2005
One of the earliest recorded references to a sandstone outcrop in South-East England by a mountaineer seems to have taken place around 1908, when Charles Nettleton noticed Harrison’s Rocks while passing along the valley below with the Eridge Hunt.
The first recorded climbing began in 1926, when the possibilities of Harrison’s were realized by Nea Morin, who had climbed on similar outcrops at Fontainebleau; a family connection which subsequently led to the introduction of the PA rock-boot to British rock, and later the EB. Her group climbed a number of routes including a number that still retains the 5b grade to this day. In the late 1920s the same group was active at High Rocks, which has a long history as a pleasure ground, being first popularized in 1670 by James II, when Duke of York.
In 1934 H Courtney-Bryson and M O Sheffield, members of the Mountaineering Section of the Camping Club, produced the first guidebook to Harrison’s, listing about thirty climbs. In 1936 Courtney-Bryson went on to produce a new guide, which covered several other known outcrops in the area. This was to be an inspiration to the next generation of sandstone climbers, many of whom had known little or nothing of outcrops other than Harrison’s – this still applies in some quarters even today.
High Rocks was developed in 1936-37 by Oxford University climbers (the first recorded routes on the Isolated and Hut Boulders) and, just before the Second World War, by members of the Polaris Mountaineering Club. The latter knew nothing of the previous work and the outcrop was in effect developed from scratch, with a particular emphasis on the numerous chimneys. Members of the Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland continued the exploration at High Rocks after 1942.
In 1945, a new wave of exploration began at Harrison’s and standards were raised considerably by the addition of the fine and elegant Slim Finger Crack, which is the first record of a route still retaining the 5c grade. At about this time most of the obvious lines at High Rocks Annexe and Continuation Wall, and Stone Farm were climbed.
After Pyatt’s 1947 guide, Harrison’s continued to be the most popular outcrop and standards continued to rise as is indicated by the fact that two climbs from this period are now graded 6a, perhaps the first climbs in Britain to merit this grade, and at least two 5cs were soloed, one on sight.
In the early 1950s, a forceful new group emerged in the form of the Sandstone Climbing Club. They soon moved their attention from Harrison’s, where they ‘often felt outclassed by the earlier inhabitants’, to High Rocks (where they had use of the hut that used to exist behind Hut Boulder) so as to work up their standards. The success of this exercise was soon evident and the first generation of SCC climbers was responsible for most of the harder routes at High Rocks in the 1956 guide. Between 1956 and 1963 the SCC monopolized development at High Rocks, adding over seventy new routes; many of these were of the highest standards including four with the new 6a grade in the 1963 guide. During this period the SCC were also steadily adding routes at Harrison’s and here they were later joined by members of the North London MC.
Bowles Rocks was the only major outcrop not mentioned in the pre-war records. Nea Morin is known to have climbed there shortly after the war and the SCC to have been there in the early 1950s. In 1959/60 the SCC (initially as prospective purchasers of the Rocks) started an intense period of cleaning and they pioneered the large majority of climbs, including some of the very hardest. The Thing is probably the first route to now be given the 6b grade. The Bowles Mountaineering Trust purchased the Rocks in 1963, outbidding the initial asking price of £400. It was at this time that the unfortunate hold-chipping and rock engineering occurred on a number of climbs (admittedly some of these are now fine climbs).
Bowles in fact served a wide range of purposes prior to its present role. There is evidence of prehistoric habitation and later smugglers (trading cannons and other iron products for French brandy and cigars) are thought to have used the outcrop as a hiding place. During the 19th century the rocks provided a backcloth to an avenue of trees and a carriageway leading to the house of John Bowles, a Dutchman. Subsequently the Rocks provided the site for a gypsy camp and a rubbish tip. During the Second World War, Bowles was used as a firing range, hence the numerous pock-marks on the Range Wall. In the late 1950s and early 1960s notoriously ferocious pigs had their sties at the base of the Rocks.
• One of the most active climbers during the latter half of the 1960s at Harrison’s was Trevor Panther, who remains an active sandstone climber to this day. Among his climbs were the fine Sossblitz (with Peter ‘Soss’ Sorrell), albeit with an aid point, The Knam, Glendale Crack free, Crucifix and Grant’s Wall. One of Panther’s young protégés, Ben Wintringham, climbed the classic The Flakes and Celestial’s Reach, and was also responsible for The Limpet and West Wall Eliminate (now Woolly Bear), though these two climbs are almost certainly much harder now due to the loss of holds. Boysen, on leave from High Rocks, did Coronation Crack in 1967, whilst Greg Morgan climbed Orangutang in the same period.
• Another active group during this period was Les and Lawrie Holliwell, and Robin Harper. They laid strong emphasis on soloing and on using sandstone as training for bigger things. Lawrie Holliwell was to follow Boysen by becoming one of the top Welsh climbers; among his best achievements on sandstone were his solos of South-West Corner and Vulture Crack – the former being the hardest route to have been soloed at that time. It is now even harder since a crucial large hold broke off at the top!
