[r-man]

Well done to Dan and Graham for discovering this place and climbing some mighty fine problems. Like the name suggests, this cave is a tube of sorts, though the two entrances are roughly at right angles. There are no more than 10 problems here, and a few link ups, but the two main lines are brilliant. It's in a scenic location and apparently also stays dry in all weather. Not bad eh?

Dan (woz) is the man to get in touch with if you are eager to check it out. Here are some photos to whet your appetite:

Obelisk, 7a+ - Straight up via crimps and a slopey layaway...


Dawn Raider, 7c - From a low start around the arete to the right, some dynamic moves lead leftwards across the lip...






Creep, 7c+ - From the back, big moves lead out of the cave. Looks knackering, but excellent. Surely the best roof problem in the peak.These photos only show half of the route...




Doug Hnuts, 7a+ - Technical lowballing along the lip into the same finish as Creep.

[Bonjoy]

Niice. Liking the sound of Creep. Did I hear talk of video? Will an online topo be on the way?

[(woz)]

Glad you enjoyed the tour robin! I have a bit of video which I will be able to post as soon as it is edited. I've also got a basic topo which also I could put up as it sounds like several people would be interested.
The cave is in Hall Dale, just off Dovedale. You can park in the village of stanshope, about 15mins walk away. Unfortunatly the cave is quite hidden so I will knock up an approach map.
dan

[village idiot]

looks ace, nice effort guys.  looking forward to checking the place out!!

[ned]

Aye, it looks brilliant. Definitely keen for a look.

[monkey boy]

Tis a good place some really classic lines! A bit of traffic would be brilliant!

[a dense loner]

it will be the last time i will put stuff on this sight, and we were only wondering whether it had been done before.
oh well back up to leeds soon and yorkshire where the climbing is good and people tend not to be such up their own ass pricks like the climbing community in Sheffield

welcome back, and this new venue certainly looks like it could be in yorkshire, it looks really good from the photo's

[r-man]

Are you missing Andi_e by any chance Dense?

He's been away for sooo long, you must be pining.

 

[(woz)]

Thanks for all the positive comments , but I'm not quite sure how that quote relates to me
anyway, here is the video:

[a dense loner]

it doesn't

looks like a half decent little place

[Stubbs]

Good work Woz, that long Creep looks awesome. 

[Jim]

looks good. I'd like to check it out if it ever stops raining or I get 5 minutes of the never project that is the attic conversion 

[Bonjoy]

Creep looks great on the vid. Looks like the cave being open at both ends should help avoid the usual dank greasy cave syndrome.

[fashionguru]

This area looks great.

Was told about by a friend yesterday but did not have internet as my stupid computer has been playing up again.

Anyway back on-line and the photos and Vids look great lads.

Went to try and fin it last night but did not manage to.

Could you please post a few directions or at least send me a grid ref so I know where to head.

From the Vid it looks as if you walk right down to the bottom of Hall Dale just about 50 yrds from the bottom and the sign to Ilam bridge there is a scree slope and a slight worn path. presume this is what you take but where do you go from there?

Well done lads cant wait to try the new problems look like some of the better new peak ones around.

Tony

[strong man]

this place looks like a worse version than the tor or rubicon which is not saying much seeing as those places are on the verge of choss too!
it looks fuckin miserable!
i know everyone else thought this too, just didnt want to say it.
so i did.
british limestone.... not very good.

[Bonjoy]

 Grow up strong man (what makes me think you are neither?). By all means express your disdain for UK limestone, have you ever been to Pembroke, High Tor, Malham, Gordale, LPT BTW? But only a small minded little shit would diss people for taking the time and trouble to find new places. Especially when what they have to offer is as good as anything that peak limestone has to offer. What other good roof probs are there in the peak, Ben's roof, what else? You say you know what everyone else thinks, do you know I think you are a jealous, immature  ?

[(woz)]

Could you please post a few directions or at least send me a grid ref so I know where to head.

From the Vid it looks as if you walk right down to the bottom of Hall Dale just about 50 yrds from the bottom and the sign to Ilam bridge there is a scree slope and a slight worn path. presume this is what you take but where do you go from there?

Unfortunatly i've not been at my home computer so haven't had chance to make a little approach map/topo yet, so here goes with some brief directions:

I usually park in Stanshope, and then follow the path into Hall Dale through a couple of fields. Once over the last wall, I turn left and go up the steep slope formed by the side of the valley, right to the top by the wall. Now follow the wall along (passing two gates) to where a short barbed wire fence leaves the wall, and goes diagonally towards you, down the hill. Walk between the end of this and a small rocky knoll, heading down the hill. The cave is pretty much directly beneath this knoll - just where the bushes and trees start.

When at the cave, you can get down to the main path again by going straight down the steep scree bank (This might form an easier approach when you know exactly where to go up) - but I prefer to go back the same way.

