Yorkshire Scene - Autumn 2007

I've been a bit remiss in not updating this column for several months. I suppose I was waiting for something else big to happen but after an initial flurry and lots of national media hype about Steve McClure's Overshadow at Malham the momentum slipped somewhat. The gritstone prize goes to Nigel Poustie for his Ilkley Calf desperate, Pebbledash (is it a route or a boulder problem?) which scores big numbers in whichever grading system you like to work.

Apart from the above there has certainly been lots of interesting development for the masses but little to attract the headlines. On the Grit Nigel Poustie and Paul Clough concentrated their further efforts on boulders and micro routes at Guisecliffe and Sypeland, whilst Tony Marr's Cleveland team seemed to spend all summer at Brimham in an effort to climb every available inch of rock on this already popular crag. Incredibly Tony has added over 120 routes and variants here since the last guide was published. The crag will need a guidebook to itself before long.

In the western Pennines, Gordon Mason and David Boekstyns have undertaken a massive clean-up of the Black Wall area of Heptonstall adding four new routes up to E2 in the process. Many of the other established crags have received minor additions, perhaps the most noteworthy and most recent at Ilkley where Sean Jacobs climbed Optimus Prime (E5 6b) up the big undercut wall to the right of Walewska.

The Limestone sport's team have been more steadily prolific adding around two dozen routes between F4 and F7a to Foredale Quarry which is now a very popular fair weather venue. A new fully illustrated download has been put together by Paul Clarke and Nigel Baker to try to clear up some of the confusion for first time visitors.

Troller's Gill has received a complete make over with all the old staples and belays being replaced this Autumn and six new lines F5+ to F6c+ being added as a bonus. This is a quick drying crag which is often a reasonable bet in winter if its not too cold.

Glyn Edwards and Colin Binks added the first true sport routes to High and Low Stony Banks with 5 on the high crag (F6a to F7a) and two 6cs on the longer Low Bank. Worth checking out as the crags face west and get the afternoon sun and a little shelter depending on the wind direction.

Bob Larkin added 3 more lines to the right hand crag at Robin Proctor's Scar F6a/b as well as several more in the lower grades to the main crag of Giggleswick North. In total Gigg North had 17 new lines added in the late Spring mainly in the F6a to F6c range but with one significant new F7c from Neil MaCallum and Matt Troilett. This is a good, quick drying, winter venue now, well worth considering as a change from the more popular Gigg South.

The poor summer weather slowed developments at Blue Scar but Paul Clarke and Keith Morgan managed to link up a 5 pitch girdle of the right wall and Arch Buttress at E5/F7a+ despite a little frustrating seepage in the breaks on the crux pitch. Nick Dalzell got in on the action here also with a new link across the One Previous Owner Wall at F7a+.

One completely new venue was investigated by Nigel Baker and Paul Clarke and Panorama Crag (effectively the far left end of the Moughton Nab escarpment) now hosts 9 routes and a couple of projects in the making. The routes are relatively short but very steep on mainly positive, solid holds and weigh in so far between F6a and F7a The crag faces south and gets the sun but winter seepage may be a problem after prolonged rain.

All the above developments are now included in the recently updated new routes databases and complete pdf downloads are currently available for Foredale Quarry and Giggleswick South. If some keen gritstoner would like to prepare something similar for Brimham I'm sure it would be well received and very useful to the regulars and newcomers alike?

As well as the re-bolting that is now finished at Troller's Gill extensive Bolt Fund repair and replacement work is well underway at Malham, Kilnsey and Gordale with ad-hoc maintenance, as and when needed, at several other venues. Some of this work has been funded this year by the BMC Better Bolts Campaign but please remember that BMC equipment is not available for new routes. If you like the new routes on the sports crags and want to see development continue please have a look at the Bolt Fund page on this site. Those 30 metre pitches at Foredale are time consuming and pretty expensive construction projects. We are happy to put in the time but any help with the cost is always most welcome.

Dave Musgrove

STOP PRESS - Brunthwaite Crag

This crag is on private land (not subject to CRoW). The owner of the land has requested that people do not climb there. The BMC Area Access Officer is aware of the situation and is negotiating with the owner to try and restore access. For now we have removed the topo from our downloads section at the request of the author. Please check back for more news.

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