• Little history is known about Bulls Hollow; the 1947 guidebook described twenty routes and little else was added up to 1963. Between then and 1968 the number of routes was doubled by Les Holliwell when working on the 1969 guide, though many of the routes may have been climbed before. Some of the hardest and most worthwhile routes were among the additions including The Wall, an atypical route for sandstone and one of the best at Bulls Hollow.
• During relaxations in the access restrictions a considerable number of routes were quietly added at Eridge Green by the Holliwell group, though once again much of this was probably a question of formalizing previous, unrecorded, SCC activity.
• A lull in development followed the 1969 guide until a wave of new route activity commenced in late 1971. Between 1971 and 1975 by far the most active pioneers were Nigel Head and Gordon DeLacy. They can probably be credited with around half of the 150 odd new routes contained in the 1981 guide; particularly notable among their routes were Nightmare and Fandango Right Hand at Bowles; and Adder (free) and Dysentery at High Rocks. In the late 1970s Mick Fowler, another climber who established his reputation in North Wales and elsewhere (including the chalk climbing described later in this book), was responsible for advancing the standards of sandstone climbing by adding many high grade, good quality climbs. With routes such as The First Crack (free), Honeycomb and Infidel at High Rocks, and Sandstorm and The Crunch at Eridge Green these included some of the earlier 6bs on Southern Sandstone. During the 1970s Boysen, on periodic visits, climbed Sandman (on which his reach was a great asset) at Bowles and Boysen’s Crack at High Rocks.
• Adder and The First Crack were two of a number of old aid climbs to have been climbed free, giving some of the most impressive lines on Southern Sandstone and some of the hardest climbing of the time. Important solo ascents in the 1970s and early 1980s included the Harrison’s Coronation Crack by Stevie Haston and Hate by Fowler. The Thing was led by Andy Meyers, with a Friend and a nut for protection, and after a number of falls, when he apparently came dangerously close to the slab beneath at times. Digitalis and Serenade Aréte were soloed by Ron Fawcett, on a rare visit to Southern Sandstone when he soloed ‘all but two or three of the routes at Bowles on sight’ – despite this quote there were 16 NSs in the subsequent guide to Bowles!
• Following Tim Daniells’s 1981 guide a number of very good but necessarily hard routes were done at the major outcrops. Most of the smaller, less frequented crags were also further developed. One of the major and most able contributors, particularly in the early 1980s, was Guy McLelland. Of his numerous ascents a number are outstanding. At High Rocks he climbed two major additions with the hugely overhanging and impressive Judy and subsequently the less imposing but equally fine Salad Days. David Jones was also active during this period and, often climbing with McLelland, put up a number of important new routes as well as numerous fillers-in. His most difficult contribution was Time Waits for No One at Bulls Hollow which, though very short, provides some sustained technical climbing. Of his other routes, Harlequin (Chiddinglye Wood), Meridian (Under Rockes) and Kathmandu (Stone Farm) stand out. Together with McLelland he accounted for most of the new additions recorded at Penns Rocks and Ramslye Farm. Furthermore, he soloed extensively, removing the NS suffix from numerous 5b and 5c routes. Other climbers active in this period and subsequently include Barry ‘Rambo’ Knight, Chris Arnold, Dan Wajzner, Martin Crocker, Martyn Lewis, and Frank Shannon – all of whom contributed to the development of the area in various ways.
• One of the few major lines remaining at Harrison’s was picked off by McLelland with very little effort. This was a free version of Crisis – What Crisis? – which retained an aura of difficulty (of the 7a type) for a number of years, though it is now climbed frequently, and has even been soloed. In the same period Dan Lewis climbed The Republic, another fine addition to the Harrison’s repertoire, while his talented brother Martyn created Karen’s Kondom, named after a (strange?) sculpture he had done.
• In addition to McLelland a number of other climbers were active at High Rocks in the mid-1980s. In particular, Boysen caught out the regulars with his ascent of the superb Krait Aréte (pronounced Krite), which had repelled the efforts of many strong climbers; he himself had been trying it on and off for 25 years. Subsequently, Boysen managed another major line with Moving Staircase, the name reflecting the sloping nature of the crux footholds. A year or two later Gary Wickham found some motivation and picked some plum routes here, including the highly problematic Kinda Lingers and the excellent Nemesis; the latter perhaps stimulated by Matt Saunders’s ascent of the adjacent A Touch Too Much – a good route with a name appropriate to its first ascentionist.
• Perhaps surprisingly, Bowles Rocks continued to give some excellent new routes. The impressive wall of Temptation was climbed by Dave Turner who subsequently led the route, sticking his neck out and clipping all the many bolts on the way. On the same wall the old aid climb Kinnard was turned into a very sustained free climb by Paul Hayes, thus creating one of the longest roped climbs on sandstone.
