip sometime this winter. Well done!

[Johnny Brown]

I thought E was for onsight Nik?

Yesterday Nige was toproping this... above a patio! The worst of both worlds?

[Nigel]

I wasn't toproping, its even worse than that - I was abbing it looking for placements for my forthcoming first aided ascent. I found a placement for a tiny tiny copperhead (cast from a scaled up version of dense's head) and an exotic stacked bird beak arrangement (hoopoe cammed against chiff chaff).

Anyway, should be at the crag in about an hour, see you there?

[grimer]

Well done Nige. Like Highrepute i was well impressed by this crag. As Drew said it's in the Burbage guide and, as I had never visited to climb there, I was really impressed by the job Paul Harrison and Simmo did on the write up on this obscure venue. Would love to go back and try some things in the last quarry.

Let's keep the RQ momentum a-rolling.

[Bonjoy]

Yesterday Nige was toproping this... above a patio! The worst of both worlds?

Or Nigel graciously sacrificing the possibility of his ground up ascent, so harvesting the beta for a subsequent flurry of ground-up ascents by others. 

[Johnny Brown]

No, I think he built the patio cos he doesn't trust his top-rope. Its really poor style.

[nik at work]

I thought E was for onsight Nik?

Oh lordy, lets not get sidelined down that particular alley of debate. I'd rather we stay on the worthy topic the thread started with.(But yeah you do have a point, I should have qualified that with "headpoint").

As for Nigels top-roping above patio antics I assumed the patio was a belay platform, I've seen some terrible ankle twists from belaying on uneven ground.

[Johnny Brown]

But he was self-belaying! Ethics have really hit a new low here.

[nik at work]

I wasn't aware of that, frankly I'm outraged, chunter, mutter, grumble...

Good job you were there to restore the ethical balance junior woodsman Brown.

[grimer]

Has this potentially interesting and inspiring thread taken a sharp detour down a tedious one-way street?

Oh well.

[nik at work]

Fair point Grimer, I'll shut up now.

[Johnny Brown]

Well I was going to Rivelin, but its started raining. This is virtual crag banter. I suppose Grimer is poe-faced and silent at the virtual crag.

[dave]

Although Nige's theoretical treehouse-of-horror homobelay prussikpoint ascent is a pressing issue I'm personally more concerned that he's not set up a eastern bloc style 4-bit colour website documenting these routes, as is the prevailing ethic of the crag.

[nik at work]