[JamieG]

My brother and I went up Pots and Pans in Saddleworth on Sunday morning and had a really good session. Climbed a few new, and a few established but poorly documented problems, in and around the far left quarry. Including:

Mr Monster - 7a+ - Well established problem (in over the moors guide), but doesn't seem to get many visitors. Obvious blank slab/wall on the left side of the quarry. Very hard slab climbing all revolving around using a poor mono/crimp for your left hand. Poor feet and a big step up to reach the higher breaks. Nice problem but a little unforgiving on the left hand.

S Arete - 5+/6a - Only record I can see is in a photo on UKC (maybe its in older guides). Interesting S shaped arete at the back right of the quarry. Climb on its right hand side, pop up to vertical shot hole. Heel onto arete and reach for better holds higher. Then either top out around the arete or direct.

Captain Troll - 7a (maybe 7a+) - Only mention I can see is in the comments on the UKC photo of S Arete. Climb the wall right of S arete using the large sidepull/undercut. Hard pop up to vertical shot hole and then dynamic moves to gain the top. Brilliant climbing. Caution the starting foothold is a bit delicate/soft and broke a bit when we were climbing. (Maybe needs stabilising - superglue? I'll look at the hold repair thread).


Ouzel block - below and to the left of the left hand quarry is an obvious block with an overhanging arete. We climbed three lines on this block all with sit starts and I'm pretty sure none of them have been done before.

Ouzel arete - 5 - Climb the obvious arete on its right hand side with a couple of big moves to good holds.

Ouzel arete sit - 6c - The sitstart involves a tough pull on and slap (either left up the arete or right to the good crimp). Top out as before.

Ouzel slab - 5 - Climb the arete on its left up the slabby face. Balancy moves to gain the good hold on the arete and a slightly scary/awkward top out follow. Can be done as a sit at roughly the same grade or maybe worth a +

Afterbirth - 6b+ - Matched on the the good crimp in the middle of the face to right of Ouzel arete dyno to the top using the good footholds to the right. Can be done direct or using an intermediate sidepull.

Afterbirth sit - 6c - Adds a couple lovely technical moves from a little pocket and crimp.


Tombstone block - Between the scree/slag of the two main quarries is a little isolated block. Looks a bit like a tombstone. Gives two easy but not brilliant problems. Probably both been done before. Both probably no harder than low 5s. Hard to tell as I wasn't remotely warmed up and it was blowing an absolute gale.

Tombstone right - From standing climb the arete on its right, giving a decent problem. Nice smeary moves that ease with height.

Tombstone left - A fairly poor but a little tricky sitstart to the left hand side of the arete. Pull on with a bit of awkwardness and reach for the top.


My brother made a little video which features most of the above problems. Definitely well worth a walk up there now. And definitely more problems to be established too. Quite a few nice looking lines in the quarries and surrounding blocks that haven't been done.

[Fiend]

Impressive work on Mr Monster, it does seem an excellent problem on a lovely bit of rock. Still maintain it's harder than any 7A+ slab I've ever seen if you're short. I was trying different beta but still no idea how to get that foot up high.

[JamieG]

Cheers Fiend, My brother and I used slightly different footholds. I used a more positive foothold to the left of the one that my brother uses in the video. It is a better foothold but a little more difficult to place your foot onto and then harder to step up, but much better once you start rocking up. I'm a little taller than him (I'm 5'10 and he's about ~5'9, similar arm lengths both positive ape indices) and he felt too stretched on my foothold. Then it is a bit of a reach to the break (definitely harder for the short). Slightly different left hand beta too. I went with full mono middle finger crimp (sore on the joints). He managed to get two fingers on the edge and crimp. Either way it is a fierce problem and pretty tough on the left hand. Could be 7b (brother said he thought it might be too). I find grading accurately very hard. Don't get out as much as I would like to (kids! :-) ), so often I am a bit rusty on problems to compare with.

[scragrock]

Nice work Jamie & Robbie G

[JamieG]

Cheers Scragrock. Just shows you don't need to be in the wilds of Scotland to find nice unclimbed problems. :-) I'm hoping to go for a good scout around at some point to see what else has been overlooked up there. And at Slade rocks too.

(Unfortunately around saddleworth there have been some things claimed that clearly haven't been done and others which have wildly over the top grades. And it is a little tricky untangling the mess)

[bolehillbilly]

Lovely setting for that block and the slab looks very good.

[JamieG]

Cheers bolehillbilly. It's really nice up there. Surprisingly nice for a quarry. You get great views back across uppermill, greenfield and out to manchester. Bonus good birdlife (ring ouzels hence the names) and hares around too.

