As the new year brings some cooler temperatures and crisp days, it's a good opportunity to explore some new areas on your next day out bouldering and give the classics a well deserved breather. Over the Christmas period, I spent several days exploring Wharncliffe Crags, set into the hillside above Stocksbridge and Deepcar. 

Despite being close to an industrial town, the crag feels remote as you approach through the scrubby heath land and become tucked away and sheltered by the patches of oak and birch, creating a great place to escape the crowds found elsewhere in the peak.

Whilst Wharncliffe is only thirty minutes drive from Sheffield, it has never seemed to take off as a popular bouldering venue, and doesn't seem to get the attention I feel it deserves. The few times I've visited have been some of my favourite days out recently, and it was a refreshing change to swap the well trodden classics for some more exploratory days out, cleaning old lines and developing new ones.

In the early 1900's, the nearby railway and industry made it a very popular crag and there were soon over a hundred routes put up along the edge. It's strange to think that the crag was more popular a hundred years ago than it is today! 

As well as the trad routes, Wharncliffe is home to a great and ever growing bouldering circuit. Although it resembles many of the gritstone crags in the area, both in rock architecture and crag feel, the rock at Wharncliffe is actually a compact sandstone, with no pebbles in sight. 

If you were to ignore the industrial surroundings and occasional revving engines of trials bike riders, you could be in Font… The rock here is a nice change from the rough pebbledash like grit, and is a lot more forgiving on the skin after a big day climbing.

Wharncliffe saw a bit of a renaissance in 2001, when the hand foot and mouth epidemic meant many of the moorland edges were banned. This led to a few boulder problems being put up across the crag by Jon Fullwood, Kim Thompson and Iain Farrar. Since then it has had bursts of development from the likes of Ned Feehally, Adi Bryant, and various others over the years and now has well over a hundred established problems from f3 to 8B. 

One of my favourite factors about Wharncliffe as a venue is that the circuit is very varied and offers fun and interesting problems across all the grades. For me some stand out climbs were Platitude Inspector (f7A) and Plongitude Inspector (f6B+) which take a sharp cut arete on each side, both offering a very different style of arete climbing, Snakes on a Plain (f7A) which has a novel thin tufa like feature running across the boulder, Outlook Roof (f6C) for steep roof climbing on positive holds or, if you're into board style climbing, the crimpy Grunne Holle (f7B+) or Kobe (f8A).

It was this last boulder, Kobe, that put Wharncliffe on my radar as a bouldering venue, after I saw a clip of Ned Feehally on it. When I first visited to try Kobe, it was clear that what already existed was very good, but there were a lot of climbs still to be done here. It's been exciting to have a venue with so many obvious unclimbed lines to do, and there is still plenty of low (and high!) hanging fruit for the keen first ascensionist.

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On my second trip to Wharncliffe this season, I found myself at the crag with Jon and Spike Fullwood. There's few people better to visit a new crag with than Jon, as he has likely put up most of the problems, or has played a part in their development. I was very grateful for the tour, as the crag can be quite difficult to navigate around and boulders can be hard to find, so the coordinates on UKC or the Rockfax app are very handy.

We had a great day working through some existing problems, putting up some new ones, and lining up some projects. Some highlights of the day were a great new highball on a freestanding tower put up by Spike, called 'Chagus Goes to Vegas (f6C)', a techy blunt rib called 'Very Active Badgers (f7A)' and a new wall climb I did 'Tawny Hawk (f7C+)'.

The bouldering is best accessed from the top by parking at a small lay-by on Woodhead Road, near Rough Lane, and walking through the fields and wood before dropping down to the desired area using the top path running along the crag. The fields can be very boggy after rain, but the bog can be avoided by taking a longer loop along the field's edge.

Once at the crag there are various paths used by mountain bikers to get from boulder to boulder, although it can take a bit of bushwhacking at the start of the season, and some areas can be overrun by bracken in the summer. The rock dries very quickly, and often has different weather to the peak district, so is worth checking when the peak is wet. 

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Although the bulk of the best climbs can be found in the new Peak Bouldering guidebook, the Rockfax app contains the rest of the areas and climbs which are well worth seeking out:

Dragons Den

This was one of two areas developed in 2001. It has a compact circuit centered around the eponymous cave on the most southerly part of the crag. 

Highlights include:

Far South

A scattered handful of worthwhile problems to the south east of the Outlook/Kobe area. This is probably the least traveled part of the crag and is well worth exploring. 

Standout problems:

Jon Fullwood on Porcini Roof (f7B)

Long John's Stride/ My Condition

Two adjacent areas which combine well to make a good woodland circuit.

The best climbs are:

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Cascade

A small area not far from Long John's Stride with a very varied mix of quality problems.

Highlights include:

Popular end

The north end of the crag where the bulk of the trad climbing is also has a scattering of good problems in a more urban setting

Best bits are:

Guidebook

Peak Bouldering

Great variety of crags and easy access makes the Peak area the country’s destination for boulderers. The main attractions are the superb and world-famous gritstone edges that stretch from Wimberry in the northwest, through the Eastern Edges and the Central Gritstone, and on to Staffordshire. The bouldering on offer on these is immense and varied, sometimes on the edges themselves, sometimes on the blocks dotted around beneath the crag. There is also some intense and dramatic limestone bouldering in the leafy dales.

More info

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