Greg Boswell's Blog

My Blog Has Moved House....... http://gregboswell.co.uk/

2012-01-08T15:11:00.000Z

I have moved my blog, it can now be found on my new website http://gregboswell.co.uk/. Thanks for stopping by.

Just Keep Climbing!!!

2011-12-16T21:30:00.002Z

The 3am start

I’m tired, my muscles are sore and I’m dehydrated, but that’s a worthwhile price to pay for doing the route Will and I did yesterday.

On Wednesday evening Will and I headed up to Aviemore to stay the night in James’ parent’s house on the outskirts of the town. We where planning an early start on Thursday morning so it was nicer to stay in a house then to kip in the back of my car in the Cairngorm car park.

Once at James’, we sorted out our gear and tried to match our intended route description to some guidebook photos and other routes info.

Will and I walking away from the car
Photo Credit- James Dunn Visuals

When we left from my house to drive to Aviemore, our plan was to head over to the Shelterstone for a bit of a recce mission and maybe try an easier line up the face to familiarise ourselves with the crag as neither Will nor I had climbed there before.

But earlier that day I had been speaking to Guy about his and Macphersons’ route “Stone Temple Pilots” and had asked him for the route description for later in the season. As we were driving North, Will and I were discussing routes on the Shelterstone and “Stone Temple Pilots” came up in convocation. Wills’ next comment was “Should we just do that tomorrow instead?” and my reply “YEAH BOI!!!! And the plan was made.

Me starting up the first pitch at 6:30am
Photo Credit- Will Sim

So we set our alarms for 2am and headed to bed filled with anticipation and thoughts about the following days challenges and delights.

As is often the case with early starts, it seemed to come around way too quickly and before I knew it I was walking away from my car and off in the direction of Coire an Sneachda on the way to the Shelterstone. --

We reached the bottom of the route in total darkness, apart from the odd shooting star that zoomed overhead in the clear night’s sky. After sorting gear and ropes, I headed off up the first long pitch of the “Steeple”. This pitch was home to some techy and thin climbing that was time consuming due to all the snow and cruddy ice on the slab and in the cracks. But I managed to make fairly good time and I was at the belay and bringing Will up the pitch by the time it got light.

The next pitch seemed to go ok and Will made short work of the short nippy section at the end of the second corner. I swiftly seconded that pitch and ran up the next short pitch to the base of the steep and sustained crux.

Me and Will at the top of the first pitch
Photo Credit- James Dunn Visuals

This is where the route really started to show its true colours and I got put through my paces as I fought my way up the sustained and tricky fractured wall. From below I thought the pitch looked ok and not that steep. But as I started up, the pick placements were good and the moves were big and fun, but then the angle started to really kick back and I found myself getting pumped on overhanging technical sections that felt super hard. To be honest, I made it to the belay only by the skin of my teeth. I thought the pitch was hard, super steep and technical which would be worthy of grade IX/9 in its own right! Which usually would be fine, but knowing we still had 4 hard pitches above this really started to play on my mind as I belayed Will up the next shorter techy slab pitch.

After Wills pitch he belayed on a big turfy ledge that we joked about biviing on to try and get some rest as the route was starting to take its toll. Above the left end of the ledge was a nails looking crack which looked steep and energy sapping. I started up the crack with every move making my arms cramp up. After a bit of route finding issues to where we needed to swing round the arête, I soon made the long reach into the big crack and up onto the easier ground to what I thought was the big terrace below the next pitch.

Me approaching the crux pitch
Photo Credit- Will Sim

As I was bringing Will up the pitch I realised that I had belayed in completely the wrong place and from where I was it was going to be very hard to gain the proper belay. So I shouted to Will to take out my last runner, which thankfully was 10m below me, then head right up the turfy groove to reach the correct terrace and belay as for the route. Once he had done this it was getting dark, so I headed back down to where he had climbed the groove and ascended this to meet him. Unfortunately this took a bit of faffing around and by the time I had reached Will on the correct belay it was totally dark and the starry sky was again in full view.

Thankfully we had expected to start and finish the route in the dark, so we fired up the head torches and Will got stuck into the next pitch. This pitch was also very sustained with a spicy crux section and some blind hooks to gain a small pod. After this there were some techy sections into a steep and awkward finish out of a capped groove. Once Will had shouted safe I stuffed the packet of Haribo that I had been munching on to try and get something from the sugary goodness, back into the bag and shout to Will how hard did the next pitch look. He replied with “It looks good” which I took as code for HARD! But I set off seconding his pitch anyway and tried not to think about what was ahead until I got there.

Will seconding the crux pitch
Photo Credit- Greg Boswell

I reached the belay and as soon as I looked up my biceps started to cry. “Mate, it looks nails” was my first comment, but we exchanged the rack and I moved up to the base of the last steep wall of this mega route. After starting up the shattered wall I thought that the hooks where good until I moved right into the baggy crack that needed to be climbed to gain the snowy ledge above. I climbed the crack, but couldn’t find a way to get onto the big ledge. Due to the huge mass of snow on the ledge, no ice had formed and there was no turf to be seen to get an axe to stick in to mantle onto the shelf. After some failed attempts to gain any height I shouted for will to “watch me” and threw my right foot above my axe and proceeded to push down my tool to try and rock onto the ledge. This didn’t really work and as soon as I got my foot up I was totally off balance and slowly falling backwards. In a flurry of panic I punched into the deep snow with my right fist and tried to use it to help me rock over. The first time it just pulled through, but as I was now pretty much about to fall I gave it one last punch and threw my body forwards. Much to my surprise I then found myself lying in the deep snow on the ledge, it had worked. I stood up and swiftly climbed the steep but very enjoyable corner which leads to a big terrace.

Will leading the slab techy pitch
Photo Credit- Greg Boswell

I could now see the summit and there was only about another meters 10 of climbing to go before we had cracked this long and tiring route. Thankfully the last overhanging corner was fairly straightforward compared to the previous section and a few minutes later I was standing on the top of the Shelterstone.

Whilst belaying Will up, I couldn’t stop my hands and forearms from going into awful cramps. But even though the cramps where painful and I was completely exhausted, I looked around at the moon beaming down over Loch Avon and the numerous shooting stars flying through the sky. There was nowhere else I would rather have been at that point! What a way to end an awesome day on an even more awesome route.

Check Wills blog for his thoughts- http://willsim.blogspot.com/

Will approaching the summit
Photo Credit- Greg Boswell

Fighting the Tiger!

