A short notice opportunity arose today to get some climbing in. A phone call from my mate Tim telling me he had a couple of hours to kill was all that was needed for a trip to a Limestone crag just outside Matlock. However, the weather in the Peak District was nothing like the sun the rest of the country was enjoying.
The crag is blessed with some fantastic juggy and pockected rock that gives confident holds on short routes. Due to the fact that there are a lot of easy routes, the area is very popular and the routes are quite polished making the climbs tricky in the wet.
We started with ‘Steep Ridge’, a 10m VDiff.
The crag is blessed with some fantastic juggy and pockected rock that gives confident holds on short routes. Due to the fact that there are a lot of easy routes, the area is very popular and the routes are quite polished making the climbs tricky in the wet.
We started with ‘Steep Ridge’, a 10m VDiff.
Next we moved over to the Steeple area and climbed ‘Overhanging Wall Variant’, another VDiff.
Both routes were attracting the rain but we noticed that the east face of the crag was keeping dry so we set off to find something that we could climb without sliding around. We found the end wall (The Arête) was dry but the two dry routes listed in my guide book were both VS, a 6m 5a and a 6m 4b.
Having never led a VS we decided to start with ‘Legs Over’, the 6m 4b.
The only place I could find to place any gear was at the top of the route which is probably why it’s a VS but we managed the climb before the rain came again.
A good couple of hours at an excellent crag.
Rich S
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