Rock climbing

Rock climbing

Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...

 is a popular activity in the Peak District

Peak District

The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire....

; particularly on edges such as Stanage or Froggatt

Froggatt Edge

Froggatt Edge is a gritstone escarpment in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park, in Derbyshire, England and situated in close proximity to the villages of Froggatt, Calver, Curbar, Baslow and Grindleford...

. Generally the climbing style is free climbing

Free climbing

Free climbing is a type of rock climbing in which the climber uses only hands, feet and other parts of the body to ascend, employing ropes and forms of climbing protection to prevent falls only....

 (as opposed to aid climbing

Aid climbing

Aid climbing is a style of climbing in which standing on or pulling oneself up via devices attached to fixed or placed protection is used to make upward progress....

) and the rock is either gritstone

Gritstone

Gritstone or Grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for paper and for grindstones to sharpen blades. "Grit" is...

 or limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

. Climbing has been practised in the Peak District since the late 19th century; James W. Puttrell is generally credited with starting the sport.
There are over 10,000 routes in the Peak District.
One of the most famous Peak District climbers, and a pioneer of many new routes, is Ron Fawcett

Ron Fawcett

Ron Fawcett is an English rock climber. He is noted for being amongst the outstanding rock climbers of the 1970s and 1980s, and for being one of the first professional rock climbers....

.