UKC

"The amazing thing is that virtually all of these Dark Peak crags have remained backwaters since the 1920s. Why is this? Are we so lazy that we won't walk uphill?" wonders Mick Ward in this superbly written review. The good news is that much of the effort has, at least, been removed from hunting for climbs when you get there. A team of volunteers have researched, compiled and route-checked 3,800 routes from Mod to E9 in the upland gritstone crags that ring the mighty moorlands of Kinder, Bleaklow and the Chew Valley, plus 200 boulder problems from V0 to V10...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=4740

In reply to UKC Gear:
This is a brilliant guidebook..........and a great review of it.

A massive thanks to Martin and the team for all their hard work with the book and to Mick for his detailed review..

In reply to UKC Gear:
Hi Mick
How you doing? long time no see? last time was on Windy Ledge.Drop me a line when you next "up north" and we can get out?
As per usual your eloquence on writing a fantastic review shines through
A great job!!
Yes, I have to hold my hands up, it was me who started the thread, on the grades at "the pits", mainly to promote the guide (but still think Mangled digit 6b!!!). I also checked the first ascentonists hands, and he does have 10 fingers and does not only climb there, especially as I am climbing in France with him next week, so apologies to Ian.
Thanks again for a fantastic review, its a great guide, Martin and Ian put in a fantastic amount of work( as well as the rest of the team..too numerous to mention) to produce this and should win a BMC award for long term tenacity (how are my pro's doing?)
All I can say is buy it, read it, be inspired, and then go climb it!! (then argue about the grades in the pub!!)
Cheers
Nick B
ps your picture of the spanner is upside down!!!

In reply to astley007:

No it isn't: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21913923@N03/3312631606/


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Brilliant review.

Hasn't the spanner gone?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKC and UKH:

I believe it finally broke off a couple of years ago but has since been replaced.


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

If this is to be believed:

http://chewvalley.bravehost.com/news.html


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs: had a quick peek at my pics in it,looks really good and i shall invest in a copy as i reckon those will be my last guide book pics

In reply to astley007:

Hi Nick,

Mick Ryan's just emailed me to say that this was up. They've laid it out beautifully - which is fitting, as this guidebook is a visual feast. I shudder at the amount of work; I'd have given up the ghost and collapsed in a peat hag, long ago.

Grades... who knows? I've got little fingers (no jokes please!) so Mangled Digit was probably easier for me. I remember looking at aforesaid appendages, bloody and blue with cold and thinking the route was well named!

Would be great to meet up when properly 'oop North. I'm making a flying visit over the next two days to attend Graham Rawcliffe's funeral. Just knowing that Kinder's up there, somewhere in the clouds, will mean a lot to me.

That spanner - I loved it. I guess everybody did. Is it on somebody's bookshelf?

All best wishes,

Mick

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Wow, fantastic. What a great story. Thanks for the link Chris.

I'm off to the Pits when I get back.

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Close your eyes, spin round 3 times, then click yours heels and believe. it will be there!!!!

In reply to UKC Gear:

Great review Mick - a trip down memory lane it seems!

With no disrespect to Grimer & the previous guides, Martin marshalled a team of unwilling, mainly ignorant climbers that were hungry for new rock - always a charm.

Many toiled up clough & down grough to reach the scrittle grit that we always had an exciting time with.

I was lucky to get Wimberry Boulders & the Grinah stones & with all of us working on them, I still don't think we did them justice!

The book stands out for itself & is a very different beast to previous volumes. It somehow seem more driven, more strived & with each page I have to check to see if there is peat under my fingernails.

I had two pretty bad falls off Kinder Northern Edges during the guide work - & had pretty bad journeys back from them - but in the wild open & hobbling down the clough - I wouldn't have missed it for the world...

Si

In reply to Simon:


You've caught the essence of it in a way which I think I've failed to do. (But, at least, I tried!) I spent 10 days in France with it, looking at it, reading it every day, yes, unashamedly wandering back down memory lane. Ironically, given that it's a visual feast, there's something going on beneath the surface, something tremendously important. So many people have given their all for this - and it comes across.

