Millstone Edge is probably one of the beast gritstone crack climbing venues in Midlands with routs varying from Diff to E9. I have been wanting to visit it this climbing season and last weekend I finally got the opportunity to tag along with couple great climbers from my climbing club. They have been working on a climb called Dexterity, which is this brilliant looking fistish size crack on the Cioch Bay venue, graded E1 5B. It looked pretty intense I must say.
The weather on the day was great. Chilly but sunny pretty much all the time, although the cracks and parts of the routs themselves stayed a bit wet from the rain the previous day, which made the climbing a bit slippery.
Climbing Dexterity even as a second was hard work. This was my second ever crack climb I believe so even while using all my knowledge of hands and feet placements while crack climbing and advice given from others, I still fell off it a few times. I’m amazed and so happy I managed to get to the top. Definitely want to try it again, hopefully without falling off it.
I have also been given the opportunity to do some leading again so I did climb called Close shave graded S 4A, which is positioned not too far from Dexterity on the right side of the wall. It was very nice and definitely a good climb for a beginner trad leader.
For more information about Millstone Edge see links below:
- UKC guide to Millstone Edge
- The Crag guide to Millstone Edge
- Online Guide Book
- BMC information and weather updates for Millstone
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