Pennine Lines w/c 12 February 2024
|| Mixed & warm || Where's the February high pressure? ||
Skooter Ram || Climber: Ben Bransby
|| Focus On... ||
South Peak
Not gonna lie to you, I’ve been finding this weather uninspiring. Everywhere is brown. Decaying leaves, undergrowth squashed flat by snow and brown damp rock. The abrupt appearance, and then disappearance, of a large amount of wet snow was just a pain in the arse for all involved. Aside from getting horrendously injured I can see why people go skiing at this time of year. But a quick walk at Stanage late this afternoon, feeling the restorative properties of the light of the day, is enough to remind us that it won’t last forever. The days are already feeling longer - it’s all downhill from here.
When the week’s climbing prospects give little inspiration I turn to the ol’ hard drive to light the fires of the imagination. So this week we’re just gonna turn the spotlight on a couple of south Peak off-piste problems.
First up is Skooter Ram, a 7a+ at a tucked away venue you’re statistically unlikely to have heard of, let alone climbed at. To hijack a joke my dad always used to say about the south east (“Kent boasts hundreds of excellent French restaurants,….only an hour’s ferry away”) Mervyn Stutter is a crag that boasts dozens of quality problems on impeccable quality rock....only 5 minutes drive away. It’s only claim to fame is it’s the only crag in the Peak if not the world to be named after a standup comic (for more or less no reason at all, I should add). BUT your mates won’t have been there so when you rock up at the wall the following week you’re gonna look like quite the connoisseur, telling tales of this amazing crag which only those in the know are clued up about. Just don’t tell them you only went because of this email.
To be honest the crag doesn’t have much to shout about but this quarried hole does serve up a fairly impressive chunk of Amber Valley gritstone, just hanging there. The left arete was an obvious Last Great Problem for some time, but possibly didn’t really climb as expected or yield the hard classic it might have, so maybe the term Last Okay Problem should gain currency here. Anyway, Skooter Ram takes the hanging right arete. As I recall it’s fairly bunched, so it should gain popularity with the looking-upwards-a-lot community (and it IS a community).
Samantha Muesli || Climber: Adam Long
Second on this two-courses-for-a-tenner esoterica menu is Samantha Muesli. Hidden away on the far side of the crag on the Cider Women wall, the ambience of this part of Cratcliffe is totally different to the more well known top boulders or even the Jerry’s Traverse or Egg areas. Facing away from the afternoon sun, with boulders lurking among the twisted boughs of the trees, slow to dry but offering welcome shelter from strong westerlies in winter, with a few tall crag-based lines looming above the boulders, on the right day it’s a great spot to find a bit of peace. This part of the South Peak didn’t find its way onto the cover of Grit Blocs by accident.
This line was originally written up at E3 6a in 1985 by Paul Mitchell, although being revisited in recent years in the bouldering mat era it seems to be more like a highball and fingery Font 7b, so assuming they are indeed the same line it was probably quite a sandbag as an E3 solo. As I recall the landing isn’t that flat either, so you’d do well to take a couple of pads and a spotter for this one, along with the ability to keep it together to reach safety on the very high top section. This whole wall tends to be reclaimed by the moss and lichen if it doesn’t get any traffic, so hopefully its appearance here will spark a few people to check it out. You don’t need a slightly bored child in the background to do this one, but it helps.
|| Recently Through the lens ||
Fleeting winter light on High Neb towering above the Buckstone, and a preview of a 5x4" film image which will be available as a print soon; a frozen puddle enhanced by borrowed colour from outside the frame. But which gritstone tor is providing that warm colour? Answers on a £5 note to the usual address please.
|| Fresh Prints ||
Making their way onto the Print Shop this week we have a couple from the iconic Stanage Edge, and a quiet spot on the moor atop Burbage South transformed by snow and the vivid pink light of a winter sunset, both shot on 5x4" film as always.
