Horseshoe Quarry - the well-known BMC-owned sport climbing venue in the Peak District - is getting a makeover this summer with the start of a re-bolting project and we need your help!
With a high concentration of routes in the low to mid grades, Horseshoe is perennially popular and it’s only during the most torrential of downpours that you won’t see a few climbers’ cars in the car park. It attracts everyone from beginners making their first tentative steps onto an outdoor crag after learning to climb at an indoor wall, to hard yarding veterans going for another lap on one of the Main Wall classics.
The vast majority of routes in the quarry rely on bolts for protection and the existing bolts are widely varying in vintage and quality, as well as having some excessively high first clips. The aim of the project is to re-equip all sport routes on BMC land to make the crag as safe and amenable a place to climb as is reasonably possible for all experience levels.
High quality stainless steel glue in bolts will be used giving great strength and longevity and all lower offs will be standardised with a double bolt lower off featuring a maillon and ring on each bolt to allow straightforward threading of ropes, whilst being easily replaceable if the rings start to wear through in the future.
All of this comes at a cost however, and this is where you can help. We’re aiming to raise £15,000 to help towards the cost of materials (bolts, resin, maillons, rings etc) and the rope access team who will install them. There are options for donating everything from the cost of a single bolt, right through to equipping a full route or even picking your favourite line to re-equip. You can also buy one of our limited edition Horseshoe Heroes t-shirts for £20, with all profits going back into the project, alternatively if you would like to donate to the project without receiving any reward, you can enter any donation amount you like into the donation box, top right.
For more information on the Horseshoe re-bolting project, read our website here.
So dig deep, help us improve this ever popular crag for current and future generations of climbers and be a Horseshoe Hero!
Contractors currently working at Horseshoe Quarry:
The Horseshoe Hero tee design:
Horseshoe Hero climbing sculptures
You can also support the re-bolting of Horseshoe Quarry by buying a small part of it! The old bolts, hangers and lower offs are being repurposed and turned into climbing sculptures by local welding artists and you can buy one of these unique pieces of art.
The prototype sculpture below has been made using a removed Horseshoe chain lower off. As the work is currently ongoing, the materials required to make these sculptures are still being generated and more Horseshoe sculptures won't be created until the end of the re-bolting project.
You can choose to buy one of these sculptures made in a similar style to the prototype but we cannot guarantee what it will look like as each piece of removed protection is different.