Peak district bouldering: Cratcliffe Tor
Sunny days have started to make a return - and what better way to welcome the Sun than a day bouldering in the Peak District?
We headed to Cratcliffe in the Southern Peaks with our ambassadors Michaela & Jerome for some sunny bouldering.
"But granite in the sun!?" I hear you say... well don't worry Cratcliffe is perfect as the surrounding woods give the boulders shade.
An important side note: Each slide finishes with a picture of Vera 🐶
Jerome & Michaele on the approach to Cratcliffe Tor (with Vera 🐕🦺)
Jerome navigating through the woods in his Gaia Twill Trousers
Michaela & Vera approaching through Cratcliffe Woods
Firstly, the approach
One of the great things about Cratcliffe Tor is you've not got a long ol' trek to the boulders!
Yes theres a little bit of bushwacking and somewhat sketchy foot placements but all in all it's not bad (I did it in Vans if that's any indication).
Overall the walk to our warm up boulder took us around 15 minutes from the B5056 between Bakewell and Winster.
Jerome at the bottom of the Brain Dead arete... the "warm up"
Michaela assessing her next move whilst wearing the Ash Shorts
"Michaela topping out on Skin Deep 7a+
Jerome slinging his leg up to that nasty high foot we mentioned (Look at those Gaia's stretch though 😏)
Jerome working his way up the arete to the top out of Brain Dead/Skin deep
Because we love a crag dog... especially when they're as cute as Vera!
Warming up... on a 6c highball 🥴
When discussing where we should warm up, Jerome mentioned a boulder with a nice, aesthetically pleasing arete... what he didn't mention is that it's a 6c highball!
This route is "Brain dead", the main route up the Brain dead boulder. After crushing Brain Dead, it was time for the 7a+ sit start; "Skin Deep"... which caused an issue with getting a high right foot when exiting the roof.
Michaela working on P Crack wearing our Strider cargo trousers
Jerome and his fancy footwork on P Crack in our Johnson Trousers
Gold Medal for best crag dog goes to Vera
Playing on P Crack
Before jumping on the main boulder of the day, we moved down to relatively new boulder named P Crack to work out some beta, eat lunch, and play with Vera.
There was also an outfit change into our new Twills & Desi active tech shirt to test them bouldering... they all worked a treat!
Michaela sending Priestmaker 1000 (7c+) in Cratcliffe
Priestmaker 1000: the climb of the day 💪
This boulder is given 7c+ but the general consensus is that this boulder is an 8a... so we're saying 8a 😉
This was a burley boulder consisting of some intense roof climbing, slopy holds on the lip and a not-so-fun top out... but words don't do it justice so here's Michaela crushing it instead:
A fan of what you've seen?
Jerome & Michaela were wearing some items from our new Spring 2025 collection at Cratcliffe... if you like what you see you can shop the bits they wore below or head to teh full collection online!
May 07, 2025
