Im not 100% convinced that my photos will do this crag the justice that it most certainly requires, but i’ll try my best to help your minds explode in excitement with words, so that’ll you’ll grab your boots and head there for yourselves to see why this is a really good crag to climb at.
The day started in standard climbing club tradition; plenty of brews and full english breakfasts floating around in the sweet little town of Settle.
Gigglsewick South is super convenient for the modern car driver, as it’s just outside of Settle. The crag is literally a few minutes walk up a hill from a lay-by. Bonus points to the climbers (Katie and Stephen) who are rocking the colourful trousers, it’s all about the colourful pants.
Our first buttress to get the day started was The Garden Wall as it was (1) in the sunshine (yes I said it… sunshine! in February) and (2) has a good handful of 5-6s to get our muscles flexed and warmed up.
I should probably take a step back right now and tell you a bit about the crag: Giggleswick South has around 150+ sport climbs to throw yourself at, ranging from 5 to a lot of 6s and a handful of 7s. So it makes for a great venue for pretty much all climbers for the day and is all along one path (for any beasts reading this, do read on, i’ll go into the 8s later on). Additionally, it does sport some trad climbing too, which is on the upper tier, but we all got stuck into sport climbing for the day.
This was one of the buttresses I was really looking forward to: Sector Bonhomie.
Above is Dave making his way up a top 50 climb (Bonhomie 6a+). Definitely a good climb with an interesting variety of holds and moves at a generous height of 15 metres.
Nigel Baker cruising his way up his own funky route: Feline Fun (6b)
I was really fortunate to be climbing with the one and only human guide book: the man himself, Mr. Nigel Baker. An absolute pleasure to climb with and better yet, pretty much established most of the routes here with a few of his climbing buddies, so if I was ever stuck, i’d have the encouragement of Nigel telling me to keep moving forward until I reached some magical jug that would appear from somewhere! And who’d of thought, they would appear (eventually!). Feline Fun was a great route with a memorable two finger pocket move!
Sarah capturing me Prowling Around (6b)
This little gem had to be my favourite climb of the day. It has a spicy traverse near the top of the route on crimps to get you above The Tiger in the Woods (7a). I went first on this route and Nigel said he couldn’t really remember it, so it felt very adventurous and a bit committing.
Right, time to inform you beasts what else there is here for you. First of all, there’s a top 50 (7b) to be had in Giggleswick South called Silent Laughter. Moreover, once you’ve dispatched of that and you feel like you want something more challenging, it may be best for you to head over to Giggleswick North to jump onto the Hollywood Bowls crazy cave. Get ready to pull yourself up some steep overhanging terrain with grades range from high 7s to 8s.
Photo taken from Google (copyright of Catherine Speakman photography)
Crackin’ photo and pretty awe inspiring steepness, eh?
So, all in all, Giggleswick really does have something for anyone and everyone! It made for such a great day out for the club and me and Nigel managed to get a nice 11 routes done in one day! I think there was around 16 of us from the club at the crag, but it never felt crowded at any point in time, as we pretty much had a buttress each! Overall, I highly recommend this venue if you fancy a fun day out to pop off plenty of routes on quality limestone.
Oh, and a word of warning to finish on: be careful if you ask for a large portion of chips from the local Settle chippy! My stomach almost exploded!
Happy climbing peeps!
Naf
Naf Climbing 