• The discreet activity continued at Eridge Green; the best routes being once again the work of McLelland. The Beguiled is a tendon-ripping problem on a steep wall, while in contrast Diagonal is a delicate, technical proposition. At Stone Farm a few surprisingly good new routes were climbed in the mid-1980s. Ed Stone put up the very tricky Birdie Num-Nums; McLelland powered up the extremely strenuous Guy’s Route – which is dangerous even on a top-rope – and Barry Franklin created the technical Illusion. Sadly, a large number of chipped holds have appeared here, a reprehensible practice which can only be condemned.
• Bassett’s Farm, a small but fine outcrop omitted from Daniells’s guide because he couldn’t find it, was 'rediscovered’ by Ian Mailer and friends. Between them all the worthwhile lines were climbed before its location was revealed, including the fine Karate Liz and Dislocator by Mailer, and Dan’s Wall courtesy of Dan Lewis.
• In 1987, while working on his guidebook, Turner set to work on some of the more obvious remaining lines. At Bowles the Patella- Digitalis wall provided yet another fine climb – Nutella – while the much-eyed line on the Engagement Wall at High Rocks gave the highly gymnastic Dyno-Sore. An altogether different proposition was a wall in the Grand Canyon which required a protracted effort before it finally yielded Cool Bananas – the hardest route on sandstone at that time. At Harrison’s Turner later climbed Lager Frenzy – 'the last great problem’ of the crag. Panther’s 1986 Harrison’s guide provided the incentive, claiming it would require a 'superman... rocknast' to free-climb it.
• The early and mid-1980s saw a number of notable solo performances. Dan Lewis managed some of Harrison’s harder routes, including Celestial’s Reach, Forester’s Wall Direct, and The Mank. At Bowles he made a frightening unroped ascent of Sandman, with a somewhat worried person below to divert his 13-stone frame from the boulder should he have come unstuck. Again at Bowles Hayes soloed Patella, a highly insecure proposition. Returning to Harrison’s, Right Unclimbed received a solo ascent from Wickham – impressive because the crux is very easy to fluff – while Grant’s Wall and the precarious Grant’s Groove received similar treatment from Mailer. Furthermore, Fowler returned once again to sandstone and made a very impressive ropeless ascent of his own route, Infidel.
• In 1987 Saunders risked a lot with his solos of first Temptation and then, to top that, Carbide Finger – still the hardest route in the South-East to have been soloed. Indeed, his first attempt on the former ended with a broken ankle. Carbide Finger, undergraded and certainly the most difficult climb in Daniells’s guide, has now had a number of ascents.
• The publication of Turner’s guide led to a re-assessment of the remaining possibilities. Hayes was the first to make the book out of date. In the summer of 1989 he climbed two major lines: the bizarrely named More Cake for Me at Eridge Green – superb climbing up an unlikely-looking wall – and Unforgettable, an imposing aréte at High Rocks. He also eliminated the aid points from Ping Pong to produce the short but desperate Whiff Whaff.
• The summer of 1990 proved to be exceptionally hot and dry. All the outcrops dried out completely and an unprecedented new route boom ensued.
• At High Rocks Jasper Sharpe succeeded in free-climbing one of the few remaining aid routes to produce The Second Generation, the finest addition for almost a decade. This was originally 'ascended’ in the 1970s using a plethora of wooden-wedges and expansion-bolts, the area of rock being chosen on the assumption that it could never be climbed conventionally. Turner, who was narrowly beaten to the first ascent, then climbed the hideously thin groove opposite to create Chimaera, the first, and so far only, route to warrant the grade of 7a. The climb remains unrepeated to this day despite concerted efforts by the locals and occasional visits by 'stars’ from other areas.
• The weekend that Chimaera fell proved to be one of frenetic activity. Wickham climbed the technical The Purvee, a climb unlikely to see a lot of traffic; and Fungal Smear, which, unusually for sandstone, features hard slab-climbing. Paul Widdowson added Too Hard for Dave, and Hayes climbed the pumpy So What? The pick of the routes, however, was another Turner creation – Renascence, a steep unrelenting climb with a nasty sting in its tail.
• The rest of the development that year proceeded at a (slightly) more sedate pace. Widdowson was the most prolific activist, accounting for a suprising number of hard routes, amongst which Kraken, Slowhand, and Telegram Sam stand out. Wickham gave Missing Link an independent start and eliminated the aid-point; and in doing so created a fine route – one of the longest at the outcrop. Turner’s final route of the year was the esoteric Tubby Hayes is a Fats Waller. Sadly this turned out to be his last route in the South-East, as first injury and then migration to Sheffield removed him from the sandstone scene. Undoubtedly the finest sandstone climber of his generation he was responsible, together with Wickham, for setting a standard of difficulty which, five years since his departure, has yet to be equaled, let alone surpassed.
