UKH

I've had a couple of visits to Gardom's recently and noticed some routes are getting pretty overgrown, Undertaker's Buttress being a good example with lots of grass on the ledges and general greenery.

I'm considering cleaning it up, potentially along with some other routes at the crag. Is this likely to be approved of or frowned upon?

In reply to Connor Nunns:

Cleaning would be done with water and a stiff garden brush.

In reply to Connor Nunns:

Depends on how overgrown a route is. Back in the day all new routes were wire brushed first. There was a pic. in Crags magazine of Steve Bancroft,s cleaning gear including wire brushes, lump hammer, trowel, crow bar and screwdriver. Tom Proctor and Pete Livesey could also be particularly creative cleaning new routes.

In reply to Connor Nunns:

That sounds ok, please don’t follow in the footsteps of the pioneers as described by Phil, nylon is more than abrasive enough.

In reply to Philb1950:

Steve Allen didn´t adhere to that philosophy with his route on High Tor Hot Gossip (E5 6a), named after the dance group (remember them?) His reason for the name (published in High, 1983): "some black bits, some white bits and some dirty bits". God, those innocent and politically uncorrect 80s ... here´s Russell Harty demonstrating the dirty bits, 1981:

youtube.com/watch?v=f-IoszBZdig&

Sorry, couldn´t resist that.

In reply to Connor Nunns:

last time I went to Gardoms (hoping for a cool sun free spot) I found that pretty much every crack was full of birds nests.

In reply to Connor Nunns:

Get to it, last time I was at gardoms doing trad I actually failed on a VS  (Blaze (VS 4c)) at that section of the crag it was so dirty! Something that rarely happens unfortunately it rained before I got much cleaning done. At the time I made a comment on the logbooks about its condition but haven't made much effort to return. My current cleaning projects have been focused elsewhere recently but would be good to see this route clean if you get there first. Undertaker's Buttress (VS 4c) Also shares the start of this route and would be extremely hard for the grade until the first ledges are cleaned of mud and grass.

In reply to Graeme Hammond Undertaker's Buttress (VS 4c) is one of the routes that made me think I should do the cleaning. I wanted to climb it when I went but it looked absolutely desperate with all the grass on the ledge. 

I also cleaned Left-hand Pillar Crack (E1 5b) last week and removed a layer of thick green slime, along with a load of soil from the top of the crack. So hopefully that stays clean for a while.

In reply to Connor Nunns:

Lightning Wall (HVS 5a) always struck me as something which deserved to be clean. Looked awful last time I was there.

In reply to Connor Nunns:

What disappoints me is how few climbers seem to get involved in incidental route cleaning while they're climbing, leaving it to build up to levels where the climb itself becomes more difficult and less pleasant.

All it usually takes if for each passing climber (unless they're in extremis at the time!) to pull off a handful of grass from a hold or the odd sprig from a crack whenever they see one, then it will be far less likely to get to the point where the bushes need a concerted effort with gardening tools.

In reply to Connor Nunns:

Good on you! I cleaned a route at Gardoms back in 2019 and I do remember it took a huge amount of time but was quite satisfying.

One of the biggest problems is all the overhanging trees. It's not going to happen but if the tree branches could be significantly cut back from the crag it would reduce all the green and slime and a whole new crag would open up. Meantime it returns to a private esoteric play area...... 

In reply to Connor Nunns:

Possibly consider speaking to the local access rep from the BMC, there have been crag clean ups organised in various areas over the last decade at the very least including:

Crag Lough

TremFest

Avon Gorge

Wildcat (last weekend)

I'll happily come along with an ab rope and a collection of gardening tools but am not very familiar with the crag having only visited once.

In reply to Babika:

The land is owned by the Chatsworth Estate and they are unlikely to agree to any major tree clearance.

Large scale rogue tree clearance should not be carried out at any time, and nesting season has started this year anyway. A number of years ago someone cleared a large amount of trees round the Apple Buttress area which prompted a response and notices going up from the estate to warn this was not allowed!

However the odd branches have disappeared carefully from some of the worst affected quality routes... If done regularly and carefully as John says these things don't build to a point where it becomes really noticeable when removed

Although even in winter the crag is often no worse to climb on than in summer (some exceptions) and makes a sheltered & sometimes (depending on buttress) sunny venue on a cold windy day. 

In reply to McHeath:

Hot Gossip includes  sections of other routes and High Tor is one of the very few places you can get away with it. For example when we did Yankee Power, we just abbed down and looked at it. Al Evans put the sling and pegs in, then went for it.