Kinder North: summer grit

Mention rock climbing in the Peak District, and my thoughts turn to the gritstone edges of Stanage and Froggatt, the tiered grit of the Roaches, and the limestone cliffs of Stoney Middleton. A short walk from the road and with a bounty of good routes on clean and solid rock, these venues are incredibly popular with climbers.

But the popularity of these crags is such that you often have to queue for routes. Mid-summer heat and midges can make climbing there a sweaty, itchy, frustrating experience. And sometimes when I want to make the best of a long summer day,  walking for 10 minutes from the car to a 12 metre high crag can seem just a little underwhelming.

There is another option. There are gritstone outcrops scattered across the high moorland regions of the Peak District: Shining Clough, Kinder Downfall, Laddow, and more. Often damp and dirty, and with walk-ins that count as a day out in their own right, these crags come into condition during high summer when the rock dries out and the long days make it worthwhile. 

   

*     *     *

At the beginning of July the fates had aligned. It hadn't rained for a while, it was hot, and the weather was going to stay good until the weekend.  I made a plan to visit the Kinder North with John, my climbing partner for the day.

Fair Brook

On Saturday morning, after an early start from Leeds, we parked on the Snake Road just East of the Snake Pass Inn. We crossed the River Ashop and set off along a well-worn path running beside Fair Brook. 

The path along Fair Brook, with the Kinder plateau ahead.

The path stretched ahead of us, steadily climbing to the Kinder plateau. Although it was early in the day the sun was strong; we soon felt it.

Cotton grass on Kinder plateau

As we gained height, the landscape changed. First we passed through a small conifer plantation running along the River Ashop. Along the lower reaches of Fair Brook there was grass and the occasional tree, broad-leaved this time. Higher up the grass changed to heather and the trees ran out. This was grouse country, managed to provide the heather-habitat that the birds like. We could see grouse butts in the distance, awaiting the arrival of the rich and well-connected in a month's time, when they would enjoy a very different sport.

On top of the plateau the heather continued for miles, the sward occasionally broken by patches of cotton grass growing in damp depressions. For many people, one of the attractions of climbing is that it takes you to wild places. But is an unbroken blanket of heather, managed to remain that way, really more wild than wheat fields? Or golf courses? A landscape shaped and controlled for people's leisure.

A green and chossy buttress on Kinder.

A couple of kilometres of trudging later, we approached the plateau. By this point a sheen of sweat covered my sunglasses so that everything I could see was blurred and distorted. We started by climbing Misty Wall (VS 4b), which is on the first buttress you pass from Fair Brook. It faces Southeast, and was in good condition - dry, and only a little dirty.

The main buttresses of Kinder North do face North. After Misty Wall we walked round to the first of these. It was green.

Dirty, and streaked with green.

Up close we could see that the rock was covered in a slippery, dusty crust, and there were big lumps of turf, lush and green, on some of the ledges. You won't find that at Stanage.

Moving through the roof on Eureka, Kinder.

I followed John up Eureka (VS 4c). My guidebook rates this as a classic, but it turned out to be a series of dirty ledges with a couple of interesting moves in the middle, where you have to pass a roof. We weren't convinced about its classic status.

Next I set off up Ashop Crack, which goes up the crag a few yards to the right of Eureka. I climbed the initial crack to a ledge. Above the ledge there was a big roof split by a wide, almost off-width, crack. I got my largest cam in the crack, and thought about how I was going to climb through the roof. It looked like you had to swing out, feet in space, to get round it. I could see no footholds until you got established in the crack above the roof, and there were no handholds either. John's guide graded this route VS 4c - the same as Eureka - so surely it couldn't be that hard. I convinced myself to go for it, hoping that footholds and handholds would magically appear. I stepped out under the roof, gripped the sloping, dirty edge of the crack above me. Took a couple of deep breaths, and retreated back on to the ledge.

I down-climbed from the ledge, shaking my head at my failure on such an amenably graded route. Later, back in the pub, I looked the route up in my guidebook (a later edition of John's, but which I had left in the car), it had been upgraded to E2 5b. I was glad that I had not tried to battle my way to the top.

Heading west to find Twisting Smile.

We went in search of a route called Twisted Smile which was on a buttress further along Kinder North. By repute this is one of the best routes in the Peak District. Kinder North stretches for some distance as a series of broken buttresses, but the guidebook provided few clues as to which of these had Twisted Smile. Moving over the rough terrain at the base of the edge was tiring, and after some time going back and forth, we gave up looking for Twisted Smile and retreated to the top of the plateau.

At this point I think John was disappointed. Twisted Smile is supposed to be so good, and the long walk in and the need for the right conditions meant that it was unlikely that he would get another opportunity to climb it any time soon.

Helicopter spraying on Kinder.

On top of the plateau we could see a helicopter. It had a huge boom hanging from it and it appeared to be methodically criss-crossing the plateau. Were they firefighting, or treating the land with chemicals?

John leading Legacy, Kinder.

We went back to Big Brother Buttress, which we had passed earlier. There was another pair of climbers at the buttress, the first we had seen all day. They had three dogs with them, tied up at the base of the buttress, who were happily passing time by digging a hole. I followed John up Legacy (HVS 5a), a fine rising traverse following a crack that crosses the buttress.

Next I set off up Brother's Eliminate. This involved climbing out of a cave and following another rising crack. It was very different to Legacy - the crack was rounded, difficult to protect, incredibly dirty, and there was not much for my feet. I moved out along the crack, unable to place any more gear. I was soon at a point where, were I to fall off, I would hit the ground before my last bit of protection caught me. I was also right above the dogs, who were barking at me, and the crack was getting dirtier.  I retreated back to the top of the cave, dangled from the gear that I had placed there, and admitted defeat. John lowered me to the ground, tied on, and also tried to climb the route but he turned back at the same point as me. Brother's Eliminate was given HVS 5a in John's guidebook, but, I later found out, had also been upgraded in my edition, this time to E1 5b. I was not having much luck.

Finally I followed John up Intestate (E1 5b); this was a fine route, marred, as every route was, by dirty holds.

We were topped out on Intestate feeling pretty tired, and although we had only attempted 6 routes, with the time spent searching for Twisted Smile it had been a long day. We set off back down the path along Fair Brook, and we were back at the car by 8pm. Both of us had no water left so we drove to the Snake Inn for a drink. It was at this point I got my up-to-date guidebook from the car. Sitting in the pub, a pint of squash in my hand, only then did I discover John's old guidebook had sandbagged me twice.

Would I go back to Kinder? I'm not sure. Getting there is a long uphill slog, and as Kinder tends to be in condition on hot summer days, you have to be willing to suffer. It was also really dirty, although I think this may have been the accumulated results of the previous two wet summers. On the other hand, once we had reached the crag we were in the shade where it was cool. The more accessible gritstone edges would have been grim in these conditions. On balance Kinder North is a good venue for a hot summer day when, for whatever reason, you can't head to Wales or the Lake District to climb on high mountain crags.