[Tommy]

Following a tip off from the mighty Gibson himself, me and Pete Whit went and checked out a possible new crag in the Churnet. We spent a couple of days doing a major Rhododendron clearance job, to open up a pretty impressive bit of rock.

We climbed 2 main new lines on the big tower:

1. Piece of Eight, E8 7a. Climbs the overhanging square-cut left arete of the tower to finish up the slightly sloping breaks above. Very bold and hard start, with gear after half heigh. FA. P Whittaker

2. Captain Cut Loose, E7 6c. Climbs the offiwdthy bombay chimney on the right of the tower to access the big break below the roof. Make some very large moves across the lip of the roof to a mighty cut loose and spicy finish. FA. T Randall

We've both not done any headpointing for ages, so the grades could be wrong. My route might well be E6 6c, but really not sure as top roping things totally fucks your grade comprehension. Really good little crag and quite impressive bit of rock.

There's an ace looking barrel shaped wall to the right that has around 3-4 boulder problems in the 7a-7c range that we've left for others to develop. The arete would be a very nice addition to anyones boulder FA list....

 

[Jim]

sounds great, any photo's?

[grimer]

Fucking hell Tommy, I saw the thread title and I was going to log on to warn you to Never get out of the boat only to read that it's too late. Rainroach Rock isn't a new crag. They let that go same trime as the wallabies.

[rainbow]

Fuckin nice one! The arete is a killer line. Went looking up that way last winter, I know how bad the rhododendrens were, literally had to crawl through to get to crag. Thumbs up for the clearance, would have took ages.
Think there was an ace looking arete just right of chimney. Did take some pics of lines, was really wet and minging.

This must be Piece of Eight


Piece of Eight lefthand side, Captain cutlose then should come in from chimney on right and climb the roof.


Just right of this is an cool looking arete which is screaming out to be done.


Ha ha, I truely thought these would never ever be done.
 

[Fiend]

Good effort!! Good exploration!! Exclamation mark!!

[Tommy]

Rainbow - yeah that's Pieces of Eight. Nice one for putting the photos up - Pete has a few dodgy ones, but I know I'd never get round to putting them on the web.

That arete really is a little beauty. It just shows what a lazy boulderer I am that I just couldn't get psyched to do it. Much more interesting climbing that big roof up at the top!!  I hope someone gets down there and does the boulder problems - we've done quite a lot of the hard work cleaning wise now.

Grimer - what are you talking about? You've gone slightly mad again and I tried reading your words through my Dave Thomas Glasses but still couldn't understand.... 

Fiend - you'd love it there. Perfect quiet esoterica new routing.

[rainbow]

That arete really is a little beauty. It just shows what a lazy boulderer I am that I just couldn't get psyched to do it. Much more interesting climbing that big roof up at the top!!  I hope someone gets down there and does the boulder problems - we've done quite a lot of the hard work cleaning wise now.

Yeah, would have had a play on the bouldering up there myself, the task of removing all those rhododendrons to get to the crag put me right off. Did remember the barrel of rock on right of crag, couldn't tell how sandy the rock was due to it being soaked. Did you clear the way in, from the left ie Pieces of Eight is the first noteable bit of rock you see. Or did you tunnel in from another angle?

Well done to you both, I'm sure in time your routes will get the repeats they deserve, hell it could be the next Ina's!!

[SA Chris]

Good work, that arete looks lovely

[The Runt]

Well done  I've wondered up there a few times or should I say hacked my way up there !
Good effort clearing the rodedendrens would be good to try and keep them at bay they grow back fast.

[T_B]

Short vid here

http://alexekins.co.uk/category/blog/