UKH

I've been living for the last 15 years in Lancaster, but soon I may be moving to Huddersfield as my partner has a new job there. We went to look at a house yesterday and, more vitally, managed to fit in a crag viewing, too.

I didn't expect Pule Hill Rocks to be the greatest crag in the world, to be brutally honest but was dismayed by the ugly, barren hills, the noise of the road, the post-industrial waste and the scrappy rock and lines.

Can anyone who lives there give me a good slap and point me in the direction of:

a) good after-work venues (i.e. within 20mins - 45mins of the city)
b) quality venues you tend to visit in general (i.e. within 1hr 30-ish)

Otherwise I may give in to despair.

Thanks in advance!

In reply to C Witter:

There’s very little in the way of quality venues within 30 mins of Huddersfield. On the other hand, within an hour you have the whole of Peak grit. A massive selection of the highest quality climbing, albeit all one style. Important to live on the south side of town if Peak access is paramount, but north side for M62 access, east for M1. Shepley is a good choice for climbing, M1 access and nice location.

In reply to C Witter:

If you think Pule Hill is a bag of shite (and the surrounding hills ugly and barren) I'd have a rethink about moving to the town in the first place. 

Pule Hill used to be in the same guidebook as Dovestones, The Ravenstones and Wimberry so a further 15 minute drive will give you access to those. A bit more walking involved but Wimberry at least is a perfectly feasible after work  crag. But I expect the landscape will not suit you if you don't like the moors.

In reply to C Witter:

Were you in the Pule Hill Quarry or the natural edge? The quarry isn't much good but the natural edge is. There is some really good climbing close to huddersfield in the Chew Valley. Dovestones, Staning Stones, Ravenstones, Rob's Rocks, Wimberry, Wilderness Rocks to name a few crags there. There is also Shooter's Nab quarry which is excellent.

If you are expecting somewhere like Stanage or Burbage where there is a long line of perfectly clean and pre-chalked lines for you to take at your leisure then you might be in for a bit of a shock with Chew. The lines there are generally quite tough and under-graded, are not always clean and have a bit of a walk but they are fantastic, for me it's a much better experience than most of the normal peak grit. It's more like adventure grit than steady stanage-ticking.

But if you don't like moors you might struggle.

In reply to BnB:

There is the whole of Chew Valley to go at which is great quality!

In reply to Red Rover:

Plenty of routes, if a bit green, but at least 30 mins away from all but south Hudds and then a long walk-in for a quick hit

In reply to C Witter:

I live in Huddersfield and think it's a great place for a climber to live. Some of the local stuff is scrappy but we are less than an hour from fantastic grit that people drive for many hours to get to. South in to Derbyshire or North to Almscliff and the like.

Day trips to the Lakes or Wales are very easy and well connected to the motorway network for trips to Scotland.

In summary, lots to go at, just a bit of effort required.

In reply to BnB:

The green is part of the adventure! It's not green in summer, generally. Standing stones in particular dries quickly. I think Chew is great but people don't like if they are expecting a pushover, it fights back! The walk-in to chew can be a problem for after work climbing I'll admit but I think climbers are far too shy about walk-ins, it's part of the outdoors. If you are lucky and get a parking space at Dovestones then the walk-ins are all under an hour anyway.

For after-work climbing with a smaller walk-in I would go for Shooter's Nab, Pule, Honley Quarry or Holmfirth Edge for bouldering.

In reply to Andrew Lodge:

If you’re working the Halifax side of Hudds there is West Vale and Woodhouse Scar. Urban, but very easy access.

In reply to C Witter:

The bouldering at Standedge, Wimberry, West Nab and Buckstones is charming and unspoilt and rarely busy. Holmfirth is pretty good too, but has a slightly more suburban feel to it.

In reply to Sam Beaton:

Yes Hudds is excellent for bouldering. But anyone who goes to West Nab should be really careful with the rock as it is  pristine grit which also means it is delicate. It would break my heart to see it trashed like most of the other bouldering venues in the Peak.

