UKC

Recommend me some safe Peak 6a routes to headpoint

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 LucaC 06 May 2014
Im my quest to consolidate 5c I thought it would be good to look for some slightly harder routes to work at. My only requirements are that they are safe for the crux - run outs are fine if there is little/no chance of decking out, and anything which is harder for the short, will be.

My log book is up to date, give me some routes to get excited about.
 Bulls Crack 06 May 2014
In reply to LJC:

Stone Dri is harder for the short....that is what you want is it?
OP LucaC 06 May 2014
In reply to Bulls Crack:

Sorry wasn't very clear: I seem to have reach issues on grit, and struggle on long break-to-break style routes!
 Jon Stewart 06 May 2014
In reply to LJC:

Do you know what, I think Chee Tor would be an excellent place to go, for a few reasons:

- It's great. Beautiful place, quality rock
- There are loads of high quality, well protected 6a routes (E3-5) that are long and sustained enough to make satisfying headpoints (finding protected grit routes that aren't just a hard move or two and stand up to the headpointing without being completely trivialised is tricky)
- They have lower-offs at the top and a big VS traverse linking all the lower-offs so you can reach them from other routes and ab down to clean them, work moves, etc.

I haven't done the 6as, and they will need a clean (but so what if you're working them). The classics are:

- Queer Street. Top end E3, probably nails, strenuous fingery laybacking on the crux I think
- Splintered Perspex. Another E3/4.
- Mortlock's Arete. Classic/historical E4. Two pitches, top one may be harder to work but P1 is 6a (although possibly not E4, not sure).
- Apocalypse. Don't know anything about it, but E4 6a***

Then there's a load of classic E5 6b if those are too easy.

If you haven't been, it's a really superb crag that has (mainly for guidebook-related reasons?) fallen rather into disuse, and it gets a bit dirty. You might be a little put off at first by the dandelions growing out of the crag, but don't be: once you start climbing the routes, you'll soon realise that the place is amazing: very involving, sustained, technical wall climbing with excellent gear and the occasional exciting run-out about bomber wires. What more could you want?
OP LucaC 06 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:

Wow, fantastic, thanks for that. It actually sound right up my street as my south-east climbing diet of indoor crimps makes face climbing seem much more straight forward than gritstone weirdness.
 Jon Stewart 06 May 2014
In reply to LJC:

This thread is the 'log' of the routes that have been climbed this year:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=584403

Should help choose warm-up routes, and stuff to onsight. Top tip: take sandals/flip-flops.
OP LucaC 07 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:
Looks like loads to go at there, will definitely have a look next time were up north. Anyone else got any grit suggestions?
 Michael Gordon 07 May 2014
In reply to LJC:

Ramshaw Crack?
 Jon Stewart 07 May 2014
In reply to LJC:
Do you want classics (that you may then wish you'd onsighted) or more mediocre stuff that it doesn't matter if you have a bit of a dull time doing them?

What about the stuff on the Pool Wall of Lawrencefield? Quite long routes, with gear - High Plains Drifter and High Street are both E4 6a. How about Goosey at Stanage End? That's a protected sustained 6a. The Asp down at the popular end is also protected 6a, but there's not a huge amount of it. Looks quite tricky to onsight - the usual gritstone thing where every move is done with a sense of mild/moderate terror as the landing's awful and you never really get out of groundfall territory unless you fill the entire crack with gear.

The 'C' routes at Hen Cloud might be worth a look. I onsight E3 regularly at normal crags but I can't conceive of how difficult a Hen Cloud E3 must be. You can bet your arse the "E3 5cs" Corinthian and Comedian are at least E4 6a in reality, and probably death-traps to onsight. Chameleon actually gets E4 6a, so that must be verging on physically impossible except for world class climbers.
Post edited at 20:56
 Misha 08 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:

Yes Chee Tor is great but you can't walk to the top of the crag. There are lower offs for all routes though so sometimes you could lead an easier route and then top rope a harder one to the side - might be a fair bit of swing potential though.

Apocalypse is a rising diagonal, particularly on the top pitch. There is a lower off for the first pitch from memory but the direct route to get there is the Golden Mile - E5.

