UKC

When it's Christmas Crack (HS 4a) and Christmas day, apparently. 

You can always do something...

When it’s raining 

Is wet grit climbing an issue on Christmas day? I assume those who ventured out are probably more than capable of treating it as XS and not putting significant load or scuff on an otherwise well travelled by many less well prepared or aware individuals. 

Least they didn't walk up Snowdon in flip flops and shorts.... There's all kinds out there. My bet is climbers on Xmas day are the safer pairs of hands. 

It's one route, which tends to get climbed by competent climbers, with no trashing of gear placements. It's been a popular climb on Christmas day for decades and the fact that it hasn't been trashed shows this. I agree, that people shouldn't be flailing around on wet grit but that's just not happening here.

Not so much a question of when, more a question of where and how...

• Where - routes that haven't got friable (*) bits on them - implies prior knowledge or very clear view of the whole route
• How - competently, no flailing - implies climbing well within your grade

(*) - by friable I don't just mean loose, I also include where the hard surface layer has been eroded to expose the softer inner rock - unfortunately, as grit gets increasingly trashed by the amount of use, more and more routes have friable bits on them, either holds or gear placements.

Quite right, Pete. I can't  imagine any sniffy comments if a couple of climbers had been spotted in Dovestones Main Quarry yesterday.

It's OK to climb wet grit when you're quite good and do it every year.

It's OK to park your big ugly van in a beauty spot if you're blogging to your followers about it.

It's OK to flout climbing bans if you're doing a challenge. 

Its Ok to take 20+ long haul flights a year if you've got sponsors. (And have an environmental foundation?)

Its OK to take 20 beginners to a small crag if you're in a club.

Any others? This could be a sticky post at the top of the forums?

I shall quote the description of the route: "The only route in the Peak where you will be queuing every 25th December come hail or shine!"

Edit: Also, I can assure you there were a lot more people there than the logbook would indicate. It is after all a long-standing tradition.

Just weird innit? 

Climbing wet grit is definitely a no-no?

Curious why it is okay to do it on one particular day, regardless of the weather. Everyone seems to think it's okay though!

Is it okay to potentially damage a classic route for the other 364 days of the year that other people climb it because it's a 'tradition'? (The tradition presumably being because it has 'christmas' in the name?)

Maybe, if this is the general consensus, we could start a new tradition and get on this one: Hypocrisy (V3)

While we're here, can someone tell me what grade I'm allowed to climb grit in the wet? I lead up to about hvs so does that mean I can have a go on wet Severes? Well within my limit so I wouldn't be doing any harm.

The subject of not climbing on wet grit is a recent innovation, similar to not climbing on grit in the summer because of the lack of friction. If we keep on wringing our hands about the perfect time to climb on grit we'll probably have it whittled down to a couple of days either side of Spring Bank holiday weekend.

It's only rock, it was covered in ice 20,000 years ago and will likely be scraped away in the next 20,000. 

Let's turn this around a little bit: Is Christmas Crack polished or damaged after so many years of this? The answer is no. There are no friable flakes, there are no tenuous smears, it's a crack climb with horizontal breaks. There have been no falls wearing gear placements either, unsurprisingly considering the people that tend to do it every year.

Okay, I get it. So what I'm saying is, as someone who's not a total noob, it is acceptable for me to climb wet grit if it fits a certain criteria. 

This is something that goes against the general messaging and ethics that I understood to be the case, so that surprised me is all. 

If that's not indeed the case, then my original post stands - this climb on that day is an exception to the rule. 

If this climb is an exception, then why? And should it be? 

Let's put an end to this, I vote it's renamed Midsummer's Crack.

I think the original statement that there are certain criteria is pretty spot on. There are climbs that could easily be utterly destroyed by climbing them in the wet, climbs that rely on pebbles, smears, flakes that could break etc. As such, it is a pretty good baseline to state that as a general rule it's best not to climb wet grit, especially as that messaging got developed as some horrific practices started taking place, people blowtorching rock, people smearing holds with chalk to "dry" them (as a visit to plantation will easily show...) and more.

However, none of that applies to the practice of climbing Christmas Crack on Christmas Day. For starters, it's a crack climb with horizontal breaks and ledges. If you somehow found hoards of thousands of masochists climbing it under these actually rather unpleasant conditions with extremely poor technique, it will start making a dent. As it stands, that's not what happens at all.

Wet grit, its the new dry tooling. There has to be something to rant about.

My imaginary climbing company "sendpsykecrush" will be rebranding surveyor's damp meters for sale at a huge mark up accompanied with bmc approved moisture levels for specific rock types.

I hope to get these installed in situ, like the lakes temp sensors but linked to a flashing light attached to stanage pole. 

Like a red flag at the beach? I think I can get behind that.

Especially if they were climbing under a constant shower of actual grit and water whilst back and footing up a slimy chimney.

All good practice for the Eiger I've heard it said.