Minera climbing

Crag: Minera Quarry
Routes: Easy Grooves (f4c:led), The Quartz Slab (f6a:led), Thin Grey Wall (f6c:led), Narrow Arete (f6a+:led), Hard Start (f6a+:sec), Quartz Wall variant (f6b:sec)
It is a shame that this venue is so small and limited, as the climbing is quite good and it is only a 20 minute drive from my front door. This was a brief but enjoyable session ticking the remainder of the crag after my initial visit last week. We moved systematically from right to left: beginning with the very easy but pleasant line of shallow grooves. Gentle but nice. The Quartz Slab to its left was more delicate with nice technical moves leading to a superb but tiny quartz slab: if this went on for 50ft it would be a classic. As it is, two crisp moves on incut holds gets you to the top. Virtually all the routes on the crag are overgraded, a common issue with UK sports routes, and the Thin Grey Wall was no exception. Supposedly f6c, it is indeed quite technical with some intricate moves, but nowhere near 6c, which is my leading limit. I led this clean and onsight. Good friction, small footholds and neat edging up to an awkward rockover on to a long thin ledge. Nicely sustained, probably more like 6a+. Narrow Arete gives another pleasant climb, up the eponymous feature via some technical moves on small holds. Again, never particularly hard, probably 5+. The route to its left is steep to start, as its name suggests, and looks disjointed: but is quite good again. I climbed Quartz Wall from the same lower-off so moved left at the top to avoid the pendulum (and therefore the full tick). Good rough limestone: if only the crag was twice as high and six times as long.