2011-12-13T22:07:00.000Z

Ok....since my return from the Ben at the weekend I’ve been chomping at the bit to get out in the hills again. I texted Will on Sunday to see if he was free for some crankage on Monday, but he said he had to work. So it was a mass text session to everyone who climbs in my phonebook to see if they where free and psyched to get out the following day.

Thankfully Guy Robertson got back to me saying that he and Pete MacPherson were planning on heading into Coire an Lochain to look at a new line that they’d spotted last week and were cool with me tagging along; so the plan was made. I headed up to the Cairngorm mountain car park late on Sunday night ready for an early-ish start yesterday morning.

Pete and Guy approaching the route.

We set off towards the coire under a fairly clear sky with little wind and 3 lots of winter psyche charged and ready to get a new route sent and put to bed! When we reached the bottom of the buttresses it was obvious that everything in the coire was in awesome, if not a bit buried, condition. So it was game on!

We headed off to the base of the classic route of the coire “The Vicar” where our intended line was going to start.

Guy set off up the first pitch which took a direct cracked wall straight up the deceptively steep face to the belay ledge of “The Vicar”. This was a 3 star pitch with every move better than the last. Although the hooks and gear where good, the pitch was pretty pumpy and definitely got the blood flowing.

Guy leading the first pitch
Photo credit- Pete Macpherson

Pete swiftly seconded the pitch, with me hot on his heels. We reached the fairly cramped but comfy belay ledge in good time and quickly sorted the ropes and gear so that Pete could get stuck into the very meaty looking second pitch.

Pete set off up the pitch with some very bold and hard looking moves straight off the belay. All I could think about as he was leading off was “I’m so glad I’m going to be seconding this pitch with a nice safe rope above my head”, but Pete showed his experience and pushed on to gain the thin and super technical slab that barred the way to the huge roof. He was out of view at this point behind the arête so Guy and I could not see him, but his comments of “WATCH ME” and “I’M HOOKING NOTHING HERE GUYS” told us all we needed to know!

But before too long Pete appeared bellow the gnarly looking roof where he tried to get some recovery and gear before he decided to give it his all; which is exactly what he did!

He charged up the overhanging flake/crack that was forming the left side of the roof and after some wild axe swings and impressive foot placement changes he was now well above his last piece of gear. One of his axes ripped from the crack but he just powered through with his other arm, unfortunately as he was swinging his free tool to get another placement, the other tool ripped and before I knew it the rope in my belay device was getting ripped tight and Pete was at the end of an impressive 11m fall straight onto the slab.

Pete Mac battling with the crux
Photo Credit- Guy Robertson

Guy and I were stunned, although he was still on the steep ground, he was so close to getting over the roof. Pete said he was ok, shook it off and jumped straight back into action for round two with the beast. He gained the roof above the gear again but this time, and understandably, his head was a bit spangled after the big fall and the pump was still raging through arms after his previous fight with the crux. This was fair enough because if I’d taken that fall, I don’t think I would have even had it in me to attempt to give it a second go let alone climb passed the gear for a second time.

So the decision was made. After an awesome effort from Pete, he lowered back to the belay, pulled the ropes and I tied into the sharp end to go for another round with the intimidating line. All my lovely thoughts of having a nice safe top-rope up the bold and hard looking pitch were soon blown away, and I found myself shivering with anticipation before stepping off the belay ledge straight into the jaws of the Tiger!

I also found the first moves super bold and thin and was thankful to get my feet on the slopey foot ledge below the typical Cairngorm granite slab. I moved up the slab and realised why Pete had made the comments he had. There were sections were I was literally hooking less than half a centimetre of granite/dirt and the gear was defiantly not worth falling on at this point.

I persevered and found myself situated under the roof in the position where Pete had tried to recover. All I did was get more pumped!

At this point all I could think about was the fall that I had just witnessed. I looked up to see if I would be able to get some higher gear before committing to the steep moves. I climbed up and tried to place a small nut, but now that I was on the steep ground my energy was starting to drain and every time I placed the nut it would just rip out. By now I was super pumped, so I clipped the nut and shoved in back in, gave it a very light tug and told myself it was bomber (it was totally useless, as it fell out once I was above it).

I tried to get psyched but as I peered over at the roof I couldn’t see any way of progressing if I was to commit through the crux. There was an obvious good foot ledge on the lip of the roof which was the start of a second bold looking steeper slab, but above that was a huge overhanging totally featureless wall. This is the downside to trying new routes, you never know if the line is climbable or even if there will be any gear to lower off if you can’t find a way to proceed! But that’s why we do it, for the ADVENTURE!

I fought the demons in my head and decided to man up and give it a shot. I looked down and thought I really didn’t want to hit that slab from any higher than where Pete had got. I gave out the obligatory psyche shout and got stuck in. I made some big steep locks and swung to try and get my axes to stick, my left tool kept ripping but as my arms where losing power my pick caught on something miniscule inside the crack, not wanting to try again in case it ripped, I matched the tool and swung my right foot onto the ledge that was at shoulder height. At this point I was above Pete’s high point and knew that a fall would probably result in a helicopter ride! I scraped with my left frontpoint and got it to stick on something out of view, I shouted “WATCH ME” and the calls of encouragement were a blur behind the thumping fear and desperation in my head.

Me leaving the belay on the crux pitch
Photo Credit - Pete Mac

Somehow, a second later, I found myself standing on the tiny rounded foot ledge, and the feeling of success was flooding through me. After regaining my breathing I focussed all me attention on finding some much needed protection. As I was now what felt like miles above the piece that was situated on the slab under the roof.

I looked around and the first thought that came into my head was “what a stupid idea that was”. I was now stood dangerously far from my last useful runner and there were no hooks, gear or an obvious way of progression to be seen. I scraped at what looked like cracks under the snow on the slab, but these turned out to be the usual Cairngorm useless fooking seams!

I eventually found a collection of hideous looking protection and forced myself to continue to what looked like a good gear placement on the far right of the slab and what appeared to be the only way to gain the easier ground higher up the buttress. I balanced my way across the terrifyingly technical and tenuous slab, where at points I had no hooks and both feet were on tiny rounded smears on the boldest section. It felt like the Hurting all over again, but unlike when I climbed the Hurting, we did not know if this line/route was even climbable, as no one had ever been on it (the joys of ground up/onsighting).

After some shouts from Guy and Pete to see how I was doing, I replied with “I’m nearly at the easier ground” and then with one long span I reached the good gear and much better hooks that I had set my focus on for the time I had spent on the scary slab. After a couple of techy moves, this time with bomber gear, I reached the much easier ground and charged up the last 10m to the belay.

