UKH

Friends leaving the country, so we're doing a bit of a tour. Going to be in the peaks for one day, and she's said she'd like to try some climbing there. I'm a sport climber, and she mainly top ropes. No gyms are open to teach her lead belay. 

So I'm wondering if there's any crags at the Peaks where I can easily set up a top rope. I've got all the normal sport climbing setup, a fair bit of static rope, and a bunch of slings that I'd hope to make anchors with. No trad gear. 80m rope. So looking for places with natural pro like trees and big rocks. 

Anyone able to recommend some crags? Not looking to push ourselves grade wise. 4's and 5's. But it's top rope, so that's not a strict requirement at all. We'll do harder stuff if needed. 

Cheers guys

Almost all the gritstone crags are very easy. Stanage and Birchens particularly. And most of the Roaches. Windgather, although it's regarded as a prime 'beginner's crag' is actually surprisingly tricky, so I'd advise you to stay clear of that.

if you're a sport climber then how about horseshoe quarry? dont need to worry about setting up any anchors then.

as for big rocks, thats pretty much every natural grit crag!

Static rope will sort you out at most crags to be honest. Yarncliffe is particularly eady and beginner friendly. Why not just go sport climbing though? 

Dear Mr 'Peaks' expert, where is this mythical 'Birchens' you speak of ?

Yarncliffe is one of the few I'd say avoid.... too much lose stuff at the top, so care required setting up... probably sandy after recent rain....and probably in season for the nasty biting ants.

Stanages, Curbars, Froggatts, Millstones, Bamfords, Burbages, Gardoms, Roaches...... oh wait. 

Shows how long it is since I last climbed there, Mr wide crack expert

On a one-day visit to the Peak as part of a tour of the country?

I'm glad to see people giving the OP a hard time for saying "Peaks", I thought that battle was well and truly lost already.  But sending him to Horseshoe Quarry is just too cruel, there's no need for that.

What are you on about, it’s the premier Peak destination!

I think you forgot to include your irony and sarcasm emojis    At least I hope you did.

Al

The Peaks battle was maybe won here, but the outcome of the war is still uncertain if the area is named after a tribe that was named after the peaks in that area. I find most of the critics tiresome, a few really funny and a few erudite but still possibly wrong (Mr Peaks...hence the friendly Muphry's law prod). In the days of improved sympathy to dyslexia and the problems of small devices and the quirks of autocorrection and with media like the Grauniad, I'd hope we could have more fun with words and less Major Huffpuffington Telegraph letter style pedantry. Stephen Fry has it spot on..

youtube.com/watch?v=Ovi7uQbtKas&

"Peaks" is sticky, resistance is futile.  The etymology is irrelevant, dyslexia and smol devices more so and the outcome of the war is not uncertain.  The odd tiny victory is all the sweeter, snatched as it is from the jaws of the inevitable ultimate defeat.  The hegemony of the pluralisers will never be complete as long as the name "Al Evans" is still remembered here.

In the spirit of Don Quixote the defence of 'Peak' all looks like windmill tilting to me. Al's name is even an anagram of La! Vanes.

The hegemony of the pluralisers made me smile though.

She has no interest in sport climbing, she likes top rope. So I'd have to lead the route with her belaying (don't think she's ever lead belayed), set up top rope, then climb or pull myself back up to clean the route as she's not done that before. It'll just be an unfun time I reckon. And for one day, best to just find some easily top ropeable stuff. 

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. Should make our time in the Peaks?.... Peak?... Peak district.. a bit easier. 

And we'll be avoiding the quarry haha. Valiant attempt to quarantine the top roper though! 

Seriously those ants at Yarncliffe are nasty and they even had ants on the BBC news this am. The routes are sandy after rain and worn. Go somewhere nicer.

I assume you know how to equalise two or more anchor points with your static rope, right?

Yarncliffe would be a very easy setup, with the trees, but I agree that it's not going to be nice right now with the ants.  

You might be slightly limited trying to find decent routes at your grades, with anchors that can be constructed solely with slings.  A handful of nuts or hexes would allow you to be a bit more discerning, if you can buy or borrow them.

Maybe have a look at the Black Hawk and Ology bays at Stanage?  From memory, there are sling-only belays above them.  Probably best avoided on a busy Saturday, though...

I don't think it's been mentioned above; Rivelin is another good option. Loads of trees across the top of the crag. Nice s facing aspect and good routes too.

Just had a look, and I think it's perfect! Thank you. 

Where is this Peaks you sPeak of?

It could well be perfect on a cool or a breezy day.  (It's a brilliant venue for a sunny winter's day.)  Being low lying, south facing and sheltered it can get a bit hot at times, and horribly midgey at others.

The parking is a bit limited at the moment as the Yorkshire Water car park on the other side of the Rivelin Dam is still closed.  Seems a bit unnecessary that, so maybe it will re-open soon.

Honestly though, if it's a nice day I'd probably just make for Stanage.  If you had a few wires and maybe a hex or two your choices would be better, but there are loads of routes with threads and/or boulders you can sling or tie your rigging rope around at the top.

I'd say windgather (I rarely have problems setting up anchors there), birchen edge, castle naze (local crag), yarncliffe (trees handle placed for anchors), lawrencefield are my go to places when we are top roping. Also worth looking at strange and bamford edge from my experience. 

Sport climbing... I'd look at Harper hill quarry. Underestimating. 

Ans almost certainly overcrowded/strung with top ropes from some local outdoor centre, hogging all the better routes. Great crag in winter when empty, awful in summer!

Agreed, it's only small so when an outdoor centre sets up you've had it.

But not suitable if all you've got is static rope and slings - not many boulders to put things round. You could always top rope without communications by sitting down in the grass 15m behind the edge, nobody's going to pull you back up and over.

However, theres plenty of places for nuts so always good for an anchor. 

That's what I was thinking. 

Some of the belays there can be quite fiddly though, and not entirely suited to throwing a toprope down from.

Most of the moorland crags in the Eastern Peak, in my experience, have many options for boulder-slinging or threading - in fact I sometimes see it as a failure if I have to place any gear at the top of a route! The only really obviously exception that springs to my mind, if you were looking for green-spot routes, is the buttress left of Gun Buttress (Christmas Buttres? Something like that) at Bamford. Looks really great in the guidebook, lots of easy short routes right next to each other - but more often than not there's bugger all to belay from!

In some ways Windgather is actually a good place for learning to belay because you really have to look around and consider angles and whether you've got the best possible placements, etc. i.e. you have to think.

Whereas at lots of other venues you can just slap something obvious in without much thought.