UKH

Can anyone recommend some easy - progressively tricky jamming cracks to have a go at? I've done very little on grit but the past couple of trips have got me wanting to improve my technique. 

For reference:

Amazon Crack (HS 4b) was great but steady (more at this level/a bit harder?)

Hawk's Nest Crack (VS 4c) was desperate 

Fern Crack (VS 5a) I couldn't get off the ground on a trip earlier this year

Start at Dog Leg Crack at Curbar, if you fail to lead it you need to work on easier stuff. If you succeed, climb it again and again until you have the confidence first to rope solo it and eventually to lap it above a bouldering mat. Then repeat the process for Little Innominate at Curbar and any UK HVS hand crack will be yours. Dawes was right that a good jam is better than a jug but to reach that state of jamming grace you need to build and learn to trust your technique. Some people find jamming gloves helpful.

There are a few ticklists that you can follow to find good cracks:

WideBoyz Crack School

Is pretty good, gets hard though!

At the mild end of the VS scale, I consider this to be the best jamming crack in the Peak, ie I cruised jam after jam with a massive grin on my face once I'd worked out the basics of the technique over some painful humiliations at other venues. 

Byne's Crack (VS 4b)

This is what you're aiming for when you've nailed it

The File (VS 4c)

Yeah I'd wanted to get over to Byne's on the weekend but didn't have time. Had to settle for Mutiny and Amazon crack, which were both ace!

Thing is I wouldn't consider Mutiny Crack a jamming route (maybe a couple to get past the start but after that it's mostly jug-hauling) and Amazon was great jamming until all the other holds and edges appeared, making it a bit easy. I liked the parts where I had both hands and feet in the crack. 

Bond Street at Millstone is a bit of a right of passage for the gritstone jammer. 

The final exam is probably The File at Higgar Tor.

I've been working on this list: https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=3604 but it's probably a bit thin at the lower end.

Perhaps this thread is a good place to collect some additions.

It's in the nature of jamming cracks that the easier ones are less pure and you have a range of other holds to use. This maybe gives you an opportunity though - following Offwidth's system of repeating routes but omitting holds until you're just using jams. 

A couple of esoteric options

Baker Street (VS 4c)

Poison (S 4a)

Bond Street is harder than The File.

But, The File is probably easier to get horribly wrong and have a mare on than Bond Street.

Robin hoods right hand buttress direct is the best easy jamming crack on grit. Nice long route (for grit), on beautiful jams, which feels quite out there.

Lovely. 

Paradise Wall, Stanage, (HS, 4b, ?) should suit well. You can hang off solid jams and place plenty of gear.

Think I might disagree and suggest Heather Wall @Froggatt has better jamming, but agree with you about the length and the nice "out there" feeling for the grade.

Dog-Leg Crack (HVD 4a) that Offwidth mentioned above I suspect would be absolutely nails any other way than jamming, if at all possible. I'm sure there are some others similar although DLC comes to mind as I repeated it a couple of times last weekend when bouldering in that area. Interestingly its one of those ones that is in both the bouldering and route guides.

In reply to PaulJepson:

20 Foot Crack (S 4b) at Burbage North is another one of those ones which is a boulder problem or a little route depending on how much you squint, and probably much harder than its given grade if you don't jam. 

Thanks for the suggestions all.

I guess there is a lot to choose from but I was ideally looking in the high HS / low-med VS range rather than the easier end. And as pure as possible in terms of jamming - I don't want to be able to cheat it!

The File is for sure on the list but I'd ideally work up to it. I wont take any pleasure from dogging my way up it. 

Have taped my hands before but to be honest I didn't suffer too much injury doing nothing with them the past 2 weekends and got up 30+ routes, mostly cracks. Nice to have something to show for it anyway, int it. 

seeing as the OP didn't specify what sort of gritstone I'd recommend a visit to almscliff.  Loads of jamming at all grades. Try Birds Nest crack for a good easy grade introduction. Pothole direct is another on te same wall albeit slightly harder,

I've only been a few times, so grit is grit to me. I can notice no discernible difference between the rock at the Roaches or Stanage. 

The File is a mild introduction a final exam might be The Vice (E1 5b)

Seconded. Whisky Crack at HS would be low end VS anywhere else and is a good jamming test for a learner. But those VSs are not low-end by any reckoning. This is the pick of the bunch with fantastic pro all the way. Just don't hang around!

Central Climb (VS 4c)

Great Crack at Dukes Quarry, Whatstandwell - VS 4c or HVS 5a, depending on conditions. Something to aspire to!

Just incase you spot the Ramshaw jamming tick list at about page 200 of the BMC Roaches guide, it is great but treat the grades with a healthy dose of suspicion Masochism is definitely the hardest HVS I have failed on, and I was under the illusion I could jam!

Funny, my logbook notes that I onsighted Central Climb in 2015. I remember going to Almscliff, who I was there with etc. but I really don't remember that route. I guess it must a wiggly crack - they don't seem to stick in my mind as much as straight ones!

Is the VS your opinion or has it gone in some guidebook as HVS? I've always head of it as classic HVS and that felt fair when I did it last summer.

Why is the Vice final exam?  Jamming gets a bit harder than that!

Sentinel Crack (E3 5c) Ramshaw Crack (E4 6a) etc etc. Not my bag mind you...

