UKH

Hi all

A close friend of mine and I have decided that this year we'd like to get into trad cos it looks good. We've been picking up some gear and such and when things ease up we were thinking of heading to the Peak and trying some routes to get some experience placing gear and such. Ideally some easy and safe stuff to get use used to it. We were thinking about Windgather Rocks and trying "Nose Direct" as it looks cool, just basically wondering if anyone's got any friendly advice?

Our situation is; We live in Sheffield and we have acquired basic gear such as nuts and hexes (as well as harnesses, quickdraws, helmets, rope, belay device etc etc) as we thought it best to get some experience with those before investing in cams and that so ideally stuff that you can protect with that and isn't too long for starters. I've been climbing about eighteen months and boulder at around the 6B+/6C level outdoors, and he's at around 6B after 12 months, with a bit of experience on lime and grit between us. Both of us have plenty of psyche.

Cheers!

Firstly, I'm relieved, because from the thread title I assumed this was going to be another beginner with crazy ambitions to climb the Nose on El Cap in six month's time!

I don't think you should worry too much about precisely which route you start on. You'll want to climb a whole load of easy routes when you're starting out and it barely matters which ones. Windgather's often touted as a beginner venue but it's not actually all that easy to protect routes or set up belays on a lot of it. I wouldn't necessarily say it's a bad venue, but I don't think it's such an obvious spot that it's worth driving past a lot of equally good or better crags that are much closer to Sheffield. I would be inclined to visit some of the obvious honeypot crags around Hathersage (Stanage, Burbage, Lawrencefield etc.). Hundreds of quality, easy routes and often some experienced people around who'd probably be willing to answer questions if you have some.

If those bouldering grades are on grit you'll walk up nose direct, probably walk up everything at windgather at that. I don't remember ND having any particularly crucial cam placements. One thing to be aware of is set-ups at the top of windgather can be fiddly, especially without cams, so if you don't mind adding a bit more faff to the day it might be worth nipping round to the top and having a quick look before you try the route, just to make sure you'll be able to belay your mate up safely.

Just editing to say it's a lovely route and a lovely crag, enjoy! 

I was thinking about the Mot and suggesting The Cracks as a warm up.

Ah cheers lads. Basically we're thinking that we are getting half-way to not entirely shit at bouldering but trad looks like a lot of fun and a different challenge, especially as when we're out at Curbar or Burbage South we're tired of looking at the crags, we want to climb them!

There's a lot of stuff online about what crags and routes are best to start with is all, and Nose Direct just looked like it might be a reasonable place. But yeah we could just cruise out to Burbage and try some up there, dead easy to get to as well obviously. Like I said just looking to get some experience in doing routes, placing gear etc rather than grade-hunting or anything like that. But we have gone Bouldering in Burbage South a few times so maybe we'll try the crags at the Edge there just for a sense of familiarity!

If you live in Sheffield, you're gonna drive past a lot of good crags to get to Windgather! (It's not a bad spot but it's usually busy with outdoor instructors and their charges)

I climbed in the Peak for 35 years. I went to Wingather once in about 1976 and did 11 routes according to my guide book. I was never tempted to return. 

I live near Windgather, and it's great, but if you live in Sheffield, I wouldn't bother with the drive. There are plenty of similar routes at Burbage North or Stanage Popular that will be good to start on

Basically the vibe I am getting is; go to a more local crag cos there's loads of ace routes to try all over, and also in the early stages just try to get as many routes in as possible to build up experience? Sounds reasonable. We do want to get some good experience placing gear on the lead just as it is seems like the climbing for a lot of the easier stuff is something we can do, it's the lack of gear experience that is our weakness. Alright then guys cheers much appreciated!

Ditto

You may have already done so, but it can be a useful exercise to get all your gear and try to find placements while on the ground and then get your mate to check/assess. Have fun.

So far mate I've got the gear off ebay, checked it to make sure it is in nick, watched some youtube videos for beginners and discovered that there is a bomber nut placement between my washing machine and the wall. So yeah probably would be a good shout.

https://www.vdiffclimbing.com/

Lots of good advice on this site, about trad (and sport), gear placements, belays etc. Wharncliffe may be a good crag to start at.

Sounds like you're all set to go. 

Can I suggest getting and wearing a lid?

I can fall over walking down the street, and hexes etc if they come down with you hurt.... 

Enjoy. 

Agree with previous comments about belays at Windgather and driving past better venues on the way.

A better place to start might be Burbage North at 20’ Crack area and move along the crag from there.

If you are inexperienced at setting belays and leading, getting instruction from a qualified instructor could prove a very sound investment.

I think Burbage North. Lead some of the Diffs to get the hang of placing gear, then do all the VDiffs (hand jamming required on some) then on to Severes. They're all short & generally easy to protect & to set up belays on so you can get a lot done in a day. Don't start on 20' crack as it's quite tough.

Wharncliffe is a good place for short easy routes too, much quieter, though getting around the base of the crag is awkward as it's littered with rocks/boulders and vegetation.

Burbage and Wharncliffe are good for Mod/Diff soloing too, as is the more rounded Birchen.

Windgather is a great place to start as long as its not a cold and windy day. Aways check out the belays first as a few are a bit awkward so need specific gear.

I thought our website had died but it still seems to work (needs a Flash enabled browser like Puffin).

http://offwidth.uptosummit.com/windgather_castle_naze.html

If you click the "guides" button on the top right it covers all Peak gritstone. Wharncliffe is very good as a starter crag unless in summer heat. Burbage North is sometimes too polished to be fun. Birchen has a few too many boulder problem starts and can be a bit bold. Stanage is good as there are just so many routes. Roaches Skyline is good. Dovestones in the Chew is good.

I second this. Burbage North is my most climbed-at crag, according to my logbook. It's so good for casual easy soloing or first leading steps as there are so many quality easier routes there that are well worth climbing regardless of what grade you climb. It's the ultimate low-stress grit crag, and belays are usually straightforward and plentiful.

Midweek on a warm summer evening is there anywhere better to go soloing. Lovely views too! I should perhaps add that I once did live in nearby Macc.

Doesnt work with Chrome or Edge btw.

I know. You need a Flash enabled browser and Puffin still works for me. It's better than the site being dead as I don't have time at present for a full redesign. It's been useful for beginners, bumblies, low grade boulderers and sub extreme soloists. It's also a quick way to check the grade history of any sub extreme route through back to the first guidebooks (BMC and old Rockfax).

Yes, I'm missing access to the site

On linux both firefox & chrome block it now as Adobe have officially deprecated Flash.

Maybe I can fire up my old Windows 95 PC...

It would be a shame to see this go to waste as Adobe push Flash into the annals of history.

Drop me an email if I might be able to be of help porting it to a more modern platform. Degree in computer science, stereotypical geeky hacker person in my teens. Haven't written any proper code in years, but I have a lot of spare time at the minute.