Mortlock's denitely needs a clean! But you can't top rope it off a lower off as the lower off is several metres to the left and the direct routes to reach it are way harder.

There will be some other options though. For example you can do Meditation, a three star E1, and the lower off for that is shared with the bold E4 5c Ceramic.

As Jon says, Chee Tor is great for E3 5c, there is a whole bunch of them and generally they are safe if bold, so give them a go. Lots of good E1s to warm up on as well and E4s and E5s to aspire to. Not an obvious option for toproping but where there's a will, there's a way.
 Brown 08 May 2014
In reply to LJC:

I'm slightly confused by your use of the term headpoint.

Surely if you are climbing safe routes after practice you are redpointing them.

Does headpointing not refer to bold routes where the pre-practice is for your head.
OP LucaC 08 May 2014
In reply to Brown:

I was of the opinion headpoint was any pre-practiced trad route, redpoint a practiced sport route. Doesn't really matter what you want to call it though, I'm after trad routes which are beyond onsighting (bold or safe) which I can work at (and hopefully improve).
 Chris Craggs Global Crag Moderator 08 May 2014
In reply to LJC:

I assume headpointing a trad route means placing the gear on the lead when you go for the actual ascent, having checked the holds/move/runners out already - otherwise a trad route with preplaced gear is neither fish nor fowl!

As an aside; I am not too sure headpointing trad routes will improve your on-sight ability - plenty of mileage might though.


Chris
OP LucaC 08 May 2014
In reply to Chris Craggs:

Time spent on smaller holds and harder moves is never a bad thing, and it gets the head used to the sort of moves the body can do. I always feel that if I know I've climbed a number of routes graded x then I start to know what sort of difficulty to expect and how to approach them.

Definitely placing gear on lead (even if I know where/what the placements are). Might as well go bolt clipping otherwise.

I would agree though that probably the best practice for onsight climbing is onsighting, but I find there is a limit to the amount of routes I can try and flash at my limit before general fatigue starts to set in and drain psyche.

 Jon Stewart 08 May 2014
In reply to Misha:

> Yes Chee Tor is great but you can't walk to the top of the crag. There are lower offs for all routes though so sometimes you could lead an easier route and then top rope a harder one to the side - might be a fair bit of swing potential though.

I was thinking of leading the nearest easier route, then going along the girdle and down the route of choice - this should be OK on 60s, giving you 10m-worth of traversability. The easier route needs seconding and then hey presto! there's a top-rope up your route. Given that the dirt makes onsighting at your limit a bit challenging, I was thinking of employing this tactic myself.

Hadn't really considered any diagonalness or lower-offs out of line with the routes unfortunately, but there's plenty of straight-up action to be had at the Tor.
 Misha 08 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:

Mortlock's is a lot cleaner now as a lot of the crap is on my and my mate Phil's trousers! Definitely wasn't an onsight but unfortunately I can't put that down to it being dusty - it was just way too hard for me to onsight - proper E4! Much harder than Apocalypse.

I reckon it's the second best limestone trad crag in the Peaks, after High Tor.
 Jon Stewart 09 May 2014
In reply to Misha:

> Mortlock's is a lot cleaner now as a lot of the crap is on my and my mate Phil's trousers!

Good stuff! Maybe this will be the year of the true Chee Tor renaissance?

> I reckon it's the second best limestone trad crag in the Peaks, after High Tor.

I prefer it to High Tor. I usually get scared on the polish and choss on High Tor (I find it bizarre the way the guidebooks talk about "immaculate rock" - I'd call it "the usual Peak lime choss"). Plus, the routes are often unreasonably difficult - if Darius is E2 then I'm the Dalai Lama. I would like to try Flaky Wall at some point, although it seems like falling off the traverse is a popular outcome...
 Coel Hellier 09 May 2014
In reply to Misha:

> I reckon it's the second best limestone trad crag in the Peaks ...

Damning with faint praise? It might be after a thorough dose of Agent Orange ...
 Misha 09 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:

High Tor is great and I've always found it to be pretty solid for limestone! Can be a bit polished in places on the popular routes but not generally a problem.

