Grinshill
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“Where’s that?” you ask. After a stunning day on Saturday, Sunday in
N Wales was wet and windy, not the sort of day for doing anything really.
Unless of course you’re a paddler, in which case it was heaven. Myself, Erol,
Karen, Neil and Scott headed off to Shrewsbury, after all, the weather
couldn’t possibly be any worse! We hoped to climb but the main purpose was
to recce the sandstone outcrops/quarries around there. Our choice was
Grinshill, about 7 miles north of Shrewsbury, chosen from all the other
outcrops because of the large spread of grades.
We swerved and splashed our way towards Capil Curig, smug in the knowledge
that the North Ridge of Tryfan was going to be highly unpleasant. The
further East we went the brighter and drier it got, so much so that I put my
shades on in Llangollen. “We’re going to get some climbing in! The others
are going to be kicking themselves.” Then we got into England, the skies
darkened, the rain poured and our sprits sagged. We eventually parked up in
a village called Clive, noticed that the rain had stopped, and set off to
find some rock. Within 5 minutes we were at a crag and two minutes later
Scott and Neil had got a top rope set up, I was still trying to figure out
which of the many crags we were at. But those boy’s couldn’t care less, “Just
find something that looks like rock and climb it” sort of attitude.
Well, what can I say, I was the only one that failed to get up this route,
so I’ll shut up. The route at the side of it went at 4b and was equally if
not more so, wet, slimy and ‘orrible. Never before have I seen Erol climb so
fast. Neil tried to get a camera out so he could take a picture of Erol
dangling on this route, that was it, Erol was up it like a flash. |
So, time to move on and after a brief walk through the woods, we arrive at a
superb outcrop, about 55’ high, and reasonably dry. There’s a whole crop of
routes that provided loads of good quality entertainment: Sugar Bullets
(5a), Sugar Magnolia (5b), Sweetie (5a) – soloed by Neil!!!!, One Lump?(4c),
Or Two? (5a), Sugar Plum Hairy (4c), and then The Pancake (6a) for the
nutters.
We never climbed on any of the other out crops, and there’s plenty more
there, including a load of rather large and very tall pine trees that’ll go
as a Scottish V. There’s a dozen climbs on Middle Rock, which is the same
height and character as Harrisons, with routes between 4a and 5c. Top Rocks
came as a bit of a surprise, I thought the area around Shrewsbury was flat,
not so. The views were outstanding, you can see for miles and miles out over
the vale of Shrewsbury towards The Wrekin and the Black Hills. If you’re
climbing on this particular bit of crag though, beware, belays are none
existent.
The whole area is local beauty spot, and even in mid January is well worth a
ramble through the woods. Its way out in the sticks and all the villages are
made from local sand stone. We followed this lane for over a mile and there
was this perfect sandstone wall on both sides of the lane, big 6’ blocks,
perfectly quarried. You wonder where all the stone came from and also at the
skill of the guys who cut the blocks to size.
I suppose I’d better point out that leading at Grinshill isn’t really an
option: top rope it or solo it. Protection’s sparse and what there is is of
poor quality, the rock’s likely to fail rather than the placement. Looking
at the guide book there’s a load of other quarries around as well. If it’s
****ing down in Snowdonia, head East and give Shropshire sandstone a try,
its worth it, and most importantly of all, its on the way home so there’s
nothing to loose. Even if you don’t want to climb, just bimble through the
woods and chill out. And if all else fails, try the pub, its cheaper than
the gear shops in Llanberis. |
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Nesscliffe
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| You can't miss Nesscliffe, it's right on the A5, although
that has changed now as the Nesscliffe bypass is open. Parking is
easy, turn off the (old) A5 by the pub and there's room for 2-3 cars in a layby on
the left. Apparently, if this is full then there's a car park about
half a mile up the road. From the layby, walk up the path opposite,
turn right and there's the crag in front of you. 5 minutes from the
car. |
| You've now looking straight at red rock in. Unfortunately, despite its looks, the guide book says
that the rock is crap around here, also there's a national monument and
climbing is banned in the vicinity. The monument is a cave with a row
of stone steps going up to it. This is a good landmark. Hang a
right and there's some routes but they're short. Keep going right and
you come to the main quarry. This is looking better! |
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Sheer sandstone walls rising 160 foot straight up.
