[Johnny Brown]

Horses for courses. Plenty of folk get freaked out by the soft rock and lack of grab-and-pull type climbing.

[RichK]

Ah, so I wasn't the only one who fell for that "bone dry, chalked and clean" rumour Tom.  I've already informed the Trades Descriptions people - they are en route to deepest Altringham as we speak...

"

     Well perhaps the "dangled carrot" was a little over enticing but I'm sure you'll cherish the experience for a while. We did procrastinate a while on the wording but on balance concluded that "Bone dry, chalked and clean" was a fair summary considering how filthy it was! .....and I did say it was sandy more than once Neil.

  effort Tommy, good to see more than one bite

Nuance looks good but I hear its a tad more pokey an O/S than Trouble in Toytown.

 

[Tommy]

Yeah Nuance is a little bolder, but very steady climbing in the bold bit. Pit and Pendulum felt more scary and harder work to me, due to sandiness and too much sport climbing recently. 

That new line to the right of Yukan II looks pretty good too. Clean at the moment as well as I think it got FA'd fairly recently.

[Tris]

Following the last bit of weekend work, we have now cleaned and re-bolted the vast majority of the routes in Frogsmouth (probably about 10-15 more routes left to re-equip and then start on new routes). The next/hopefully last piece of work to finish the quarry is likely to be in August.

Routes cleaned and re-equipped so far:

COSMO WALL   
Dogsbody Arete   F6a <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
On The Couch   F6a <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Wall Street   F6a+ <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Agony Aunt   F7a <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Gardener's Ledge   F5+ <Girdle>
Zest   F6a <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Horrorscope   F6a <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
M&B Special   F6c+<Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Sex Survey   F6c+ <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Perfumed Groove   F6a <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Just After Fifty   F6a <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Apple Crumble   F6a <Re-bolted and lower off installed>

VIZ WALL
Johnny Fart Pants   F6c+ <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
The Flying School   F6c+ <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Pathetic Sharks   F7a <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Topless Skateboarding Nun   F7a+<Re-bolted and lower off installed>
The Big Stiff One   F7c <Re-bolted and lower off installed>
Comet Crack   E5 6a <lower bolts replaced>
Motorcycle Girl   F6c+<Re-bolted and lower off installed>

EYE WALL
Dear Bill   F7a+ <Re-bolted and lower off installed>

GREEN SLAB   
The Snurger   F6a <Bolted and lower off installed>
Green Slab   F4 <Bolted and lower off installed>
Trilogy   F4+ <Bolted and lower off installed>

More details/some topos on the Cheshire Wiki - see link in my signature...

[RichK]

Notional Trust at Nesscliffe had 3 ascents over the weekend and now pretty clean. All felt 3 stars, safe & fine as an o/s. A little "sahara" in the break but fairly manageable & nothing like P & P lower section.  Top peg tested twice and seems bomber, BUT it only accepts a small biner(e.g. Phantom).

The direct (Time for Tea? E6 6c?) is also clean,looks  and has good pegs. 

   

[Johnny Brown]

Things were pretty dry then? Sacked off going cos we figured it'd need a while to dry fully.

[RichK]

Stayed the w/e. Sat was pretty mincey, spitting on and off and humid.
Yesterday was breezy and fresh till mid pm. Bass Drum H, Gathering Sun, Cones, Marlene, Jump etc all had ascents.   

[Nike Air]

Accelerator at the Hollywood bowl, Giggleswick North got a good scrub and and chalk yesterday.
This 8b+ of Steve Dunning's is very very good, I highly recommend getting on it guys. Its nicely sustained and features some great sequences, all big moves on huge holds with an awesome finish.
There is more to life than Kilnsey kids!!!

[Adam Lincoln]

Yorkshire Ripper has been fully rebolted.

[Adam Lincoln]

Couple of things clean and chalked at Hodge Close if you fancy an exciting day out.

Ten Years After. Probably E5 6b now the start has fallen down. Looks recent. All chalked and clean.
Main Event. Chalked and clean.

[petejh]

There's been a bit of re-equipping done on the Ormes over summer, here's a list of what I can remember being done:

Pen Trwyn
Quicksilver 7a has a new bolt to protect the previously very run out crux. Good route.
Excursion Direct 6c+/7a bolts re-spaced at start and is now a properly bolted sport route.
Dive Dive Dive, bolt before traverse replaced higher to protect against hitting ramp.
Peppermint Pig  E3 6a, now has it's own lower-off.
Storm Warning 7a, Drip Drip Drip 6c/+, Wet Dreams 7a all rebolted. Drip Drip Drip is v.nice.
Thin Red Line retrobolted, now 7b ish

Pigeons Cave
All the routes have had new resin bolt lower-off's.
Koo 7b fully re-equipped with resin bolts. Good route
Stiff Upper Lip 8a fully re-equipped with resin bolts. Amazing-looking upside-down climbing on jugs. The unclimbed extension also has a new lower-off.

[petejh]

The Wall of Evening Light (on The Diamond) has been fully re-bolted with resins. Climbed it today (of a sort) and it's even better than I imagined it would be. World class.

It's not 50m's as described in the rockfax (nor did it have 16 bolts as described - try 7 bolts and 3 pegs!). Probably 37 - 40 metres, it's been equipped with an intermediate ab point, although we climbed on a 70m rope and lowered to the ground in one with rope to spare.

[Adam Lincoln]

The Wall of Evening Light (on The Diamond) has been fully re-bolted with resins.

You are doing a cracking job! 

