32 may–jun 2020 http://www.climber.co.uk
Black Rocks at the southern end of the
Peak District, and close to Cromford,
doesn’t get mentioned a lot in
gritstone reminiscences for some
reason. It’s a bit out of favour among
the Stanage/Froggatt/Burbage Mafia,
with their Wuthering Heights backdrops
and National Trust predictability. It has
views of industry (the world’s first
industry as it happens): there is broken
glass in the gullies; you might find the
word ‘Fuck’ spray-canned on a wall;
you approach it across limestone
scree. It is practically disowned among
the stuffy Eastern Edges or tucked
away in the attic like a mad auntie,
hoping she won’t meet any visitors.
Some years later I was working on the
BMC gritstone guidebooks. Often part of
this task involved the job of ‘writing up a
crag’. This time-honoured process involves
taking on a crag and getting into its fabric,
getting to know its moods and climbs,
then write it up for the world. Over the
years I have been privileged to undergothis process for, amongst others, Hen
Cloud and Burbage South, two rare beasts
for sure, and, rarest of all, Black Rocks.
Do you ever try to wonder where a
crag resonates? Where the wavelength
of the rock matches that of the place,
producing a harmonic. For me, Black
Rocks comes into perfect pitch at VS
to produce a number of climbs as good
as any of that standard on grit.THE FRONT DOOR
The Birch Tree Wall area meets you at
the crag’s front door to welcome you
in and make you feel at home. The rock
there is clean and well-lined. It basks in
lots of sunshine and has a purple wash
over the fine-grained grit. The first of
the VSs are there. To their left sits the
Gaia block, its right skyline described
by the beautiful Curving Arête, sweeping
through 90 degrees from plum vertical
to dead flat (more of this later). When
the front of the crag is seen from certain
angles, it’s as if this great feature sendsout waves, rippling across the curtain
behind. Two of these ripples are taken
by Birch Tree Variant and Birch Tree Wall.
These are essentially the same climb
and it is easy to wander between them
as the mood takes. They start with steep
cracks then, as they yawn left, become
hand or foot traverses on holds that feel
like gritstone balloons. Both deposit
you bluntly in the gully with a smile
on your face.
‘In June 1928 Jack Longland,
seconded by (Ivan) Waller, discov-
ered and forced the route of Birch
Tree Wall, although at the time the
sapling was thought to be a beech,
and the climb was so named. The
original route, with its extremely
delicate toe traverse to the tree,
if rarely taken these days; it is
recorded, however, that “Longland
did the whole climb with ease”.
THE CHATSWORTH GRITSTONE AREA
GUIDEBOOK BY ERIC BYNE, 1970.destination
A climb that uses a variety
of the techniques that makes
gritstone great. Gus Hudgins
on the leftwards traverse
on the final section of Birch
Tree Eliminate (HVS 5a).
Save some bigger cams
for this section and save
this kind of the runout.
Photo: David Simmonite