Bouldering at The Roaches: The Very Far Skyline

Since the youngest two's shoes turned up, we thought we'd make a day of it and go from Roaches End to do some of the Skyline green circuit. That was two days ago... we never even made it to any graded bouldering problems... the two youngest wanted to climb every rock on the way! Since I have to have the kids for the majority of the summer holidays, we had to go out at some point this week, couldn't let Alex miss out... forecast for tomorrow is rain so today's as good as any. Windy but worth it! Took half an hour to walk up from Roaches End. Only had an hour and a half to play with so only managed to get to grips with The Very Far Skyline... we ended up sharing the area with three lads from Coventry who were camping in Matlock for three days, doing some bouldering in different areas of the Peak District each day.

There were only two green routes we didn't make - Harry Patch (V0) and Pinkies to Perkies (V0)... they feature in the pictures so you will find out why! This area has different problems compared to Spring Boulders and Lower Tier.

The Very Far Skyline

Rounded Arete (VB), Crack (VB), Slab Crack (VB), Slab Walk (VB), Wall and Rib (V0-), Left Crack (V0-), Right Crack (V0-), Easy Ramp (VB) - Both of us

Alex takes it easy up Left Crack (V0-). Right Crack (V0-) is to the right, unsurprisingly!

Peak Bouldering says this wide traditional Crack (VB) takes no prisoners and it's not kidding! For a beginner it introduces the concepts of getting up fairly high at a weird angle.

Alex does it. It's pretty easy from this position to climb up the back but still exciting. If he went diagonally left now onto the overhang he'd be doing Harry's Patch (V0) but we both wussed out on that one today. If you look at the fine crack down the recessed rock to the right, that's Pinkies to Perkies (V0). We tried... the face was smooth-ish but a fall would only involve sliding down the grit. I found out that my crack jamming skills left a lot to be desired... hopefully next time on both counts.