Yorkshire Limestone Renaissance…For Punters

by Mick Ryan Trow Gill If you have ever bolted a new route you will have some idea of how much hard work it is. To bolt multiple new routes and give a cliff a “makeover” is above and beyond the call of duty to the climbing community, whatever your motivation.The end result is more routes for us all to climb, and who can deny that that is a good thing. Over the last several years a number of climbers who operate on Yorkshire Limestone have put in countless hours of effort into revitalising and developing several now-great sport climbing venues for us all to enjoy Courtesy of Dave Musgrove, Paul Clarke, Mick Johnson, Alan Steele, Frank Walker,Nigel Baker, Keith Morgan, Andy Watts, Glyn Edwards, John Hunt, Bob Larkin and others we can now enjoy lower and mid- grade sport routes – Fr 5, lots of Fr 6a to 6c and many Fr 7´s at places like the the Arched Buttress of Blue Scar, Foredale Quarry, Giggleswick Scar South, Moughton Nab, Robin Proctors´s Scar, Troller´s Gill and Trow Gill. If you live in the North West these cliffs are easily accessible and if you haven´t visited they are worth a look. To help you in this quest, Paul Clarke, Nigel Baker and Dave Musgrove have compiled a new routes supplement to the 2005 Yorkshire Mountaineering Club (website) Yorkshire Limestone Guidebook called the Yorkshire Limestone Update 2 it is available by clicking here and whilst you are there why not donate to the Yorkshire Bolt Fund clicking here? The Yorkshire Limestone Update 2 is a substantial update containing hundreds of new routes, both trad and sport, and even includes V grades for some of the short routes up at Attermire Scar. You can also read Dave Musgrove´s Spring route report for Yorkshire byclicking here.. This report includes news of some easy sport routes at Kilnsey Crag established by Paul Reinsch, from F3 to F5+ on the South Face of the broken buttress above and left of the Main Overhang. I did write a polemic about some of this activity (read it here), mainly directed at Dave Musgrove. It was over the top and for this I apologise. I did apologise directly to Dave whilst he belayed me whilst leading some of his routes that I had threatened to pull the bolts on. If you see me at some of the aforementioned cliffs feel free to call me a hypocrite but I now see that this activity is not “the thin end of the wedge” and don´t ever see widespread retrobolting of the classic trad routes on Yorkshire Limestone and as long as Dave and friends are around the high white stones of Yorkshire have trusted guardians.

QuelleUKClimbing