UKC

Blake and I climbed at The Popular End yesterday and this morning. Great weather, superb routes, lovely views .... and we had the whole place to ourselves.

So which was this brilliant crag with a Popular End? If you know, don't post the answer ... give a few clues, and keep the Sheffield-O-Centric masses guessing for a bit longer!

Somewhere with a road and a descent gully at one end and nothing but 250’ abseils for four miles until the other end?

Not sure where everyone was, but it wasn’t Pembroke - seldom seen it so quiet.

jcm

We climbed three excellent HVSs. Two of them were single pitch, and the third was seven pitches....

The long route is surely one of the best HVSs in Britain ... we didn't start from the base of the crag, we didn't finish at the base of the crag, and we were above water all the way.

Dubh loch

Does Ogmore have a popular end?!

jcm

Somewhere higher and/or north facing or with some shade. Each to their own, but I can't think of many worse places to be than Stanage in that kind of weather.

Stannington Ruffs?

Were you dreaming?

Had to cross a bridge to get there?

Certainly sounds like Ogmore from the Route description.
It probably is at the popular end of the crag, but that's probably because only the really mad buggers climb anywhere else...

Swanage

Locals might have been wary of midges yesterday.

Chee Dale was busy.

exposure explosion?

when everything is dry, for once you can truly choose where to go. A very nice thing to see people do make the best of those opportunities!

Family weekend for me...so wasn't even at the unpopular venues :[

We were at Stanage yesterday, Crow Chin was heaving but everywhere else (between there and High Neb) as quiet as I've seen it (except when raining). We'd gone expecting to have to decamp to Stoney due to heat and/or midges, but neither were a problem.

No idea what the Popular End was like - popular I expect - but as far as I could tell from that distance, the car park at that end wasn't full.

They were all at Tirpentwys... absolutely heaving.

Mountain crags if you possibly could. Cooler crags otherwise. You can climb on Stanage in the middle of winter if the sun and wind cooperate. Wimberry, Shining clough?

Standing Stones on Saturday and then Wimberry on Sunday. It was worth the effort, and Wimberry would benefit from more visitors  

Full Marks to johncoxmysteriously, FactorXXX and steveanthony ... Ogmore was beautiful, deserted, and there were no midges.

Exposure Explosion is such a super adventure that there should be a queue for it ... but there never will be, as Ogmore isn't featured in any of the 'Selected Climbs' guidebooks. For my money, the route's considerably more difficult and intimidating than Dream of White Horses.

Ogmore was one of the first crags to be derestricted during the Foot & Mouth epidemic and came to be a bit like St Govan's on a Bank Holiday weekend.
Unfortunately, the 'uniqueness' of Ogmore caught a fair few out...

Must admit, I was a bit underwhelmed when I did EE...

Have to defend Exposure Explosion, best route for me last year, the climbing, positions, route finding and company were outstanding. One of the best sea cliff adventures at the grade, not to be missed.

Chris

Its been a long time since I did it but I vaguely recall managing to extend Exposure Explosion by tacking on one of the HVS from sea level at the start.

You could do the first half of Pinocchio to get onto EE, but we preferred the unusual nature of descending from the top of the cliff to the first stance, with the sea up at the base of the cliff.

The sea was quite calm on Saturday ... EE would be another level of commitment and excitement with big waves coming in....

I think we did a bit of a loop, so we did Pinocchio nearly to the top then looped directly back down to EE without topping out.  I remember it being a great outing.

Yes, a loop would give the lovely airy traverse at the end of Pinocchio, and then the descent down the crack/chimney to EE.

There must be other good combinations of traverses/downclimbs/normal routes out there, perhaps above the sea in Pembroke, Devon or Dorset. Best saved for a quiet day on a deserted crag (with a rough sea?), probably!