Six Pounds of Sika.
By Andy Harris.

Rubicon / 'ru:bikon/ n. boundary; cross the Rubicon take action by which one becomes committed to an enterprise. [Rubicon, river on ancient frontier of Italy]

Obviously the person at Oxford English Dictionaries hasn't visited the Peak Districts' most salubrious climbing venue. Once the crag to be seen at it now seems to go in and out of fashion like corduroy flares.

Situated next to the picturesque Cressbrook Mill at the end of Water cum Jolly valley, Rubicon Wall is one of the most famous limestone crags in the Peak. It is also one of the last to seep, and all year round climbing isn't unheard of. Never right it off, no matter what the weathers doing in Sheffield. How to get there.

Tom Proctor got the ball rolling in 1979 when he lurched up Rubicon roof. Who'd have thought it would become the most popular 7a north of Portland? The crag came of age in the early 80's when the likes of the Lee brothers (Dominic and Daniel) and Big Ron put up the excellent but sadly neglected White Bait, Jaws and Piranha. At about the time when The Human League were at their most popular, historic routes such as Caviar (8a+) and Zeke the Freak (8b) were being put up by Tony Ryan and Ben Moon. It wasn't until 1997 that Jon Welford upped the grade of the crag resulting in the Peaks' 2nd 8c+ which for obvious reasons he called The Bastard.

Rubicon is without doubt the most finger unfriendly crag in the UK. So why is it so good? Well, for a start it's only 2 minutes walk from the car (a must for the modern boulderer) and secondly it offers some of the most fingery, body tension developing problems around. There's nothing much on the Kudos wall below English 6c, so take some Ibuprofen, warm up well, grit your teeth and start cranking. There's more pain to be had here than at and S&M orgy. Cries of "Tape!" and "has anyone seen my finger tip?" are common. You might also like to marvel at the quantity of araldite, sika and car body filler holding the crag together whilst you're there.

There are 2 main bouldering areas at the crag. The first being the 3 tiered bulge just below Rubicon roof which can indecently be done footless. The second is The Kudos wall situated between Millers Tale and Water Bailiff in the middle of the crag. It was here that that man Dominic Lee put up the still tricky Bigger Splash in 1981 and the infamously strong Tim Freeman did A Bigger Tail in 1985. First ascentionists of the other problems and eliminates have been lost in the mists of time but include the likes of Ben Moon, Jerry Moffatt, Tim Clifford and the human coat hanger Matt Birch.