I personally last climbed on the Grit with my dad about 6/7 years ago, before I had even begun to take climbing seriously. From this one trip Dad has owned the definitive guide for the crag whose pages I have flicked through and gazed longingly at ever since, awesome shots such as legends like Ron Fawcett soloing his way up yet another nails classic. Or pictures of people having their skin shredded having jammed them into the brutal cracks and fissures in the rock. Because of this guide book and the awesome pictures, I've always wanted to come back!
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| I'm more of a chutney guy to be honest, my hands were too cold to feel this one |
The car Journey down to the peak district is a long and confusing one. Upon leaving the Manchester ring road we got very, very lost on a multitude of winding back-roads to nowhere. Eventually someone developed the sense to get a map out to work out where on earth we were. We arrived at YHA Edale significantly later than was necessary and everyone headed straight to bed in preparation for an early start the next day.
I awoke at 7am and was ready and waiting for my climbing partner, Neil Davies to arrive at the youth hostel by 8 am. I jumped into his car and we headed off for Stanage edge High Neb area. From the car there is a short walk to the base of the crags which stretch off into the distance on either side. The morning was very crisp and clear placing me in a false sense of security. Upon reaching the base of the climbs I was reminded just how small Gritstone climbing generally is. In the area of quietus there are innumerable classic climbs just like on almost any section of this legendary crag though all unfortunately shorter than 25 metres. I began the day with one such classic, a good test of confidence in the grippyness of the rock. The route involves many high step moves on what would normally seem like bad sloper. The difficulty for someone like me with little or no Gritstone savvy is having faith that your feet won't slip and you won't plummet onto the last (rather poor) piece of gear.
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| The ultra classic High Neb Buttress (VS 4c) goes up the furthest right buttress |
After talking myself into weighting the crux foothold and rocking over onto it and standing up, the difficulties were over and I ran the climb out to the top, what a climb!
Neil Then decided to do Inaccessible Crack (VS 4c) to further warm up, this was another fun but technical outing requiring liberal use of hand jamming technique which I found to be hideously fun.
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| Neil Heading up Inaccessible Crack with the snow beginning to fall |
As Neil headed up the route, the first (and worst) snow storm of the day began to kick off. Neil finished off his lead in good style and I quickly made my way up the meandering route to the top.
It was now time for me to attempt the route that I had made the priority of the trip. Quietus is potentially the all time classic Gritstone roof climb, it begins with an easy(ish) slab climb up to the "roof" which you fill with enough gear to sink the titanic before heading out across the horizontal and try to stick the crux jam and pull back onto vertical ground. The reputation of this route precedes itself as one of the hardest E2's in the peak district and in the conditions that we had it in it was even worse!
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| Just before I got on Quietus |
Now the grit may have a reputation for being a very grippy rock, but when every hold has a layer of snow/ice on it and your hands are so cold they feel as useful as wooden boards one doesn't feel particularly confident of this truth. As a Scotsman however I felt compelled to not let the nations reputation down and in true Scottish style I threw caution to the wind and headed up regardless. As I teetered up the slabs on ever icier holds the situation slowly became funnier and funnier as I always say, if you can't laugh about it what can you do!
Now the climbing really begins, I filled the crack across the roof with gear and then set out across the roof with my freezing hands. I made it out to the lip of the roof and started trying to pull up to stick the jam. My hands unfortunately were far too cold to properly grip the holds and I soon frustratingly peeled off the route. A similar outcome happened on following attempts, but I soon became too pumped to continue and called it a day. Despite not topping out I was quite happy with how I'd done given the conditions and that everything that I suck at in climbing is in this one route. Neil gave the route a couple of quick goes before we retrieved the gear from the roof and finished up a soaking wet Eckhards chimney.
We debated what to do next and decided to head further along the crag towards Goliaths area only to sadly discover that it was swarming with a bunch of top ropers. Not to be rude, but if you're going to take a group of top ropers to one of the largest crags in the country, don't put them on one of the most famous/popular routes on the crag, the kids don't care what they climb. More than a little frustrated by all of the school kids on a reccy at the bottom of one of the most iconic routes in the country, we decided to head further along to the unconquerables area.
The weather by this point had transitioned between two intense snowstorms interceded by glorious sunshine. These contrasting weathers were separated by literally only a few minutes. This meant I could start a route in glorious blazing sunshine only to get halfway up and for the cloud come down, the wind to start battering me and have snow freezing my hands off, truly one of the most unusual weather days I've ever had!
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| From this |
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| To This, snow and blue skies? truly bizarre |
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| And finally back to glorious golden sunshine! (notice the next wave of snow on the horizon) |
The next climb on the agenda was the ultra classic layback flake of right unconquerable! First climbed in 1949 by the legend that is Joe Brown without placing any gear. The route really works the forearms and felt significantly harder on the arms than most E1's I've done. After working my way up the flake I located a good rest on the arête to shake out and get ready for the top out. I didn't realise that the top out of this climb has a bit of a reputation for being inelegant and I hate to imagine what I looked like from Neil's perspective!
I belly flopped over the overhanging top with one leg on and half of my chest, only to discover that there was absolutely nothing to hold onto. So here I was at the top of the route only just in balance trying to work out how I could Inch my way over the edge.
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| The iconic flake of Right Unconquerable |
I experimented a little with my body position by making the tiniest movements so as not to fall off. Unfortunately I had foolishly flopped onto my right arm in the jump so it was totally unusable. Eventually I groped my way onto the top by means of small flops and a small amount of pulling myself over with my chin. At one point I felt myself slipping backwards and literally sucked the rock to slow myself down.
the next and the last climb of the day was left unconquerable, sadly however I was too pumped from quietus and right unconquerable also my inexperience in jamming meant I couldn't make it passed the crux moves! Definitely one to try with fresh arms, well I know I can get it next time.
All in all a great days cragging on probably the most famous crag in the UK, the unusual weather and great climbing on great rock made it a very memorable day for me!
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| The setting of Stanage |
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