Caption:

The Cube (Font 6b+): Dan Bradley throwing some shapes on The Cube, Roaches Area, Peak District

Commentary:

The Roaches are to Western grit what Stanage is to Eastern Grit – uber popular with more classic climbs than most people can do in a life-time. Yet the opportunity to escape the crowd and get off the beaten track still exists for those with a nose to find such things. Scouring the plethora of guidebooks available for the area, The Cube jumped out as a possible contender for somewhere a bit different – a possible venue for the calendar even.

Given the absence of a well-trodden track it was obvious that The Cube was truly off the beaten track. However, once at The Cube, Dan and myself were immediately attracted to the place; a blob of pristine grit amidst a sea of tranquillity. The mid-morning heat had however built-up ‘quite nicely’ such that friction, too be honest, wasn’t at its best. Not to worry though, The Cube was ‘only’ graded Font 6b+; Dan would eat it alive!

So picture the scene – if you’ll pardon the pun. The Cube stood in the middle of a gentling sloping moorland. Natural vantage points were limited but did include a mini Matterhornesque boulder, which to my great fortune, lay to the south of The Cube. A short length of derelict gritstone wall run between the two boulders which were about 15 metres apart. The Cube itself was shorter on its rear (north) face and the top conveniently equipped with abseil points.

I figured that the most captivating construct for my images would be to shoot from either the top of the nearby boulder and/or super close-in off an ab rope. I started with the shots from the small and not very accommodating summit of the Matterhorn boulder. Shooting wide I kicked off with landscape images of Dan on (and off!) The Cube. Classic bouldering shots of ‘man on block in open moorland’ were a gift – the grit wall leading nicely into the shot to lead the eye up to the subject. Vertical framing didn’t seem quite as powerful though the viewfinder – not least, they didn’t have as much of the beautiful moorland in shot. Searching for more I dropped down a little, off the summit of my block. My perch was now quite precarious but I was able to include the rock beneath my feet as a frame and content to The Cube and Dan in the middle distance. Later on I also rigged and shot from an ab rope and shot close-up with a fish-eye.

Reviewing the images back in the digital darkroom, I felt that including the foreground rock in the image had supplied not only a 3-D feel but the crucial missing ingredient giving (almost) the ability of the viewer to touch the grit that Dan was climbing on. The shots worked for me – way better than the others – but check out the image I used for the November 2010 in Climbing: 2010 to see if it works for you...

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300, 12-24 AFS f4G @ 18mm, 1/160secs @ f16, ISO 250, matrix metering

Keywords:

Peak District, rock climbing, bouldering, action photography, The Roaches, The Cube (Font 6b+)