After bringing Guy and Pete up the pitch, I was pleased to see the big beaming smiles on their faces. Even though we were all tired, drained and the route had made us give it our all, there was still a huge amount of enjoyment in the climbing and I personally was super pleased to get up the route clean.

And yet again the Northern Coires deliver another amazing line. From what I’ve done in Lochain and having climbed most of the hard routes at this venue including the highest graded lines, this was by far the most serious and the hardest line I had done there! Guy commented that the route was comparable to “Crazy Sorrow” which is a grade IX/10 in Lochnagar that he did last season. So it was a good addition to this awesome and super accessible venue. Hopefully there will be many more!

We called the route “Siberian Tiger” *** and gave it the hard grade of IX/10.

Check out Guys blog for his take on the days events http://cairngormtiger.wordpress.com

A bit windy in them hills!

2011-12-10T23:12:00.006Z

Ok so winter has arrived, and what a start it was been.

Last Friday morning I headed off to Simon Yearsley’s house bright and early to meet up with him and head off towards Fort William for the STS on the Ben meet (sponsored by Big Tree campervans) that was being held at the CIC hut on Ben Nevis.

The meet was for the STS competition winners and special guests, and I was asked to be one of the hosts for the weekend. Despite the awful weather forecast we managed to get some good routes done with good weather and everyone seemed to have a fun time.

On the Friday afternoon I teamed up with James Higgins for a route on the Douglas Boulder, we did “Gutlass” which is a fun little IV/5. We climbed this route in conjunction with Malcolm Bass and Harry Holmes who were also on the meet.

Me on the crux of
"The Big Cheese"

On the Saturday I paired up with Fiona Murray and photographer James Dunn for the day. We headed off towards South Trident Buttress to see what was looking good. We opted for the route “The Minge” which is a line that follows a series of steep cracks that cut through the lower section of the buttress. We made the second winter ascent of this VII/8 which was put up by Pete Macpherson and Ed Edwards back in 2009.

After a good day on the Saturday, we woke up to amazing clear skies on the Sunday and the whole North Face of the Ben as our playground for the day. Again, we headed up towards South Trident area with a couple of routes in mind, but whilst trudging up the hill I spotted a funky looking ice dagger hanging from a roof on Moonlight Gully Buttress. I quickly picked out a continuation line above the dagger and asked Harry and James Higgins if the where keen for trying a new line. They both said they were up for it, so it was off to the bottom of Moonlight full of anticipation.

After a bit of battling through the roof to gain the ice, I eventually (second try) managed to get situated in the groove and found a fairly restful position which I milked before heading boldly up the thin ices to the belay platform. Unfortunately on my first attempt to get sorted in the groove both my axes ripped out of the thin ice and I found myself hanging from the rope above the starting slab. But I lowered down and got it sent on my second go.

Even though it was not a super long route and despite the tricky last pitch, it was not very sustained. But the crux was hard and bold, so I opted for the grade of VIII/8**, this might vary depending on the conditions of the ice in the groove.

All in all it was a really good weekend with the STS group and it was good to see how well all the folk who are psyched for the tooling series got on in mountains.

Walking in to Creag an Socach

On the Sunday night after the weekend on the Ben, I chatted to a mate Will Sim who lives down south in St. Bees. I told him the conditions in the mountains were good and without hesitation he arrived eager and ready at my front door on the Monday afternoon.

We planned on heading back up the Ben to the CIC Hut for a couple of days, but decided to take a detour en-route to have a look at the well known IX/9 “Defenders of the Faith” on Beinn Dorain which was put up by Dave MacLeod and Fiona Murray in 2006. The route was originally climbed onsight, and was yet to see a second ascent. So off we went.

Gearing up beneath "Defenders of the Faith"

James Dunn, Will and I met up with Adam Russell in the very snowy Bridge of Orchy train station car park and from what we could see of the crag from there, it was looking very white! Filled with new hopes of finding our intended route in condition, and with the amazing blue skies and sunrise above us, we quickly pounded through the deep fresh snow up the base of the coire which gave us a full view of the line.

After picking out where the route went from the ground Will and I geared up and soloed up to the base of the crux pitch. I set off leading up the pitch and swiftly realised that it was steeper than It looked from below. But I pushed on and after some inventive gear placements and some even more inventive axe placements, I eventually arrived beneath the crux roof at the semi rest position.

Me leading the crux pitch of "Defenders"

I looked around and tried a couple of different moves to try and breach the roof to gain the headwall, but nothing seemed to show itself. So after a bit of dithering around I decided that the gung-ho approach would be best and blasted over in full throttle. Once on the headwall I felt a little exposed and the thought that my gear was now well below me beneath the roof was fresh in my mind. I found some super thin hooks and a sketchy kneebar which was good enough for me to find some gear, after getting some protection the good hooks showed themselves and I was then comfortable and in balance on the face.

Me on the crux pitch

It was then the thin traverse which leads the obvious hanging corner which bars the way to the easier ground above. I got a half hammered in pecker, then made a long run-out section to the corner across the super techy wall and up to the turfy mantle and the end of the hard climbing. After the hanging corner there is a fair bit of climbing to reach the belay at the end of the first pitch, but even though it’s probably VI/6, it feels pretty easy after the climbing in the first half of the pitch.

Looking down the crux pitch from the top of
hanging corner.

I got to the belay totally stoked after making the second onsight ascent of the route. Will swiftly seconded the first pitch and then shot up the last pitch to reach the top of the crag. Once at the top, we walked back round to the base of the buttress to watch James and Adam for a while before heading back to the car and off to Fort William for some food and munchies.

Will moving up the easier last pitch of
"Defenders of the Faith"

After some food and fluid, James, Will and I headed off to the North Face car park and started what was to be a very long walk to the CIC Hut. Throughout the day the snow had been coming down hard and the path was a deep mass of fresh powder snow.

Just before the end of the tree line, we ran into Dave MacLeod, Blair Fyffe and a friend of theirs who had been climbing on the Ben that day and told us about the amount of snow up there and that it was hard to reach the routes. It was good to chat to Dave about “Defenders of the Faith” having just done the route a couple of hours earlier, but not wanting to arrive too late at the hut we trudged on and made the rest of the walk with our heads down through the high winds and minimal visibility.

On Wednesday we headed up to Echo wall area to have a look at a new line, but conditions and time took its toll and we ended up doing “The Grate Chimney” IV/5 which is a really fun and distinctive line up the deep cut notch in the buttress.

