Unspoilt grit

Me and Jim finally got around to visiting the main stream but little known Hebden Ghyll that is just outside Grassington in what you would expect to be Limestine country.

The crag is a little drive up a narrow gated trackout of Hebden in a really pleasant valley.

We were met with beautiful sunshine and so we set off up to the crag. the approach is short in distance but not overly easy requiring a fair bit of boudler hopping in order to get to the main part of the crag. I had read about a route on UKC called right of way which only gets 1 * in the grit guide but was described as good as Almscliff. This was to be the first route we tried. The rock had a lichenous tinge but was dry but also there was a serius feel with loose looking blocks here and there. It felt adventurous but not in a bad way, the blocks weren't falling out but treading carefully up i arrived at the traverse right, it felt just like Crack of Doom at Almscliff, traversing out albeit on better foot holds, stepping up was the crux but it wasn't over yet, some akward moves led in a cool position to a beautiful belay looking over Hebden.
Jim followed and decided to step it up on a HVS aled mutant midge, this had quite a trciky move on it and felt tough, next to it was an E1 called The Way that i had fancied - it looked excellent it was a different start to this route but the rock had some sand on it in the odd place and i didn't fancy the precarious mantle on a sandy hold. All the rain we've had i don;t think has done the crag much good.

Next we had an explore of the other stuff in the rift, it looked serious -the route of the crag magnificrack looked really tough some of the other stuff looked a bit worrying in terms of possible loose blocks so we left this area and headed to a great slab with some scary looking E4's but also a Severe and HVS up either arete which felt about as hard as each other but pleasant none the less. Walking back along the crag to the left hand end we were dissapointed with what was on offer but soloed a V Diff with the imaginative title Bisexula Bratwurst which would make a brilliant beginners route.

Quality little crag, well worth at least one visit - i suspect i will return especially now looking on UKC there is a load of new stuff recorded and bouldering which did look good -  hopefully these will be in the new guides.

If you're reading this and wondering whether to go - I'd say definitely for a pleasant day in a nice spot with the odd quality route. I suspect right of way will be 3* in the next guide it was very good!