In reply to Red Rover:

blackstone edge and surroundung crahs arent too far away, or the crags um the calder valley. Pule hill has some good climbing, sure the road isnt the nicest, but the hills are just moorland!

In reply to Red Rover:

Totally agree.

[To the OP] The Chew is a very special place - a bit like the Mournes, in a way. Both places are quickly accessible by car, then some reasonable walks (part of the experience) give you lovely, uncluttered crags. In each case, there's a hint of wildness, of remoteness. Places you can grow to love!

Mick

In reply to C Witter:

You don't know that you are born. I'm from New Mill, but I actually live in Stamford, 100 miles away, and I sometimes head north to go climbing at Pule Hill.  I think that it is a great place, including the bats, when it is coming dark.

Holmfirth Edge used to be known as "Cliff" when I was a child, but it is a fine place, apart from the dog faeces. (Bloody owners).

You could go slightly further for a novel venue, by going to Agden Rocher, across the Strines, and then go to the very pleasant pub afterwards.

In reply to C Witter:

Pule Hill Rocks is a great crag with some amazingly fun climbs, I cut my teeth on trad there, and love the place, I don’t know what grade you are climbing at, but I would be surprised if you couldn’t find something fun to do up there, I am only leading Up to HS, but Flying Buttress (HS 4b), Amen (VD)Bed End (HVD) to name But a few great climbs there, they are typically short hard grit routes and in typical grit fashion some are poorly protected, also compared with other places I have climbed at like the roaches They are not as polished and seem stiff for the grade too. 
Its rugged Moorland, it’s windy (always!), and beautiful in its own way. Go and actually try a bit of climbing there I’m sure you will love it. 

In reply to BnB:

Thanks! That's helpful. It looked like the south side of the city would be best for quicker access to the Peak.

In reply to Andrew Lodge:

Thanks for this. Yes, on the map it seems well-appointed, though I'll definitely miss the Lakes being within an hour. Is there anywhere very local you'd recommend - for bouldering, trad or whatever? I'll end up visiting places bit by bit, but a tip is always appreciated.

In reply to Red Rover:

Thanks for the tips - I'll look them up.

Some of the rock at Pule felt like it was fighting back, too! The start of "Bung" certainly seemed "interesting"...! I presume you start further left and lean across from the good crimp... otherwise, I really need to work on my slopey arete technique!

In reply to Mick Ward:

I certainly hope that I will, with time! It's hard when you're spoilt by Cumbria though.

In reply to C Witter:

Move to holmfirth. You have the cliff which is a big pull.. and chew is only a short hop over the hill. In fact you can run there in not much time. Strines isn't a big drive to access stanage etc.

In reply to Kryank:

I did, I didn't. Maybe I should go back in a better frame of mind; or better still, one of the other suggestions. I do enjoy the grit near Lancaster (Windy Clough, Thorn Crag) and the Lancashire Quarries. But, Pule would only be a great crag if it were moved stone by stone to Leicestershire or Cambridgshire for the benefit of one of the commentators above

In reply to C Witter:

I've just moved to Hebden Bridge which is the other side of the M62, but according to the map only 42 minutes away. 5-15 minutes out of town you have  Heptonstall Quarry,  Widdop,  Scout,  Hawks Stones and  Bridestones (West Yorkshire) then over in Halifax you have  Woodhouse Scar. Taking the other road toward Rochdale drops you to the easy access (well, flat anyway) crags of  Cow's Mouth Quarry and  Blackstone Edge. Taking the other road toward Oldham you have the vast wealth of the Chew Valley including  Buckstones Edge (Nont Sarah's),  Den Lane Quarry,  Running Hill Pits,  Dovestones Edge,  Wimberry Rocks,  Rob's Rocks and  West Nab. Plus countless other small outcrops full of bouldering and micro routes. Spoilt for choice!

Edit: Apparently it's 40 minutes to Baildon Bank and Shipley Glen too, both with a walk in of seconds! 

