UKC

Simon Litchfield and team have been beavering away developing a 'new' crag in Northumberland. Here Simon gives us the full details:

"Situated in a grand position above Coquetdale is a fine addition to the Simonside Hills. With generally excellent quality rock with interesting features and tremendous three star natural lines – including the largest roof in the county, it offers a great deal of variety to the climber, whether they be a VD or E5 leader..."

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=56539

The logbook is up and running:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=12320

with 50 routes and problems there is loads for people to go at while the long summers days last.

Credit should also go to local activisit Graeme Read for keeping the psyche up during the numerous trips!

Ill try and get some more photos online soon.

In reply to Si Litchfield: looks good si, the E6 crackline looks great, the county's answer to Belly Full of Bad Berriews??!!

http://www.rockclimbing.com/images/Simon_Carter/630-306-06.jpg

In reply to GDes:

Ill freely admit to obsessing about that E6 line for about a year. I even made a pull up board… which remains unused gathering dust apart from the occasional drunken house party acrobatics show…

I had a bit of a stern word with myself half way up it and watching me do the moves the Graeme put it on his top 5 climbs to do. I’m not sure if the aerial acrobatics are 100% necessary… they worked for me and a certain degree of weirdness is required.

As for Belly Full of Bad Berries … I heard that’s just Northumbrian VS and a smidgen easier than the jamming crack at Eldon!?

Good to see you are as active as ever in Southernenglandshire

In reply to UKC News:
How exciting.
A big part of the fun of being a climber is looking for a finding obscure and new places to climb (for me it is anyway). I dream of finding a whole unclimbed crag. I have been lucky enough to get some first ascents in the past year or so and it is a good feeling.
How did you find this place, why had nobody found it already??????

In reply to CragRat11:

Probably by opening the guidebook and reading the "minor crags" section at the back

In reply to CragRat11: It had been visited by bouldering squads on walks but deemed to be too far to walk!! people used to walk to the top of the hill (from Ravenseugh) where there is some 7m stuff, but this crag's down the hill in a spot not many bothered to go to. The walk to the top of the hill is bloody miles, I think one part of this 'discovery' is simply walking in from elsewhere! It has been visited by the one of the county's bouldering squads, but dismissed as too remote.

In reply to JDal:

Just for clarification:

Lower Tosson (the new crag) is a reasonably flat 30 minute pretty walk, with a 10 minute uphill blast to get to the buttresses.

Tosson Hill (the old crag) is miles away past Simonside, Coquet View and Ravensheugh (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=11007).

In reply to Si Litchfield:
I stand corrected. No wonder I never found it

In reply to Si Litchfield:

Looks great, and a big thumbs up for going out of your way to produce the guide, UKC database etc. Lets hope that it gets some traffic.

I'm slightly ashamed that my brain is wired this way, but... following a long tradition of smutty route names, why not:

Tosson Face
Tosson Crack
Tosson etc etc

Apologetically yours,

Ben

In reply to Ben Darvill:

The Tosson Off-width?

Too Much Tosson Makes Your Fingers Hurt

...

In reply to JDal:'It had been visited by bouldering squads on walks but deemed to be too far to walk!!'

I come from the lakes so a walk like that doesn't seem that daunting.

In reply to UKC News:

That seems daft that something so close to other crags had never been looked at before.

In reply to GDes:
Hi Ged

Hope you are well. Next time you're back up you should have a walk up there, like us you'll probably find it hard to believe that it had never been developed before.

Good to see you've been back in the Lakes too, it does feel like you're making first ascents of some of these neglected hard classics doesn't it!

Graeme

In reply to Dark Mavis:

Maybe didn't look any good from a distance.

There's a lot of outcropping in the forest north of Back Bowden that you can see from the road near Hazelrigg, I've often wondered if there's anything worthwhile there. Being so obviously visible I'd assume it's been explored, and there must be nothing any good because it's not even in the 'Minor Outcrops' section of the guide.

In reply to andy moles:
Yep, and not very promising on the map either


Ah, sounds like Cockenheugh. It's very like Doveholes, but bigger and with much softer rock. I'm sure I'd stuck it in the Online Guide, but it seems to have gone away. There's been some boulderng development recently. http://northumberland-cam.com/swinhoe-holburn/2.htm

In reply to JDal:

Aye that rings a bell, though I can't think where I saw the name, maybe on a map or something.

What do you reckon, is the bouldering any good? Much softer than Doveholes doesn't sound too promising...

In reply to andy moles: Doveholes and Cockenheugh have had some stabiliser used on problems. Not much at Dovehole but more so at Cockenheugh This stuff works fine, so presumably some of the stuff at Cockenheugh is ok. The stabiliser is invisible - it's been on a couple of popular bits of Shaftoe for 20 years and nobody's ever noticed - so you'd have to explore for problems and find bits which aren't crumbly. I wouldn't imagine it's worth an hour and a half's drive. A nice spot, though.