Will leading "The Great Chimney"

That evening the wind really picked up and when we woke on Thursday morning the hut was shaking and the wind was roaring hard. We sat out the weather in the hut playing cards and drinking tea, and around midday Blair Fyffe stumbled into the room looking a bit windswept and weather worn. He was up to check the snow-pack and conditions for the SAIS and once he had gained his info and had a quick chat he made a very mental looking decent straight into the wind back down to Fort William.

Once Blair had departed we noticed that there was some random debris getting caught in the wind turbine. We headed outside to find that a large section of the hut roof had been blown up off and there was a big section missing above the sleeping area.

After seeing this we decided to head down, but after a failed attempt to retreat due to super high winds and 120mph hail stones with no goggles, we were forced to stay in the hut. Thankfully this was not a bad option as when we woke on Friday morning the hut was silent and the wind had totally died.

James seconding the first pitch
of "The Knuckleduster"

So James, Will, and I headed off up towards number three gully buttress, psyched to try the stunning looking line “The Knuckleduster” which saw its first winter ascent a while back by Blair Fyffe and Steve Ashworth. But on their ascent they did the first two pitches, which included the hard and scary crux pitch, but then veered off right toward the neighbouring route “Sioux Wall”.

Me moving up the incredibly
Icy crux pitch of "Knuckleduster"

Seconding the crux of "Knuckleduter"

We really wanted to climb the route via the true original line throughout. So this is exactly what we did. The rock was very verglassed with the whole route hiding under a layer of bullet hard ice. This made finding protection very difficult, but Will put in a good effort leading the awesome pitches one and three which where home to some sustained and steep groove features that offered 3 star climbing. I lead pitches two and four with pitch two being the scarily bold and committing crux pitch which was both mentally and physically draining. But we fought on and I topped out under a beaming full moon and clear skies. All the stresses of the previous days weather and the scary climbing earlier where soon gone and I was just happy to be in the mountains on such a beautiful night.

Will leading the 3rd pitch
of "Knuckleduster"

We all headed down from the Ben on Saturday morning after helping Robin Clothier (the CIC Hut guardian) retrieve as much roof debris as possible.

After 8 days and 6 routes in the mountains, it certainly feels like winter is in full swing. Lets hope it continues!

Check out Wills' blog for his take on the events http://willsim.blogspot.com/2011/12/mixte-ecossaise.html

The CIC Hut looking a bit sorry for itself.

Tuned Up!

2011-11-29T21:31:00.004Z

Sticking the huge crux move on DTS Spirit
Photo credit: James Dunn

Over the past three days, I have been back climbing in the cave at Newtyle. On Sunday I was on a project scoping mission (see last post) and also trying the new line there “DTS Spirit” D12. I was feeling good on the route on Sunday but didn’t manage to get it sent. I also thought that on Monday I would be too tired from the previous day to get the route, this turned out not to be the case.

Yesterday I headed to Newtyle with James and Mike. I was feeling fairly relaxed but also full of psyche. I wasn’t too fussed if I got “DTS Spirit” or not, I was just planning on going with the flow and not to bothered one way or the other. I warmed up a bit and then belayed Mike and James on their project routes, then after having a crank on some new stuff I decided to chill while the tunes where blurring and grabbed a bite to eat.

Whilst sat listening to the music, I looked up at the line of “DTS Spirit” and thought I’d give it a shot, even though I felt a little drained from the day before. I turned up the beats and tied into the rope for the send. The music really helped take my mind of the route and when I left the ground, I wasn’t thinking about the route at all, I was just psyched for the tunes. To my surprise, I was feeling strong on the huge moves and before I knew it I was at my previous high point (but with both axes this time) and feeling good. I moved up to below the last hard move and had a quick shake out, and then it was all or nothing on the last massive stein-pull move to reach the final clip. I was amazed that I stuck this move but after a quick psyche shout to rid my mind of any thoughts of failure, I did the last move and clipped the chain.

Reaching the last Stein-pull
Photo Credit: James Dunn

Getting psyched for the last big move
Photo Credit: James Dunn

Shocked but also stoked that I’d got my route I just chilled for the rest of the day, but not before I had had another play on my new project. Mike and James also worked their routes and hopefully it won’t be long before they get them sent.

Today Mike and I headed back to Newtyle , but after spending the last two days in the cave, I was feeling pretty spent and fairly un-psyched to fight my way up my intended route. But with good friendly support from Mike (him telling me to man up!) I jumped on my route and got stuck into the sustained and super long nature of the line.

Nothing got sent today, although Mike got super close to his project. But the moves where worked and as soon as I’m rested and If the mountain conditions aren’t good then I’ll be back down to Newtyle soon to get stuck into some more tooling rave cave action!

Hitting the Deck!

2011-11-27T19:18:00.002Z

Since doing “Too Fast Too Furious” I have been focusing my efforts on Jeff Merciers’ route “DTS Spirit”. With the huge moves and sapping nature of this route I can only muster up a couple of shots on this line before I'm out of power for the day.

So on Wednesday evening after trying “DTS Spirit” for most of the day, I decided to get on “TheTorch Lite” which is the D11 that Mike had been trying for the last session or two.

I quickly tried the moves by head torch that night and got the route dialled in my head for the next visit. I was unbelievably shocked by the route, as I’d heard that is was a super powerful and hard line going at the high grade of D12/+. This, I swiftly found out, was very wrong!

On Friday Mike and I headed back to Newtyle full of psyche and energy. I had just received my new Grivel Force axes the day before, and was buzzing to try them out. I did a bit of climbing to get warmed up then went for “The Torch Lite”. I was pleased to get the route on my first redpoint, and was again shocked at the fact that it went so easily.

Mike then went on to crush the route and get the second tick of the day in mega cruisey style with very little drama.

The first ascentionist finished the route at a random lower- off that they hung from two bolts before the end of the obvious bolted line. So Mike and I opted to carry on the true route to the pod and in-situ lower off which is three bolts further on. This is also where the crux of the route is situated, so it would be rude to miss this section out!

Even with the new high crux section, no figure fours and added length, Mike and I agreed that “The Torch Lite” was a fairly steady D11 (at the most). I feel that any further ascents should finish at least at the lower off or if they are feeling fit, they could carry on to the chains of “Too Fast Too Furious” for the D11+ tick.

The second thing that shocked me on Friday was my new axes, I didn’t know that anything could feel that good when you where climbing! They seemed to perform really well on the uber steep ground but also on the less steep sections that I played on in and around the cave. I’m really looking forward to getting out in the mountains with them this winter and seeing how they perform. The multiple grips sections and handle options on the tools become very helpful when changing hands and choking up, but the angle seems to work well while switching back and forth. I’m sure I can put these to good use in the next few months.

