UKC

Hello

We're thinking of taking our 6 year old to the Peak District and take in a bit of climbing.

We have been outdoor climbing numerous times mostly in Sussex on the sandstone. They have steel anchors at the top of a lot of the climbs there and we have also set up out own around trees.

Having been to the Peaks a couple of times we've always been with an instructor and I've watched him set up anchors using rocks and cracks, though I don't feel I would be confident doing that type of thing myself, besides I lack the right gear for all that.

What I'm looking for is a place or 2 to go to where there are bolted anchors at the top for setting up a top rope or trees where we can set up our own. Also the crag would have to be suitable for a 6 year old. He's been climbing at the gym plenty of times and came with us to the sandstone and did a couple of the lowest grade routes.

Could anyone suggest a good place to go? Does such a place even exist there?

Many thanks.

Not really. 

Southern Sandstone is the exception in this country, and that is to protect the rock rather than to make things easier.

If your family are getting pretty into it, buying the gear and learning how to use it may well be worth the investment.

I don’t know the Peak well enough to recall a crag with tree belays suitable for a 6yo.

How about bouldering? I’m sure you’d find some lowball boulders to scramble on at…

Burbage South Valley Boulders

Windgather is a suitable venue from a climbing point of view. However, setting up belays requires some skill so you would need someone experienced for this. Wherever you go a knowledge of using trad pro for belays will be almost certainly needed.

Burbage south boulders are the classic beginner's location.

This is nearby at Burbage North  youtube.com/watch?v=l1lT6bHUwZQ&

Actually,  Yarncliffe is mainly tree belays and there are some easy routes which your six year old may be able to get up.

The weak rock might feel like southern sandstone too.

Great shout- Yarncliff would fit the bill in terms of setup but as it is in trees and can hold the damp, it is really a summer venue. 

There aren't many grit crags with trees at the top to be honest (there are a few with trees at the bottom but that doesn't much help you!). The limestone crags tend to have a lot more in terms of trees (the white peak is all green, the dark peak tends to be bleaker with most of the flora coming in the form of heather and gorse). There are probably a few routes at Gardoms or Chatsworth you can belay off trees but again they are not good this time of year.

If you are interested in potentially learning to set up anchors with trad gear, I'd recommend getting the book 'climbing anchors' by John Long as a good place to start. A day with an instructor would be worthwhile. 

Edit: a couple of other possibilities would be:

Rivelin or Lawrencefield 

A word of warning for Yarncliffe. There is a lot of erosion at the top of the crag and some of the trees are not quite as deeply rooted as one would like. You will have to choose your anchor trees (and roots) carefully and link and equalise them together for redundancy and strength as well as considering angles and position. Accessing the top also requires some care; not a place to stumble. The routes themselves are suitable but I would say rigging anchors here safely probably requires some experience and good judgement, equal maybe to the rigging from boulders that you don't feel confident with. 

Most of the popular natural grit crags have good suitable routes for little uns but as others have pointed out, confidence in rigging a multi-point equalised anchor is necessary. This isn't necessarily going to be much harder than rigging off trees however, especially when there are big car-sized boulders. Another session with an instructor, and/or a bit of homework and some practice might give you that confidence maybe? Or maybe find an experienced climber family to join for the day?

Good Peak crags once you are confident: Birchen, Stanage, Froggatt. Bamford has some low bits with lots of horizontal breaks (like Windgather does) but rough rock. A outlier (and limestone) but Harborough is also great for nippers. Have fun!

Baslow edge also has a good concentration of easier routes and lots of low boulders above to play around on. Remember, it doesn't have to be a graded route for a six year old to have fun on. 

Maybe a few places at Rivelin but the trees might be a bit of a way back from the edge and you would need to be competent in thinking about directionals anchors etc which I don't really remember being much of a consideration at Harrisons, from very rusty memory. So I wouldn't want to recommend this without more experience. I would honestly look at a day with an instructor to learn to build anchors safely and you would obviously need to buy the gear - or just book a day out for both of you with an instructor.

The alternative is if you are a competent sport leader and have a belayer, there is one easy wall at Horseshoe Quarry which might be appropriate for your kid. However there isn't really much other easy sport in the Peak once you've done that wall unfortunately.

Once you have learnt to build good trad anchors, Windgather and Harborough should both give you some friendly routes, plus the odd place at the classic crags (eg Away from It All at Stanage has a collection of Mods I believe and the will be other areas I can't think of).

Do you boulder? With a 6yo I'd just take a pad out and boulder easy things regardless of whether they're an established 'problem'. Then wiggle through all the silly holes in the rocks and have a picnic! (Not to denigrate your 6yo - I still do this age 34 and a half...)

