[mark20]

Peak Update
[Wyming Brook][Chatsworth][Bradley Quarry] [Cheedale][White Tor][Ladybower Tor][Stanage][Standing Stones]

Wyming Brook
Apartment With Fear E5 6b (6C+!) – Highball rib to the left of Mansion of Invention. Pull out over the heather cornice , or lower off,  from ab rope (tree belay)

Placid House RH E6 6c – As for Placid House, to the flat hold in the middle of the wall, step right and make a couple more tricky moves to the break and easy finishing groove.
This wall has been fully dug off and cleaned

Chatsworth-
Sentinel Prow E6 6b (6C!!!) Toby Wright – Climbs the prow of Sentinel Groove, with a reasonable reach from a left hand undercut pebble, to a hold at the top of the prow, and a direct mantel.

(Anyone had a proper go at Sentintel Groove? Got close but failed on one desperate move. Hihg but a flat landing, good prospect for some decent boulderers to try this above a stack of pads...)
 
Lonely Boy 7A – Compression problem to the right of Shy Boy. Sloped landing -  Pad tied to sapling useful.

Bradley Quarry
Big Brad Wolf E5 6c – Wolf In Cheep Clothing 7A, clip the peg, and balance up the wall above. Pull out over the heather cornice on an ab rope (stake belay – thanks!)

Cheedale
Some bouldering on the nice rock on the left side of Two Tier. A couple of pads and a spotter is useful as they are slightly highball. The start to Simon’s route Ghee Force makes a nice 5+. Just right up the rib is Ghee rib 6A. Right again the orange groove is Diet of Wotsits 6C to a high jug. Right again, starting below the slot and powering up the bulging wall is the pick of the bunch Potbelly 7A. The start of Isolate makes a good 6B+ to the ledge, lower off the bolt out right.
Just to the right again is To Boltly Go 7b+, up the groove of the old route Split Infinitive and bulging rib above. Good rock.
A new little bouldery route at the right end of The Nook is Fadeaway 7c. I’ve done some nice bouldering here too, mainly sit starts to the routes in the mid 6s. A pleasant spot for a sunny day and a picnic. The start to Burnout is a good 7A to the obvious slot.
One new one at Moving Buttress, The Glue Factory 7b+, climbs the wall on sidepulls, right of A Man Called Horse and My Lovely Horse. Now a good trio of short fingery 7s.

White Tor (Derwent Edges)
Wodwo E6 6c / E4 6a / E5 6b– This is a bit of a mystery route, listed as E6 in the BMC Burbage guide, but also claimed at E4 onsight solo (wow!). In reality more like E5 6b, and a good safe route (despite the guide description) through the bulges on rock much less scrittly than you’d expect. Decent.

Ladybower Tor
A lovely spot with some easy bouldering and pleasant views. Details on ukc logbooks. Mostly 4-6Bish, with a lowball 7A, and the best is Johnny’s Slab 6C, a traverse on the slabby block just over the wall. Full details on UKC logbooks.

Stanage
Stupor E5 6c – The right line up the Swooper slab. Siderunner to the right (didn’t seem quite good or independent enough to justify soloing)



Standing Stones
Consumed E5 6c (7A/+!!)– The sidewall on the right side of the crag, in plain sight when walking in from Rimmers Clough. High with a sloped landing (tied spotter recommended). Lovely balancy climbing on perfect rock. Thread belay and 10m rope to clean/inspect.

About 50m in front of the main section of crag is a jumble of big boulders. The landings tend to have some impressive holes in - a number of smaller pads to pack out the landings is preferable to one large pad-
The Recumbent Stone 7B+ Mega lip traverse from the break on the right to finish around the nose on the left
Solexit 6A, Solace 6c+ (fiend) Good slab between the boulders
Take a Pebble 5 (Matt Ferrier a few years ago) – Pleasant little diamond shaped slab opposite
Chuff’s Hole 6C (Jonboy yonks ago), also possible for the tall to move rightwards to the hanging groove at 6C+ but be careful with that landing
There’s a  few other bits and pieces here, and a hard 7Cish project up a steep prow facing the crag. I'll try and get round to a proper little guide for it

[Bonjoy]

Good haul! Consumed looks particularly excellent.

[grimer]

Ah nice one on Appartment with Fear. I quite enjoyed abseiling down that wall a few times in the spring I brushed up, but never got on, MoI. It looked really hard at the top. I also brushed the wall to the right which looks about E2.

[Fiend]

 

[Will Hunt]

Please could you define what is meant by  !, !!, and !!!? Looks interesting.

[Fiend]

Highball ratings as per GU NWB guides. ! = highball , !! = rarely used, very highball.

[Johnny Brown]

Great stuff! Keen to check some of these out. I don't feel like I finished left on Swooper like that but it was a long time ago.

Highball ratings as per GU NWB guides. ! = highball , !! = rarely used, very highball.

The original '!' came from Bart Van Raaj I think, the extended system was discussed on here before Si adopted it.

[bolehillbilly]

Good form Mark.
 
Funny how you never mention the !! or E grade when you recommend these new boulders to me though
You left off the route at Turningstone (which is a way of me saying I forgive you).

[mark20]

Ah nice one on Appartment with Fear. I quite enjoyed abseiling down that wall a few times in the spring I brushed up, but never got on, MoI. It looked really hard at the top. I also brushed the wall to the right which looks about E2.

Thanks for cleaning it up and pointing it out. Mansion of Invention looks great (and hard!). The whole wall looks like it stays quite clean and dry, as it's slightly overhanging and that big break at the top slopes back and slightly to the right diverting the water off to the side.

