UKC

Hi all,

During our first trip to Stanage a couple of weeks ago, while our mates were doing "Fairy Steps" on Stanage Plantation area, we decided to try a short route just round to the right from there. We thought it was "Holly Bush Gully" at the time, but having got back and looked around the photos on this site and others, it's quite obvious that it wasn't Holly Bush Gully at all. In fact, I've scoured the definitive Stanage guidebook again and again, and I can't figure out which route it is...

Picture and notes here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/drsnooks/169921152/

If you stand looking at the obvious large slabby traverse of "Fairy Steps" ( from here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drsnooks/169919180/in/photostream/ ) then it's literally just round the other side of the buttress to your right. From the top plateau of it, we could see the whole of "Fairy Steps" - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/drsnooks/169919400/in/photostream/

So can anyone tell me the correct name for this route, and let me correct my logbook? Or have I done the unthinkable and unwittingly put down a new route on Stanage on my very first climb outside? Surely not...!

Any help appreciated

Cheers,

Al

In reply to Al Davidson: That has to be the slowest photo site in the world.... EVER! Got board after 30 seconds of waiting for it to load up. Could you post them on RT?

In reply to Jon Dittman: Really? Strange, it's fine for me - what's RT?

In reply to Al Davidson: ah - RT = RockTalk, ok, so can I embed photos in a forum post?

In reply to Al Davidson:

no you can't, you'd have to submit them and wait for approval.

Flickr's not slow for me. Dittman needs to get a faster connection

In reply to Al Davidson:

No you have to submit them. I agree with Jon - Flikr is extremely slow - it was the best part of a minute on our work's connection.

boB

In reply to Al Davidson:

It isn't a recorded route.

Chris

In reply to Bob:

that's weird - it only took 4 secs for me.

get a faster connection. It's the way forward.

In reply to Chris Craggs: not a recorded route? Woah - so does that mean I've found a new route, and if so, what do I do now?

Apologies for not knowing the ettiquette, last weekend was my first ever unsupervised climb outside.

In reply to Bob: I think Flickr probably have a few servers out of a hundred or so that are running slow at any particular time. When you go there, the load balancer probably just bounces you to a random server, and if you happen to get bounced to one that's running slow, you're stuck there until you start a new session (i.e. close down your browser and start again) That's why some people find it slow while it's fine for others.

In reply to Al Davidson: Being as it looks like crap I imagine the best thing to do is record it under an assumed name.

In reply to Beowulf: heh - yeah, it certainly wasn't a particularly memorable climb. It was short, probably only four decent-size moves, none of them particularly hard (and I'm only a 5a climber so far) just a bit nervy because I could only place one bit of protection about halfway up.

In reply to Al Davidson:

As its only about 4m high I wouldn't bother - but its your route - give it a name and send it off to the BMC.

Chris

In reply to Al Davidson:

More to the point - which guide were you using that led you to think you were on Hollybush Gully?

Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs: the definitive "Stanage" guidebook. It was a bit unclear to my inexperienced eye - HBG was not marked on the diagram, just described in the text. And I evidently wasn't clear as to what constitutes a gully

In reply to Al Davidson:


Don't worry - you are not alone!

Chris

In reply to Al Davidson:is'nt it the way down.

In reply to Al Davidson:

Holly Bush Gully is left of Fairy Steps but even I get mixed up sometimes with the definitive guide and I'm a Stanage freak at low grade so dont worry. What grade is it roughly??

In reply to steve webster:

Steve : no, it's actually just to the left of the walkable descent route. If you have Fairy Steps in front of you, there's a buttress/"sticking-out-bit" on your right. If you mentally shuffle yourself right so that you're just past that buttress, the normal descent route would be right in front of you, in that corner. This climb is on the face of the buttress, facing to the right.

In reply to Offwidth:

I'd say it's VDiff 4b - the finishing move to get onto the top plateau is a bit hairy, because the only bit of protection is quite low down, and there's nothing to grab, so it requires a flat-palming friction move.

In reply to Al Davidson:

If its poorly protect moves of 4b it won't be VDiff.


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

well, i've only got four days of outdoor climbs to compare it to, so all suggestions welcome It felt surprisingly exposed at the top, even though it was quite short and none of the moves were especially technical.

The ground below is also quite steep and rocky, so in case of a fall, even if you land without hurting yourself, you're going to take a further tumble.

In terms of other climbs on the Stanage crag, it was less scary than Right Twin Crack ( http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=10318 ) and probably slightly less so than Flying Buttress ( http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=10370 - NOT the direct route! ) but not much, due to lack of protection.

I know it's not exactly a great climb, but it's my first apparently-unrecorded one, on my first proper outside climbing trip, so I feel quite chuffed about it. I'm having the discussion about a name here : http://dynamove.blogspot.com/2006/06/my-first-new-route.html

My favourite suggestion so far is "Bob Hoskins" - because it's quite short but surprisingly hairy

In reply to Al Davidson:

If it is slightly easier than FB it is most definitely a lot easier than 4b! (FB is definitely a one-move wonder with perfect protection in front of your face. Very polished, but still winds up at about southern sandstone 2b/3a, absolute max.)

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:
I'd say the hardest move was going over the top from a very narrow foot ledge, and if I was doing this climb inside at the climbing wall, i'd say it was 4b.

In terms of D/VD/HVD etc, though, I guess that's much more subjective.

In reply to Al Davidson: its bound to have been away down to somebody given the grade.

In reply to steve webster:
Oh yeah, I can't quite accept that on my first visit, I managed to find a square inch of Stanage that no-one has climbed before. I guess no-one thought it worth the bother of recording

In reply to Al Davidson:i wonder why you bothered,its not like you'd be limited for choice after all theres only 4 miles of stanage.

In reply to steve webster:
It was accidental - we misread the guidebook and thought we were on a known route. Only when we got back and looked around for other pictures of that route did we realise our mistake

In reply to Al Davidson:

There is tons of short unlisted stuff out there that people wander along and solo and never claim. However if its a known sub VS on Stanage I need to climb it because I'm sad that way.