UKC

I'm looking to rock climb in UK, but have little knowledge of climbing here. Most of my experience is from ex-USSR countries and Spain.

Now I got a bit more of free time and think to invest it in to discovering climbing crags in UK. So I am looking for advice please?

My interest lies in bolted routes with solid stones. And I don't mind to hike for few days and camp.

In reply to nutme:

What grades? The best place IMO is Portland. Yorkshire and the Peak tend to be better for the harder grades so I understand. Be prepared to be disappointed. The UK has become established as a trad climbing country and most of the best routes have been climbed in that style over many years leaving mainly unpleasant quarries for those who prefer bolts. Portland is an exception to that however which makes it rather more pleasant. It has routes across the grades but is at it's best with routes in the 6's.

Al

In reply to GridNorth:

Thanks Al, I feel comfortable in 5.10 grades, occasionally pushing to 5.11a.
I'm aware that trad routes dominate in UK, that's why I'm asking at first place.

In reply to nutme:
We tend to use French grades for sports routes:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/comptable.html

Where do you live? I just looked it up. Is trad something that you have any interest in at all? (It's all the best stuff here). You could always meet trad climbers and second the stuff that they are leading?

In reply to nutme:

It really depends what grade you want to climb. For 6's, then Portland and Swanage is probably best. For 7's and 8's you have a lot more real quality. Try Malham and Kilnsey, Pen Trwyn, Gower and Ansteys Cove for some real quality

In reply to nutme:

Llangollen has some sport routes in the Trevor area and there are a fair number of sport routes in the slate quarries of Llanberis.

In reply to nutme:


There's not really a huge amount around at that grade. You could probably do a long weekend in Portland but you're going to start running out of routes after that. Getting into trad would give you a lot more options.

In reply to BarrySW19:

You must be joking, there are enough 6a's, 6b's and 6c's to keep a climber occupied for many months if not years at Portland but I do agree that trad is the way to go in the UK.

Thanks for advice. I did a bit of reading on my own and was already thinking about Dorset and Portand in particular. Your answers just confirmed it.

I don't have anything against trad, but just get no real interest or satisfaction from building my own pro. Working out how to climb the route is the thing which keeps me coming back to the rock.Seconding sounds as a potential way to go, thank you for the idea. However everyone I climb with prefer sport.

5.11a seems to convert to 6b.

In reply to nutme:

Bouldering's also worth looking into. The best stuff you'll find in Britain at normal sorts of grades is probably still trad, but bouldering would open up more good stuff to do in a wider range of areas.

In reply to nutme:
There is a fair amount of Sport in accessible grades in Dorset, but also Wye, Cheddar, SE Wales/Gower. As well as some other areas already mentioned like the Llanberis Slate.
These ticklists include some of the better Sports routes in the F5 - F6a+ bracket in some of these areas (along with some trad):
Wye http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=519
Cheddar http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=275
Gower http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=965
Portland http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=497
nb. There is currently an access issue at Tintern Quarry, so those routes on the Wye list will have to be put on hold for the time being.

In reply to nutme:

UKC - someone asks for advice on where to go sport climbing in the UK, and they get told there is no good sport climbing, they should try trad, and have they tried bouldering?

As others have already pointed out there are plenty of (short) sport routes in the UK; there are over 1200 routes in Portland alone.