Rock Climbing Blog

Location: Stanage Plantation
Date: Sunday 27 July

Sunday shone this weekend. A planned trip to the gym was quickly canned and instead we made a trip out to a new bouldering spot. After a recommendation that Stanage plantation had some good climbing (thanks Jonny!) we checked my bouldering guide book and set out.

If you’re reading this wondering whether to visit Stanage plantation: do it as soon as possible.

Park at the Pay-and-display then you’ve got a 15 min hike up through woodland paths until reaching the boulder field…

…it looks more like Jurrassic Park to be honest, but get your bearings and there’s good bouldering to be had.

We worked two prominent boulders over the course of the afternoon, which both offer some great problems. We were climbing 4 and 4+, so really entry level stuff as far as gritstone bouldering goes.

 ^ Starting a 4 on Business Boulder ^

The easier problemss on the Business Boulder worked well as a warm up, and we appreciated the shade of the north-facing routes due to the blistering sun. We sent them both onsight so let’s move swiftly on.

^ The Pebble (north face) ^

Next stop was the Pebble. With a page to itself, this house-sized rock had no less than 18 problems around it from 4+ up to 7s. The face shown above is beautiful to look at, and more like an indoor textured wall than I’ve ever seen in nature. In the above photo our trusty climber is working his way up a 4+. The harder part is getting back down - there are no sloping sides, so you’ll need to downclimb the easier problemss or wait for a helicopter

^ Pebble (south face) ^

Our final problem was this 4+ in the middle of the Pebble’s south face. This was a lone 4+ set amongst much tougher routes, and only possible due to the flake that my feet are on in this photo. To the left and right you’ve got an almost sheer face. The crux for me was topping out, as it’s quite exposed and rocky underfoot (or ‘undermat’). Nevertheless, a little adrenalin took us all over the top.

Overall then, a great place for bouldering. We only worked on 2 boulders, and my guidebook has at least another four pages of recommendations for problems still to beat.

Lots more photos available in the Flickr set Stanage plantation bouldering.

PS I was also vindicated in my choice of the Mini, because the mat slipped in easily once the seats were lowered. WIN!