Hard for the grade routes are no bad thing! Darius is probably E3 and I've heard is planned to be upgraded in the next BMC definitive when that comes out some time next century. Have you tried Perseus next door? A bit bold in places, hence E3, but the climbing is actually easier than Darius, at least if you do the direct start (not done the start where you traverse in from Original Route but seen people struggle on it), so quite easy for the grade. Besides, the long pitches are great for stamina - you know you've done some climbing after finishing Darius, Robert Brown, Lyme Crime etc in one pitch!

I do like Chee Tor as well though.
 Misha 09 May 2014
In reply to Coel Hellier:

I think the often dusty, occasionally vegetated and occasionally loose rock on Peak limestone (in fact most inlands trad limestone) adds to the trad experience. Pembroke is great but it's just too perfect!
 Jon Stewart 09 May 2014
In reply to Coel Hellier:

> Damning with faint praise?

I know what you mean, Peak lime is generally risible compared to genuinely good crags. But on Cheer Tor, while it's filthy, the rock is good and the gear excellent. With run-outs above bomber wires, and technical wall climbing, I think the place has considerable merit. Routes like Two Sunspots, Sergyenna, Absent Friends and 42nd Street are superb, given the beautiful setting and the bags of character - it's certainly not typical inland limestone (i.e. a heap of polished choss above a busy A-road).
 Jon Stewart 09 May 2014
In reply to Misha:

> Have you tried Perseus next door? A bit bold in places, hence E3, but the climbing is actually easier than Darius

Yes - although I did very nearly fall off when I pulled a hold off, miles above gear. Still easier that Darius. Lyme Crime was nails. Not done Robert Brown yet, that's next on the list, will try to get on it soon.

 Misha 10 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:

Easier than Lyme Crime but bolder on the crux. A good route.

Have you been to Wintour's? A lovely setting and a massive crag with great routes. Polish isn't an issue and fairly solid. Eszter didn't know about it - Sheffield climbers, eh!

At the end of the day, decent inland limestone at least feels like proper climbing, as opposed to that gritstone rubbish
 Jon Stewart 10 May 2014
In reply to Misha:

Wouldn't a Sheffield climber driving to Wintour's need their head examined though?

The trouble with gritstone is that people think you need a rope and rack to climb on it. OK, so maybe you do for the cracks, but they're vile anyway.
 Mick Ward 10 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:

> OK, so maybe you do for the cracks, but they're vile anyway.

That'll be three laps of Terraza Crack on a freezing winter's day - and you can forget the rope and rack.

Mick

 Bulls Crack 10 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:
- it's certainly not typical inland limestone (i.e. a heap of polished choss above a busy A-road).

Stoney has some great routes! So does Cheddar.

And: Beeston, Craig Arthur, Malham, Gordale, Chapel Head, the GO wall etc ?
 Jon Stewart 11 May 2014
In reply to Mick Ward:

> That'll be three laps of Terraza Crack on a freezing winter's day - and you can forget the rope and rack.

Harsh!
 Mick Ward 11 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:

Was only teasing. My God though, pre-cams, grit was bloody harsh - blunt, Northern, uncompromising - in a word, Whillensian (well, if that's a word!)

Just one example from the detritus of memory. A lad I knew, who'd have been all of 15 back then, lobbed off Right Unconquerable, in the mid-70s. He'd probably have had just a single hex (maybe not quite the right size) at the break. He decked and broke his back. Fortunately he made a full recovery and went on to become one of the best climbers - and climbing photographers - of his generation.

With cams and pads, so many of the horrors of yesteryear can be enjoyed in relative safety. But it's good to see that people at the cutting edge now are just as bold - if not bolder - than any preceding generation.

Grit - the perfect complement to limestone crimping.

Mick



 Misha 11 May 2014
In reply to Jon Stewart:
It's a fair way to go but very different to what you get in the Peaks and much more reliable conditions wise than mountain cliffs of a similar size. I guess for you it's about the same to get to Gogarth. See, you want to live in Birmingham really, then you can go to all these places...


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...