The colour?

It was VS in the 70s, the BMC definitive guide has it as HVS 5a but describes it as "a route for the patient VS leader", with the crux just above the ground (and greasy). In the HVS graded list there are only 2 routes easier at this grade. And the protection is magnificent, so well worth the expedition.

Indeed!

Bob Hope (E4 6a)

Exhibit "C" m'lud

The excellent but now dated ‘On Peak Rock’ had a list of jamming testpieces through the grades. I think it’s been discussed here before - a search may find it?

If you are ever near Warrington the climbing wall there, North Face Climbing Centre, has a stonkingly good top roped straight crack line which starts with a finger crack and then opens into what, for me was perfect hand and fist jamming. I could never do the finger crack so just climbed anything to get up to the wider section and enjoyed pure hand and foot jamming all the way to the top.

It’s convoluted. But everyone remembers it for being bloody steep!

For an 'easy' off width I highly recommend Silver Crack at Froggatt. Guide book says it's off width, off depth, off everything! There's not many HS's where you think about escaping on to an E2!

Yes! A very memorable route when a friend and I decided it would be a great idea to solo on sight - there was a lot of ee-by-gum I can tell you!!

I'm on basically the same track. After some time off recovering from elbow tendonitis I've made a list of all the easy cracks that appear to involve jamming at Stanage for starters. I recently started working through them. I don't feel the need to climb harder than VS so my ultimate aim is to climb The File in style, not in fear! I've done quite a few of the Burbage North HS/VS ones in the past but still some to do.

Bollard Crack tops that for me  

It's all brown. 

I climbed Hollyash Crack (VS 4b) on the weekend, which was pretty fun, but I'm more in the search for 'perfect hands', rather than grunting and getting my legs stuck. 

My point about the "final exam" was that the OP is at the start of his voyage of discovering the delights of jamming and I think it is fair to say that once you can climb Bond St and The File in good style then you can claim that you are a competent jammer. After that it is a case of looking for jams at every opportunity and trying harder stuff. 

Brown's Crack (HS 4b) is quite a good'un.

Yeah I've done that and it was great. Nearly fell out at the top where it rounds out!

At the Roaches it's pink, at Stanage it's golden, at Caley it's green, and on Barden Moor and Thorn Crag it's silver.

Have you done Hell Crack (VS 4c)? Very steep jamming for a couple of moves, then more jamming, but with breaks. Count's Crack (VS 4c) is good too - again not pure jamming, but definitely still a good VS jamming crack. 

My logbook notes: 'provides bounteous, unfalloffable jams'.....so probably a good one to try

Thanks for the recommendation of Count's Crack (VS 4c). I was going to look at Hell Crack on the weekend but there was an endless queue of people on it.

It's only 'easy' if you're wearing big boots. 

I "enjoyed" Brown's Crack at Bamford. (Ooops - I missed the earlier mention of this)

If you don't know Ramshaw, start with the Crank.  That should give you an indication of whether it's worth trying the HVSs.

There are some OK sub VS jamming cracks at Ramshaw. The Crank 5a move is best laybacked by all but masochists so only really 4c jamming then. As for the HVS climbs, on that subject, Masochism is a silly joke grade (more like E2).

It's not really jamming at all. But lovely at c. diff. You just walk up a furrow on huge rounded holds in balance all the way. Tech difficulty about 2a.

I would liken it to climbing up a series of Elephant's arseholes. classic grit.

I didn't dream of doing a hard layback anywhere on The Crank; it's simply very good jamming, getting a bit awkwardly wide at the top - but then of course you just drop back to some very old fashioned offwidth jamming techniques for a move or two. (Kind of Ogwen v.diff stuff.)

That's quite a good description ... not that I have any experience of climbing an elephant's arsehole.

One of the best good jamming cracks I can remember in the Peak was the Pisa Superdirect (sorry, couldn't get link to climb to work ... really pissing me off) on Shining Clough. Another total classic is the first pitch of Valkyrie at Froggatt. About the same standard as The Crank, IIRC.

The best easy jamming crack on Peak grit is surely Answer Crack (H V Diff) at Dovestones.

Err... I think Fingerlicker at Tremadog might be an an even sterner test of jamming skills!

I did Brookside Crack (VD) tonight at Froggatt. I was a bit late so needed to use my head torch but thought it was a really nice little route, not quite as pure as Dog-Leg at Curbar, but jamming was very much the way to do it.

I find thin-hands cracks (where you can't quite get the meat of your thumb inside), like P1 of Valkyrie, really hard. The Crank has one thin-hands move off the ground and then you are in up to your wrists and it's easy. 

Im sure Difficulty must be hand-size related.

My experience matched Alan's: the first jam felt a bit thin  and insecure so I laybacked (easy 5a)  a couple of moves and jammed the rest.

You’ve not been in business then !

Rounded and worn 

Interesting, I had always assumed the crux of the Crank was higher up near the move right. I found the thin start fairly straightforward jamming and I have really large hands, but i may have reached past the tricky bit.

I have small hands, so that's how it feels to me. 

On the plus side, I can get my fingers into the start of Foord's Folly without any problem.

Diamond Crack (HS 4b)

Right Twin Crack (VS 4c)

Robin Hood's Right-hand Buttress Direct (HS 4a)