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

I'm going to have to make a tick list to remember all the options and build my enthusiasm! Thanks everyone for the kind suggestions.

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

I used to live in walking distance of Baildon Bank. I visited once.

I did learn to love The Glen though. When I drove there for a first visit from Sheffield, I was appalled, but when it was just across the canal, I fell in love with its urban charms.

In reply to C Witter:

No problem. Pule looks like a friendly beginner crag like Windgather but it's not, some of the routes are actually chop routes and there are a lot of them where you would want to fall from the crux.

Maybe your problem is that you are comparing it to the lake district. You are in the land of single pitch grit so you will never have a Gimmer or a Dow. But as far as single pitch grit goes, it is very good, and I find it better than Stanage etc. I think the grit in Chew is good training for other kinds of climbing as, if you can climb a VS 5a in Chew, you find that slightly harder mountain multipitch routes are actually pretty easy because they won't have any single bit that is as hard as a typical chew valley frightener (don't take my word for this, as it's obviously an un-proveable opinion).

In reply to C Witter:

Just back from a mileage day of lovely movement at West Nab. Only us there and rock didn’t feel particularly vulnerable. Mostly lowball, a bit Wind Clough in parts. Plenty to go back to.

In reply to steveriley:

All grit is vulnerable, especially if people aren't cleaning their shoes etc. As West Nab becomes more popular (it only used to be in one home-made guide book which was sold out 15 years ago) it just needs treating with care so it doesn't end up like the trashed venues in Eastern Grit.

In reply to steveriley:

I'll check it out! My favourite flavour of grit is that bright, silvery grey natural stuff. A little sandy at times, but grippy and beautifully shaped. My least favourite is the sort that is black, brown and green and covered in a micro-film of damp lichen - usually completed by an Austin HVS 5a that feels about E2 5c.

In reply to Red Rover:

Yes, I noticed there are a lot of easy routes there, but even from the ground you can see they are poorly protected - e.g. Scoop Wall you clearly don't get any gear until you've done the 5a move, and I really wasn't even sure where the line of Squaring the Circle was supposed to go, nevermind where the gear was. I imagine Headpointing is popular in the area because it's easier and more dignified to work an extreme than to admit that onsighting some of the HVS scares the bejesus out of you.

In reply to C Witter:

I've never seen anyone headpointing but that doesn't mean you can't do it. If you don't damage the rock or hog the routes then you can do whatever you want. Pule Hill also has the only overhanging VDiff I've ever seen, Overhanging Arete!

Standing Stones in Chew has some great VS routes, some of which are pretty safe like Twin Crack Corner.

In reply to C Witter:

Huddersfield is great for climbing really. Best if you live South though.

45 -60 minutes drive gets you a lifetime of climbing and exploration:

Northern-most Eastern grit (Agden, Bamforth, Stanage etc.)

Chew Valley (Standing Stones, Wimberry + boulders etc.)

Longdendale (Shining Clough, Tintwhistle etc.)

Lancashire quarries (if that's you thing)

Yorkshire grit (Heptonstall, Bridestones etc.)

Very local (20 mins) gets you some good evening venues already mentioned e.g. Shooter's, Holmfirth, West Nab etc. Pule Hill dries fast if nothing else and the quarry has some good routes.

90 minutes drive gives you the whole of the Peak climbing, Yorkshire grit and most of Yorkshire limestone

2 hours - North Wales, South Lakes and North York Moors.

What's not to like? I wouldn't live in town though - villages to the South around Holmfirth are much nicer and an easy commute by car, train or bike and quicker for the local climbing and Peak.

In reply to C Witter:

Huddersfield is great for climbing really. Best if you live South though.

45 -60 minutes drive gets you a lifetime of climbing and exploration:

Northern-most Eastern grit (Agden, Bamforth, Stanage etc.)

Chew Valley (Standing Stones, Wimberry + boulders etc.) - Summer evenings after work possible

Longdendale (Shining Clough, Tintwhistle etc.) - Summer evenings after work possible.