[nik at work]

Daytona Wall, Daytona Wall Direct Start and Daytona Wall Direct Finish at Cows Mouth Quarry are clean and have a bit of chalk on them. Combining the direct start and finish as one route is probably worth E6 for a solo (IMHO) although I suspect (and this is only guesswork on my part) that it may be possible to get some gear right at the top in the thin break to protect the last move, which is somewhat heart in the mouth stuff without. Boldness Through Ignorance looked to still be clean although I didn't touch the middle section so can't say for definite. Some of the cracks and breaks at the start have a bit of dampness but it's easily avoided and will probably disappear in the next day or so if this weather continues. Daytona Wall is excellent, and the combination of the two directs is equally good climbing if a slightly less strong line. If you're in the area this face is definitely worthy of attention. The rest of the quarry seemed pretty seepy, green and damp (from a quick visual inspection) but this face seems to stay pretty dry and clean.

[cheque]

Due to the recent dry spell the Whatstandwell quarries are amazingly dry. I've been and cleaned the start of Great Crack in Duke's today and the whole route is in fine nick. Harder routes there will respond well to cleaning too, I imagine. most of the routes in the Robin Hood Quarries are dry and some have obviously been cleaned after the last dry spell and will, I imagine, be onsightable by the brave and talented.

I've also taken three bags of rubbish out of the quarries over the last week, although someone (I imagine it was the three camo-clad lads I met in there on Saturday afternoon) has broken two trees down and sawn and burnt bits off another. 

[Bonjoy]

From what I remember those quarries could do with a small platoon of camo-clad lads turning up! A few less mangey sycamores and it might dry out more often. Seriously the quarries can’t be much over a hundred years old so this is not diverse well established woodland, it’s just a load of straggly weed trees. The wildlife value would be greatly improved by clearing the quarry floor. I think the BMC has sought permission off the landowner to do some clearance work here in the past but to no avail.

[Nan]

Im not arguing more curious but how would clearing help the wildlife?  Logic to me is that tree and ground cover is good for animals to hide/nest/forage in. Am i missing something important with this thinking? Maybe letting rarer species of plants and trees have more light to grow in?

[Bonjoy]

Not a lot grows under Sycamore in this country. Clearings within woodlands provide a diversity of niches, as do decaying felled trees. An open rather than overgrown quarry may attract large nesting birds such as Ravens or Peregrines.

[Bonjoy]

Had a look into Dukes Quarry last night. Even the majority of Recess Wall was dry (though mega filth from years of wet ming). With it still being spring the place would be pleasant to climb in as the leaf canopy isn’t full out yet. The quickest and best things to clean up look to be Dharma (and the really good looking new E4 that joins it near the end) and stuff on the Repo Man/Get Rich Quick wall. Might go back and do a route or two, if I can find anyone mad enough to join me!
Also dropped in at (the other) Secret Garden. Two large trees have fallen away from the base of the main wall leaving it really clear, clean and open. Whisper looks great. Does anyone know just how sketchy the access is? Has anyone ever been collared by the residents?

[leeroy]

Hot Dog Sniffer - Black Rocks Woods - Clean and chalked, well flashable

[petejh]

Castell y Gwynt -
Cruella Deville (7b?) - 3 bolts added, now fully bolted. Large loose shield of rock removed mid way up. Super route. 9 bolts + lower-off.
Hidden Sign (7b?) - 1 bolt added to staple lower-off, in-situ threads removed from New Dimension/Appian Way/Hidden Sign belay/abseil. Another brilliant route. 8 bolts + lower-off.

Pen Trwyn -
Taipan. Cleaned and climbed this the other day, I think this may have lost a hold below the first roof, there's a rock scar and a block on the floor which looks like it may have come out of the route? It's definitely lost a large block from the finish because we crow-barred it off before it fell. The crux felt desperate, the way we did it involved an unlikely heelhook, perhaps soft 7c? I think this is a really good route, similar in style and quality to Tomorrow People.

[Bonjoy]

Went back to Dukes Quarry over the weekend and cleaned up Get Rich Quick (E5 6b). As described in the grade list of the old Chatsworth Guide, “One of the best cracks in the Peak”. Brilliant route, 20m of sustained un-peg scarred finger crack. Starts at just over finger width and gets progressively narrower and harder. Described as having 4 pegs for gear but I found none and there’s loads of trad gear so I left them out. It’s hard to tell after all my cleaning and faffing but it seemed like it’s perhaps worth E6 in the pegless state (but I haven’t done much trad recently so could be wrong), for the added pump of placing small gear in extremis rather than any increase in seriousness. The climbing is about French 7b.
The topout is choss so I’ve left a rope and krab belay/lower-off in place for any would be repeaters.
This wall is the cleanest and driest bit of the crag and all the routes on it look really good and worth the not excessive effort required to clean them up. The unclimbed left arete looks like it will make a tasty E8/9.

[Tommy]

Nice work! I'll get down there to do that. Best in the morning/afternoon/evening if hot and sunny?

How long are you going to leave the lower off rope in? As in.... how hasty to I have to be in getting down there 

[shark]

How long are you going to leave the lower off rope in? As in.... how hasty to I have to be in getting down there 

Till it rots I expect. Let us know what its like. Ain't many good well protected E5/6 cracks about.

[Bonjoy]

It’s in full shade until early afternoon and they gets broken sun through tree shade. The bottom few metres are likely to be damp in tropical weather, but this bit is fairly easy so no great issue. Generally any dampness is worse in the morning.
I didn’t intend to remove the lower off, it’s nigh on invisible from below and I have no shortage of short scraps of static rope. Though I’d probably take it down in a year or two, if it was still there and I was at the crag.