UKC

So I finally went to have look in  Goddard's Quarry this morning. We went to the upper tier - I had been tipped off by Nick Taylor that it dries really quickly and it wasn't the most cheery of mornings today - damp, cool and windy!

We were using the Rockfax app to find the routes, but I also had Gary's site open on my phone http://www.sportsclimbs.co.uk/mainpages/peak/Goddards-Upper-Right.htm along with the UKC logbooks, but still ended up rather confused as to what we climbed.

We started with Mamma Mamba (4c) which was easy to find and identify. We then went and found a climb maybe 100 mtrs to the right which we climbed (it has an oldish but perfectly serviceable Wild Country snapgate on the lower off along with an old rusty padlock oddly. It's not the line marked "project" on the Rockfax app, nor is it on Gary's website. The app lists two climbs not marked on the topo photo - Pineapple Chunks (6a+) and Milk Teeth (6b), and indicates them being much further right than where we were, but I did wonder if Chris or Alan or whoever prepared the topo for Rockfax might have missed these bolts and presumed them elsewhere? I'm not sure but the route was probably only 5c anyway which makes me think it isn't Pineapple Chunks.

Then we went to the wall of rock clearly marked on the app as The Hills Have Eyes (6a). Except when you are there, there are two lines of bolts leading up to the same loweroff. Luke led the right hand line that uses a crack and jugs on the right to clear the roof. I top-roped it cleanly but, being rubbish on steep stuff, even with mega jugs thought it might have been a bit harder than 6a - but that could just be me.

I appreciate this is very much a question that is only of interest to connoisseurs of lower grade Stoney Dale sport climbing, but if anyone can shine some light on what's what up there I'd be grateful.

Cheers all!

Well I can't help, not been on that wall and didn't do that section of the App,

Chris

It's a super picture that's been used for the topo and it seems to have been taken from Rockfax's private helicopter, so is Alan likely to have done that section?

There is one route description in that sector that has two lovely typos in it which seem to suggest that the climb involves passing both a rook and a lion!

Yes, the personal helicopter has proved very useful.

If any page has typos, it can't be my work.

Chris

Actually Chris, I've got a correction for the topo to Hidden Quarry as well. Is there an actual feedback channel for the app? Or is an email to you or Alan as good as anything else?

You can always comment on the route on the UKC database, or e-mail me and/or Alan at 'name'(at)rockfax.com. Any feedback is always much appreciated,

Chris

Hi Toby i have made multiple comments on ukc about route orientation names grades etc. but the crag moderator hasn't amended anything. 5 of the routes listed aren't even on that sector and need listing separately. 

The two routes in your picture with a shared lower off are: on the left - Police Drone vs The Boss 6b+ no rests on this one, on the right The Hills Have Eyes 6a steep but juggy. The next little wall to the right is John's Anniversay Gift 4+.

There is a project up a pillar to the right right, then the routes Pineapple Chunks and Milk Teeth are further right again 

Will send you some more info

Thanks Nick! I thought you'd be the most likely person to be able to sort this out! And thanks for the email with all the tips.

I went back there yesterday for a walk with my partner and our youngest. While walking up the footpath on the N side of the quarry, I had a look down into the lower quarry from about half way up and saw the bay on the left with the various jam crack routes - Piggy Chow Chops (6a+) (Piggy Chow Chops) and so on. I might go and have a look at them on a future visit.

So the route we did after Mamma Mamba was John's Anniversary Gift (4c). I think you might need to be quite tall to lank between the big holds at 4c - but it was cold and muddy so I probably wasn't performing at my still not very impressive "best" . I reckon it felt more like 5 something... but definitely not 6a+ of Pineapple Chunks either!

I will check and sort those comments later. I am on my phone at the mo. Oddly I haven’t had any notifications of corrections etc. Must be a glitch,

Chris

All the photos are not displaying now when I look at this thread? That's weird. But anyways, with the photos I took saturday and yesterday I can show you where "John's Anniversary Gift" is - in fact I can see the wall on the topo photo - I don't know how easy or complicated it is to add a route into the app topos but, anyway, it could be marked on the photo you are already using in the app for that sector. Same for Police Drone vs. the Boss, because basically it's very close to being the same line as the Hills have Eyes (which is correctly marked on the app topo), just a metre or less to its left.

It is still a pile of choss whichever way you look at it.....,....

LOL

Hi Toby

When I visited that section the routes had only just been put up. I'll take another look at it though since I  expect there may have been a few more additions. That will be released on the next app update.

Feedback for routes is best done via the public feedback in UKC logbooks unless it is critical info in which case you can email us direct as Chris says. Errors or significant changes to approaches and other info email direct as well.

Cheers

Alan

I have done a bit of work sorting the routes, but I need more info on the ordering and the locations to go any further,

Chris

So John's Anniversary Gift (4c) should be the next route down below The Hills Have Eyes (6a) then Pineapple Chunks would be after JAG. So in the Upper Tier sector, not in the Jamma Girl sector.

