UKC

Bit of an odd question but being relatively new to sport climbing and being based in Bristol we've only climbed in the usual spots like the Wye valley, Brean and Cheddar North

Now I thought woodcroft was a solid place but more I read, it seems Wye valley generally is known as a chossy mess.

I came across the blog of guy who's on the front cover of wye valley guide and it's pretty amusing how poorly he views it.

So I'm wondering what places people think are really solid places to sport climb in the vague area?  Or even just the UK would be interesting to know tbh.

​​​​​Is it really more down to if the rocks clean and not crumbling or going to blow up if you yank on a hold than anything else? 

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It’s pretty easy really just climb the starred routes if its a big concern of yours, or look for a crag with the biggest concentration of them. 
 

When you get into outdoor climbing It generally becomes less of a concern as you start to appreciate the nature of climbing on, well, nature. 
 

By clean (Wye, cheddar) sounds like you want to climb somewhere polished! 
 

As much as I think you should just get out there and climb and not be fussy, I would recommend places like Tirpentws, Navigation, Gilwern, Sirhowy, Rhossili etc.

Any route with a star or more, and most routes under 6b+ will likely be well travelled and clean (and polished if they also have a bunch of stars) 

edit: potentially you’re just asking out of curiosity and not necessarily preference which is fair enough!

Portland. Parts of the Gower perhaps but don’t really know it. Brean is fairly solid. 

Oh yeah it's purely curiosity! like what makes a place great Vs chossy and naff, I mean I do jokingly refer to woodcroft as the gutter but I do like it there.

Perhaps it's the concentration of starred routes? I'm not that fussy as long as it's a good climb!

Rosshili above the beach was super nice, tyrps is a nice area as well and Gilwern up in the quarry on Saturday was like god damn it's nice up here that's for sure..

Sport climbing in the UK tends to be on quarried rock.   Add to this the fact that it is mostly on not very old/weathered limestone and you have a recipe almost guaranteed to be unstable. The most solid place I can think of is Ban-y-Gor but even then it's not 100%.

Al

As the sadly departed Ivanator once commented to me "If there was decent rock in this Quarry, they would still be quarrying". 

As others have said, it's generally the limestone quarries that are loose. Cheddar and Ban-y-gor are solid enough. South Wales sandstone tends to be a bit less crumbly (though still prone to the occasional big loose block)

Oh so its more just in relation to the rock itself rather than the surroundings? I guess thats what matters really I suppose.  As (imo)  Ban-Y-Gor is a death trap compared to most of the other places in the area lol but thats mostly the limited belay space, random rock falls and so on.  Also Im sure the Main wall  is "better" just never ventured around to there. 

Byg can feel a bit spicy because of the nature of the climbing (big blocks, stepped roofs, steep climbing, harsh angles etc.) but it's infinitely more solid than the likes of Tintern Quarry, Woodcroft Quarry, and Wyndcliff Quarry. And having had to abseil down the slope at byg (embarrassingly on more than one occasion) to retrieve shoes, I can say it is a much gentler slope than that between the tiers at the above-mentioned quarries. I don't think I've ever seen rockfall at byg, whereas it's a constant at the other venues. 

Also- climbing loose and questionable rock is an important skill to develop. If you don't want the holds to fall off, climb indoors. Outside it is somewhat inevitable. 

Wear a helmet, get used to tapping rocks, and make sure you shout if you pull anything off. 

Dont get me wrong Im fine with all of these places, the looseness (ive seen my fair share of X rocks or grabbed wobblers), the filth etc etc etc I just wanted to know what was considered "Good" if these places are considered "Bad".  

Ah yeah the rock fall, this was over a year ago and before we all owned helmets, stood by the Go wall and suddenly loads of random head sized rocks came barreling down the cliff above ( which isnt even accessible as far as Im aware) and shot off above us into the void .Went home and bought a lid that evening! Its claimed a friends click up, nearly him and a mate almost lost a shoe just the other week to the maw.

Ill quote the blog I found which cracked me up.

"Woodcroft Quarry, Wye Valley. Woodcroft is a cataclysmic hole to rival the worst of Peak Lime quarries but scattered around the dire F6a-choss-infested walls, there are some fine micro-tiers of good rock."

"Ban-y-Gor, Wye Valley. The final visit to this hole and one which put me off South West climbing. This slice of bolted Brown & Whillans grimness was the only silver lining and another version of the grotty cleft furtling ended up as the surprise and subversive cover shot (I've already apologised to PK for any massive drops in sales)."

I've climbed the route in question and can confirm it is aptly named (https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/ban-y-gor-70/so_gross-170288). The Byg style is a bit marmite and takes some getting used to but I don't think the rock can be considered 'chossy', compared to the rest of Wye. It's often quite thuggy and strenuous with good flat breaks and juggy holds through big roofs. You often look up and think 'there's no way it's only a <insert grade>!' 

Fortunately the British ethic is generally that you don't bolt natural rock and that quarries are fair game. There are a few exceptions but the only ones I can think of around here are Cheddar, Ladye Bay/High Cliff and Bourton Combe. 

I much prefer the hard sandstone quarries in South Wales to the limestone around these parts.