The Cliff

Almscliff

I moved up to Leeds in May 2017. In large part, this was due to proximity to rock. I can’t say what a positive difference it has made to my life. Driving 20 minutes to the crag is infinitely better than driving an hour and a half like I did from Leicester, or 4+ hours from Suffolk. Quick hits after work in the summer, long weekend days, speculative ‘lets just have a look’ sessions on days of marginal weather; being nearby gives the freedom to fit climbing into your life whilst also having time for everything else, and I value that immensely.

The best gritstone crag in Yorkshire is to my mind, unquestionably Almscliff. The Queen of Gritstone sits on top of a hill, surrounded my farmland and exposed to all the weather that Yorkshire can throw at it. 9 times out of 10 its windy there, meaning that the problems dry in minutes. Marginal days frequently become perfect, the crag acting as a bizarre divider of weather systems. Sitting up there you can often see bad weather scudding either side of the crag, drenching Otley and Pool and somehow leaving the rock untouched. Even when it does rain the almost ever-present wind means that when it eventually stops, you can be in business within a few hours.

Its value to the local climbing community is clear and beyond question. UK weather is shit at the best of times and having this crag there, world class and always reliable, means a huge amount to a huge amount of people. Nearby Caley is also brilliant, but its north facing and sheltered aspect throws the positive features of Almscliff into even sharper relief on grey days, when Caley is soaked but you know ‘the Cliff’ will deliver.

The magic of Almscliff is not just its conditions, it’s the enduring class of the climbing it holds. The trad is superb, always ‘traditional,’ always hard won, almost never a soft touch. The friendly yet guarded beginners routes on Low Man, the classic HVS’ of Demon Wall, Great Western and Overhanging Groove, and the E3’s of The Big Greeny, Western Front and the spectacular Wall of Horrors provide inspiration to climbers of any standard. The history is there; Arthur Dolphin climbing routes of incomprehensible difficulty for the era in 1914, Allan Austin and John Syrett both pushing the standards higher.

The bouldering is even better, and for my money is the best on gritstone in terms of both quality and sheer quantity, in close proximity and across the grades. Demon Wall Roof, The Virgin, The Keel, Syrett’s Roof; all brilliant chunks of rock, littered with brilliant problems. To my mind there is nowhere better than Almscliff for gritstone bouldering; its why I keep going back. I love having a circuit of problems and solos there; starting at the Crucifix, Crucifix Traverse, Birds Nest Crack and Demon Wall; Dolphin Belly Slap and maybe the low traverse to finish. Completing the circuit, sometime easily, sometimes with difficulty, means I’ve already had a good day before I even start whatever I came to try.

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Its been a bad month for Yorkshire gritstone. The loss of Whitehouses (https://www.thebmc.co.uk/whitehouses-bouldering-crag-damage-banned), somewhere I’d only been once but had designs on going back to for years, put the access problems around the crags that I love into clearer focus. The damage at Whitehouses was awful but does seem to have been down to a thoughtless minority of climbers who succeeded in pissing the farmer off and shooting the entire community squarely in the face. I wish we had the right to climb wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted, but the reality is we don’t, and even in the event that we did common courtesy would still apply.

The same is true of Almscliff and Kilnsey. Its farmland, with permissive access that could be revoked. I’m no lover of farmers but this is an obvious case of quid pro quo. Recent reports of walking on drystone walls and taking dogs off leads into fields of sheep, alongside parking incredibly badly, bring the horror show that losing access would be into focus. These crags mean a massive amount to a massive amount of people. Don’t walk on the wall, don’t piss the farmer off, don’t park like a twat. To continue to do so is selfish beyond words. Have a (polite or otherwise) word with people, climbers or not, who don’t and point out the sheer idiocy of what they’re doing. Its never nice to confront people, but at least you can say you did what you could. You might get told to fuck off, or completely ignored, as happened to me this weekend, or you might make people change their tune and jump off the wall as happened when the entire crag shouted at some people today. Either way, at least the idea is in their minds.

Almscliff is an important crag, but also a brilliant crag. People should be able to climb there, walk their dogs and just be outsde there for generations more as long as we don’t fuck it up. So please; lets not fuck it up. If you hear someone shouting at the weekend there, I’ll either have just fallen off or someone will have just climbed onto the wall…

The Crucifix on a summers day