You are sort of correct, but after 30 years of climbing I think I'm becoming less fussy than more! My comment along with my pictures on Instagram from my trip on Saturday morning was:

"First visit to Goddard's Quarry this morning: Luke's sunny Australian outlook on life led him to actually agreeing to meet me at 8 am ("to beat the rain") in a cold, damp, windy Stoney Middleton carpark! He'll learn I'm sure. The upper tier of Goddard's proved to be everything that's wrong with British quarry #sportclimbing The routes are short, snappy, loose, covered in dust and grit, and you have to climb mud and scree banks to get started. And we didn't beat the rain. It was objectively awful and of course subjectively brilliant! Seriously - what better way is there to spend an October Saturday morning than pulling holds off the world's worst sport climbs and seeing how much mud you can get stuck to your rock shoes?"

With less sarcasm, I'm actually hugely appreciative of all the work done by Nick, Gary and others in putting all these routes up for the rest of us to play on, and having had lots of fun sport climbing in those quarries this summer, I've chipped in to the bolt fund. I've also gone from, at the start of summer lockdown-easing, being really nervous trying 5bs and 5cs to having onsighted lots of 6as, some 6a+s and even one 6b! For a middle aged punter of limited technical ability and not enough time for my hobbies, it has been really satisfying.

Hi Nick

If you send any new routes direct to me then that is by far the best way to get them positioned correctly on  UKC and also added to the app.

If you do upload new routes to UKC then it is always worth relating them to a route already in the database. ie. 20m right of 'suchandsuch'. 

Chris has added the new buttress header for Jama Girl Sector although we can't sort them into order yet since they seem to refer to changed route names and routes that haven't been uploaded yet. Be great if you could supply a left-to-right order.

Alan

From a previous thread I think it was cragtyke who found those routes and uploaded them into the UKC database but the names he used were just "placeholders" until the FA details turned up. Nick has now put those names into the descriptions of the routes in the logbook database, and I think Chris has updated some of the names from the placeholders to the names Nick and John A picked after the FAs early this year.

As you walk up the grass to the plantation area there is a wall on the left - below stoat wall / bay area - which had some routes added earlier this year. Does anyone know what these are?

Just noticed it's updated. Cheers Chris. 

Yes I will report them soon. They were mainly done by John Allen (i will give them names), one by his brother and one by me

L to R: 6b+ arete, 6a+ crack, 6c boulder prob start and crack, 6b, 5+ crack, 6b wall, HVS, VS crack, 6c+ pillar, 7a arete

(please respect projects)

Was actually planning to do this Alan, having added a couple more, will also give names for the wall John developed - also mentioned on this thread - and add some others done elsewhere. 

As described on UKC at the moment the only amendments regarding route order are - upper tier: Goddards Groove is the trad crack 3m right of Scoobs Wall, main wall Your Future Our Clutter is the arete immediately right of For Goddards Sake. 

Thanks again Alan and Chris. In Jama Girl sector the first route name is Hot Water Blanket (still down as Wall Climb), and Jama Girl grade is 6a, the better route of the two and probably the easier.

Thanks for the update. Is it obvious which ones are still projects?

They might be in the right order now?

Chris

This morning while planning on where might be good to climb tomorrow, I found another app topo mistake, but this time for Slaley Brook. This is an odd one because in the logbook list, It's A Deal (5b) and It's A Steal (5c) are listed the correct way - like that: It's a Deal is the lefthand route and It's a steal is the righthand route. They share the same lower off. But currently on the app topo they are the wrong way round.

When I went there a few weeks ago I led the righthand one, because the app shows it as It's a Deal 5b, that is the easiest route there so seemed like the best warm up option. I ended up thinking it felt really hard, but put it down to my ineptitude and being the first route of the day. But actually I climbed It's a Steal, 5c - and 6a in the BMC guidebook! So maybe I'm not totally hopeless after all. Anyway, your route descriptions are correct - if had read them more carefully I might have twigged at the time, but I admit to just looking at the grade and line in the app.

Yes all sorted thanks Chris

Yes, missing hangers.

I was meant to go again quickly on Friday, and I was going to have a go at the routes in "Sector Jama Girl", but it rained longer than they said it would and my mate ran out of time off childcare responsibilities! I sulked for the rest of the day and left my packed bag out (clip stick through the compression straps) just to give my moping a focus.

So I went back to Goddard's yesterday and did do most of the routes in the Jama Girl Sector. It's not the finest climbing in the world but it catches the sun readily so was dry and warm yesterday unlike the walls on the opposite side of the quarry.

Jama Girl (6a) and her sister routes all share the same lower off, this is two bolts with a chain attached to the upper bolt but not attached to the lower. I left an old but perfectly serviceable krab to join the chain to the lower bolt and make the lower off more readily usable.

I thought Jama Girl and Hot Water Blanket (6a) were pretty ok for the grade, but Auto Biscuit Munch (5a) is quite steep and go-ey for its grade, even if you are happy jamming (which I am). Similarly Piggy Chow Chops (6a+) is suitably named because it's a pig at 6a+! The hard moves are by the first bolt, but by the time you get to clip bolt 2 I suspect you might hit the ground if you came off, so it's one to pre-clip the first two bolts if you have the technology.