Black Rocks (or Stonnis Rocks), is a small outcrop of ashover gritstone, between

Cromford Cromford is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, in the valley of the River Derwent between Wirksworth and Matlock. It is north of Derby, south of Matlock and south of Matlock Bath. It is first mentioned in the 11th-century Do ...

and

Wirksworth Wirksworth is a market town in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England. Its population of 5,038 in the 2011 census was estimated at 5,180 in 2019. Wirksworth contains the source of the River Ecclesbourne. The town was granted a mar ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...

, England. It is an important crag in the history of British rock climbing, and has some of the most extreme climbing routes in Britain, including ''Gaia''.

Climbing history

The crag has been a well-known

traditional climbing Traditional climbing (or Trad climbing) is a style of rock climbing in which the climber places all the necessary protection gear required to arrest any falls as they are climbing, and then removes it when the pitch is complete (often done ...

venue since the 1890s, and features in the early 1913 guidebook, ''

Some Gritstone Climbs ''Some Gritstone Climbs'' is a rock climbing guidebook written by British lawyer John Laycock (1887–1960). The book's subtitle, included uniquely on the frontispiece, is ''Some Shorter Climbs (in Derbyshire and Elsewhere)''. It was published ...

''. Black Rocks has some easier traditional climbing routes of grades Diff to VS 4c, and a selection of short

bouldering Bouldering is a form of free climbing that is performed on small rock formations or artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or harnesses. While bouldering can be done without any equipment, most climbers use climbing shoes to help se ...

problems of grades to , however, it is most noted for its historic extreme traditional climbing routes put up in the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. Its northerly aspect means that it is frequently in damp condition (and even covered in a green algae), however, the sandstone-like gritstone rock dries reasonably quickly. Important names in British climbing history have left their mark at Black Rocks such as James W. Puttrel (''Stonnis Crack'' HVS 4b, 1900), Fred Pigott (''Sand Buttress'' VS 4c, 1920), and Peter Harding (''Demon Rib'' E4 5c, 1949, and ''Promontory Traverse'' E1 5b, 1945). The two best-known extreme Black Rocks climbs are ''Gaia'' (grade E8 6c,

first free ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

Johnny Dawes Johnny Dawes (born 9 May 1964) is a British rock climber and author, known for a dynamic climbing style and for establishing bold traditional climbing routes. This included the first ascent of ''The Indian Face'', the first-ever route at the E ...

in 1986), and ''Meshuga'' (grade E9 6c, first free ascent by Seb Grieve in 1997), which are located on the main overhanging promontory section. Both climbs are featured in several climbing films including ''Stone Monkey'' (1988) capturing Dawes first ascent of ''Gaia'', ''

Hard Grit ''Hard Grit'' is a 1998 British rock climbing film directed by Richard Heap and produced by Slackjaw Film, featuring traditional climbing, free soloing, and bouldering on gritstone routes in the Peak District in the North of England. It is consi ...

'' (1998) in which French climber Jean-Minh Trin-Thieu takes a large fall on ''Gaia'', and ''Dosage Volume 4'' (2006), in which American climber

Lisa Rands Lisa Rands (born October 21, 1975) is an American rock climber. She is known for her bouldering for which in 2002, she became the first American female to win IFSC World Cup bouldering competitions, and topped the IFSC world boulder rankings in ...

made the first female ascent of ''Gaia''. In 2008, American climbers

Kevin Jorgeson Kevin Jorgeson (born October 7, 1984) is an American rock climber. He was one of the first two climbers, alongside his climbing partner Tommy Caldwell, to successfully complete a free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Par ...

and

Alex Honnold Alexander Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls. Honnold rose to prominence in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a ...

, both completed free solos of ''Meshuga'', while Honnold also completed the first-ever

flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid F ...

of ''Gaia''. In November 2000, Charlie Woodburn completed a direct finish to ''Gaia'' called ''Harder, Faster'', and graded it E9 7a; a fall from the

crux Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

near the top would likely be fatal, and it is thus considered one of the most dangerous climbs in Britain, and rarely repeated, with only its third ascent in December 2020.

Filmography

* Rands on ''Gaia'': * Hardest

: *

Dawes Dawes may refer to: Places * Dawes (Parish), New South Wales, Australia *Dawes Point, New South Wales, Australia * Dawes Arboretum, in Newark, Ohio, U.S. *Dawes County, Nebraska, U.S. * Dawes Township, Thurston County, Nebraska, U.S. Other uses *D ...

' FFA of ''Gaia'':

Bibliography

*''Froggatt to Black Rocks'' (Dave Westlake), June 2010,

British Mountaineering Council The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) is the national representative body for England and Wales that exists to protect the freedoms and promote the interests of climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers, including ski-mountaineers. The BMC ...

. . *''Eastern Grit, 3rd Edition'' (Chris Craggs), April 2015, RockFax. .

Gallery

File:Black Rocks near Cromford - geograph.org.uk - 2956404.jpg, Approaching crag, ''Gaia'' on left. File:View from Black Rocks, Derbyshire (51603836151).jpg, View from the top, 2021. File:Cromford, the Black Rocks, Derbyshire, England, 1890s.jpg, Black Rocks, 1890s.

References

External links

Alex Honnold onsighting "Gaia" (E8 6c) at Black Rocks, England
''PlanetMountain'' (November 2008)
Neil Mawson huge fall on “Meshuga” (E9/5.12D, RX)
''

Rock & Ice ''Rock & Ice'' is a magazine published by Outside focusing on rock and ice climbing. The first issue came out in March 1984. The first publisher was Neal Kaptain. George Bracksieck worked for him, beginning in January 1984, and the two became e ...