UKC

New Routes on New Crag for Randall and Whittaker

© Alex Ekins
Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall have climbed two new routes at a 'new' crag - Rainroach Rock in Staffordshire.

The routes, Captain Cutloose (E7 6c) and Pieces of Eight (E8 7a) took a fair bit of cleaning, but after the hard work produced two good lines.

Tom Randall explains how they were tipped off:

...I got chatting to Gary Gibson about new crags and new routes to be developed in the Churnet region. Quite surprisingly, he actually gave me a rather good tip-off about this place called Rainroach Rock...

After trekking through quite a bit of dense woodland and the dreaded Rhododendron bushes we eventually found the fabled Rainroach Rock. As promised, the crag was totally obscured by vegetation, so we got work with a load of bow-saws and cleared a substantial area of land. Once cleaned up a bit, we were greeted with a really awesome bit of rock – perfect Churnet grit, capped with a massive horizontal 7-foot roof!

...We returned on Friday to find perfect conditions. A quick check of our routes from the comfort of a tight rope confirmed they were ready to go, so we later dispatched them that day. My route features a huge cut loose move across the roof and a bit of spicy climbing up the final arete, which was very enjoyable – this created 'Captain Cut Loose' probably about E7 6c. Pete crimped and gnarled his way up the very bold lower arete of his route and ran it out on the upper headwall to create a desperate E8 7a – 'Pieces Of Eight'.


Tom Randall is sponsored by Wild Country, Rab, Five Ten and supported by The Edge Climbing Centre

Pete Whittaker is sponsored by Wild Country, Patagonia, Five Ten


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8 Feb, 2011
From the Blog: "The lower moves on the arete are very bouldery, fortunately it was very much my style of climbing with lots of gypsy beta involved and some hard heel hooking" But, what is gypsy beta? James
8 Feb, 2011
More importantly, how many grades do you knock off for the use of a "bedodendron"??
8 Feb, 2011
Hardly a new crag. There are lots of big dirty unclimbed roof lines in that general area
8 Feb, 2011
reassuring that suraptitious 'knees downs' happen even at this grade :-)
8 Feb, 2011
But, what is gypsy beta? Stealing it from peoples back gardens
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