Moors FA

New Bouldering Wall In Middlesbrough

2012-02-04T17:01:00.001-08:00

A new bouldering wall has opened up in Middlesbrough, which should hopefully provide a great training resource for North York Moors climbers and perhaps will even encourage some new climbers in the area.

Details can be found here:
http://www.rockantics.co.uk/middlesbrough-once-open.html

Mike Adams Hits The Coast

2012-02-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

Another good handful of of problems climbed by Mike Adams. In particular some very good highball aretes. The New venue of the Smuggler's Terrace is featured, with it's soon-to-be-classic arete, now with a sit start.

New Font 8a+ At Cloughton Wyke

2012-01-31T01:31:00.000-08:00

Mike Adams has recently made the first ascent of another strong line down on the coast.

It took him three sessions over about 6 months to finally get it- thanking a rare wind for superior conditions this time round.

The sit start still waits, but is perhaps not of the same quality as the stand.

Another Adams classic.

The Smuggler's Esplanade/Jurrasic Park Bouldering Video

2012-01-22T17:24:00.000-08:00

The Hull team have been developing the bouldering underneath one of the last undeveloped crags in the moors'. The bouldering looks like it is also pretty good! Now someone just needs to decide what the place is actually going to be called. Parts of both names are already in use elsewhere in the moors, so perhaps a new name needs thinking of to avoid confusion.

Jordan Buys Climbs Requiem (font 8a) and Comments On Quality

2012-01-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

Strong man Jordan Buys doesn't seem to have been put off climbing by his recent fall at Burbage (trying to flash the Promise (E8 7a)) and has been up at the relatively newly-discovered crag of Stoupe Brow.

Rumour has it that it was a bit damp, which was the reason he chose to boulder rather than trad climb- with the line of Requiem (font 8a) being the obvious choice at 'the stoupe'. In the video we see him on the steepest side of 'Barry the Boulder', gracefully ascending Tom Newman's 2009 line. We also see a comment from Jordan confirming the quality, "I cant believe climbs like this exist and so little is heard about them. A king line."

Jordan Buys sends Requiem For A Dream, 8A, Stoupe Brow, Yorkshire. from Wild Country on Vimeo.

This comes only weeks after Mike Adams making the second ascent. (He agreed that it was a great problem too.)

Certainly excellent news for the Moors- with its unparalleled potential and quality finally being realised by non-locals. Perhaps this is a new era in moors climbing, or at least a revived era, from the times when climbers from elsewhere would come and try our hardest routes and problems and report their beauty. Let's hope Jordan also gets on the routes before to long!

A New Crag In The North York Moors

2012-01-11T12:56:00.001-08:00

There's been a bit of a shortage of action in the North York Moors over winter, with the normal protagonists either elsewhere or working lots.

I got down to a strange hidden coastal venue with Dooge Warburton. It was incredibly windy, so we had to abandon the day's plans and checked out an area that a few people have been wondering about for a while.

It all looked very enormous and probably loose, but in the end it turned out to be sound rock and a bit smaller than it looked (around 15 metres).

There's loads still to do here, which is why the exact location is still deliberately being kept a secret. Unlike the recent discoveries in the moors, this one has got a high proportion of mid to low grade routes, which is another cause for secrecy.

There's lots of bouldering too, with a boulder start to an enormous arete being a classic in the region of the low font 7s.

Lee and James Renardson returned to develop another 20 or so problems a few weeks later.

Keep an eye out for more details over summer. It will be a major moors crag when completed, all be it a bit far flung from Scarborough or where ever!

Mike Adams Hits Stoupe Brow- New Font 7c+ and Font 8a 2nd Ascent

2011-11-07T14:31:00.000-08:00

Stoupe Brow (Ravensdale) from Raw Edge Days on Vimeo.

Mr Adams has been out again, with an almost predictably impressive ticklist. He repeated Tom Newman's Font 8a, which is a future classic rising up the lip of the steepest side of Barry.

Tom's Origonal reporting of Requiem:

'Finally today I went back to the boulders to finish off the obvious problem of the crag. Imagine 15 moves on a 50 degree overhung prow and that is exactly what you have got. I have had a couple of sessions on this and originally thought it would be like 8b+ from the sit, but my friend steve d was able to find an easier sequence. Today I climbed the problem from sit and called it 'Requiem For A Dream' simple because i like the name, the film is awesome as is the problem, I think it will way in at about 8a, but who knows.'

Mike also added a sit to the obvious Scoupe feature at the other side of the boulder, which went at Font 7c+.