• Eridge Green also saw much activity. The decaying vegetation, a legacy of the 1987 storms, was obligingly cleared by the owners, and great swathes of rock emerged from the gloom. In the frantic scramble for new routes that ensued, nearly every buttress received attention. The father-and-son team, Oliver and Guy Hill, developed the Steelmill buttress with four good routes of a suprisingly reasonable standard; Genesis and Poofy Finger’s Revenge being perhaps the pick. Widdowson put up four quality routes; on an early visit he accounted for Lou, a fingery, highly technical proposition on one of the newly unearthed buttresses; and Lazy Chive, a climb with a frustratingly hard finish. Later he added Zugzwang, a fine crack-line, and Nonpareil, the hardest route at the outcrop, which involves wall-climbing at its most thin. Other notable routes were: Mike Vetterlein’s Prowess, a route that is probably harder to set up than to climb; Sharpe’s Flail Trail, the only route to fall in the Amphitheatre; Andy Hughes’s Mellow Toot; and Alan Grigg’s Meaty Thighs.
• With the return of more typical weather the pace slowed at High Rocks. Sharpe added two short desperates, I’ll Be Back and Ponytail Pearson, before he too moved out of the area. The evergreen Boysen hobbled up Senile Walk in the Stygian gloom of Bell Rock Transverse Passage. Vetterlein climbed the intricate Educating Airlie, and Wickham, after over two years of effort, the grossly overhanging Bone Machine.
• A few climbs were un-earthed at Harrison’s (literally, in some cases). Widdowson powered his way up Powder Monkey and Theseus Gerard added the thuggish Oliver James to the same buttress. Steve Quinton climbed two fine routes: Dr. Pepper, an extremely thin wall climb, and the fiercely impending Lager Shandy.
• At Bowles Robin Mazinke climbed what is undoubtedly the hardest route at the outcrop, Them Monkey Things. A route of this name was climbed by Jonny Woodward (of Beau Geste fame) and first appeared in the 1981 guidebook at the grade of 6a! However, confusion then set in as to its exact location, with the locals eventually settling for the wrong line – a line well to the right of Woodward’s route. Fifteen years of unsuccessful repeat attempts then followed, during which Woodward’s actual route was climbed and renamed as Boiling Point. Chris Murray added two routes to the last sizeable area of unclimbed rock: Knucklebones, a painful route up a line of old bolt holes, and Coast to Coast, a short but sustained high-level girdle. The latter climb opened up the possibility of a girdle traverse of the whole outcrop. This was duly done by Mazinke, who, a few months earlier, had proved himself something of a traversing expert with his girdle of Bulls Hollow Rocks. Of the outcrops where complete traverses are possible, only Harrison’s now remains to be done, although it is doubtful if there are sufficient hours of daylight, or enough people willing to act as belayers/dogsbodies, for this mammoth undertaking.
• Mazinke was also the main activist at Penns Rocks, where, during an all-too-brief relaxation of the access restrictions, nearly forty routes were put up (although some of these had probably been done before but left unrecorded).
• The early 1990s saw a continuation of high grade soloing, of which the most impressive was undoubtedly Murray’s ascent of What Crisis? at Harrison’s. At the same outcrop he also soloed The Limpet, whilst Quinton accounted for Karen’s Kondom and The Republic. Other notable solos were Sputnik, Meridian, Reach for the Sky, Crucifix and Fly by Knight – all the work of Tim Skinner – Forgotten Crack by Wickham; and Double Top and Higher Purchase by Doug Reid.
• The most prolific soloist, however, was John Patterson, who accounted for some 30 routes of 6a or above. These include Nightmare, White Verdict and A Lady in Mink at Bowles; and Stubble and Wailing Eliminate at Harrison’s. His finest routes, however, were at Eridge Green, where the brittle rock, dampness, and isolation all work against the solo climber. Here, in a series of brief but intense campaigns, he soloed, amongst others, Diagonal, Sandstorm, Slug, The Beguiled, Waffer Thin, Lou, Steelmill, and Steamroller.
• The future for new-routeing on sandstone does look a bit bleak. There are now virtually no gaps for new climbs at Bowles, Bulls Hollow and Stone Farm, whilst at Harrison’s gaps that do exist tend to be where the rock is heavily vegetated. Only at High Rocks and Eridge Green is there any real scope, and even here it will need a summer on a par with 1990 before any real progress is made. It seems that for the foreseeable future soloing will be the pre-eminent activity. A glance at the graded list is sufficient to see that a considerable number of routes of 6b and above have yet to be soloed. Some of these are clearly out of the question while at the same time routes such as Krait Aréte, Salad Days, Judy and Boonoonoonoos are all reasonable propositions; and then there’s always Moving Staircase!