There's two absolutely compelling lines, a corner and an arete.
The corner is The Pit and the Pendulum, E5, 5c. The arete is Full
Sun, E6, 6b. Both unfortunately well out of my range.
As for the rest of the crag, well I had a good
shuftie round but I couldn't find it in the rhododendrons. I did
find a buttress it was too short. Oh well, never mind, according
to the guide book there's nothing there I can climb anyway. But if
you can climb E5/E6, give Nesscliffe a go.
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Pontesford Rocks
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| Ponywhat Rocks? Pontesford
Rocks, 8 miles south west of Shrewsbury, just off the A488. GR 409047.
Myself, Baldric and Sally left Newbury at 9 am on Friday heading for north
Wales. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that realistically we
wouldn’t get there till 2 pm, leaving only 2½ hours of daylight. Not enough
to do anything. The plan was to stop off at Shrewsbury on the way and get a
full afternoon’s climbing in before continuing to north Wales. The plan was
Grinshill but I chucked the guide book (West Midlands Rock) to Baldric and
said “look through it and see if there’s any where that sounds better”.
After reading the guidebook from cover to cover Baldric suggested Pontesford
Rocks, the description sounded good and it was less than 8 miles from the
A5. |
| We turned off the A5 onto
the A488 and within two minutes a massive Matterhorn shaped hill was visible
in front. This was looking good. Getting there was simple, turn off the
A488 by the tractor dealer’s, follow lane for quarter of a mile, park up in
a mini car park / lay by. The walk in was about 15 minutes along an uphill
bridleway, although the tedium was relieved by the superb views out over the
Shrewsbury plain. Grinshill was clearly visible in the distance.
Eventually you hang a right, take a short, well tramped path up a scree
slope and there’s a crag. |
| The rock is “pre Cambrian
Welsh igneous”. I’ll translate this into simple terms as I’m not a
geologist: hard, grey, solid, slabby, plenty of gear placements. Evidently
the English-Welsh border has moved over the last couple of hundred million
years as this Welsh rock is now in England. It’s also south facing and
despite a rather damp week, it was nice and dry. |
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| Route finding is reasonable,
there’s a sketch map in the guide book but no toppos. Route lengths vary
from 25 foot single pitch to 200 foot 3 pitch, grades from moderate to E2. |
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| Finale Groove |
VS 4a, 4c, -. |
We started on Wall End
Climb, a 175’, 3 pitch v diff. However, with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight
and the knowledge that there’s an extra oak tree on the crag that you can’t
see from the bottom, we actually went up Finale Groove, VS 4a, 4c, -. Not a
bad route, mostly v diff territory with a hardish start and a stiff corner
on pitch 2. (Pitch 3 is a joke, it doesn’t even merit a grade 1 scramble).
Personally I think it is over graded, HS -, 4b more like. |
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| Hawthorn Crack |
S 4a |
Next on the list was
Hawthorn Crack, S 4a. This had obviously seen a lot of traffic due to the
amount of polish on the rock. You scramble up to the base of some bulges
and then climb the undercut crack “with some difficulty”. I’m glad S
4a wasn’t the limit of my leading ability is all I will say. |
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| Possum |
E2, 5b |
We then decided to have fun
and chucked a top rope down Possum, E2 5b, just to the right of Hawthorn
Crack. A nice route which we all got up OK, however, either top rope it or
solo it, there’s no gear at all so don’t bother dragging lead ropes up it.
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| If you’ve got a Friday off
work and are heading to N Wales for the weekend, myself, Baldric and Sally
recommend a visit to Pontesford Rocks. |
Pontisford Graded List
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