The video also shows some of the existing classics at the crag. Top notch Mike!

Mike's sponsored by Tenya and Moon

Mike Adams- Moors Convert And Bouldering Developer

2011-11-05T07:07:00.002-07:00

In a close-knit community like the Moors is, it's always nice to have new people visiting the area, but even more so when they come back time and time again. It's funny how powerful the moors' call is and its latest victim seems to be Sheffield strong-man Mike Adams.

Mike is better known for his new problems and hard repeats all around the UK, but lately has found inner peace in the beautiful, isolated valleys of the North York Moors. Whilst he's mainly been getting used to the area and having a bit of an explore, he has quickly amassed a large list of new problem in the 7s and even some ascents of some font 8as. It seems further development of even harder problems is highly likely.

Mike comments on moors bouldering on his vimeo page:

"The Nothern England guide book by Steve Crow will help you find some of the areas but the bouldering is generally not documented. The best source of information is to check the Betaguides site for some topos or search the Betaguides Blog by Lee Robinson for as much info as possible. Some of the areas are still a bit hush hush as locals who have put a lot of effort into development still have good projects they still want to try. Which I think is only fair considering there efforts. I feel lucky to be let into their playground!"

His vimeo page can be found here: http://vimeo.com/user7044532

and his moon blog here: http://www.moonclimbing.com/MOONBLOG/Mike%20Adams%20-%20Exploring%20the%20North%20Yorkshire%20Sandstone%20(Part%201)-n-1086.html

Mike is sponsored by 'Tenya' and 'Moon'.

Graded List Of Moors Extremes (With Some Beta)

2011-11-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

As always these lists are rather subjective. Added to this, I have not discussed this list with many people and so it is a fair way from a consensus. nevertheless, there is some useful information for anyone considering onsighting any of these lines and they are roughly in order of difficulty. Comments would be useful in sorting out a consensus in the order- or indeed further route information.

H8

The Hypocrisy of Moose- 6c- Easy low moves. OK gear. Harder knacky moves high up. Gear probably wouldn't stop you hitting the floor and might rip anyway.

Franco Cookson

(Nick Dixon Collection)

(P) Scut De Scun Ai- 6c- A bold solo with very poor feet and the last few moves being very insecure. It has not been led since it lost holds. Would be E8. Originally given E6, but was probably E7.

FA Nick Dixon

E7

Esmerelda - 6c- Dangerous mono-pulling with poor feet untill the gear. Then reportedly very hard, thin mono-pulling above. Good cam before the crux, but not ultra safe. Likely to be at the very upper limits of the grade.

Richard Waterton

Waves of Inspiration - 6c/7a- Wild moves close to the gear (but also close to the ground), then a thin and very dangerous top out. Effectively an E7 6b with some very weird and morpo moves low down. The short and the unbalanced will find it hard.

Franco Cookson

Die By The Sword- 6c - A couple of hard moves above a bad fall, protected by low runners. One of those routes where the moves feel too hard and dangerous to be H7, but the bouldery nature of the route lets it get away with it.

Franco Cookson

Howl Psyche - 6b- A solo above a terrible and enormous fall. Pumpy and blind to figure out, with a craft heel on the crux.

Dave Warburton

Fresh Arete - 6b- Short, committing and sequencey. Very dangerous. I reckon this is unonsightable and that isn't a challenge!

Dave Warburton (This is the hardest route to have been repeated- by Ramsden)

Original Sin - 6c- Not much known about this. Hard low down (6c), then perhaps E6/7 6a according to Luke.

Richard Warterton.

Magic in the air - 6b-A very wild and committing solo, with a couple of brittle holds up top. Hasn't been repeated. Perhaps the most 'onsightable' of the Moors E7s after collateral, but pretty disastrous if you get it wrong.

Monty

A Different Kind Of Blue- 6c- A pretty ground-breaking route in terms of difficulty, climbing the much-tried Ravenscar arete, albeit by a meadery line. A great challenge though whch is safe thanks to quite convoluted gear. Hard, sustained. Might be nice to do it without the Stratagem gear at E8ish.

Steve Ramsden (repeated Waterton and Reeve (Reeve ground up with beta))

(Steve Ramsden Collection)

Stoupe Scoop - 6b- sustained climbing on 'flattys' and 'dishes' in an increasingly dangerous situation. Very hard to figure out whether you'd hit the floor or not and what grade it really is- as there isn't really a crux. Very sport-climby in style. From the good crimp you'd definitively deck.