I headed back to the cave today with James for a light session and a scoping recci. We met up with Neil Adams and James Higgins, who were on a sending mission, and what a mission it was! They both got their project “Fast and Furious” sent with good style and left the cave with big smiles and full of winter psyche! Totally awesome!

Fiona turned up later on for a quick training sesh and give the usual Murray banter!

James and I had a play on new stuff (for us), and hopefully there will be some new lines getting sent in the next couple of days. So watch this space.

PS. the blog title is in reference to today, when a hold blew as I was pulling slack to clip and I hit the ground from 7meters. Thankfully I ended up on my feet ( I don't know how as I was clipping upside down) and I came off injury free but went into adrenaline overload!!!!

Too Fast Too Wet....

2011-11-15T21:41:00.003Z

Over the past few days it has been pretty busy for the Scottish tooling scene. On Thursday, Jeff Mercier and Jonathon Jolly arrived in Scotland for a weekend of crushing and fun. They were over from France for the final STS comp and were hoping to get some mixed action in the mountains while they were here. Unfortunately as most UK climbers will know, winter hasn’t really arrived in Scotland yet, so there wasn’t much mixed to be had up high. They then opted for plan B.

On Thursday they headed to Newtyle. Jeff had climbed here 6 years ago and he knew there was room for another line to the left of F&F. So they packed a handful of bolts and a their big drill in their luggage and set about opening a new line at the crag on their first day.

On Friday, Adam and I headed back to Newtyle to get stuck into some redpoint action on “Too Fast Too Furious” and also met up with John and Jeff. It was fun to climb with such inspirational and strong climbers who, like myself, where just there to have fun and a good time even if we didn’t tick our intended routes. Jeff managed to get his new project ticked on his second try after failing on his flash attempt due to the dripping/soaking conditions of the cave. They called the new line ”DTS Spirit” and I’m looking forward to getting on it to see what it’s like.

By this time the cave was heaving and there where loads of people climbing, watching and chilling out, Including Dennis Van Hoek who was over from the Netherlands for the STS comp. Later on Jeff did “Torchlight” the D12+ which is found between “Training for Something” and “DTS Spirit”. This was inspirational viewing and got me psyched to give this route a go as well. All in all it was a good day and after continuing well into the dark with head torches, we finally left the cave tired and ready for a bit of rest.

The next day Mike and I returned to the cave for another session on the extension which proved to be very beneficial as we found some crucial beta which would be needed to get this route sent and put to bed. Although we did not get the route done on Saturday, I knew that with the new found beta and a rest day, the route would go down on my next visit (hopefully).

On Saturday evening I headed across to Glasgow where the final STS tooling comp was being held. I was in time to catch the end of the qualifiers and the final, then it was on to the after party/drinking. It was good to catch up with everyone after the comp and chat about everyone’s goals for this winter season, but it was also cool to chat with Jeff and John about their plans and objectives for this winter. Hopefully if the conditions get good in time they will be able to come back over for some crushing in the Scottish mountains.

Early Sunday morning we eventually made it to bed in the hotel and after some mix ups with alarms and timings, Jeff and John raced off to the airport after only a couple of hours sleep, just in time to catch their plane back to France.

Dennis and I headed back to mine and then chilled out and recovered for most of Sunday. In preparation for some sendage the next day (Monday).

Yesterday James, Dennis, Mike and I headed back to Newtyle to find a very dark, dull and wet cave. We all found it pretty hard to get psyched in the dingy darkness but tried our best to get cranking and get warmed up.

After a quick burn on F&F to get warmed up I jogged around and got psyched for the send. Dennis swiftly got stuck into Jeff’s new route and James and Mike also did some cranking. Feeling really good and despite the dull light, I was mega keen to get my route ticked. I set off up the steep wall and cruised to the end of F&F, it was then onto the hanging ramp traverse and into the bad rest. I didn’t want to hang around here too long as it’s easy to lose energy in the uncomfortable resting pod, so I charged on to reach the lip of the cave and fought to get to good heel hook before the headwall.

This was my previous highpoint, but now I had the new beta it was not long before I was battling my way up the wet chossy groove to clip the chains. Not before both feet blew off on the last move and I nearly slipped off my soaking tools.

I was pleased to get this route and now that it’s done, I’m just mega psyched to get on “DTS Spirit”.

It has been an awesome couple of days. I got to meet new people and make new friends, got psyched to see everyone enjoying the STS final and listening to how the comp series has got them pumped for the up and coming winter season, and obviously managing to tick the 40m cave at Newtyle was OK I suppose......

For more info from Dennis, Jeff and John, check out their blogs below.

Dennis-http://www.dennisvanhoek.nl/

John-http://jonathan-joly.blogspot.com/

Jeff - http://jeffmercier.blogspot.com/

Since My Return

2011-10-24T22:02:00.001+01:00

Since I returned from the Alps it’s been non-stop for me. For the first month It was pretty much just tractor driving and road biking. But this I was pleased about as the huge work load that I was undertaking was filling my pockets with money for the up and coming winter season, and the obsession with cycling would build an awesome base fitness also good for the winter. Which I intend on having off so I can focus totally on my climbing and making the most of what bonny Scotland has to offer.

A wonder session on the wonder board!
Photo Credited James Dunn

A couple of weeks ago I rebuilt me training wall that was up at my old house, this has been really good for getting the fitness and psych stacked up to the max for the pre winter sessions at Newtyle quarry.

This year Mike Tweedly and I are trying to do the extension to “Fast and Furious” which takes the steepest line all the way out of the cave. The route is called “Too Fast Too Furious” and is supposedly only half a grade harder than the original route, which makes it M11. At the moment I’m finding that a little hard to believe, as it feels like it is another harder “Fast and Furious” stacked on top of the original, with the crux being the end section.

I’m not sure if it is the fact that when it was originally put up, it was done with heel spurs or not but I think the grading might be a little off. I’m not saying it’s harder than M11 (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never climbed that grade). I’m just saying that it definitely feels like more than half a grade harder than “Fast and Furious” which is given M10+. But then again, who cares, the climbing is awesome and mental whatever the grade!

On Saturday I did a lecture for the STS round at Glenmore lodge. This is the first time I had presented a talk about my climbing career or in general, and it seemed to go down well with the audience. Not only was it my first lecture on Saturday, but I had to do my second one the very same night for the Braes O’Fife mountaineering club. This was also very good fun and it was cool to meet and present to new people, faces and friends.