I'm sorry about your falls. I'm at an age where I dread deck-outs, just because I begrudge the recovery time (maybe not much time left). But the enforced contemplation makes you a different person. There's no doubt about that. Just a hard way to do it...

Best wishes,

Mick

In reply to Mick Ward:


No probs Mick. Thanks for writing a great review, I enjoyed reading it, and no editing was needed as it was so well written, which is always a bonus Sorry I didn't email to say it was up, I thought I'd said I was working on it today. Need to find you something else to review now, perhaps...

Sarah

Yeah, just want to say thanks to Mick and the UKC team for a great review. Very sweet, Mick.

In reply to Chris Craggs:

The spanner has been replaced pointing the other way. A suitable change: v for victory perhaps or maybe a gesture to the those spurning adventure, climbing the same old climbs on the same old polished sections of the most popular bits of the eastern edges.

Keen observers will note that the guide is not strictly speaking finished yet. Several web guides are too be uploaded including the less well trodden areas like the Tameside death traps, the looser summer climbing on Dovestone main, Torside Clough, etc. As the cheif of this set of heroic climbing contributers Martin said, there are no mistakes in it whatsoever Someone else once said "It's not esoteric, it's effort."

In reply to Offwidth:
I wonder if there is a prize for most cake eaten in the production of a guide book I am pretty sure this would win, mmm cake

But seriously ... how did sweatyman and riccochet wall both get HVS ... at least a grade between the two of them ...

In reply to grubes:
Not enough pictures of cake in the actual book itself (plenty of Kocsis's developing bald patch though...).

I will say I wass a little disappointed by the lack of many historical photos in the book, will have to flick through my old editions instead.

In reply to Alex Thompson:
'wass' (sic) that picture of madmen not not historical enough. Every time I see that photo my palms get a little sweaty.

Also the pictures of the FA of bloodrush and appointment with death were both photos of historic momments, no?

In reply to grubes:

Maybe Sweatyman is a very easy HVS and Riccochet a very hard one and as the HVS grade is very wide there is a normal full grade or a week of cake consumption between them

In reply to Offwidth:

This must be the best guide book in the last 25 years for the Chew Valley, Kinder, Bleaklow and those other quallity moorland areas

I'm so glad I was never brain washed that Stanage, Burbage and a few of the other Eastern crags are the only places to climb on grit, hopefully Yorkshire grit will also remain of the radar of all the Stanage sheep and quiet days can still be had climbing 3 star routes without another sole in sight.

In reply to Offwidth: IMO ricochet wall is benchmark E0 but yes Sweatyman is very soft HVS and was my first.
On the same subject I cannot understand how cool mans wall (sweatyman direct finish) gets VS and sweatyman gets HVS when they share a crux and cool man wall has one more 5a (hard 4c) move at the top.

Anyway shooters nab is a rubbish crag which no one should visit. There are no 3 star classics with no polish and no cues .... Also there is not a LGP waiting for some very good climbers waiting to be climbed.

In reply to craig h:

Dont worry Craig, we did our level best to publicise the fewer midges, different crag aspects (shade and shelter) and great climbing in a different place... in the less well know southern areas of the Froggatt guide: numbers increased but crowds never came. At least the small subset of UK climbers who are looking for good varied climbing, and are not locals, can now better see what the fuss we made was all about on the moors.

In reply to grubes.

Ive done neither yet and Lynn only did the VS...well let you know.

In reply to UKC Gear:

Awesome guidebook and a fantastic review

In reply to Mick Ward:

>Ironically, given that it's a visual feast, there's something going on beneath the surface, something tremendously important. So many people have given their all for this - and it comes across.
>


I think you nailed that last point Mick!!

;0)

Si

In reply to UKC Gear:

I wonder what the average production time of a guide book is? This one was certainly a mammoth undertaking for all involved with many frustrating days spent trying to get "the shot".

In reply to Marcus Buckley:
Might something to do with the time trying to get your good side Marcus. Photoshop can do wonders but...

In reply to Alex Thompson: That's because he doesn't have a good side! :P

In reply to UKC Gear: Hi Mick,
This has got to be the first time a review has made me want to go out and buy a guide that I am never likely to use. Fantastic, you have got me itching to go north again.
John.