Great stuff! Keen to check some of these out. I don't feel like I finished left on Swooper like that but it was a long time ago.

Joe Bawden said exactly the same when I said I'd cleaned a direct/RH finish, but after a play on toprope, concluded he definately went slightly left at the top. The photo may be a bit misleading as I've trimmed some of the heather and it makes it look like line swerves further left than it actually does. Stupor has a way harder move, but it would be interesting to hear if anyone else has a play and what they think

Oh yes thanks for that Marc, I've called the Turningstone route  Season of Mist E5 6b. The steep blunt rib and stepped roofs to the right of Rainy Day Blues. The start is very highball to the first break, above is easier but pumpy.


re: the !/!!/!!!, maybe I'm mis-remembering but I thought the original single ! was expanded for the newer NWB guide. I've basically used it to try and differentiate between ! = a fairly standard highball requiring a couple of pads, !!= something requiring either loads of pads or accepting some danger in parts, and !!!=something that's basically un-tameable with pads. I'll re-read that other thread later.

[mark20]

Adam have you tried Sentinel Groove? Got your name all over it I'd have thought

[Will Hunt]

re: the !/!!/!!!, maybe I'm mis-remembering but I thought the original single ! was expanded for the newer NWB guide. I've basically used it to try and differentiate between ! = a fairly standard highball requiring a couple of pads, !!= something requiring either loads of pads or accepting some danger in parts, and !!!=something that's basically un-tameable with pads.

That makes sense, though when I've thought about this before I didn't see any reason not to give a !!! route/problem a trad grade - or better a hybrid grade like E5 6a (Font 6A+) or whatever.

[highrepute]

re: the !/!!/!!!, maybe I'm mis-remembering but I thought the original single ! was expanded for the newer NWB guide. I've basically used it to try and differentiate between ! = a fairly standard highball requiring a couple of pads, !!= something requiring either loads of pads or accepting some danger in parts, and !!!=something that's basically un-tameable with pads.

That makes sense, though when I've thought about this before I didn't see any reason not to give a !!! route/problem a trad grade - or better a hybrid grade like E5 6a (Font 6A+) or whatever.

Cos no one would go do it if it had a trad grade

[Fiend]

Cos no one would go do it if it had a trad grade

Now that is some proper  -worthy stuff. The kids of today just love sticking a shipping container's worth of pads down beneath a trad-graded highball, sendtraining the shit out of it, and then wanking off over insta-UKC with "Smashed out this sick E5" as if that means anything any more....

[grimer]

The whole wall looks like it stays quite clean and dry, as it's slightly overhanging and that big break at the top slopes back and slightly to the right diverting the water off to the side.

I spent a fair bit of time brushing the whole wall (Can't remember now why I did that TBH). It was totally covered in a growth. It all came off easily with a soft brush when it was dry but before that the rock was covered in filth.

[andy moles]

Cos no one would go do it if it had a trad grade

Now that is some proper  -worthy stuff. The kids of today just love sticking a shipping container's worth of pads down beneath a trad-graded highball, sendtraining the shit out of it, and then wanking off over insta-UKC with "Smashed out this sick E5" as if that means anything any more....

Still? I feel like that would have been true some years ago when trad numbers still had status, now I'm not so sure.

Could be I just don't see these things any more.

[Fiend]

Maybe? Might be a grit thing. In Wales they obviously prefer to stick a shipping container's worth of eco-retro-bolts in and smash out those sick E7s.

I try to avoid knowing what the kids of today do but it can be hard to avoid.

[andy moles]

I try to avoid knowing what the kids of today do but it can be hard to avoid.

I operate a fairly straightforward system with annoying content on social media. Two strikes and they're out.

Downside is a false impression that's it's all not too bad...

[Wellsy]

Is there anything really wrong with sticking a load of pads beneath a short route and doing it as a highball ascent? Or is it the claim of the E grade that is the issue.

[cheque]

I try to avoid knowing what the kids of today do but it can be hard to avoid.

Fiend, you are the original hard-to-avoid climber. Your recent schtick of moral outrage at climbers publicising themselves surely can’t be genuine.

[Fiend]

Wellsy it's mostly the latter - symptomatic of the inane, shallow, numbers-driven ego-wankery that increasingly defines climbing, boasting and showing off something that effectively you haven't even done.

Cheque - not so sure about that, I'm pretty sure I don't post many insta-reports of me sendtraining the shit out of Zippy's, getting 15k views for a video of some V4 on the comp wall at the Depot, or starting a hyperactive UKC thread "OMG MY FIRST E4!!!" after headpunting Moonwalk with pre-placed cams or whatever.

Seriously though, I'm bored, I'm always going to be ranting at something, and furious injury-derived jealousy aside, I do always enough seeing publicity of people doing stuff that is interesting, unusual, genuine, etc etc.

[deacon]

Seriously what are you on about?
What use would preplaced cams be on Moonwalk andWhere is this E4 thread on UKC?
But mostly, why do you care how different people climb different routes? It's all just messing about on some rocks!

[Fiend]

Aaannyway. The point, if one is even needed, is:

That makes sense, though when I've thought about this before I didn't see any reason not to give a !!! route/problem a trad grade - or better a hybrid grade like E5 6a (Font 6A+) or whatever.

Which is exactly what M20 has done above, in accordance with the totalitarian BMC-authorised guidebook protocol, which does indeed give the most useful information over, depending on what style of ascent you go for, or indeed which grading system you're most familiar with for these sorts of grey area routelets. Although I'm not sure (!!!) gets used much.

And it's a nice round-up of some cool exploration and questing.