Dave Warburton

Monty’s variant- 6c- nothing know about this, but it's apparently E7 6c.

Collateral- 6c- A nasty, but non-death fall with bouldery, but flashable climbing through a roof and then a scary slopey finish. Would be a hard onsight.

Steve Ramsden

Battle for Tripoli- 6a- Horrifying Scoop, which you can very easily get very wrong, with dire consequences.

Franco Cookson

(P) Cardiac Arrest- 6b- Hasn't been done without side runners, but even with them it's committing, tricky and dangerous.

Kelvin Neal (apparently onsight!)

Chi Ching- 6c- Protectable with mats as a highball. Difficult.

Monty (repeated by at least Ramsden and Reeve)

Pippi Longstocking- 6c- very hard moves and then pretty damn bold and committing. An onsight of this would be VERY impressive.

Ed Brown (repeated Ramsden 2010- E6 6c***)

Three screaming popes -6b- suspect wires protect an ok crux sequence, if you know how to do it. Copying the fa's style of ascent (ground up with 'repeated falls') is ill-advised.
Monty et al. (repeated Ramsden)

Desperate Den- 6b/c- difficult highball moves to the break of Stargazer on thin pockets. Reach an asset.

Marr (repeated onsight Cookson)

Vampiric Obsession- 6b- tricky to onsight and ankle-breaking. Might just feel E5 though, especially with beta and pads.

Franco Cookson (no inspection) (repeated Warburton and Harvey)

Res Publica- 6b/c- Hard ultra safe moves, then

a nasty swing is faced on the last tricky move. Double gastons and bad sideways feet unlock the crux.

Franco Cookson

Otter wilderness route- 6b- tricky solo leads to a tricam. Hard moves from here lead to a
very scary finish. Great place to climb.

Franco Cookson (repeated Warburton)

Fire Dance- 6a- Very committing and insecure moves, with a large potential deckage. Bolts need stripping.

Franco Cookson

Farndale Fayer- 6b-Sequency, reachy and powerful.

There's one very good small cam, but the top is pumpy to hang around on, dangerous and perhaps not that obvious.
Steve Crowe (repeated Warburton and Cookson)

Honey Arete- 6b- highball crux and then a smeary and scary finish. Top route.

Adam Van Lopic (repeated Ramsden, Warburton and onsighted by Cookson)

Shorter’s Wall- 6b- nothing known about this.
Steve Findlay

Stratagem- 6b- sustained bouldery climbing with very good gear. Remarkably this has never been onsighted.
Redhead and Shorter (many repeats)

Mane Vision- 6c- well protected and extremely fingery climbing.
Warburton, Cookson and Marks

Fat Bastard’s - 6a- bold steady climbing on slightly dusty holds.
Findlay and Shorter (many repeats)

Whitestone Traverse- 6a/b- epic choss girdle.

Hunt and Cookson

Pasketti Alpinist- 6a- a long face-climb with only one 'ok' cam. No one's ever fallen on to it, which is probably for the best. If it holds it's E4.
Cookson, Warburton and Dale

Polish Diplomat- 6b- a couple of thin moves above bad gear.
Warburton, Cookson and Marks

Heel of Approval - 6b- A very committing heel throw above an atrocious landing. Easier finish.
Warburton (a typical Warburton route- totally pointless and suicidally dangerous)

Teeside Twitcher - 6b- powerful sustained climbing on sandy rock. Adequately protected with insitu pegs and nuts.

Hunt and Cookson (hunt shows his ability to climb ground up without any concern for safety)

Night Watch indirect- 6a-depends on which line you take. Likely soft though. Strange line.
Downe

Fresh Arete with side runners- 6b- As for fresh arete, although pretty safe.
Steve Ramsden (repeated Warburton)

Magic with side runners- 6b- very safe, but still sees very few (any?) onsights.
Dixon (many repeats)

Grand master Flash- 6b- Apparently this is soft E5, but probably only if you are a boulderer and have a fair few pads.
Dave Paul (many repeats)

Moonflower- 6a- One directional R.P at half height, safe with boulder mats.

Dave Paul- variations Dixon. Direct rib start variation is 6b. Straight up the wall is 6c. Left hand finish is 6b. (many repeats)

May the spirit of the moors go with you always.

Comic Video: 'If you're not flying, you're not trying' FA

2011-10-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

In this video Jake Hampshire and crew attempt to make the first ascent of a chossy wall hidden in some woods somewhere....