• Finally, and most importantly, a great deal of extra care is needed to minimize erosion, otherwise Southern Sandstone will cease to be.
The first recorded climbing began in 1926, when the possibilities of Harrison’s were realized by Nea Morin, who had climbed on similar outcrops at Fontainebleau; a family connection which subsequently led to the introduction of the PA rock-boot to British rock, and later the EB. Her group climbed a number of routes including a number that still retains the 5b grade to this day. In the late 1920s the same group was active at High Rocks, which has a long history as a pleasure ground, being first popularized in 1670 by James II, when Duke of York.
In 1934 H Courtney-Bryson and M O Sheffield, members of the Mountaineering Section of the Camping Club, produced the first guidebook to Harrison’s, listing about thirty climbs. In 1936 Courtney-Bryson went on to produce a new guide, which covered several other known outcrops in the area. This was to be an inspiration to the next generation of sandstone climbers, many of whom had known little or nothing of outcrops other than Harrison’s – this still applies in some quarters even today.
High Rocks was developed in 1936-37 by Oxford University climbers (the first recorded routes on the Isolated and Hut Boulders) and, just before the Second World War, by members of the Polaris Mountaineering Club. The latter knew nothing of the previous work and the outcrop was in effect developed from scratch, with a particular emphasis on the numerous chimneys. Members of the Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland continued the exploration at High Rocks after 1942.
In 1945, a new wave of exploration began at Harrison’s and standards were raised considerably by the addition of the fine and elegant Slim Finger Crack, which is the first record of a route still retaining the 5c grade. At about this time most of the obvious lines at High Rocks Annexe and Continuation Wall, and Stone Farm were climbed.
After Pyatt’s 1947 guide, Harrison’s continued to be the most popular outcrop and standards continued to rise as is indicated by the fact that two climbs from this period are now graded 6a, perhaps the first climbs in Britain to merit this grade, and at least two 5cs were soloed, one on sight.
In the early 1950s, a forceful new group emerged in the form of the Sandstone Climbing Club. They soon moved their attention from Harrison’s, where they ‘often felt outclassed by the earlier inhabitants’, to High Rocks (where they had use of the hut that used to exist behind Hut Boulder) so as to work up their standards. The success of this exercise was soon evident and the first generation of SCC climbers was responsible for most of the harder routes at High Rocks in the 1956 guide. Between 1956 and 1963 the SCC monopolized development at High Rocks, adding over seventy new routes; many of these were of the highest standards including four with the new 6a grade in the 1963 guide. During this period the SCC were also steadily adding routes at Harrison’s and here they were later joined by members of the North London MC.
Bowles Rocks was the only major outcrop not mentioned in the pre-war records. Nea Morin is known to have climbed there shortly after the war and the SCC to have been there in the early 1950s. In 1959/60 the SCC (initially as prospective purchasers of the Rocks) started an intense period of cleaning and they pioneered the large majority of climbs, including some of the very hardest. The Thing is probably the first route to now be given the 6b grade. The Bowles Mountaineering Trust purchased the Rocks in 1963, outbidding the initial asking price of £400. It was at this time that the unfortunate hold-chipping and rock engineering occurred on a number of climbs (admittedly some of these are now fine climbs).
Bowles in fact served a wide range of purposes prior to its present role. There is evidence of prehistoric habitation and later smugglers (trading cannons and other iron products for French brandy and cigars) are thought to have used the outcrop as a hiding place. During the 19th century the rocks provided a backcloth to an avenue of trees and a carriageway leading to the house of John Bowles, a Dutchman. Subsequently the Rocks provided the site for a gypsy camp and a rubbish tip. During the Second World War, Bowles was used as a firing range, hence the numerous pock-marks on the Range Wall. In the late 1950s and early 1960s notoriously ferocious pigs had their sties at the base of the Rocks.
• One of the most active climbers during the latter half of the 1960s at Harrison’s was Trevor Panther, who remains an active sandstone climber to this day. Among his climbs were the fine Sossblitz (with Peter ‘Soss’ Sorrell), albeit with an aid point, The Knam, Glendale Crack free, Crucifix and Grant’s Wall. One of Panther’s young protégés, Ben Wintringham, climbed the classic The Flakes and Celestial’s Reach, and was also responsible for The Limpet and West Wall Eliminate (now Woolly Bear), though these two climbs are almost certainly much harder now due to the loss of holds. Boysen, on leave from High Rocks, did Coronation Crack in 1967, whilst Greg Morgan climbed Orangutang in the same period.
• Another active group during this period was Les and Lawrie Holliwell, and Robin Harper. They laid strong emphasis on soloing and on using sandstone as training for bigger things. Lawrie Holliwell was to follow Boysen by becoming one of the top Welsh climbers; among his best achievements on sandstone were his solos of South-West Corner and Vulture Crack – the former being the hardest route to have been soloed at that time. It is now even harder since a crucial large hold broke off at the top!