If this is no use then bear with me and I should have the other stuff sorted soon. Hope you enjoy it! Oh, and take the grades with a very large pinch of salt as per usual with new venues/problems with few ascents they were pretty much stabs in the dark.

Re Strong man - I'm not sure how serious that was, but I found it quite amusing anyway

dan

[Houdini]

Pembroke is better than Volx, Frankenjura, and buoux combined.  Twice.  So there! 

[Pantontino]

Totally disagree, and that's just on the basis of Buoux and Volx (I haven't been to the Frankenjura). I've done stacks of routes at Pembroke, and it is a 'good' crag (as opposed to the 'amazing' Gogarth), but Buoux is in a different league, i.e. it's world class.

Sorry, bit off topic 'n' all that.

[fashionguru]

Cheers M8,

Me and Mike are going again this eve to find and have a play.

So will let you know what your directions are like.

Thanks

T

By the way of reply to the ramblings British Limestone may not be world class when compared to some stuff but I have been to plenty of shit venues in thye rest of the world and it makes you apprieciate what we have.

[a dense loner]

i agree with strong man, in a way, the photo's make the place look utter wank as you can tell from my posting of monkey boys ramblings of never coming on this site again and how good yorkshire is and how up our own arse we are here (sheffield). however, when i watched the vid i thought that a couple of the probs looked ok. may be going there soon with uncle, jim and keenus. jim phoned me today and started going on about how good it looked and i told him it looked wank, simply cos it doesn't look that good, just somewhere different.

[ferret]

of course it looks shit in the photos dense its peak limestone bouldering ffs. u gota admit the climbing looks interesting tho, proper steep climbing for once, real holds not the normal tweaky shit.

good effort lads i can see this becoming a popular venue in the future.

[Jim]

when I say looks good, I mean the climbing looks good, not the views or the asthetics(sp?). Name me one good looking limestone venue. none, they all look shit.
Its gonna be wetter than an otters pocket tomorrow as well. fuck

[Stubbs]

Name me one good looking limestone venue. none, they all look shit.

or did you mean in this country?




 

[fashionguru]

Cheers for the directions.

Although I have no F*****G idea how you found it. We almost missed it and just stumbled or fell accross it by acciedent even with the directions(cant wait to see how you draw the map).

The problems on whole are OK but a bit of loose rock(did pull and snap quite a bit) does spoil the venue a little.

More traffic would clean this up and it would be a good little off the beaten track venue.

Looked at most of the problems but am not going to get into the grade issues.

One thing I will post is that dawn raider should start sitting under the roof as from the right, you can as I did climb out to the arete and onto the lip via big undercut flakes (the most obvious line from the right hand start) around 7bish

Great place beautifull setting and one of the best and prob the biggest limestone roofs in the country.

Tony Simpson

[(woz)]

One thing I will post is that dawn raider should start sitting under the roof as from the right, you can as I did climb out to the arete and onto the lip via big undercut flakes (the most obvious line from the right hand start) around 7bish

Great place beautifull setting and one of the best and prob the biggest limestone roofs in the country.

Tony Simpson

Glad you found/enjoyed it!

I avoided that block with those flakes on as it is hollow sounding and I wasn't sure whether it would hold me(it will be marked on the topo). We were going to try and get it off but were worried as to whether we would be able to stop it rolling down the hill and squashing people!
I was surprised that you found more than a couple of loose bits, I've always thought that it was exceptionally solid (i.e. way more so than rubicon!) - especially for somewhere that has never been climbed.
As for the grades, could you PM me what you thought so I have a bit of a concensus for the topo. I really don't mind if they are big downgrades etc as there are bound to be better sequences/different holds possible than the ones I used.

dan

[(woz)]

Here is the topo:


Apologies for the lack of quality but computers arn't really my strong point . You can get a bigger, more legible, version in my gallery. As for the map, I had a go at making one, but to be honest you would be better following the written description or going with someone who has been already. Its a tricky place to find.
If anyone has anything to add to the topo/questions then just drop me a PM.

[Sloper]

No stranger to a bit of esoteric choss, in fact all for it once in a while, but with regard to the limestone thing, british limeston is utter crap compared to the rock on the continent and in the USA.

Which if any of the british (sport) limestone crags would get into the top 50 limestone crags in the world?  My money would be on 'none'.

[(woz)]

Horseshoe Quarry?

[Stubbs]

Which if any of the british (sport) limestone crags would get into the top 50 limestone crags in the world?  My money would be on 'none'.

Hmmmm apart from the obvious Norber Scar, I'd have to go with Malham and Kilnsey. It obviously depends on what criteria you're using, i.e if 'reliable weather' was one, then you are probably right with none.

