UKC

I'm going on a trip to Indian creek in a couple of months, I'm wanting to perform well on the trip, I currently have little crack experience, have a home (perfect) hands training crack and would like to train on some outdoor cracks. 

I live in the leeds area, and I'm focused on all sizes except off-width...

Can you recommend any cracks I could run some top rope (solo) laps on?

Currently thinking Wellington crack would be good, will also visit Sheffield depot for some training.

Thanks

In reply to wnnwtr:

I'd suggest getting across to Wilton, plenty of 'millstone' like cracks, and they need cleaning up!

In reply to wnnwtr:

A few local options and ideas for further afield, with a spread of grades/widths:

Caley:
Boot crack
Finger knacker
Tippling crack
Quark
Maybe start of forecourt crawler for tips? 

Ilkley:
All the VS's around walewska
Tufted crack
Wellington
Milky way
Botterills (wide, but the wide cant always be avoided...)

Chevin:
In the quarry there are a few crack lines, I haven't done them but they look like a good workout.

Heptonstall:
Loads of cracks to go at. The rest of it is steep too so good for a work out

Peak:
Running hill pits (sodom/gommora, calamity crack, mangled digit etc.)
Bob hope, dovestones
Millstone (get on the steeper stuff!)
Froggat
Ramshaw/roaches

Independent of your technique, the routes out there feel really long. I did TR laps on wellington after a trip there where I mostly climbed 5.10 with the odd 5.11 and the crack section felt like a path!
 It is hard to get the same length and difficulty cracks in the UK, I found training plenty of core and general arm conditioning to be useful too.

There are likely some crack ticklists out there too.




 

In reply to dunnyg:

Thanks thats great I'll check those out, heptonstall in particular looks good. The sheffield depot looks perfect for stamina training

In reply to wnnwtr:

No worries. It is also worth bearing in mind that a splitter rack cang be pretty heavy depending on the width. Enjoy! I would prioritise time out on rock if possible. 

In reply to wnnwtr:

Just before lockdown the Sheffield depot had taken down the cracks in the training area and replaced it with a spray wall. Not sure if the cracks will be back when they reopen. 

In reply to dunnyg:

Ok cheers, will do

In reply to chadogrady:

ah thats a shame for me, were the cracks not popular?

In reply to wnnwt  Some extras to add on to dunnyg's response:

Gates of Mordor at the very left hand side of millstone, works well as a TR solo

Curbar - Insanity crack as a thin hands crack and not a layback - great for TR solo as very straight and really good for working technique as it's hard

Sticky fingers at Running Hill Pits, great but painful thin hands

Delestree, hen cloud, crack section is good and straight for TRS, pretty slitter for peak

Brimham - charming crack for a steep workout on good jams, lots of other good cracks at Brimham too obvs

Handy that you don't wanna TR solo offwidths as I find the ascender devices and offwidths don't mix well, a shame as would be fun to work the good straight up vertical offwidths at Curbar like Elder crack, Right Elim and Hecules as TR solos to hone offwidth technique for a US trip

In reply to wnnwtr:

If you havn't much crack experience and are going to Indian Creek for the first time, you will probably mostly be climbing hand cracks (the difficulty rapidly escalates as you move size away from hands in either direction). Assuming you can basically handjam, the main technique you will need to learn is what to do with your feet when there are no actual footholds for miles - jamming cracks with your feet in the crack feels very different to UK cracks where this is rarely necessary (not just how to place them but then to use your legs for upward movement rather than your arms). A good starting point might be to go and climb The File without using any of the actual holds!

In reply to wnnwtr:

I think they used them for Crackfest and they just didn't go back up. They weren't unpopular, but probably less popular than "normal" set boulders would be. 

Also drop me an email if you need a partner in Sheffield, always happy to get out on some cracks. 

In reply to George Frisby:

Thanks I'll have a look at those. What is Millstone in general like for trs? Are there posts at the top (hard to make out in the photos)? Seems like a high density of cracks there

In reply to chadogrady:

thanks, i might take you up on that

In reply to wnnwtr:

You have to use the fence posts for quite a few of the routes, so the anchors can be quite tricky. For gates of Mordor there's a useful boulder which you can sling, and then use the best looking fence post you can see. You do need a long rope to set up the anchors in that part of the quarry though, I use an old retired 40m rope just to set up the anchor (then doesn't matter if it gets a bit muddy or scratched up), then you can TRS on a 30m static or dynamic fixed line. Remember to bring plenty of rope protectors for edges (even old jumpers work fine) when TR soling to protect any the edges at the top of the crag. 