• Little history is known about Bulls Hollow; the 1947 guidebook described twenty routes and little else was added up to 1963. Between then and 1968 the number of routes was doubled by Les Holliwell when working on the 1969 guide, though many of the routes may have been climbed before. Some of the hardest and most worthwhile routes were among the additions including The Wall, an atypical route for sandstone and one of the best at Bulls Hollow.
• During relaxations in the access restrictions a considerable number of routes were quietly added at Eridge Green by the Holliwell group, though once again much of this was probably a question of formalizing previous, unrecorded, SCC activity.
• A lull in development followed the 1969 guide until a wave of new route activity commenced in late 1971. Between 1971 and 1975 by far the most active pioneers were Nigel Head and Gordon DeLacy. They can probably be credited with around half of the 150 odd new routes contained in the 1981 guide; particularly notable among their routes were Nightmare and Fandango Right Hand at Bowles; and Adder (free) and Dysentery at High Rocks. In the late 1970s Mick Fowler, another climber who established his reputation in North Wales and elsewhere (including the chalk climbing described later in this book), was responsible for advancing the standards of sandstone climbing by adding many high grade, good quality climbs. With routes such as The First Crack (free), Honeycomb and Infidel at High Rocks, and Sandstorm and The Crunch at Eridge Green these included some of the earlier 6bs on Southern Sandstone. During the 1970s Boysen, on periodic visits, climbed Sandman (on which his reach was a great asset) at Bowles and Boysen’s Crack at High Rocks.
• Adder and The First Crack were two of a number of old aid climbs to have been climbed free, giving some of the most impressive lines on Southern Sandstone and some of the hardest climbing of the time. Important solo ascents in the 1970s and early 1980s included the Harrison’s Coronation Crack by Stevie Haston and Hate by Fowler. The Thing was led by Andy Meyers, with a Friend and a nut for protection, and after a number of falls, when he apparently came dangerously close to the slab beneath at times. Digitalis and Serenade Aréte were soloed by Ron Fawcett, on a rare visit to Southern Sandstone when he soloed ‘all but two or three of the routes at Bowles on sight’ – despite this quote there were 16 NSs in the subsequent guide to Bowles!
• Following Tim Daniells’s 1981 guide a number of very good but necessarily hard routes were done at the major outcrops. Most of the smaller, less frequented crags were also further developed. One of the major and most able contributors, particularly in the early 1980s, was Guy McLelland. Of his numerous ascents a number are outstanding. At High Rocks he climbed two major additions with the hugely overhanging and impressive Judy and subsequently the less imposing but equally fine Salad Days. David Jones was also active during this period and, often climbing with McLelland, put up a number of important new routes as well as numerous fillers-in. His most difficult contribution was Time Waits for No One at Bulls Hollow which, though very short, provides some sustained technical climbing. Of his other routes, Harlequin (Chiddinglye Wood), Meridian (Under Rockes) and Kathmandu (Stone Farm) stand out. Together with McLelland he accounted for most of the new additions recorded at Penns Rocks and Ramslye Farm. Furthermore, he soloed extensively, removing the NS suffix from numerous 5b and 5c routes. Other climbers active in this period and subsequently include Barry ‘Rambo’ Knight, Chris Arnold, Dan Wajzner, Martin Crocker, Martyn Lewis, and Frank Shannon – all of whom contributed to the development of the area in various ways.
• One of the few major lines remaining at Harrison’s was picked off by McLelland with very little effort. This was a free version of Crisis – What Crisis? – which retained an aura of difficulty (of the 7a type) for a number of years, though it is now climbed frequently, and has even been soloed. In the same period Dan Lewis climbed The Republic, another fine addition to the Harrison’s repertoire, while his talented brother Martyn created Karen’s Kondom, named after a (strange?) sculpture he had done.
• In addition to McLelland a number of other climbers were active at High Rocks in the mid-1980s. In particular, Boysen caught out the regulars with his ascent of the superb Krait Aréte (pronounced Krite), which had repelled the efforts of many strong climbers; he himself had been trying it on and off for 25 years. Subsequently, Boysen managed another major line with Moving Staircase, the name reflecting the sloping nature of the crux footholds. A year or two later Gary Wickham found some motivation and picked some plum routes here, including the highly problematic Kinda Lingers and the excellent Nemesis; the latter perhaps stimulated by Matt Saunders’s ascent of the adjacent A Touch Too Much – a good route with a name appropriate to its first ascentionist.
• Perhaps surprisingly, Bowles Rocks continued to give some excellent new routes. The impressive wall of Temptation was climbed by Dave Turner who subsequently led the route, sticking his neck out and clipping all the many bolts on the way. On the same wall the old aid climb Kinnard was turned into a very sustained free climb by Paul Hayes, thus creating one of the longest roped climbs on sandstone.