The slab is very nice, but I think the afterbirth dyno is probably the best problem on that block. Especially from a sit. And I'm not even the much of a dyno fan (would normally definitely favour a slab over a dyno). It just flows so nicely, across onto the big footholds and then the pop up. (The name is because a sheep had recently given birth and the fresh afterbirth was still under the block. My brother moved it with a rock. Bit gross.  )

[gardinrm]

Just seen that Tom Newman climbed something up at Pots and Pans a few months ago. No description, but I recognised where it was having climbed the obvious lightening shaped feature to the right. Jamie and I are planning to pull this all together in a short topo when time permits.

[Fiend]

A delicate little number that. The S-shaped feature looks nice, what does that go at?

[JamieG]

If you mean the feature to the right of Tom’s problem then the stand is about 6b and you can do a sitstart from just down and left at around 7a/+.

Loads of good stuff up there. Definitely an overlooked venue. Great views back to Manchester too.

[JamieG]

Some great new problems at Pots and Pans, Saddleworth. Maybe some have been climbed before, but we had a great time discovering these. And still more to go at.

My brother put together a video of some of the stuff we have been climbing up at Pots and Pans over the last few months. I thought I'd just actually write it up here too so it's all in one place. Some of these will almost definitely been done before, but nothing seems well documented up there. Which is a shame since it is a great little crag and has some excellent bouldering. Definitely more problems to be established too for the keen.


Twin Quarries (at least I think that's what it is called)

At the top of these two quarries is an obvious wall and hanging arete with some lovely problems.

Lost Boys - 5+ - Climb the left arete (around the corner not the hanging arete) with a tricky moves to get to better holds and easy top out.

Peter Pan - 7a - (Robbie found this hard to grade because it is a weird jump problem) Hanging arete. Standing on the jumble of boulders below and left hand on arete, jump to a good hold with your right. Match and top out. Obvious project from stand and/or sit but probably going to be pretty hard.

Mr French - 7b - Jump to crimps in middle of wall and slap to rail (FA Tom Newman)

Goldrush - 7a+ - From a sit start down a left, feet on smears, left hand undercut, right hand crimp rail. Make a hard slap into a better higher hold. Then some awkward moves to get established on the rails and flake. Finish up this. Stand is an old established problem at about 6b. Both stand and sit are excellent.

The Leper - 5 - Wall to right has a large slot in it. Jump to this and top out. Old established problem.


Back Quarry

The Riever - 7a - Climb the left arete of the tall block in the middle of the quarry via an awkward slap and the dynamic finish. Lovely problem.

Project - Right arete of the Riever block is an obvious problem but seems hard and awkward.

The Rapparee - 7a+ - Wall up and left of The Riever block. Climb via a tricky toe hook and crimps to a committing slap to better holds. Sloping landing, a couple pads and a spot would be best. Nice climbing.


Middle Quarry

Pot Luck - 6a+ - Cool hanging arete using the large foot block below. Somewhat escapable once you latch the top which is a shame. Obvious harder problem without the foot block is a project. Tom Newman did the FA of this or a very similar variant (starting in the break and possibly finish more to the left).

Gone to Pot - 6a/6a+ - Climb the hanging little roof/arete from sitting on the left of the quarry either via crimps on the left (~6a) or direct with a good hold and heel hook (~6a+).

Flash in the Pan - 6a+ - The wall just to the right from a sit start via sharp crimps. Harder than it looked.


Front Left Quarry

Captain Troll Sitstart - 7b - Using a couple of small undercuts and some tricky/flexible footwork gain the starting holds of Captain Troll and finish up this. Very cool problem. Adds more good moves to the already excellent Captain Troll.

Frog Arete - 6b - Climb the right arete of this block from sitting via surprisingly awkward/balancy moves.

Mrs Monster - 6a - Climb the left arete of the Mr Monster slab via some lovely balancy arete action.


Ouzel Block

The Ouzel or the Egg - 6c - Link the start of Ouzel arete sitstart into the finish of Afterbirth. Despite being a link up it provides some really nice moves. (Not in the above video - but I have it somewhere and will stick it up too).

[Fiend]

Good stuff, that's some great questing there, and some of those look definitely good!

I should have put more effort in to looking around myself 

[JamieG]

Cheers Fiend. Been great finding them all.

[JamieG]

Meant to say that the grades are probably all over the shop so would be good to get feedback on how other people found them.

[JamieG]

Here's the clip of The Ouzel or the Egg. A really nice link up problem.

[highrepute]

Looks great Jamie and Robbie. Good finds.

Enjoyed the video. Some of the lines look really very good.

[JamieG]

Cheers James. Well worth checking out if you’re over this way. Relatively easy parking and approach too, if a bit steep. Certainly a lot easier than some of the chew valley crags.

[tomtom]

What’s the score with parking Jamie? Read a bit on FB about lay-bys being blocked and angry farmers etc…

[JamieG]

We’ve never had any issues parking up there. Never seen any boulders blocking parking either. That happened at West Nab during lockdown but not pots and pans as far as I know.

