[Bonjoy]

Shelter Cliff Field Boulders

Shelter Cliff itself is the oddball crag between Eastby and Halton Heights. The climbing might be quite nice but I’ve never seen a crag so buried under Rhododendrons in all my years digging around esoteric jungles. Thankfully the boulders in question are in an open field downhill from the crag. The crag is on the north side of Barden Road and the field boulders are on the south side (clearly visible on Google Streetview). There are only two interesting boulders, but these are really nice. The rock on the steep main face reminded me of the very best bits at Almscliff, bullet hard, smooth and clean. It faces south and is open so is doubtless very quick to dry. The walk in is negligible and the proximity of Crookrise and Eastby make it a good place to drop into on the way to/from elsewhere.
To access park 200m up the road in a spacious lay-by just after a cattle grid. Avoid damaging the wall by entering the field at the gate near the cattle grid.
Beast of the Field is the main attraction with the other stuff being decent quality warm up type probs.

Fantastic Mr Fox 6C - On the bigger boulder. Climb the small face via a pocket and arete holds from a SS on the jug.

Beast of the Field 7B+ - The centre of the steep face deserves to be a classic. Stand start on big slopey edges on the left. Great moves with a hard go again to a slotty hold.

Boggis 4+ - The steep right arete.

Bunce 6B - On the side of the smaller boulder facing BotF. Climb the blunt rib from a sit start.

Bean 6A+ - The rib/arete right again from a sit start at the base of the slanting jug.

[Greg C]

The 7B+ looks great, look forward to checking this out. Shame there's no longer a Yorkshire hub to coral all these problems.

[andy_e]

Great find Bonjoy! Tom managed the project you mentioned, thinking it to be about 7C/+ but he could keep his foot on the big foothold. Beast of the Field is excellent!

[Greg C]

Nice one Andy.

[TomP]

The beast is a great little problem. I'm afraid to say I broke the big crimp whilst trying to showpony it for camera after I'd already done it- not much harder though. Did the problem about 4 times as I enjoyed it so much! The big crimpy flake certainly feels hollow to the right so I'd recommend trying not to use that part if possible.
As andy says, for black rabbit I kept my feet on the low good footholds. It will be harder if you can't but not massively so. I was close to doing like that before I realised I could keep my feet on so decided to embrace the lank.
Good find bonjoy!

[Bonjoy]

Cheers Guys. Nice video and good work on Black Rabbit! I'd got it into my head that you'd have to slap to the poor pinch out left of the edge you got and then come into said edge with your right, hence the high grade guess. Kicking myself I never thought to try getting the edge straight off with the other hand! Eh well, one for the Peakie raider and one for the locals, can't say fairer than that. Nice name BTW.
Next time I'm up that way (could be some time), I'll look at popping a well hidden blob of resin down the back of the flake at the end to reduce the leverage. Fingers crossed it should be fine in the meantime, so long as nobody does anything daft like try using it as an undercut.

[Potash]

Has the access issues lessoned with this place?

I climbed here once and got escorted off, additionally I spoke to someone else who had the police called on them by an aggrieved land owner after doing minor branch/Rhododendrons  trimming.

I have photo topo of the crag they passed on to me and the approach from the moor is both obscured from view and not as bad.

[TomP]

We weren't aware of access issues but when we were there a farmer came into the field to move some sheep into another field. He clearly saw us and didn't bat an eyelid. Also, a land rover went past several times and was clearly looking at us - don't think they knew what we were doing. When they saw us climbing on one of their drive bys, they kept on driving and we didn't see them again. This is purely anecdotal but there didn't seem any access issues.

[andy_e]

Although the roadside blocks are not on CRoW access land, as Tom says, the farmer didn't seem to mind. What Potash is referring to is the crag above this, which is on the other side of the road and up the hill in the "Commercial Woodland, No Public Access" as it says on the gate across the road from these boulders. I think the Land Rover must have been checking we weren't up in the woods. I've never seen a patch of woodland so fiercely protected, what've they got in there?!

[Bonjoy]

I think the land ownership of Shelter Cliff is different to that of the field on the other side of the road where the boulder is.

[Jaspersharpe]

I've never seen a patch of woodland so fiercely protected, what've they got in there?!

Trolls?

[andy_e]

No, I couldn't see a power supply for their computers.

[andyd]

I did went her last weekend. Really good. Think I've found some easier beta for the crux on beast. I cross through for the finishing hold with my right hand, using an intermediate sloper to get me there. An amazing find Bonjoy 

[Will Hunt]

Lovely lantern session here tonight, great find Jon - the rock quality is superb.

Sheeperate Reality - awesome, and perfectly named!

