And now over to our special correspondent – reports just in that not all limestone is steep intimidating choss as previously believed!
Our correspondent travelled to Staden Quarry with Guido on thursday, having bribed Guido to go midweek climbing for the second day running by promising him free choice of venue. Over to her:
On arriving at Guido's secret volcano headquarters, I asked hopefully if he fancied Burbage (thoughts of gently slabbing hard severes in my mind). Guido shuddered visibly before announcing "nay lass, tha needs limestone, we're going to Staden Quarry".
"Whats that like?" I asked innocently
"You'll see" he replied darkly.
After several days travel down the M1 we arrived near Buxton at a semi circular quarry with promising looking slabby sides enclosing a pleasant meadow full of cows and sheep. Picking our way through the cow pats and making a mental note not to hold the rope in our teeth while clipping, we came to Joint Effort Buttress and got the guidebook out. It was at this point I noticed there was precious little below VS (my top leading grade). In for a penny in for a pound, I geared up for the VS I was pointed at, a 4c crack route called Suscipiat (no, I havnt a clue what the name means). Suscipiat was surprisingly nice. Blow me down and stripe me pink, the limestone wasnt polished, it actually had friction, and whats more the rock was as solid and compact as, well, a rock. No detachable holds here! After both abbing back down (no problems finding anchors at the top, big blocks and solid looking trees) Guido set off up the E1 5b next to it, Sunai. This was hard work but good fun to second, crimpy start then lots of balancy but positive little holds, wouldnt have fancied leading it though, nicely done Guido.
Now however my worries were confirmed. Guido announced there was a HVS round the corner which he assured me I could do. Biting back the words "I dont climb HVS" I agreed to take a look. "Its a hard start then it gets easier" he promised. "and theres loads of gear so you can lace it if you want". Oh yes, I wanted. I geared up till I resembled something from Scrapheap Challenge and set off. The start was indeed hard (presumably why it got 5b) After a few moves I slipped off the initial crimpy bulge, lowered off and started again and this time got up onto easier ground and a welcome rest. From here on it was fairly plain sailing really, although you wouldnt have thought it to see me lacing away, gibbering, and dropping gear like confetti. A couple of worrying bits where Elvis paid a visit then I was up on top well chuffed. Joint Effort gets three stars in the guidebook, quite right too.
My hard route of the day over, Guido headed for Bicycle Repair Man, an E1 5b ** classic. The disintegrating bicycle it was named for is still there. Its follows a thin crack, with another awkward start – once again it comes as a blessed relief when the angle eases after the bulge. I failed to second this cleanly, but Guido did a lovely lead, bar one most un-guido like spot of rope drag.
Now at this point there was a slight error of clear thinking. Due to a slightly stuck topmost cam, we decided I would leave it, Guido would remove it on the abseil then I would take the belay apart and walk down. Guido pointed out the descent route, indicating a useful landmark.
"Now then, you see those two sheep? Your descent routes just there"
Can you see the probem yet?
Guido having got to the bottom, I headed towards the descent. It seemed a loooong way round. Eventually I heard distant shouting, and turned to see Guido waving his arms as if trying to take off. Apparently I had gone too far. Never trust a sheep! Not realising their vital role as a landmark, the untrustworthy creatures had moved!!! Who could ever have expected that might happen?
Navigational challenges aside, it was a brilliant day that has pleasantly changed my opinion of limestone. Aside from some bulgy starts the routes we did were slabby and on really solid, unpolished rock. At between 20 -28 metres length for the routes I was also surprised by how long it took us to do them – after two routes each it was just gone four o'clock, I was judging the passage of time by my experience of short gritstone routes, couldnt understand why I was feeling tired already. A very succesfull day and I'm well chuffed to have a second HVS lead under my belt.