Almscliff: Leeds local crag

Almscliff

Almscliff, halfway between Leeds and Harrogate, is the most famous of Yorkshire's gritstone crags. It is a huge lump of high quality gritstone perched on top of a small hill, rising up over the flat surrounding landscape. This means that although the crag is small relative to the gritstone edges of the Peak District, it has climbable rock on all sides, which compares favourably with the single climbable aspect of many of the Peak edges. It also means that the crag is very exposed; you will definitely feel the wind on all but the calmest days.

Almscliff west face

On a dry and sunny saturday afternoon in October Almscliff was busy with climbers, walkers and casual visitors. In this photo a handful of walkers look on as a climber starts up Zig Zag, on the West Face.

Many of the climbing routes require good arm stamina - something that often catches out first time visitors to Almscliff (I write from experience). This is because the major faces are steep and much of the crag is undercut at the base, which requires some monkeying around, putting most of your body weight on your arms, to get started on the routes - as can be seen with climber in the photo above.

Great Western area, Almscliff

No climbers were tackling Great Western or the adjacent Crack of Doom, which are two of the most famous routes on the crag, despite the fact that the weather conditions were perfect and both routes were in the sunshine. Great Western goes up the large vertical crack in the middle of the photo, heads left along the break, and then finishes by going up and around the corner to the left. Crack of Doom follows the same vertical crack, then heads out right onto the projecting wall and a quick finish on top of the wall.

Almscliff is also home to lots of great bouldering problems, both on the main crag and on the boulders that are scattered around its base. Many of these problems are described in the Yorkshire Gritstone bouldering guide. The arete shown in the photo above is part of the Virgin group of boulders, and can be climbed with a bouldering grade of font 6a.

Matterhorn boulder

This is the Matterhorn Boulder. The prominent arete was first climbed over 100 years ago by Claude Benson. Today, the climb up the arete is worth font 4+; easy by modern standards.

The Crucifix, Almscliff

The distinctive cross-shaped pair of cracks can be climbed as a problem called The Crucifix. It is worth a grade of font 5. It is a long way to fall from the top of the vertical crack - padded mats and someone to spot you would be useful.

The Crucifix is part of the Demon Wall area of Almscliff, which is also home to several hard boulder problems - these tend to terminate 3-4 metres above the ground - and a handful of climbing routes that lead to the top of the crag. Numerous chalk marks on the rock show how popular this area of the crag is.

The location of Almscliff, and the large number of popular climbing routes and bouldering problems there, means that many of the key hand and foot holds are polished, so the famous gritstone friction is often lacking.  This doesn't appear to affect the quality of the routes much (apart from making them a bit harder!). It is certainly worth visiting Almscliff as an occasional treat, however, rather than an as a regular practice crag, to minimise further damage.