Struggled with warming up on Fantastic Mr Fox. Quite a powerful lock! Just wondering what sequence people used on this and whether we were doing it 'wrong'. We got the far right hand crimp (adjacent the crack) and then locked that to the pocket just shy of the left arete.

Beast of the Field is very good. Justifiably popular. Its what I imagine a swiss boulder problem would be like - big lock on nice positive crimps on a really really steep wall! Just a thought - and I don't want to make myself unpopular here - does anybody who's done it have any thoughts on the grade? I'm not sure what I'd give it, but I think it could stand to settle at a lower grade. A couple of comments I've seen on online videos and logbooks indicate similar thoughts.

We parked the car at the entrance to the plantation (not blocking it) and it wasn't long before a representative of the Bolton Abbey estate had pulled up and gone looking for us in the woods! Presumably there's a nuclear bunker or missile silo in there! No problem with us climbing though, if not slightly perplexed at the concept of a lantern session.

[Bonjoy]

Cheers I did Mr Fox with slap I think. Have a video at work, will check it next week.
Yes I think a downgrade is the consensus. Fine by me. I did it the day after doing a bunch of overgraded things at Brimham which may have decalibrated my grading circuits. I also started it from the left without a low ledge i think, this may have made a tiny difference, or not.

[36chambers]

Cheers I did Mr Fox with slap I think. Have a video at work, will check it next week.
Yes I think a downgrade is the consensus. Fine by me. I did it the day after doing a bunch of overgraded things at Brimham which may have decalibrated my grading circuits. I also started it from the left without a low ledge i think, this may have made a tiny difference, or not.

Brimham does have a surprisingly large number of overgraded problems.

[a dense loner]

I've been saying that for 20 yrs

[andy_e]

Words from Stubbs:

EASTBY (SHELTER CLIFF) BEAST IN THE FIELD AREA ACCESS.
We went to the Beast block this evening and were approached by the land owner. He was OK with us climbing there, but wants anyone who wants to climb there to ask permission at the farm first. The farm is Stub Fold Farm, the entrance to which is back towards Eastby village, west of the boulders.

[monkey boy]

Warm today but repeated Black Rabbit. 7C+ felt about right when compared with similar problems in Yorkshire e.g. Under a Full Moon.

Beast is a great problem too. Nice one Jon.

On the access side I went to the farm to ask permission to climb but no one was around but I didn't have any problem whilst there.

[Will Hunt]

It's a good thing that people are doing as asked and going to the farm and asking permission to climb, however I'm not sure if this is actually the best thing to do. I asked permission to climb at the farm once and ended up having quite a long chat with the farmer (so long in fact that Footwork came down the track to find me, thinking I would be squealing like a pig somewhere).

Without wanting to put loads of information in the public domain in a topic that's searchable and linkable to the tenant farmer, one of the topics that came up in our discussion was his relationship with the estate as his landowner, and I was quite concerned that asking him for permission to climb might actually be putting him in a difficult position. He is not the landowner, and is not supposed to grant access without permission from the estate. He certainly seemed surprised to have me asking him for permission to climb there.

My feeling is that the best approach is to park up the road, away from the boulder itself (parking at the plantation entrance or having a lamp session will generally attract the attention of the estate very quickly since I think they rear game birds in the woods), and walk down to the boulder and take access discreetly. If the farmer asks you to leave then do so; if he asks why you haven't asked permission then maybe you can reference what I've mentioned above. In my experience the estate haven't moved people on who have been climbing there, they just seem more worried about people rustling whatever they've got in the plantation.

[SA Chris]

By rustling I assume you mean poaching. Unless they have herds of large ruminants hiding in there too.

[teestub]

It's a good thing that people are doing as asked and going to the farm and asking permission to climb, however I'm not sure if this is actually the best thing to do...

When I wrote the above in 2015 this wasn't on a random whim, it was the farmer's wish at that anyone who wanted to climb on the boulders asked him first. If he's changed his mind since then, that's fair enough. I guess pretty much everyone in Yorkshire must have done Beast in the Field by now anyway!

I think one would have to be somewhat mentally deficient to attempt to park in the tight gate entrance to what is obviously a private woodland and (I assume) climb over the wall, when there is a big parking bay and a gate into the field 250 m away.

[Will Hunt]

I didn't think it was on a whim, Stubbs, but I do wonder if the farmer has changed his mind because when I spoke to him he seemed slightly perplexed as to why I was there asking him for permission.

I'll send you a PM with the goss.

[Teaboy]

Isn't this what the BMC is for?

[teestub]

Isn't this what the BMC is for?

#RememberWhitehouses