Lancashire quarries (if that's you thing).

Yorkshire grit (Heptonstall, Bridestones etc.)

Very local (20 mins) gets you some good evening venues already mentioned e.g. Shooter's, Holmfirth, West Nab etc. Pule Hill dries fast if nothing else and the quarry has some good routes.

90 minutes drive gives you the whole of the Peak climbing, Yorkshire grit and most of Yorkshire limestone

2 hours - North Wales, South Lakes and North York Moors.

What's not to like? I wouldn't live in town though - villages to the South around Holmfirth are much nicer and an easy commute by car, train or bike and quicker for the local climbing and Peak.

In reply to Red Rover:

Indeed, only a nutjob would defend bad practice. What I meant was West Nab seems no more vulnerable than lots of gritstone venues, a few bits of scrittle excepted. I know all about favourite venues gaining popularity - see Harmer's Wood thread - and have every sympathy if you see your special place overworked.

In reply to C Witter:

Grey for the win!

In reply to Removed User:

 

Thanks for this. How's the public transport from places like Holmfirth back into the centre? My partner will be hoping to catch the bus (or train) to the university. Still looking for places to rent; the rental market seems to have slowed down a lot at the moment, so the options seem more restricted than I would normally expect. We were looking around Golcar and Taylor Hill, but recommendations here seem to be even further out of town?

In reply to C Witter:

Bus service from Holmfirth is good I believe. Another place to check out is Honley

In reply to C Witter:

I live in Shepley which is on the Sheffield line along with Brockholes (nearer Holmfirth) and Honley (one train and hour). These are all nice places. Bus service to Holmfirth is good. Avoid Meltham and Colne Valley although Slaithwhaite and Marsden are a little more gentrified than they used to be.

Holmfirth has a bit of a liberal contignent and a good music scene support by a decent concert venue that is on the circuit. It's like a shit Hebden Bridge with less crafts and fewer lesbians. You'll slash 20 minutes over Peak travel times from there.

In reply to C Witter:

Taylor Hill (Newsome) is a bit of a shithole but cheap. Golcar I don't know too well, it is well placed for M62 but not so good for access to climbing in the South. I find the Colne Valley towns/villages a bit bleak in general - more industrial than rural.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

I couldn’t agree more about Baildon Bank.  I went for the first time a couple of months ago and would rather chew my arms off than climb there again.  

It could be nice, if it were cleaned up and kept that way but that would never stick.

In reply to steveriley:

Yes fair one. I haven't seen any damage at West Nab either so I might be paranoid, but I've been climbing there for about 20 yeras, since I was 10, and it's only over the last 5 years that I've ever seen other people go there so I'm just paranoid about it. It's not mine to be protective over, but I've looked with horror at the damage suffered by other venues so I just hope it doesn't happen up there.

In reply to afx22:

Baildon is class - wash yer mouth out!

In reply to Red Rover:

I love Chew multipitch grit and am bemused why it is so quiet, given they are the longest up routes on grit and good climbs, but those grades are far from soft, even for Chew.

Ignore Jon, he has a thing about Baildon Bank I live in Nottingham and have been over ten times... great for the OPs grade range.. I also have a soft spot for Pule Hill.

Did anyone mention Shooters Nab or Longdendale (Shining Clough, Laddow, Bareholme etc) or the huge amounts of local bouldering.

http://www.kirkleesclimbing.co.uk/

In reply to Offwidth:

If you paint a picture of the longest routes on grit being situated on a neglected pile of choss then they aren't going to get much traffic.

In reply to Removed User:

If you walk up Stretch Gate from Shepley station, there’s a (very) small crag under the main A629 road that I cleaned and climbed on about 30 years ago - feel free to revisit it, but you might need a chainsaw and agent orange 👍

In reply to Tom Valentine:

I don't quite understand what you are getting at? Assuming you are complaining about the treatment in the current BMC definitive, OtM, I'd say the following.

