UKH

Went to  Ravensdale yesterday and the main (and only?) approach to the crag had 'no entry' scrawled on the wall by the start of the path and then, on the other side of the river, a timber barricade with a further no entry sign. 

Had checked the RAD prior for bird restrictions and nothing about this was noted. I've also seen since that there is a " legal right of access specifically for climbing". 

Given that there was no obvious reason not to ignore this barricade, we did so (as did some other parties we saw climbing there). Was this leftover by the loonies who bought Cressbrook Dale?

It would be great if the RAD/Access notes could make a note of this, once the legitimacy of it is known. If only so others know whether there is a legitimate challenge to access or not. I did flag it through the BMC RAD via the 'report a page issue' function. 

As a side note, I really enjoyed the crag (never been before) and it seems to get very little traffic compared to other peak lime trad. Very impressive main buttress and I can't think of many (any?) other local crags that have 40m+ lines of pretty solid rock in such a beautiful location. 

To add, I have also contacted the Peak National Park and the Save Cressbrook Dale group for any information. The latter has already replied saying they will investigate, as there shouldn't be any access issue. 

Thanks for doing all of this Paul.

Thanks for this Paul. 

Thanks for raising this Paul.

Who did you raise it with at PDNPA? I'm on the Local Access Forum and can raise with the access officers directly if not already done.

No one specifically, just the customer.service@peakdistrict.gov.uk email

Thanks

When I lived in Derbyshire it was a favourite crag. Probably the best limestone crag in the Peak for sub-E-grade routes. A lot of the routes were a bit polished even then (25 years ago), so must have been popular at some time.

It's still polished now! Well, the popular routes are , eg. Mealy Bugs. 

Precisely my thoughts on first going there in 1968 and still a hidden gem. Strange to hear your tale of inappropriate restriction signs and pleased to hear authorities have been alerted.

I've had the following back from Chris at Save Cressbrook Dale. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing (I did say I would pass any info on, so I'm assuming not):

Thanks for the update Paul. I'll contact the access team too, hopefully we can get it resolved more speedily.

Below is presumably the sign that Paul saw earlier in the summer. The photo was taken this morning.

It is also worth noting the whole dale seems to be suffering badly from ash dieback. I put some new cord around the tree above Tria 3 years ago, looking over to it today the entire tree is very obviously dead. I'm not quite sure how people belay at the top of the route now without relying on the dead tree? We did Impendant (VS 4c) and walked down. It's not particularly nice and you need your trainers or approach shoes! But that seemed better then rapping off any dead or potentially dying ash trees that are up there. Does anybody know what the tree abseil points above Raven buttress are like?

That should be removed post haste by anyone passing. Leaving it up might discourage perfectly legitimate access from people who don't know. Its all very well waiting for a ranger to remove it but that could take ages and every day its up emboldens whoever it is that wants to obstruct access. 

Thanks for the picture Toby, I'll follow up.

Ravens Buttress is a walk-off on the left facing out. I did 2 routes on it: one was a solid block belay and the other a massive yew so don't think it's as much of an issue there.

The tree above Tria is dead, agreed. We used a trusty twin-trunk Hawthorne above it to get down. A bit of a grass slog but safer and the ropes pulled okay. Longer term I think some stakes there could be warranted. 

I did think the ropes would likely pull ok from that higher tree but if you slipped on the grass and slid walking up there, your top runner probably wouldn't keep you off the deck. 

I was climbing in the Italian Alps a couple of weeks ago so my immediate thought was a nice bolted chain at the top of the route, although I'm sure that's not gonna fly round here! 😉

Thinking about it, I did Medusa with my missus but it is as 23 years ago. I remember it was sunny and we did it in two pitches, but I can't for the life of me remember what we did at the top! Presumably walked off, but I've always abbed from the routes on the left end.

You can of course walk off from the left end going right (facing out) and come down the descent route somewhere past the Beachcomber buttress.

Although that might be a bit scary in rock shoes if the grass isn't totally dry, some bits of Ravensdale don't exactly lend themselves to scampering about.

IIRC, the hardest part of The Wick (VS 4b) was once you'd left the rock behind, and I'll bet that traversing off left and down from Solitaire (HS 4b) only remains in some people's memories.

One of the problems with abseil descents is that walk off paths get used less and hence become more overgrown and in some places that makes them significantly more dangerous - especially if they're wet.