What they don’t tell you in the guidebook

Bouldering in Longsleddale

September 15, 2019January 5, 2020the Severe climber

Climbing an unnamed problem on the Jacko Boulder at Settle Earth Boulders, in Longsleddale.

Longsleddale was the one place I really wanted to go on my bouldering trip to the Lake District. Some people might think it a bit strange to prioritise the Settle Earth Boulders in Longsleddale over destination bouldering venues in the Lakes like St Bees or Langdale. But I wanted to go as I knew that Longsleddale is beautiful and tranquil, and, after reading the new Lake District Bouldering guide, I’d learned that it also has a great lower-grade bouldering circuit.

I’ve been to the Lake District many, many times, but didn’t know about Longsleddale until a few years ago. Read more →

Bouldering Below The Old Man

September 7, 2019September 7, 2019the Severe climber

The cloud beginning to lift, revealing the Old Man of Coniston and Boulder Valley.

I couldn’t actually find the boulders. I walked back and forth along the same stretch of grassy ridge looking at the boulders scattered around me, trying to find one that matched the photos in my new guidebook. If I could find the Ridge Stone boulder, then I could orientate myself and get on the right track. But in the mist it wasn’t easy to work out which rock was which. I felt certain I’d missed the path to Boulder Valley shown in the guidebook, and so had ended up walking too far up the ridge. The Ridge Stone was shown in the guidebook’s map as being after the start of the path I wanted. I reasoned that if I found the Ridge Stone, I would know for sure I had gone too far. I looked again at a tall boulder sitting just to the side of the path, trying to work out if its shape matched that of the boulder shown in my book. The whole situation felt ridiculous. I felt ridiculous. I was walking about in the mist, on the first day of a bouldering trip to the Lake District, unable to find the boulders I’d come all this way to climb. Read more →

Trying out the new North Wales Bouldering guidebook

August 18, 2017August 23, 2017the Severe climber

It was a fantastic coincidence. I was due to go on a weekend climbing trip to North Wales and on the Monday before my trip the new North Wales Bouldering guidebook was published. I’d been waiting a long time for this book.

Me climbing an unnamed 4C problem on the Wavelength Boulder in Llanberis Pass, while Katrina spots me.

The first edition had been out of print for years and it seemed that only the quick and lucky (and possibly wealthy) could buy a 2nd hand copy. From reading the periodic UKClimbing threads asking when the next edition would be published, I had the tantalising impression that the reason the second edition was still not available was because the author, Simon Panton, just kept finding more and more bouldering delights in North Wales that he could not leave out. Read more →

What They Don’t Tell You In the Guidebook – Wobblestone Crack

November 28, 2013November 29, 2013the Severe climber

Me climbing Wobblestone Crack at Burbage in the Peak District.

Well, the clue is in the name. You can’t really start out on this climb unaware that some bit of rock is going to wobble when you hold on to it. However, some of the wobbly rocks are more obvious than others and the guidebook doesn’t mention the most important of them. Read more →

A Little Bit of the Eiger – the Rotstock Via Ferrata

July 22, 2013October 17, 2016the Severe climber

A ladder on the Rotstock Via Ferrata. The Eigergletscher Station and Eiger Trail are behind and below.

“All the Grindelwald via ferrata are closed.” The woman at the tourist information office said these words in a firm, brisk tone that indicated that she didn’t realise that I would find them disappointing. I knew that there was a risk that the long, cold winter might mean that some mountain routes would still be impassable with snow that the hot July sun had not yet melted. I had started to accept that this might be quite a high risk when I had seen snow clinging to slopes and hiding in gullies as I looked out of the train window on the way in to Grindelwald. My trip to the tourist information office in Grindelwald had been done in the hope that I would be told my concerns were unfounded because there was one via ferrata around Grindelwald that I particularly wanted to climb. Not only had the tourist information woman confirmed that I wasn’t wrong, but added that there was also a risk of rock fall. I could have not let this news stop me from trying to climb, as you can’t, strictly speaking, close a cable and a series of ladders running up a mountain. However, I know the importance of listening to local advice about mountain conditions if you want to stay safe and so thanked the woman before walking out dejectedly. Read more →

Climbing in the Palms – Sport Climbing on Gran Canaria

December 16, 2012September 10, 2016the Severe climber

Rain, or the threat of it, is a big part of the life of an English rock climber. A fair amount of time is spent planning how to avoid rain, waiting for rain to stop, finding somewhere that it isn’t raining or just being rained on. In 2012, I seemed to spend far more time than usual in this dance with the rain and so wanted somewhere for my honeymoon in November where I could climb without having to worry too much about rain driving me off the crag. Gran Canaria, the biggest of the Canary Islands, was the destination my wife and I settled on.

Me climbing on Ninja Troll buttress at Sorrueda on Gran Canaria. This climb doesn't have a name, the guidebook just refers to it as number 8 on this buttress. — Me climbing on Ninja Troll buttress at Sorrueda on Gran Canaria. This climb doesn’t have a name, the guidebook just refers to it as number 8 on this buttress.

By being off the coast of North Africa, Gran Canaria has a warm climate that is prevented from being too hot by the trade winds that blow in off the Atlantic. During the time I was there, the temperature varied between 23C to 29C and could be pretty humid. The rock is volcanic and made up of strata formed by eruptions and eroded into a rugged, mountainous interior with canyons (barranco) fanning out from the centre like the spokes of a wheel. Read more →

What they don’t tell you in the guidebook – Pinnacle Ridge, Polldubh crags

June 14, 2012January 21, 2016the Severe climber

I think this route is missing a tree. The guidebook says there are three trees, but I only found two. This made Pinnacle Ridge surprisingly confusing.

Climbing Pinnacle Ridge, Polldubh crags — Me climbing Pinnacle Ridge, Polldubh crags, Glen Nevis, Scotland

Pinnacle Ridge is a two-pitch, Severe graded rock climb at Polldubh crags in Glen Nevis in the Scottish Highlands. It’s a lovely and interesting climb and it feels justified that the guidebook (Scottish Rock, Volume 1, South by Gary Latter) gives it two out of four stars. The route pretty much follows the crest of the buttress and so I thought route finding would be easy. However, I was trying to judge the exact positions of rock features by refer to trees. Read more →

What they don’t tell you in the guidebook – Craig yr Aderyn

June 5, 2012June 30, 2012the Severe climber

Rock climbing guide books are an invaluable resource and are essential to ensure that you don’t end up climbing the wrong route or no route at all (both of which can be scary and/or dangerous). Unfortunately, the features of the routes that guide books describe do sometimes change. The route descriptions in the books also need to be quite brief and this lack of detail can sometimes lead to you being surprised by some aspect of a route. For these reasons, I am starting a regular series of posts on “what they don’t tell you in the guide book.” The first such post is about Craig yr Aderyn.