[The Sausage]

c'mon sloper. have you ever actually climbed at any of the better british limestone crags. routes like zoolook, GBH, overnite, obsession, urgent action, supercool (for fuck's sake) are totally world class. malham is about as impressive a looking crag as you'll find anywhere. we might not have vast sweeping walls of immaculate limestone, but who's looking at the mantlepiece when they're stoking the fire (as they say...) or do you prefer beauty over substance..?

[dave]

people can bang on about the quality of US, european or thai limestone till the cows come home, but none of them are a swift half hour drive from sheffield, so cry me a fucking river. roll on Tor season.

[dobbin]

roll on Tor season.

Amen to that. Hoping harris is on the ball in 2007. No late calling of the lime please, I've got a lot to do this year...

[Bonjoy]

Could be tricky what with 'Swiss' Harris spending nine out of ten weeks at Magic Wood/Cresciano!

[r-man]

Bit of news to add to this thread - on the weekend Dan succeeded in linking the start of Dawn Raider into Creep, to give Creep Extension - 8a. Over 30 moves, and something of a horizontal staminaband. Looks like hard work. Well done that man. 

[Bonjoy]

Nice one Dan. Had a look at this as a possible extension when I was there the other week, thought it looked good and very logical.
 I notice the  big ugly fissure crossing the roof from the start of Ringpull to finish up the crack isn't on the topo. Surely this must have been done?

[dave]

and something of a horizontal staminaband.

staminaband being that well known highball bloc-problem.

[r-man]

and something of a horizontal staminaband.

staminaband being that well known highball bloc-problem.

Ah yes. I see the confusion. The difference of course being that in climbing Creep you are horizontal, whereas in climbing Staminaband you only move horizontally. Suddenly Staminaband strikes me as a crap analogy. Thankyou Dave for pointing out this error.

I notice the  big ugly fissure crossing the roof from the start of Ringpull to finish up the crack isn't on the topo. Surely this must have been done?

It's in the topo. I quote:

3 – The Crack – 6a+ - From the same large jug, climb the crack
all the way to good jugs on the headwall. The large foot platform is
in at this grade. Reversing is slightly harder.

A nice warm up. Probably 6b rather than 6a+.

[Bonjoy]

Oh, now I see  . That blue line wasn't very obvious on my B+W print out. T'would be more fun missing out the low fooholds on the pillar I reckon.

[(woz)]

Just to add that one of the crimps on the lip of Doug Hnuts got pulled off by some fatty. I reclimbed it, and it is now slightly harder. The new "Brown Groove" problem mentioned in another thread is also quite good. Start sitting as per DR, then move up and left, climb the groove, and finish at the break. My guess at the grade would be 6bish.
The big crack can also be reversed to finish up Ringpull. Lots of rainy-day fun.

If you fancy an alternate approach/walk back to the car, then head out of the larger tube entrance on a small path, following it round the alpine craggy knoll (great views over dovedale, and dove holes), and down under Ravenstor into Milldale.

[r-man]

Yeah, the brown groove is quite good. Seemed more obvious to just start sitting directly beneath, left hand white sloper, right slopey crimp. More of an independant line that way, rather than a deviation. 6bish that way too. You could maybe start it further left round the arete to make it a bit harder.

How long is this alternative path? And where exactly does it come out? If it's a shorter walk I'm always interested.

[(woz)]

If you wanted to approach along that path, park in Milldale and follow the path downstream on the Ravenstor side. When underneath ravenstor, follow the path up to the base of the crag, then along and slightly upwards (I think you cross a style just past the crag). Keep going on a very exciting path which crosses a rocky outcrop halfway up, and skirts round the hill straight into the tube. I think it's a bit longer, but nicer.

[n_man]

Has the hollow/loose block fallen out? When I went up there today there seemed to be a massive, relatively recent scar. Glad I wasn't hanging onto it when it came off.

Does anyone else think Dawn Raider is hard for 7c?

[(woz)]

It came off at some point between last summer and Feb this year - hopefully noone was attached to it at the time. Dawn Raider seems to have many different sequences, all suiting different shapes and sizes. Unfortunately I only know the one in the video.
Are you the n_man I met at Beginners wall and rubicon? If so:

[r-man]

n-man, did I meet you at Beginner's Wall and Wales?

I see you've joined me with the alphabet-man naming. Only 24 names left to go. Roll up, roll up...

______

Anyway, I met some people recently who were asking if there was a topo to the tube. Which presumably means they've read this thread, but not the other one. For those that don't know, there's a topo here: http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,6905.0.html

[(woz)]

I did another tube problem today, not a classic, but some new moves to do. Start matched in the crack a couple of meters right of the start of ringpull and break for the lip (i.e. running parallel to ringpull). At the lip a tricky move with a fingerjam leads up and left to the standard finishing hold. No name, but about 7a+. I didn't use the footledge at this grade.

We had a good (and dry) session despite the skanky weather.