The central area routes on the main Dovestone Quarry are slowly falling down but some make for good winter routes when in condition (and are described as such). OtM says the Waterfall area holds fine routes (as it does for the Lower Quarries) and gives most routes described there at least a star; those are the routes I think are oddly quiet.

The latest BMC series made an effort to focus more on the better routes and to be honest where routes are especially loose and remove numbers from minor lines. It was pragmatism if nothing else... OtM is 624 pages long and the team (with help from other generous volunteers) rechecked everything included and given a number. To cover all the known routes and problems in the same style as the previous volumes would have required two large volumes and the sort of volunteers keen to check the tottering piles right of the Waterfall routes are rare beasts. All other routes and problems, not included in OtM, were put on free web downloads given the pressure on space, to encourage those of an especially exploratory nature, and a few places were not covered at all for environmental reasons (notably the  Woolpacks and Grinah Stones).  I think the guidebook editor did a fabulous job but I'm biased being on the team. When we had a thread some years ago on climber's favourite guidebook, OtM was the most common cited.

Downloads are here

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/downloads/Rock%20Climbing/Guidebooks

This is Dovestones

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/Handlers/DownloadHandler.ashx?id=959

The old thread.. an absolute belter

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/rock_talk/oldest_favourite+most_obscure-5...

In reply to C Witter:

Reminds of going to Helsinki and looking up five best things to do while there. First on the list was "Get a boat to Tallinn"

In reply to Offwidth:

Not everything right of the Waterfall is tottering - it's throwaway comments like this which help promote the unfriendly image of the Main quarry. 

I count 45 routes in the Chris Hardy guide you linked to and OTM contains 7 in the same section. Whatever constraints there were in terms of space, I don't imagine there's been a reduction of that order anywhere else in OTM.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

When is the last time you climbed there Tom?  I'm a dedicated obscurist and I didn't fancy any and aside from 2 ascents of Plumbline the logbooks show no ascents of rock routes in the central section this century!

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/dovestones_quarry-120

A few of your 38 rock routes no longer exist and others have lost sections. You also forgot to mention there are 20 numbered winter routes in the main quarry.

In reply to Offwidth:

I didn't forget to mention  winter routes as the decision to downgrade perfectly good summer routes to winter routes must have passed me by.

I haven't climbed anywhere for ten years . I haven't climbed in the quarries for twenty. If Jericho Wall is on the verge of collapse i will be very surprised, though, and in its day it was the route of the main quarry. As  a dedicated obscurist you really should put it on your list.

I won't be climbing there again, or anywhere else, but I'll keep my binoculars trained.

As to there being no ascents in the logbooks, it's hardly surprising considering the press it gets. At least some of the locals were keen enough to be still prospecting for new routes there in the '90s.

BTW, in spite of this particular quibble, OTM is without a doubt the best guidebook I've ever read.

A somewhat left-field suggestion for those living in the climbing void between Huddersfield and Barnsley: try the (relatively) shower-proof PEH/GO pillar in Penistone’s Watermeadow Park (the second arch of the viaduct). Man-made admittedly but top quality grit bouldering nevertheless. Quiet Flows The Don f6b+ is the higher traverse, and Parklife f7a+ is the lower traverse. Good crimpy workouts.

In reply to John Ww:

I can't place that? Is it just left of the steps leading up to the main road in Shelley? If so it's clean but part of someone's back garden now.

In reply to Offwidth:

I last climbed in the Main Quarry in 2012, same year I last climbed at Dovestones Edge. Also put up some good new routes there in the years before. As Tom says there are still good routes away from the rock falls.

Alas a trip to Wimberry these days usually just means a bit of bouldering for most, many of the crags in the Chew Valley see very few climbers these days. Den lane, even being a roadside crag only became popular after some lower offs were installed. 

Climbing walls killed the adventurous trad climber?