We just pull in close to drystone wall on wide part of road just past where you walk up. Space for maybe 4 cars. But rarely more than 1 other car there.

[JamieG]

Added two new problems to the Quarries and wrote up a mini-guide

Mini-guide link (if you spot typos/mistakes please let me know and I'll fix them)

The Reiver sitstart - 7a+ - Adds a couple tricky moves into the already very good stand.

The Brigand - 7b - Climbs the arete to the right of The Reiver. Starting with left hand on small crimp in central crack and right on the arete, make a very knacky and balancy move to gain a high gaston before a weird unlikely slap to a shallow pocket. Top out is still a little involved. Excellent addition from Robbie.

Videos of the new additions.

[tommytwotone]

Nice one - hadn't realised how relatively close this is for me, I'm definitely gonna get out and check it out.

How spanny are those two for shorter gent?

[Fiend]

Good topo and info! Will definitely check it out soon. TTT msg me if you fancy a visit.

[JamieG]

Hi tommytwotone and Fiend,

The Reiver shouldn't be too much of a problem for the shorter gent, it is just quite knacky. The Brigand however probably does need quite a big wingspan to pull on.

For reference I'm 5'10 with a slightly positive ape index and by brother is a little shorter at about 5'9 although I think he has a bigger ape index.

Definitely go and check out Pots and Pans, its a really good little venue (although I might be a bit biased). :-) For someone climbing in the high 6s and low 7s there are several really excellent problems to have a crack at.

Although, unfortunately I recently broke one of the best problems there, by pulling off the bottom of the flake on Captain Troll trying to do the sit start. After considering sticking it back on, we decided to leave it, since it is almost definitely still climbable but probably just quite a bit harder now.

Let me know when you are both heading up and I can try join you (although kids/work/life etc does tend to limit my freedom a bit). :-)

[steveri]

Nice work on the topo, similar finer grained crimpy grit as Standedge or Buckstones?
Pendant: 'encourage a few more boulders to go and check out...'

[JamieG]

Hi steveri

Typo fixed. Thanks, that's great.

The natural grit boulders are the fairly rough style of moorland grit, similar to Wimberry. The quarried stuff is much less tough on the skin and feels fairly typical for quarried grit. Unfortunately there are some sections of slightly more friable rock compared to most crags. Notably the lower section of the twin quarries is quite loose, hence we didn't really bother with problems down there. But on the whole the rock in the sections we developed is pretty good, and hopefully the problems are pretty stable now.

Everything that was going to fall off already has. 

[tomtom]

Good topo and info! Will definitely check it out soon. TTT msg me if you fancy a visit.

Me too..

[JamieG]

Glad the little topo is generating some interest. Any feedback on grades, problems, what you tried/enjoyed, new additions etc. would be really appreciated and I'll try keep the topo updated. 

[ehmarra]

I had a short session up there thanks to the topo. Ousel Arete sit start was a really good find i thought.

[JamieG]

Excellent stuff. Glad you enjoyed the problem. Did you try/enjoy anything else whilst you were up there?

[JamieG]

Couple minor additions to Pots and Pans

Lost boys sitstart - ~6b - Adds a couple tricky moves into the lovely stand. Obvious big square foot block at the bottom is out at this grade, but the good feet just to the right are in.



Afterbirth (left hand finish) - Might be scraping the barrel now.    But a nice alternative finish to the afterbirth dyno at roughly the same grade (~6b+).

[JamieG]

Bit of a YYFY for me today. After pulling off the bottom of the flake on Captain Troll over a year ago, I finally managed to repeat the sit start today (and not for lack of trying either!). Definitely much harder than it was before, so I'm going to suggest it is now 7b+, but would be really interested to hear what others think if they ever make it up to the 2nd best bouldering crag in the Chew Valley. 

[Fiend]

Nice one Jamie, looks very cool! Love your crag-top spotter too 

[JamieG]

Cheers Fiend. To be fair that sheep was better at spotting than some climbers I've been out with. 

[andy popp]

I think it's the sheep that needs the spot (and nice one Jamie).

[JamieG]

Cheers Andy. It’s a lovely spot up there. Definitely feels away from the crowds.

[highrepute]

Nice Jamie. Looking very fluid - the climb also looks great.

[JamieG]

Thanks James. It only looks fluid because I've tried it so many times and so had it pretty wired in the end. I now am not 100% sure if it is actually quite hard or I was being a muppet.    The problem climbs really nicely (I'm totally biased), a good combination and variety of technical and powerful moves.

(If anyone wants a little tour up there, let me know and I'll do my best to come out - provisos regarding kids/work/life etc etc as I struggle to get out much myself.)