• The discreet activity continued at Eridge Green; the best routes being once again the work of McLelland. The Beguiled is a tendon-ripping problem on a steep wall, while in contrast Diagonal is a delicate, technical proposition. At Stone Farm a few surprisingly good new routes were climbed in the mid-1980s. Ed Stone put up the very tricky Birdie Num-Nums; McLelland powered up the extremely strenuous Guy’s Route – which is dangerous even on a top-rope – and Barry Franklin created the technical Illusion. Sadly, a large number of chipped holds have appeared here, a reprehensible practice which can only be condemned.
• Bassett’s Farm, a small but fine outcrop omitted from Daniells’s guide because he couldn’t find it, was 'rediscovered’ by Ian Mailer and friends. Between them all the worthwhile lines were climbed before its location was revealed, including the fine Karate Liz and Dislocator by Mailer, and Dan’s Wall courtesy of Dan Lewis.
• In 1987, while working on his guidebook, Turner set to work on some of the more obvious remaining lines. At Bowles the Patella- Digitalis wall provided yet another fine climb – Nutella – while the much-eyed line on the Engagement Wall at High Rocks gave the highly gymnastic Dyno-Sore. An altogether different proposition was a wall in the Grand Canyon which required a protracted effort before it finally yielded Cool Bananas – the hardest route on sandstone at that time. At Harrison’s Turner later climbed Lager Frenzy – 'the last great problem’ of the crag. Panther’s 1986 Harrison’s guide provided the incentive, claiming it would require a 'superman... rocknast' to free-climb it.
• The early and mid-1980s saw a number of notable solo performances. Dan Lewis managed some of Harrison’s harder routes, including Celestial’s Reach, Forester’s Wall Direct, and The Mank. At Bowles he made a frightening unroped ascent of Sandman, with a somewhat worried person below to divert his 13-stone frame from the boulder should he have come unstuck. Again at Bowles Hayes soloed Patella, a highly insecure proposition. Returning to Harrison’s, Right Unclimbed received a solo ascent from Wickham – impressive because the crux is very easy to fluff – while Grant’s Wall and the precarious Grant’s Groove received similar treatment from Mailer. Furthermore, Fowler returned once again to sandstone and made a very impressive ropeless ascent of his own route, Infidel.
• In 1987 Saunders risked a lot with his solos of first Temptation and then, to top that, Carbide Finger – still the hardest route in the South-East to have been soloed. Indeed, his first attempt on the former ended with a broken ankle. Carbide Finger, undergraded and certainly the most difficult climb in Daniells’s guide, has now had a number of ascents.
• The publication of Turner’s guide led to a re-assessment of the remaining possibilities. Hayes was the first to make the book out of date. In the summer of 1989 he climbed two major lines: the bizarrely named More Cake for Me at Eridge Green – superb climbing up an unlikely-looking wall – and Unforgettable, an imposing aréte at High Rocks. He also eliminated the aid points from Ping Pong to produce the short but desperate Whiff Whaff.
• The summer of 1990 proved to be exceptionally hot and dry. All the outcrops dried out completely and an unprecedented new route boom ensued.
• At High Rocks Jasper Sharpe succeeded in free-climbing one of the few remaining aid routes to produce The Second Generation, the finest addition for almost a decade. This was originally 'ascended’ in the 1970s using a plethora of wooden-wedges and expansion-bolts, the area of rock being chosen on the assumption that it could never be climbed conventionally. Turner, who was narrowly beaten to the first ascent, then climbed the hideously thin groove opposite to create Chimaera, the first, and so far only, route to warrant the grade of 7a. The climb remains unrepeated to this day despite concerted efforts by the locals and occasional visits by 'stars’ from other areas.
• The weekend that Chimaera fell proved to be one of frenetic activity. Wickham climbed the technical The Purvee, a climb unlikely to see a lot of traffic; and Fungal Smear, which, unusually for sandstone, features hard slab-climbing. Paul Widdowson added Too Hard for Dave, and Hayes climbed the pumpy So What? The pick of the routes, however, was another Turner creation – Renascence, a steep unrelenting climb with a nasty sting in its tail.
• The rest of the development that year proceeded at a (slightly) more sedate pace. Widdowson was the most prolific activist, accounting for a suprising number of hard routes, amongst which Kraken, Slowhand, and Telegram Sam stand out. Wickham gave Missing Link an independent start and eliminated the aid-point; and in doing so created a fine route – one of the longest at the outcrop. Turner’s final route of the year was the esoteric Tubby Hayes is a Fats Waller. Sadly this turned out to be his last route in the South-East, as first injury and then migration to Sheffield removed him from the sandstone scene. Undoubtedly the finest sandstone climber of his generation he was responsible, together with Wickham, for setting a standard of difficulty which, five years since his departure, has yet to be equaled, let alone surpassed.