New Routes Put Up This Summer

2011-10-28T05:03:00.000-07:00

Dave Warburton on the awesome (in the literal sense of the word) 'White Scoop'

A lot of stuff has happened in the Moors this year already, with Danby Crag, Round Crag and Stoupe Brow have been at the forefront of development. Check out Dave Warb's and my blogs if you're interesting in repeating some of it.

http://davidwarburton-climbing.blogspot.com/

http://francocookson-climbing.blogspot.com/

There's an increasing interest in the moors now, with a lot of stuff clean that hasn't been for a long time and a good scene developing, with a few new teams from Middlesbrough and Pickering leading the charge.

The next few years are going to be exciting.

New Bouldering Areas- Duck Boulders and Kay Nest

2011-10-28T04:58:00.001-07:00

Duck Boulders- Copyright Betaguides.com

Lee Robinson and gang have been out again getting on the boulders. The Duck boulders have given a lot of quality and the latest Moors meet was held at 'Kay Nest', where a lot of new stuff went down. More info here:

http://betaguides.blogspot.com/2011/10/spirit-of-moors-draws-everyone-back.html

http://betaguides.blogspot.com/2011/10/even-more-ducks.html

I hear tales of another venue in the pipeline too... As good as 'font' the rumours go... Keep an eye out on the Betaguides blog and I'm sure you'll find out soon enough.

New Dimensions at Danby Crag

2011-06-18T04:22:00.000-07:00

The Warm up...

The woods below Danby crag have seen many-a-man disappear down seemingly bottomless pits, only to be devoured by spiders and ticks. The boundary between rotting moss-covered tree and humus is blurred and if the ground gives way one discovers that what one was stood on was in fact once standing tall into the clear moors' air. This comical journey soon gives into a genuine worry for one's life, with predators in them woods that are most likely unknown to science and I hope they will remain unknown to me. Only the trail of murdered rabbits and the sudden twitch of a distant branch hinting at their presence.

After this approach I actually found some rock! Some of it was actually quite good. It was odd as I had walked the length of the crag before, but seemed to have missed a lot of the potential here. I shunted a couple of things, one which will go pretty soon as an unprotected route that is not that difficult. The second Arete I found was wild, truly wild- In fact I'd say it's the hardest thing I've ever been on. It is plum vertical and looks like another Hypocrisy of Moose, but is an even better arete and basically without footholds or gear. I managed one move on it in over an hour, with some parts of the pure ten metre line mindbogglingly difficult- I can't even see how you could do it.

It seems to start off with a very difficult highball problem which just seemed impossible and needs a good clean (I didn't even try this section as the rest was clean and needs figuring out anyway). Once you do this bit you have to set up for a large super-balancy arete dyno. I played with this move a lot and it is a really funky arete move; with shocking feet and contorted side-pulling. You are jumping for the first real hold which is an ok one pad crimp and it's super wild. Although I'm not climbing very well at the moment it seemed harder than any move I've ever done (English 7a?) and is one of the best moves I've ever attempted. Fingertips stroking the crimp, but the massive swing means it will be nails to hold. Fun though!

Once the crimp is gained you mount it with relative ease. This is the move I managed and about as hard as the crux of the Hypocrisy of Moose (Coincidentally I shunted this again later and was pleased to see how steady it seems now, although still certain I graded it correctly at H7 6c). Once you are stood on the crimp you get some real holds- a small low edge and a ironstone thing on the arete. You are kind of comfortable in this position, but the holds face kind of the wrong way and moving off it is nails due to the total lack of feet.

At this point you'd likely be in a death-fall situation and the next three moves to the top are outrageous- again with poor feet and only pinching aretes for hands.

So all in all pretty exciting. I have recently fallen out of love with new routing, but this route is really exciting. It's so mindbendingly difficult for me at the moment and even with perfect gear slots it would be harder than things like the Moose. The idea of climbing multiple 7a moves after a start that could be even harder and without any gear is just mental, but perhaps this is what I need to get psyched for getting better.

Camp Hill

2011-06-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

New traverse on the far right Buttress. Lots more to do!

Turkey Nab MiniGuide- Free

2011-06-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

Draft 8

Clemmitt's- Few New projects

2011-06-01T13:45:00.001-07:00

(Copyright Betaguides)

Ingleby Far North

2011-05-27T08:14:00.001-07:00

After being rained off on a soloing mission to Turkey Nab I found myself exploring the very north end of Ingleby. I've fancied a walk about this area before as there seems to be a lot of rock about and Lee discovered the Waylander boulder around these parts less than a year ago.

