Long Climb, Laddow Rocks, Peak District
Hard VDiff ***
If you want to get a feel for how rock climbing used to feel back in
the pre-war days when Ernest Baker, Puttrell and F. C.
Aldous first set foot on the crags of the Peak, there is no better place
than Laddow Rocks. Set high on the western side of Crowden Great Brook,
Laddow has a historical charm that makes climbing there feel very
different from the convenience cragging around the Hope Valley and
elsewhere. From a distance, Laddow can look mossy and overgrown but once
up close the starred routes are generally clean and the rock is of
excellent quality. It was the deep left and right twin chimneys that
attracted the first climbers in the late 19th century but soon these same
'stout fellow' were mixing it on the faces and buttresses between. Baker
climbed a pinnacle on one of his first visits there and questioned it's
stability. He was proved right soon after when the whole thing fell down.
Laddow was probably the Stanage of it's day and there are some great
stories from the early days of climbing on the edge. The old boys and
girls didn't mind a bit of a walk and the forty-five minute walk in from
Crowden would have been seen as little more than a stroll. A popular
weekend involved getting the train to Crowden, bivvying in the Cave and
having two full days climbing on the edge. Today, you're unlikely to find
Laddow busy. Perhaps the walk-in puts people off. There aren't many hard
routes; the angle and broken nature of the rock limit the amount of
desperate slopers that you can link together but it's a lovely place to
climb with fine moorland views.
Long Climb was climbed sometime before 1909 and, as the name suggests,
is one of the longest climbs on the edge. The guidebook describes the
route as 105 feet but due to the wandering nature of the route, you'll use
more rope than that. It's usual to do the route in two pitches and there
is an obvious ledge at half height. Try to do it in one and you're likely
to end up with rope drag issues at the top. On the picture above the route
takes the line of the obvious large buttress towards the right-hand side
of the edge.
The first pitch follows an obvious line of holds up the centre of a
slab. Whilst the angle is easy, years of attention, starting with the
nailed boots of the pioneers have worn the holds to a highly polished
sheen. All this polish seems pretty incongruous today as the crag is so
quiet but is testament to the route's popularity over a hundred years. I
don't mind a bit of polish; it reminds us of the long tradition of rock
climbing in the Peak and it's nice to muse on all the feet that have gone
before. In damp conditions, the polish would make this first pitch
relatively tricky so it's worth waiting for a dry day. At the top there's
a good belay to bring up your second.
The second pitch is slightly more tricky and begins by climbing the
wall behind the stance. Again, the holds are very polished but a steady
approach will pay dividends and there is plenty of opportunity for placing
good gear. A jamming crack leads up and the footholds on the left side of
the crack are small and insecure. Soon, the holds get better and you find
yourself at the base of a steep corner on the arete overlooking a gully.
This corner is overcome by some lovely bridging moves and all too soon
you're on the top. In terms of difficulty, this top part feels very
similar to something like Flying Buttress (HVDiff) at Stanage so the grade
is probably consistent with similar routes in the area.
Other good routes at Laddow around the same grade include Staircase
(M), North Climb/Pongo Finish (VDiff) and Siren's Rock (S).
Click [here]
for some photos.
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