• Eridge Green also saw much activity. The decaying vegetation, a legacy of the 1987 storms, was obligingly cleared by the owners, and great swathes of rock emerged from the gloom. In the frantic scramble for new routes that ensued, nearly every buttress received attention. The father-and-son team, Oliver and Guy Hill, developed the Steelmill buttress with four good routes of a suprisingly reasonable standard; Genesis and Poofy Finger’s Revenge being perhaps the pick. Widdowson put up four quality routes; on an early visit he accounted for Lou, a fingery, highly technical proposition on one of the newly unearthed buttresses; and Lazy Chive, a climb with a frustratingly hard finish. Later he added Zugzwang, a fine crack-line, and Nonpareil, the hardest route at the outcrop, which involves wall-climbing at its most thin. Other notable routes were: Mike Vetterlein’s Prowess, a route that is probably harder to set up than to climb; Sharpe’s Flail Trail, the only route to fall in the Amphitheatre; Andy Hughes’s Mellow Toot; and Alan Grigg’s Meaty Thighs.
• With the return of more typical weather the pace slowed at High Rocks. Sharpe added two short desperates, I’ll Be Back and Ponytail Pearson, before he too moved out of the area. The evergreen Boysen hobbled up Senile Walk in the Stygian gloom of Bell Rock Transverse Passage. Vetterlein climbed the intricate Educating Airlie, and Wickham, after over two years of effort, the grossly overhanging Bone Machine.
• A few climbs were un-earthed at Harrison’s (literally, in some cases). Widdowson powered his way up Powder Monkey and Theseus Gerard added the thuggish Oliver James to the same buttress. Steve Quinton climbed two fine routes: Dr. Pepper, an extremely thin wall climb, and the fiercely impending Lager Shandy.
• At Bowles Robin Mazinke climbed what is undoubtedly the hardest route at the outcrop, Them Monkey Things. A route of this name was climbed by Jonny Woodward (of Beau Geste fame) and first appeared in the 1981 guidebook at the grade of 6a! However, confusion then set in as to its exact location, with the locals eventually settling for the wrong line – a line well to the right of Woodward’s route. Fifteen years of unsuccessful repeat attempts then followed, during which Woodward’s actual route was climbed and renamed as Boiling Point. Chris Murray added two routes to the last sizeable area of unclimbed rock: Knucklebones, a painful route up a line of old bolt holes, and Coast to Coast, a short but sustained high-level girdle. The latter climb opened up the possibility of a girdle traverse of the whole outcrop. This was duly done by Mazinke, who, a few months earlier, had proved himself something of a traversing expert with his girdle of Bulls Hollow Rocks. Of the outcrops where complete traverses are possible, only Harrison’s now remains to be done, although it is doubtful if there are sufficient hours of daylight, or enough people willing to act as belayers/dogsbodies, for this mammoth undertaking.
• Mazinke was also the main activist at Penns Rocks, where, during an all-too-brief relaxation of the access restrictions, nearly forty routes were put up (although some of these had probably been done before but left unrecorded).
• The early 1990s saw a continuation of high grade soloing, of which the most impressive was undoubtedly Murray’s ascent of What Crisis? at Harrison’s. At the same outcrop he also soloed The Limpet, whilst Quinton accounted for Karen’s Kondom and The Republic. Other notable solos were Sputnik, Meridian, Reach for the Sky, Crucifix and Fly by Knight – all the work of Tim Skinner – Forgotten Crack by Wickham; and Double Top and Higher Purchase by Doug Reid.
• The most prolific soloist, however, was John Patterson, who accounted for some 30 routes of 6a or above. These include Nightmare, White Verdict and A Lady in Mink at Bowles; and Stubble and Wailing Eliminate at Harrison’s. His finest routes, however, were at Eridge Green, where the brittle rock, dampness, and isolation all work against the solo climber. Here, in a series of brief but intense campaigns, he soloed, amongst others, Diagonal, Sandstorm, Slug, The Beguiled, Waffer Thin, Lou, Steelmill, and Steamroller.
• The future for new-routeing on sandstone does look a bit bleak. There are now virtually no gaps for new climbs at Bowles, Bulls Hollow and Stone Farm, whilst at Harrison’s gaps that do exist tend to be where the rock is heavily vegetated. Only at High Rocks and Eridge Green is there any real scope, and even here it will need a summer on a par with 1990 before any real progress is made. It seems that for the foreseeable future soloing will be the pre-eminent activity. A glance at the graded list is sufficient to see that a considerable number of routes of 6b and above have yet to be soloed. Some of these are clearly out of the question while at the same time routes such as Krait Aréte, Salad Days, Judy and Boonoonoonoos are all reasonable propositions; and then there’s always Moving Staircase!
• Finally, and most importantly, a great deal of extra care is needed to minimize erosion, otherwise Southern Sandstone will cease to be.