Another great route for TR solo I forgot is Falling Crack (E2 5b) at Wilton, it's got one of the best splitter thin hand jamming sections on grit, then followed by some good finger locking practice, and is super easy to set up a TR solo line on as is long, straight and vertical with handy stakes at the top for easy anchor set up. Probs the best line to start on IMO.

Hope that helps, George. 

In reply to George Frisby:

Thanks thats great information, that line looks perfect for this

In reply to wnnwtr:

I'd suggest that you should focus on the mechanics of jamming whilst bouldering and then focus on getting fit and getting bold.

I found that the defining thing in most Indian Creek routes was stamina and the ability to run it out.

If you already have crack technique I doubt that spending time climbing short gritstone cracks will help you much as they general have far too many face holds. 

When you get there watch out for the 5.10 handcracks unless you have huge hands!! They all seem to be graded for massive hands and if you have dainty hands they are much harder.

In reply to Robert Durran:

Good advice, foot jamming technique is really the crux of the matter. Indian creek specialists have a whole bunch of very non-intuitive but effective tricks.

In reply to Brown:

There is almost never any need to run it out at all if you have enough cams. Go with every cam that you can lay your hands on by fair means or foul

If you have dainty "red" hands rather than "gold" or blue "hands" then the 5.11's will regularly be easier than the 5.10's (very often the case for women). The grading is sort of sexist in that it assumes average size men's hands. Cam size really tells you more than the grade; in fact people even refer to "gold" cracks etc, so that Supercrack becomes "gold into baggy blue".

In reply to Brown:

I have a home crack that is perfect hands, so i have basic hand and foot jamming technique, and I can train fitness ok on this.

I will ignore the face holds and treat them as pure cracks, I think the short grit cracks will be very good for teaching technique on finger cracks, tight hands ect... and the more nuanced outdoor techniques. All very applicable to Indian Creek.

And why do you need to be bold and run it out? The majority of cracks are very protectable if you have enough cams?

In reply to wnnwtr:

they key words are if you have enough cams......

In my experience of climbing at the creek you never have enough cams.

Take a route like Quarter of a Man. 35 m long and takes only size two cams. If you have ten and spread them out evenly that's 3.5 m between cams. Then when you consider that you have to place gear slightly closer together when close to the ground you are looking at needing to climb 4 - 5 meters between runners at the top.

And that's if you have 10 size 2!

In reply to Robert Durran:

I have the ability to just about jam green camalots so I found that I could jam some of the ringlocks cracks which made some of the 5.12s feel easier than the 5.10 hand cracks!

For me gold into baggy blue was terrible!

In reply to Brown:

It's actually 35/11 (not 35/10) if you think about it........

I think we had about 8 each of red/gold/blue and that was ok for most hand cracks if we placed the next cam above our heads when the last one was just below our feet - it was rare that it wasn't possible to supplement the main size with some baggy smaller ones or tight bigger ones.

In reply to Brown:

Are you an eight year old girl?!

In reply to Robert Durran:

I thought I'd messed up my maths there.

I think what I was trying to get across was that you have to climb above your gear far higher than you might expect and that that really rewards being fit.

I found that if you are there when it is reasonably busy people were happy to lend gear. I distinctly remember walking around at the base trying to beg enough cams for my target route and bartering a lend of my large cams in exchange for more small ones.

The layback corners were all terrifying as you needed to keep your feet so high to make them work it made pulling in to place gear so hard. I distinctly remember getting scared, placing gear too frequently and ending out with a massive do or die runout to the chains having placed all my cams.

In reply to Robert Durran:

Special trick using the back edge of my hand!

In reply to Brown:

I remember watching that happen to so many people! Though it almost always ended in failure rather than running it out pumped..........

In reply to Robert Durran:

I never said I embarked on the do or die runout

In reply to redjerry:

care to elaborate on these tricks?

In reply to wnnwtr:

Flat shoes. Adding rubber to the top of your shoes.

In reply to wnnwtr:

One of the more unusual ones: on the really sustained 1.25" cracks (thumb stacks and ring locks) they do this thing where they keep their feet really high with the knees pointing way out to the side and sort of frog/shuffle the feet up together. I think the advantage is that you can stay really low relative to your stacks which makes them feel much more stable.