UKC

heyy

wondering if anybody could offer a bit of advice, recently started climbing outdoors on a few sports routes.

basically looking to camp a weekend ; climb the Saturday then camp over and either climb the same place or travel to somewere nearby to climb !

does anybody have any suggestions of beginners sports routes?

thanks in advance!

In reply to SambucaHughes:

Avoid the Peak (bad, loose, ugly quarries)!

Portland's probably your best bet, a bit of an ugly place but there is some decent climbing. You'd be best off camping away from the island I think.

In reply to SambucaHughes:

I'm only familiar with Portland, but there's certainly enough routes there at the easier end to fill a weekend - particularly around the Blacknor South area. A good guidebook is essential though as the area is dominated by 7a and up routes, so it's good to know which route you're on before you start.

In reply to SambucaHughes:

your profile says northwest, get yourself to yorkshire plenty of crags with numerous easy routes places like giggleswick by settle etc.

if you dont have a yorkshire limestone guide havea look on the leedswall website on the downloads section plenty of free topos for the sport crags.

not sure about camping though....

In reply to SambucaHughes: Have a look at this

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=6052

For nice camping I'd head to North Wales, there is now a smattering of easier routes (slate and limestone). It certainly isn't the best climbing in the area but it puts you in a climbing hotspot and might inspire you, and of course there is tones great camping option (Llanberis pass is nice).

It's hard to build up experience climbing just sports routes in the UK so maybe consider seconding more experienced people up trad climbs or top roping at less popular venues, aswell.

In reply to Mike Stretford:


^^^Good advice. Nothing wrong with starting out on some easy bolted routes, but the UK is not a good place to think of yourself as a "sport climber" since the bolted routes are really limited and basically total crap compared to the trad routes which are awesome at every grade.

In reply to SambucaHughes:

there are some great easy sport routes along the north wales coast - dyserth, penmaenmawr etc all in the A55 sport climbs book

In reply to SambucaHughes:
Yep ^^
Buy the A55 guide and you will be busy for months , plenty to go at along there.
The new slate guide might have a few easy sport routes in also.

thanks for all your help ! i do have the gear to do trad climbing i just wouldnt feel completely comfortable placing the gear just yet !

In reply to SambucaHughes:
For a good safe-ish introduction for trad climbing, grit routes at the Roaches and Stanage are great to cut your teeth, not too high, plenty of gear and some slabs, perfect for practicing placing gear and getting to grips with rope skills.

In reply to SambucaHughes:


Time to get some practice then
jk

In reply to gd303uk:


Which guide is that? Is it "Llanberis Slate" (2011, Ground Up) or another guide you're referring to?

Cheers
Roland

In reply to Roland.Online:

Yeah the excellent; Ground Up, Llanberis Slate guide. I still call it the new guide as I had the old but still very good; Iwan Arfon Jones, North wales slate guide, for years.
The Ground up Slate guide is very very good. there are a few F5s and 6s in there.

In reply to gd303uk:

Thanks - I don't have it but will definitely take a look!

ps. found a UKC review here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=4808

In reply to SambucaHughes:
I just had a rather nice weekend in the Gower; not masses and masses but enough 4s and 5s (and a 2+ and 3+) to keep us happy for a bit. Good if you also want a nice beach holiday...

Obviously depends on your location as well though!