Then on Sunday it was back to Newtlye with a load of folk from Saturdays STS comp for some more mixed climbing shenanigans and action. This was an awesome day and it was good to get a bunch of people into the cave to climb and have a laugh!

Me on "Too Fast Too Furious"
Photo credited to Neil Silver

I am looking forward to doing more of these lectures and I’m also looking forward to getting back to Newtyle, so watch this space for more info and updates soon.

A bit of a mixed up day.

2011-08-05T12:08:00.000+01:00

The vie down the Valee Blanch towards
the Grandes Jorrases

After a poor weather day on Wednesday, yesterday Ally and I decided to make the most of the small good weather window that was forecast up high in the mountains.

Gearing up at the foot of the Triangle du Tacul

poised and ready!

We headed up early in the Midi bin and then walked over to the Triangle du Tacul which is situated on the North Face of Mont Blanc du Tacul. We had heard from some friends that there were some good Alpine mixed routes in condition on this face, and we were both pretty psyched to check out what this venue had to offer.

Whilst on the approach over the Vallee Blanche glacier, we could see a number of perfectly formed snow/ice runnels dotted all over the face, and once at the bottom we decided to head for the route “Le Temps est Assassin”.

Me on the crux flake

What a view!

I started off up the first pitch, and not wanting too much of a relaxed day, decided to take a more direct and steeper start to the right of the original line to reach the snowy basin and the bottom of the first ice runnel. The pitch started up a small icy chimney, then onto steeper cracked wall to reach a huge hanging flake that had some cruddy ice chocked behind it. This flake pitch formed the crux of the day and went at around Scottish VI/6.

After the first techy pitch, it was back onto the main route which followed a fairly direct line up the snow/ice runnels for two pitches. These runnels where awesome fun to climb, as you had to be super delicate with the ice as some sections where very fairly thin and brittle.

One of the awesome ice runnels

High on the 3rd pitch

Once Ally and I had finished the main line of “Les Temps est Assassin”, we traversed hard right to join the last hard pitch of “Perroux Gully”. This pitch takes a lightly iced up slab traversing right to gain another hanging snow/ice runnel that leads into the mega classic “Chere Gully”. After reaching the gully, we rapped back down to our bags and trotted off back across the glacier in the backing heat to reach the Midi snow arête and up to the lift station.

Me seconding the the first runnel pitch

Me reaching the belay after the 2nd pitch

It was fun to do a bit of technical mixed climbing for a change, and even though I know I keep saying it, It got me mega psyched for the approaching winter season. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!

One Man And His Axes.

2011-08-02T14:00:00.000+01:00

The "Frendo Spur" (left hand obvious ridge line)

This morning as Ally was out with his Mum and Aunt for the last day of their trip to Cham, I headed up on to the Plan de L’Aiguille ready and psyched for my chosen objective.

A bit of snow never hurt anyone.

As the weather forecast for today was so good, I decided to go and solo the uber classic “Frendo Spur” on the Aiguille du Midi North Face. This is a line that I have wanted to do for a while and thankfully it didn’t disappoint!

The view below me from mid crux

When I left the station at the Plan de L’Aiguille I started the timer on my watch, as I was interested to see what sort of time it would take me to ascend this 1200m mixed route. I then passed two parties on the approach and another just before the bergschrund, after that I was on my own for pretty much all of the route. Apart from one last party that had bivied at halfway and they let me past just before I started the last third (rock crux).

Another little crux section

Approaching the snow arete

The line was very enjoyable with a good selection of interesting rock pitches and some cool slabby crack sections. The rock crux was pretty straight forward, and after that you move up and onto the immaculate snow arête that is such a distinctive feature on the Midi North Face. After a short while moving up the arête, I decided to take the left hand ice variation around the rock buttress, which involves a short ice pitch that I found pretty enjoyable. This little ice pitch got me mega psyched for the swiftly approaching winter season!

One man and his axe!

The beautiful upper section!

After the ice pitch it was up a snowy face and then you pull onto the base of the Midi arête. As I pulled over onto the arête, I startled two Italian climbers that where sorting their gear after a couple of days in the Vallee Blanche area and after a quick chat, one of them offered to take a couple of photos for me, then is was off up the Arete and Into the famous midi ice cave.

My shadow while on the Arete

Progress progress

I really enjoyed the Frendo and it was nice to get such good weather and conditions on the route. I managed to climb the whole route in 4hrs 11mins, which was good as it meant I got the upper snowy section done before it was slushy and snow baked.

The small ice crux

At the top after startling the Italians

A bit of work tomorrow then I’ll see what the weather is up to for the end of the week.

4hrs 11mins

Weapons of choice

Things Don’t Always Go To Plan.

2011-08-01T13:58:00.000+01:00

Cloud inversion in the Chamonix valley

Yesterday morning Ally and I headed up to Plan de Aigulle on the first lift, eager and psyched to be back in the mountains after the bad weather spell that Chamonix had been having recently.

Approaching the off-width on the Petits Charmoz

The tricky off-width on the Petits Charmoz

Our objective was to do the traverse of the Chamonix Aiguilles from Aig de L’M to Aig du Midi. But due to the amount of snow and wet rock that was still around from the recent stormy weather over the past two weeks, things where a lot more time consuming than usual. We decided to stop after doing the Aig de L’M, Petits Charmoz and the Grands Charmoz.

Even though we did not do the full intended traverse, the route we did on the Grands Charmoz (NW Ridge) was fantastic and home to some very interesting and varied climbing, from footless hand traverse pitches for 10m where you had to swing a heel up level with your head and rock over (in big boots and a rucksack), to long pendulum swings to get past the featureless walls and back into the icy (meant to be dry rock) diedres. The route was full of character and the guide book description says it all “A long and serious route in a fine and exposed situation that does not appear to have gained the popularity that it deserves.”

Moving up the wall to gain the awesome
hand traverse

Sorting the gear after looking round the
corner and spying the hand traverse
(foothold-less)

Getting ready to charge

We soloed the first two routes of the day, the N-NE ridge of the Aig de L’M and the SE ridge of the Petits Charmoz and the first half of the NW ridge of the Grands Charmoz. The upper section of the NW ridge is where it really starts to get interesting and the second last pitch forms the crux. This pitch (crux) has a interesting guide book description which didn’t make me overly psyched to get stuck in. “Using a rurp or a shoulder to start, climb boldly up and over a smooth bulge until a terrace is reached after 12m”.