In reply to Removed User:

Pretty much where the 162m spot height is on the new 1:25000 OS map as I remember, opposite side of the road from Shelley Barbers by the Zebra crossing. Basically, walk up from the bend at the bottom up  towards the Rising Sun and look over the wall on the left - “it was all fields in my day” etc etc 😁

In reply to C Witter:

If anyone would like an explore of  Dovestones Quarry, I'm game.

In reply to John Ww:

That's just getting built on now. There's always the v old quarry in the woods but I've not got enough napalm.

In reply to Removed User:

Ah well, c’est la vie 😁. While I’m on, and in an acronym frenzy, wtf is this OtM  - guidebook(?). I’ve obviously missed something.

In reply to John Ww:

Over the Moors. Its the magnificent opus covering Chew Valley, Longdendale and Kinder areas. Doesn't seem to have generated much more traffic, but to be honest that's part of the charm - climbing still feels like exploration!

In reply to C Witter:

another option, if you fancy some bouldering in a very easy to reach location about 30 mins from Huddersfield is a little Gem called  Woolley Edge Quarry.

i have been working on a free guide for it and will post the link for it in the forums shortly. 

In reply to Removed User:

Ok, cheers 👍

In reply to Kryank:

Which I drive past at least four times a week on the way to play golf at Woolley Park - the last time I went, it was luminous green and/or covered in shite or grease. You must have had your work cut out 👍

In reply to John Ww:

Yeah it’s 10 mins from me, it took me a while to get my bearings there and had some help from some people with more experience, it has loads of routes, I really like it there, it has some hard problems but plenty of unrouted stuff too!  

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

I'm sure an update of the BMC download would be greatfully received. I remember Martin offering to go along on any such triips after someone complained the Bollington Quarries got left out. His email is still on that thread.

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/gear/guidebooks_-_are_were_going_backward...

In reply to craig h

Good to hear you are still active. I miss those moorland checking days and have been back quite a few times but not to Dovestones main. There are still hundreds of better looking routes up there on my to do list first.

In reply to Offwidth:

And so it goes. While people are bemoaning the wear and tear on honeypot crags like Stanage, a suggestion that you should try a route described as "excellent...superb second pitch....delightfully exposed climbing" is met with a put down about there being hundreds of better looking routes to do first.

Your loss.

In reply to Offwidth:

Ignore my 00.51 comment, please. too late to delete it now.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

The hard reality of volume size is, if you include that and other climbs elsewhere that other climbers felt should not have been left to webguides, what equally good if not better climbs elsewhere that were included in the guidebook do you move to webguides instead? As someone who had to make similar editorial decisions in the Froggatt guide, the webguide for the central area of Dovestones Main seems to me to suit the exploratory adventure climber perfectly.... a 'champion' could update it at any time and changes could be more easily made following any new rockfall.

Nothing is a loss. The climbs I might have done are still there. My focus for that guidebook was checking sub VS in any case. Even Waterfall Climb needed a good clean when I did it, which slows checking quite a bit.

Stanage trad is holding up pretty well to wear, the problem there is with the bouldering.

In reply to Offwidth:

I seem to remember a pleasant summer evening at Dovestones left hand with you and Chris Tan amongst others many years ago. Can't remember what I climbed, think it might have been Direct Route and maybe Mindbender.

I think part of the issue is that although there are supplements on the BMC website they are (understandably) not up to the same quality as the guide itself. In particular the Dovestones Main Quarry is just a copy of the route descriptions from the previous guide but crucially the crag diagrams are missing. I thought the routes were hard enough to locate even with the diagrams so what hope now!

In reply to Removed User:

If someone adventurous is especially keen on the venue and goes there regularly it all becomes obvious from the webguide. I'd rather keep climbers away from that central section who don't know how to deal with loose rock or where a description talks of a crack and you see a bursting line of vegetation. The whole place needs TLC and until then most of the 2012 stars Ian Carr kept from the previous Chris Hardy script should probably be YMC style hollow ones.

In reply to Kryank:

Thanks a lot for the tip! I look forward to the guide

In reply to C Witter:

Looks good

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/rock_talk/woolley_edge_quarry_near_wakefi...