The belay for the last pitch on Chee Tor Girdle
My first experience of Chee Tor was in 1976 before the York Alpine Club was even a glint in Tony Ruddock’s eye. At the time I was a budding VS man & one of the easiest ticks in Hard rock was the Chee Tor Girdle Vs _ , 4b, 4b, 4a, 5a, 4c.
Six of us in 3 teams of 2 set off across the traverse which gets increasingly more exposed as it progress’s. Vic Scott who was on the second rope bottled it, flapped & rapped off before the final pitch, the story goes that he descended in a shower of urine as his mates vented their feelings & bladders in disgust.
Chee Tor girdle is still a great day out & it well worth visiting the crag if you only do this route.
Peter harris making Match of the Day E2 5c look very easy.
During the late 70’s the crag went through a massive development phase but were not climbing well enough to take advantage. By the early 80’s we had caught up however so had most other climbers of the day so Chee Tor became more popular than Stanage. During that era we had many visits to the crag & I did all the climbs I was capable of climbing at Chee Tor culminating with a lead of the Extreme Rock route Mortlocks Arete E5 6a.
Extreme Rock route Morlocks Arete E5 6a
Nowadays the crag is hardly ever visited and its hard to believe that it was ever popular
The climbing is still superb, steep pockety limestone walls with generally good nut placements maybe a bit more polished than it used to be & some of the less popular routes have become overgrown.
Typical face climbing on Absent Friends E3 5c
During the last couple of years yorkclimbers.com have had several visits even rapping down a few routes cleaning them & replacing the old rope threading the pockets.
The climbing is limited at Vs, if you are steady on Hvs there are some belting routes like Great Central route Hvs 5a *** and Leering wall Hvs 5a** is a great
warm up.
While anyone who can lead E1 or above is going to be spoilt for choice of 3*** classics. Yes it takes a bit of adjusting to climbing on Chee Tor its bigger, feel bolder, more exposed, makes a big impact in your memory & you need to have confidence small wires.
Those who make the effort will be rewarded by some of the best climbing in the Peak District & when you go back to gritstone its feels tiny.
More Chee Tor reading