A rurp is a piece of aiding equipment that is hammered into very shallow thin cracks on near featureless walls. Unfortunately we didn’t have a rurp, but thankfully someone had placed a high skinny peg just over the bulge, so the aid access to the start wasn’t too bad. The top of the pitch however was a very bold slab which was completely running with water (terrifying), but I managed to squirm my way up this and onto the terrace with a fair bit of grunting and groaning, Just!

This grade III groove was made pretty
tricky and time consuming due to the snow/ice!

No rurp but still got stuck in!

After the crux pitch, it was an easy 40m to the top of the summit tower and then a bunch of abseils down to the Nantillons glacier under an awesome setting sun. Once on the glacier it was the tedious task of avoiding the mine field of seracs and crevasses in the pitch dark. This is never fun, especially when you’ve just done a big route and all you want to do is sit down, eat and sleep.

Ally and I on the summit of the Grands Charmoz

After this, we walked back to the lift station and bivied on the picnic bench for a couple of hours before grabbing the first lift down this morning and heading back to the flat for a power nap and some munchies.

The setting sun through the cloud on the descent

It always sunny in Ceuse.

2011-08-01T13:37:00.000+01:00

What to have...?

On the 22^nd Ally and I decided that we had had enough of sitting in the flat in Chamonix, waiting for the weather to get better. There had been a load of snow fall in the mountains for the past four days. So even if had cleared up, we would have had to have waited for the routes to come back into condition (drier rock, less ice/verglass).

Our humble abode for the week

So on the Thursday (21^st) we decided that we would head down south to sunny Ceuse, which is one of the world’s best sport climbing venues and happened to be only a few hours’ drive from Chamonix.

We had a week of on-sighting and projecting some amazing limestone routes until on Thursday when we checked the weather and noticed that it was forecast to clear up in Cham over the weekend (30-31^st). So... back in the car we jumped and then headed north again on Friday evening psyched to get up high in the mountains over the weekend.

chilling with Ceuse in the background

Success On The Dru, Take Two!

2011-07-18T17:33:00.001+01:00

Me at the base of the West face of
The Dru

On Friday morning Ally and I headed off to the Midi Station psyched and ready for a day’s climbing on the South face of the Midi. Unfortunately when we got close to the station, we noticed that the queue for the lift was massive and they were also running a numbered/ticket system for the individual lifts up. This was also annoying as the queue for the tickets was bigger than the one for the lift.

As it was looking like we wouldn’t be getting anywhere near a lift in the next three hours we opted to give it a miss and headed back to the apartment to make up another plan. Thankfully this plan was much better than the original and all was not lost!

The bivi spot (home sweet home)

We decided that we would head up on the Montenvers train that afternoon and then walk across the Mer De Glace and up to bivi at the base of the Dru that night. Then we would be ready for another amazing route early on Saturday morning, but this time on the west face of this spectacular mountain.

As we were walking up the moraine to the bivi site we noticed there was another team of two already at the top of the Sócle (a 240m wall that needs to be climbed before you can gain access to the route). This was not a big problem, as we where planning on getting an early start the next day and if it was a fast team ahead of us, they would stay out of the way. But if it was a slower team, we knew we would be able to pass them fairly quickly, we weren’t too fussed either way. So we got our climbing kit organised and I sorted out my OutdoorResearch Aurora bivi bag and my Deuter Trek Lite 250 sleeping bag ready for another night of anticipation filled sleep in the mountains.

Ally and I chowing down

How comfy does this look?

After a quick bite to eat and once we had watched the awesome sun set over the Aiguilles Rouge, it was into our little bivi cave and off to bed for a few hours sleep before the 3am rise in readiness for our early start up the Sócle the next morning, and then onto “American Direct”.

When my alarm went off at 3am, the moon was shining bright over the Chamonix Aiguilles and it was nice to wake up to such a breath taking view of the mountains (this never fails to disappoint). We brewed up a coffee and wolfed down some porridge, and then it was on with the climbing gear and off across the snow field to the base of the wall.

Here comes the cold!

We swiftly made our way up the Sócle and within a short time we where belayed at the base of the imposing crack system that slices its way up the West face of the Dru. The two other climbers had obviously heard us coming and they had made their way up the first pitch and were just starting the second when we arrived at the base. I set off up the route and after cruising up the first pitch I was able to take the variation second pitch to get to the belay below the third pitch just as the leader of the other group also arrived. Thankfully they spoke English (British climbers) and they were both really nice guys. They agreed that we were going to be faster than them and let Ally shoot off up the third pitch (this was very good of them!).

The Dru in the setting sun

After climbing in a muddled formation of leader, leader, seconder, seconder for a couple of pitches (this was pretty annoying), Ally and I finely broke free and quickly put a few pitches between the others and ourselves.

Once we were on our own, the climbing seemed to get a lot more enjoyable and the immaculate granite cracks seemed to go on forever, with not one bad move throughout the entire route (well mostly). We ran a fair few of the pitches together, so that we kept moving fast up the face and it was not long before we were approaching the famous jammed block bivi ledge.

The view out of my window

The route itself is home to mostly good sound rock quality apart from the pitch below the Jammed block which is full of very very big very loose blocks that were deposited there when the South-West Bonatti Pillar fell down a few years ago. I lead that pitch, and it was pretty scary to be pulling on blocks the size of vans that were teetering on the face ready to come away (not very enjoyable).

The early morning moonshine

In our guide and topo it states that most people finish the route at the jammed block bivi ledge, just below the 90m Dièdre and that this is a recognised end to the route. But Ally and I wanted to continue up to the end of the hard climbing. So after chilling (literally) on the bivi ledge for 10mins waiting for the sun to pop over the ridge so that we could soak up some warmth before the next section, we could here the other two climbers approaching a few pitches below us. We continued on up the line, and after reaching the end of the difficult sections of the immaculate Diedre we got out our tag line (light weight rope for rapping) and set about rigging the abb.

Me approaching the Socle

As we were doing this it was hard not to notice that there was an all mighty storm rolling in over Mont Blanc, and we both knew it was time to put the foot down and get a move on down the face back to the gear at the bivi sight.

Me in an off-width on one of the
many amazing pitches.

After a couple of hours rapping back down the line, we were back down at the base of the Sócle and back to the luxury of our big mountain boots. Instead of our crippling rock boots that we had been jamming in cracks all day. We threw on our crampons and swiftly traversed back across the snow field and up to the bivi cave, just in time for the heavens to open and then the rain started to come down hard. We decided to spend another night at the bivi and head back to the Montenvers train first thing in the morning.

We shared the last of our food, which consisted of half a cupa-soup each and a few oatcakes, and then it was back into the sleeping/bivi bags for another night of luxury! Unfortunately when we woke, the rain was still coming down hard, and it was obvious that it was going to be a soggy descent back to the train.