I have used Windgather, Froggat, Burbage and Harborough for my 6 year old. All are suitable from a climbing perspective with easy routes and safe& flat route bases. However, as mentioned all require a degree of belay setup with trad gear so some knowledge of anchor placement and equalisation is required. I agree with the comments on Yarncliff. My advice would be to continue on the instructor route until confident to set things up yourself. Alternatively find a willing competent climbing pal with kids the same age to share the experience.

I reckon the best venue as far as climbing is concerned is Harborough as the rock is very featured which makes stuff less reach dependent.   You do need to be able to set your own top anchors, though.

It’s much easier to set up anchors so you belay  from the top of the climb rather than the bottom. Also, if you’re standing or sitting at the top, it’s very unlikely that a 6 year old would fall and pull you over the edge so you’re very unlikely to test your anchors.

Personally, I think it’s much more satisfying to finish at the top rather than simply being lowered back down.

I've taken groups to Birchen's Edge a few times - that's popular with novice groups, but you'll still need to be confident about rigging top rope anchors and have the gear to do it, although there are a few boulders and the cenotaph to get a sling/long rope around.

Similarly the Roaches Skyline area.

Dancing Ledge is a good suggestion - there are some steel stakes on the lower tier for rigging from, but you'll need long slings/a static rope to use them effectively and get the rope where you want.

Sounds like you're going to have to invest in some gear and training.

I've been climbing with my kids in the Peak since they were 3 or so. Burbage North is pretty good for it. Just park at the bridge and walk down the crag looking for anything that seems suitable. I usually go 'alpine style' roped together, and will scramble up something then body belay them up after me. I'll occasionally put in an anchor for myself at the top if it's a longer/higher/more serious route. But there are plenty of slabs, descent routes or easy scrambles to make it fun. 

This obviously depends on a fairly high degree of judgement and experience (I've been climbing for about 25 years...) but I reckon is more fun for a young kid that faffing setting up a rope on something they may or may not get up or enjoy. The flexibility to move quickly and keep it fun and varied works for my kids.

Good luck.

I would also suggest Windgather and I think it's easy enough to set up a belay there (from memory, it's been a while) by finding a boulder that you can throw a sling round. But IMO top-roping outdoors involves quite a bit of faffing around sorting it out, or repeating the same routes a lot, especially if you are less confident & slower to set up belays.

I tend to go with a friend who might lead, then belay the children while I move onto the next route to set up. And I'm happy to solo up easier routes.

I recommend that you could maybe go scrambling instead, still climbing but with less hanging around.

There's an area above the crag at Burbage South Edge that has some smaller boulders.  I think a couple of them are even in the Rockfax Peak Bouldering Guide.

Teggs Nose Country Park  just outside Macclesfield has an area set up for climbing training with a prepared top and rails for belaying.

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2325982

However climbing is only permitted by prior arrangement with the Rangers Office. I don't know if they allow individuals as opposed to organised groups, but they might be worth a call.

http://www.teggsnose.co.uk/

As others have said, most crags rely on natural anchors which require some knowledge and equipment to set up.  Windgather is an ideal beginners crag in many ways, but finding and setting up anchors can be difficult and requires experience and sometimes a bit of low cunning.

Bad memory ☹, no boulders above at Windgather in the "routes" area, might be some in the "bouldering" areas.

Climbing there is ideal for young ones but as had been said, some savvy to set up belays required (nut/cam cracks not always in obvious or ideal positions) if you want to be able to see said young ones climbing.

If they can climb without observation/guidance then just walk back 10m and sit on the grass taking the rope in smartly. This isn't a real suggestion but you'd be totally safe belaying like that - zero risk of being pulled over.

Which peaks?

it’s probably worth deleting that comment. Yes, in the specific situation you describe it’s probably safe, but imagine someone reading it and applying it to a slightly different situation (slope going towards the edge, 8 year old rather than 6 year old, wet grass) it could quickly be not safe.

Too late to delete but you're right, I should have mentioned "with the angle of the top being away from the edge and suitable depressions to sit in".

I made the usual erroneous assumption that anyone reading it (and being involved in climbing) would have sufficient nous and judgement to suitably disrespect that "advice".

When my kids were tiny we found scrambling around rocks at the Roaches and the big boulder at the top of Birchens quite fun.

IMHO 6 year old kids aren't really bothered by grades or repeating things. Just fun. 

Yarncliffe needs experience to set up belays due to loose rock. The rock on the climbs isn't weak... just the top outs.

On Burbage South Valley boulders, if you follow the UKC approach information, the first boulders you reach in the main bouldering area next to the track are lowish and great for kids and easily spotted safely. They are not detailed but information is are available here (Flash enabled browser required like Puffin):

offwidth.uptosummit.com/burbages_boulders.html

Also good stuff at Burbage North on the approach from the first Rocks you reach after the parking to some low angle slabs at Ash Tree Wall. 

Pretty much everything that needs a bottom rope set up for top roping needs experience of belay construction to make it safe,  be it from a tree, boulder or nuts/hexes etc.