[Peanuts]

Staggering through the snowy wastes of Stanage I eventually happened upon Lowrider at Stanage End and to the untrained eye, i.e. mine, it looks like it has been the victim of extreme brushing or worse random bashing with a blunt instrument. It is possible that the nature of the rock at this part of Stanage makes it particularly susceptible to erosion  but there is little evidence elsewhere in the area of this level of damage.

Here's a couple of crappy camera phone piccies ....








It looks worse in the flesh

[Bonjoy]

I think it’s a mixture of chalk bleaching, course surface texture with brittle crystals (i.e. prone to minor surface damage) and high contrast between surface colour and bare-rock.
Chalk seems to remove soot over time (friction or chemical effect, I don’t know) and kills lichen and algae on holds and on rock below due to run-off.
When crystals break on rough rock it leaves marks, this is unavoidable even with low levels of traffic.
In this case the rock is black (old soot staining from years of heavy industry) and the underlying rock is pale with yellow flecks, hence damage and bleaching is very visible.
On the scheme of things Lowrider is a new climb and has only really seen regular attention in the last few years, so naturally a lot of the crystal damage is recent and hence looks rather raw. This should improve with time as there are only so many sticky out bits to snap. Low relative levels of industrial pollution probably mean it’s unlikely to black up again though, even if left untouched for years. The chalk bleaching will get worse, assuming chalk formulas don’t change radically.

[tomtom]

The top pic looks like bashing to me (single coin sized areas where the patina has been removed) whereas the lower two look like its just been brushed/used.... I guess its possible its been wire brushed, though its not the type of problem your average punter racks up to have a crack at so that would be quite surprising..

[andy_e]

To me it just looks like what grit holds look like when the chalk is cleaned off, which is very rare for Stanage...

[T_B]

Having spent a lot of time trying this, my guess is it's just over-use. A lot of dragging of rubber goes on on those slopers. I seem to recall breaking a small pebble at some point and the jug has been crumbling for a while. I suspect it's the nature of the rock?