I had a good mooch about and didn't find that much, apart from one lone boulder with some interesting sit starts to do and a quarry with some lines that look OK- one to come back to in a bit...

Res Publica Ground Up FA (E6 6c*)

2011-05-03T01:36:00.000-07:00

I had a great time sport climbing in spain. There was a little rain and cloud, but we made up for the bad days with very active dry days. I think in the end I climbed about 750 metres of F7a or harder, with about 30 routes from 5+ to F7c. I nearly onsighted what would have been my first 7c, but got wrong footed after the crux and fell off. I was annoyed, but didn't get too upset about it. More importantly I got a lot of mileage in, getting ready for the trad season.
Anyway, I have three weeks of intensive Uni work coming up, so yesterday I got out with my trusty companion, Dooge. We were toying with the idea of Limestone, but in the end opted for a day hit to Beacon Scar, back up near osmotherly.

It was a good day out, with us both getting the classic E2 'Tremor' done, along with the classic E5 'A Last Fling'. We also added a couple of minor new routes- an eliminate VS slab and a strange, slightly sandy, exposed E1/2.

After all this we had about an hour or two left before we had to leave. We looked at the guide and saw that there was an old Mike Readshaw Aid traverse that hadn't been freed going from left to right across the Boss. We saw that the pendulum section of this traverse could make quite a good free route if done in reverse from Nail File.

We got to work ground up:

Res Publica - Beacon Scar from Dave Warburton on Vimeo.

It took a few goes, but it went! It's obviously not a great line, but it will be good for future moors activists to get on a safe testpiece. We've always wanted stuff like this to cut our teeth on and I hope the next swaith of activists enjoy it.

It seems necessary to have some grade talk for new routes, so here we go... We did it ground up, so may have a hard sequence, but it was English 6c most likely. Safe as houses. The last ankle twisting bit was about 6b. Maybe that's E6? I don't know, I'm not very good with grading safe routes and I'm not very good at this powerful bouldery style. Would be very difficult for the short though, so maybe E6 6c, easier for the tall?

I thought it was a three star classic, with ace moves on a sunny day. Future repeaters will most likely find it interesting and short lived in difficulties- so a lone star me thinks.

Clemmitt's Boulders- Video

2011-04-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

6 new problems at Clemmitt's Boulders.

Snotterdale Arete- Harder Than Previously Thought

2011-04-07T00:54:00.000-07:00

I'd always penciled the Snotterdale arete down as a couple of bold moves above a bit of a bad landing- E6 6b kind of territory.

Steve and I have both been on it recently and we found it quite different to the secure, but bold route it looked like a while back.

It's a great line in a nice esoteric venue, with actually a very slappy and sustained sequence. It is bold, very bold. With ten pads you might be able to jump off pre-crux, but you couldn't actually fall off. The climbing is also quite slopey and body tensiony, which is everything I'm bad at, with a sustained bouldery sequence of about F7b+ in a short distance meaning it's pretty explosive.

We also found some dirty crimps on the crux, which when cleaned mean that the route is quite escapable, which is a real shame.

Ravenscar Action

2010-08-04T23:58:00.001-07:00

The ravenscar arete has been done indirectly starting from satchmo. Steve Ramsden's line 'A different Kind Of Blue' weighs in at E7 6c, with a side-runnerless and direct ascent still waiting. Bon effort to Steve, who further developed Ravenscar with another E7 6c to the right of Stratagem named Collateral. A different Kind of blue has also since seen a repeat from Richard Waterton and a ground up repeat from Andy Reeve.

2009-07-19T03:33:00.000-07:00

The long-awaiting first free ascent of the epic 1000ft long Whitestone traverse was completed yesterday by Luke Hunt and Franco Cookson in a single 7 1/2 hour push in humid and sometimes showery conditions.

The Blitzkrieg pitch (E3 6a) and '5a pitch' (E2 5b) were previously the hardest pitches on the route and sandwich the hard and loose Aid pitch, which Luke managed after some trouble. HXS best describes the route as the entire line is pretty loose, especially towards the left hand side, where blocks of all sizes can easily detach. The grades don't take into account the rock, so there is some serious climbing.

WHITESTONE LOOSENESS
The Aid pitch it's self is quite short, but brutally loose, with a couple of massive moves onto a sloper. Luke managed to break off a cruicial foothold swinging round the arete, which made the aid pitch even harder, but some how managed to hang on. An amazing effort by Luke Hunt to free this Last great Problem.