Alderman is a pleasant venue to spend a couple of hours in Chew, the aspect on the whole is sunny apart from late on an evening. There are some impressive pieces of rock here with slabs, walls and aretes on heavily pebble studded rock. There are plenty of easier grade problems and highballs with the odd hard one thrown in. Be gentle with those pebbles and be wary of some of the landings. Could easily be combined with Oven Stones for a longer day out.
Approach: park at Binn Green car park about 1 1/2 miles up the A635 from Greenfield to Holmfirth. The crag can be seen on the left, up the steep hill on the opposite side of the road from the car park. Go through the gate and through the first stile on your right, follow the path immediately left round the brow of the hill. When you reach the wall, follow the path up its right hand side up the hill. Think of your quads and how great it will be for your alpine training. The climbs are described from left to right as you approach the middle of the crag. Approx 15 minutes.
Access: See BMC Regional Access Database https://www.thebmc.co.uk/modules/RAD/View.aspx?id=1341
Alderman—left As you approach the middle of the crag the first problem described can be seen as a steep clean wall, just left of the obvious fin of rock.
1. Juggy Wall, climb the steep juggy wall, a good spot to warm up, easy.
2. Hollow Flake, climb the short wall via the hollow flake, easy.
3. Little Big Problem, climb the wall left of the fin with a tricky move for the top, 6b.
4. Big Little Problem, climb the steep fin of rock, with immediate exposure from the poor landing, (E3 6c) 7a+.
5. Climb the flakes, 3+.
Alderman—right As you approach the right hand crag the first problems described are on a long bulging buttress with two faint hearts carved on it and small narrow slab immediately right.
6. Hearts, climb the slabby wall past 2 engraved hearts using a sidepull and pebbles, to the top, 6c+.
7. Climb the slab just left of the arete, using a sidepull and a small pocket, 5.
8. Climb the blunt arete, first on the right, swing round to finish, 5.
9. Pebbledash Wall, the small, narrow slab, easy if climbed with the right hand arete, harder if the arete is eliminated.
10. Ditch Diggin, the obvious steep pebbled scoop, an excellent problem, 7a+.***
11. Climb the short wall left of the corner crack, 3.
12. Golden Wonder, climb the blunt arete with the curving crack. Start on the left to finish on the right side of the arete, a tad high, technically ok but abit worrying, 5+.
