UKC

Although I'm currently in Belgium, occasionally I'm back home and yesterday I was looking for somewhere in the Peak to do some top rope solo based training.

Specifically I'm looking for long routes ( at least 20m, preferably longer ) in the 5+ - 6a+ range where I can conveniently setup a static line and do laps. Quality is not particularly important, and I'd rather not be in anyone's way.

Yesterday I went to Harpur Hill Quarry but couldn't find much in the way of top anchors - I found one belay stake above the Papacy Wall area but that was about it. I seem to remember Staden Quarry having a fair number of trees above longer routes so that's next on my list to try.

Anyone any other suggestions?

In reply to planetmarshall:

Not sure about the length, but the back wall of Hobson Moor Quarry? Has belay stakes at the top and some routes in the right grade range.

In reply to RyanOsborne:

Definitely plenty of belay stakes but falls short of the 20m marker

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

Actually might be in the way of people on the traverse too...

In reply to planetmarshall:

I've been climbing at Horseshoe Quarry recently. It looks like you could conceivably get to the top anchors and drop a rope down a lot of the routes on the main wall. They're over 20m and you can often do more than one route to an anchor. Not so much at 5+, but several 6a+ and above.

In reply to planetmarshall:

You can reach the lower offs from above at Horseshoe with plenty to go at in the 5s and 6s.
Stoney is also good, with plenty of trees to set up from.

In reply to ChrisBrooke:

Great minds lol

In reply to planetmarshall:

I think there's an ethical consideration here. Repeating routes over and over trashes the rock in a relatively short time. Stone Middleton is a prime example. For training purposes I'd consider going indoors (which is far more effective training anyway since that is what artificial walls are designed for.)

In reply to stp:

Yes, selfish of me to hog those 3* classics at Harpur Hill when there's a queue all the way back to the lagoon of industrial waste.

In reply to stp:
I think the OP's made it abundantly clear he's considering the ethical consideration.

Several of the routes in Electric Quarry are described as suffering from a lack of traffic. I think anyone planning to lead John Peel (for example) in the near future would thank the OP for getting on it and doing a few laps first.

In reply to planetmarshall:

It's not about hogging them it's about them becoming polished in a short space of time. Obviously I'm not singling you out. But I think if a lot of people do that then the crags are just going to get trashed much faster than they would ordinarily.

In reply to deepsoup:

Yeah sure I know not every route is trashed at Stoney. But the pumpy continuous ones, those most suitable for training purposes, certainly are - many of the best routes there in fact. This happened in the pre-woody, pre-indoor wall, era when people did laps on routes to get fit.