Tower Face Direct, Stanage Edge, Peak District
E2 5b
The Plantation area is one of my favourite areas of Stanage. Often,
when the Popular End is really, really busy you can find space and a bit
of quiet amongst the disjointed buttresses down this end of the crag.
Tower Face is one of the finest gritstone buttresses and has a number of
quality routes. There's a couple of classic nasties like Flight of Ideas
(E7 6c) and Indian Summer (E6 6c) but most people come here to climb
routes like Tower Face (HVS 5a) and Tower Face Direct (E2 5b). The rock on
the buttress is some of the finest gritstone around and both Tower Face
and Tower Face Direct are classic routes of their grades. They share a
common start and finish and it's just the bit in the middle that's
different. The direct has 5b slab climbing between rounded breaks
whilst Tower Face avoids this on the right, climbing a series of flakes.
Tower Face Direct was first climbed by Peter Biven in 1956 and begins
at an obvious crack and shelves at the base of the wall. A couple of
metres of climbing brings runners behind a slightly creaky-looking flake
and the chance to survey the climbing above. The wall beyond is slightly
off vertical and nowhere on this route are your arms likely to get tired.
Relax and make a couple of great moves to more gear. This needs a bit of
imagination but something can be sorted out. Careful round here - you're a
long way from your last piece in the flake and this would be a bad place
to fall off. Once that gear's placed you're into the main part of the
route which is a move up past a small flake to reach a good horizontal
break. Like many of these slabby routes on gritstone, it's all about
getting your weight in the right place and there's not a lot for your
feet. A fairly long stretch brings the break and more gear if you want it.
Finally, move rightwards to join Tower Face at the bottom of the crack.
From here it's a glorious jug-fest to the top.
The E2 grade might be generous and I know a number of people who have
enjoyed it as a first E2. Certainly, the route isn't technically difficult
but the gear is spaced and perhaps not as 'bombproof' as it might be. Once
that's in the bag there's plenty of other routes in the HVS-E2 range to
have a look at.
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