http://www.climber.co.uk may–jun 2020 67
Pete Bridgwood laybacks the
flake on Little Flake (Font 6a+)
with the mysterious Doxey’s
Pool in the foreground.Bulging arête (Font 6b+)
Starting from low undercuts grab the
right arête of the block and a sloping
hold on the lip before powering up to
the small ledge/flat hold and an easier
finish. A sneaky left heel helps.
Easy arête (Font 3+)
Pad nicely up the delightful left arête.
Lovely in every way.
Pancake (Font 4)
Gain and use the large ‘pancake’ hold
to attain a standing position and the
top. Not one to make a meal of (sorry).
OTHER NEARBY SKYLINE SPOTS
If this isn’t enough and you want more,
or at least check them out for another
visit, the rest of the Skyline has a
number of other bouldering specific
areas to check out.
Chasm Boulders
Heading northwards from the pool along
the path towards Roach End the first area
to be reached in a couple of hundred
metres is Chasm Boulders. With just
under a dozen problems some of the
problems suffer from the close proximity
of other boulders that make up this
collection, hence keeping off the wall
behind can sometimes transpire to be
the crux. However, there are a couple
of excellent ones to look at; Triptych
Groove (Font 6c+) and Acne Arête (Font
7a). it’s an okay spot but perhaps not
worth a visit on its own and can be
easily combined with the next area,
the Art Nouveau Boulders to make
a good day out.art nouveau Boulders
The Art Nouveau Boulders are quite
some distance beyond Chasm Boulders,
again following the path northwards
along the top of the edge until you
come to this large rectangular trackside
boulder. It sits above and just before
the classic route/highball problem that
gives it its name. Art Nouveau is a classic
Nadin E6 6c but with enough mats and
spotters people do turn it into a highball
Font 7b+, albeit a rather high one. It’s
a stunning feature following a series
of right-to-left overlaps up the fine slab,
though it’s probably too committing
for most. The boulder itself is more
to most people’s liking and certainly
much shorter but be careful with the
problems on the cliff side of the block
where you do not want to fall off.
Things worth doing are the straightfor-
ward and very satisfying Mono Slab(Font 4), Sidepull Wall (Font 7a) via stiff
and powerful moves on sidepulls (who
would have thought it with a name
like that) and another self-explanatory
problem, Crack and Arête, a little gem
at Font 6a+.VERY FAR SKYLINE PROBLEMS
Heading further north, and best
approached from Roach End, is the Very
Far Skyline. Essentially a series of short
walls set below the main path with the
very best quality gritstone. None of the
20 or so problems are desperate with the
hardest being Font 6c and the majority
coming in at Font 5 and below. This
makes it a great spot for lower grade
boulderers who could easily spend the
best part of a day just there, and you will
probably have it to yourself so double
whammy. Stand-outs are Rounded Arête
(Font 3) and its close neighbour, Open
Groove (Font 5), climbed via a series of
delicate smears. Pinkies to Perkies is a
super crack problem at Font 4, whilst
across on the right-hand walls try Flight
Exam (Font 5+), The Loner at the same
grade, Leek Hills (Font 6b+) and lastly the
hardest there is the delightful rib taken
by The Shepherd at Font 6c with a great
sequence of moves. All terrific and a
great place to finish. ndoxey’s pool – roaches