Whilst still in our very cramped shelter/bivi cave, we shoved all our kit into our sacks and then headed swiftly down the moraine ridge towards the steep ladders that lead to the Mer De Glace. The difference in the landscape since our approach on the Friday was pretty amazing. The little streams that we had stepped over had turned into raging rivers due to the rainfall overnight, and we had to make some fairly scary dashes across one or two of these, between the boulder flurries that where getting washed downstream from higher up the moraine.

Once we were back on the main path and away from the wet moraine, it was an easy yet sloppy walk back to the ladders and then up to the train which took us back to Chamonix, then it was just a quick walk back to the apartment.

Me following Ally up the Diedre

After sorting the gear and trying to put it somewhere to dry, it was off to the internet to check the weather and to decide what we would do for the next couple of days.

Again, the forecast was pretty unsure about the weather in the near future and it looks like a lot more rain and snow high up. So we will just have to wait and see how it turns out and decide what to do nearer the time.

It was still very overcast when I woke up this morning and it had obviously been raining hard overnight. So I opted for an early morning run up the hill to the Plan de L’Aigulle station (2233m) to try and keep up the hill fitness while the bad weather hangs around.

Nearly there!

Ally and I have some cool looking routes in mind so as soon as the weather permits, we will be back into the hills and back on the big routes. So keep an eye on my blog for new updates.

Bad weather is not always bad. Well not in Chamonix!

2011-07-12T16:46:00.001+01:00

On Friday Ally and I headed up to the Peigne Slabs for some technical smeary action. We did an awesome route called Verdon Memories which is a classic multipitch line with hard slab pitches of up to 6c. Unfortunately there had been some heavy rain the previous night and the last two pitches where fairly wet. This added to the technical slab experience and proved to be fairly tricky on the damp patches (most of the last two pitches).

Me seconding one of the earlier pitches of
"Verdon Memories"

After a good day on the slabs, on Saturday we headed to the area of Giétroz for some single pitch sport climbing fun. We both tried the brilliant 8a “Rev de singe” and by the end of a long hot day had both started to make some good progress on the line and we are keen to get back up soon for some more hard tickage!

Me on the imaculate first pitch of
"Ou ca m'maene la benne"

On Sunday we headed up to Brevent area to do a route that Ally had had his eye on for a long time. We went for “Oú ca m’améne la benne“ which is known for its three sustained and technical pitches of 7a+,7b+,7b+ and is classed as the hardest route in the Aiguilles Rouge area. After we had onsighted the first two pitches, unfortunately the rain started to come down hard just as I was halfway up the third (last) pitch. So we reluctantly decided to bail off the line and agrred to return another day for round two when the weather forecast is a bit better.

Here comes the weather!

Yesterday Ally and I took his sister (Susan) and her boyfriend (Paul) up into the mountains for a bit of an Alpine route experience. They were keen to get out in the mountains whilst they are visiting Chamonix for a couple of weeks. Ally’s dad Gav was originally going to be taking them out climbing but unfortunately he came off his mountain bike earlier this week and cracked a couple or ribs. So he is on the bench for the next few days. Thankfully the strong French muscle relaxants seem to be working and hopefully he will be back out and about soon.

Me and Paul walking over to
Point Lanchenal

So we headed up the midi cable car and ventured out onto the Valley Blanche glacier to do the “Traverse of the Points Lanchenal“. This is a good little ridge line that is located below Mont Blanc du Tacul. It is home to some good snow ridges and a few little rock sections that offer some short lived technical steps. After doing these and an abseil down a gully and a short rock chimney, it was back down towards the glacier and up to the Midi arête, just in time to catch the bin down and grab some lunch.

It was a fun day out and I would recommend this little route to anyone wanting a varied and fun first Alpine route without the masses of people that would usually be found on the Cosmiques Arete.

Ally and Sue on the snow ridge of the
"traverse of points lanchenal"

Unfortunately the weather is forecast to crap out again over the next few days, so we will be doing some more smaller one day routes until it stables out. Then we can head up for something high and hard.

Ally and Sue heading up the Midi Arete

Always Ease Yourself Into A Climbing Trip - Or Maybe Not!

2011-07-07T15:23:00.015+01:00

Sunrise on the approach

On Saturday morning Ally and I left Fife with a fully loaded car filled with enough gear and food to supply a small nation! This mostly consisted of Porridge, couscous and a tone of cereal bars.

Getting stuck into the icy chimney

We where both uber psyched to be on our way to the Alps, and all the way to France we chatted about what routes we wanted to go for and what we should get on first. After a very easy and stress free drive, we arrived in Chamonix on Sunday afternoon raring to get into the mountains.

Crossing the serracs on the approach

Me getting down and dirt with a big chimney.

keeping it real on the abbs

After quickly unloading the car and sorting the gear at Ally’s apartment we headed into cham to check the weather and decided when would be best to head into the mountains. After seeing that Mondays weather was pretty sceptical, we decided to go for a small boulder session that night, then head up on Monday evening to sleep in the Grand Montets top lift station for an early start on Tuesday morning.

Are first objective was to go for The North Face of Les Petit Dru, which is one of the six classic Rebuffat Alpine north faces. We slept in the toilets of the Montets station and after a very broken sleep, due to our minds being filled with anticipation and psych, we got up mega early and headed off to the base of the Dru. It was a fairly involved approach and after some spicy down-climbing, glacier crossing and crevasse jumping, we finely reached the base of the imposing north face.

We swiftly got our gear sorted and started moving together up the initial stages of the route. After a couple of route finding errors and corrections, we were back on track and getting stuck into some of the amazing rock and mixed climbing that this classic route had to offer. It was home to steep cracks, icy off-widths, mixed corners and immaculate granite walls that would be worthy of 4 stars as a single pitch rotes, let alone being part of a 850m route.

Me approaching the big snow niche

Despite this being our first Alpine route of the season we were not affected by the altitude too much (a bit of heavy breathing on the trickier rock sections) and managed to keep up a good pace throughout the day. Only stopping to fill our water bottles from a snow-melt trickle that was running down the slabs ¾ of the way up the route.

Me belaying with a fair bit of space between me and the glacier

Mr Swinton getting ready to rock.

Ally mixing it up a bit.

Unfortunately due to the small route finding corrections earlier in the day, we topped out on the summit in the dark and opted to spend the night at a bivi spot that we had spied about 50m bellow the summit. Despite a very clear sky, it was still a fairly warm bivi, and after a few hours sleep we woke to a totally breath taking view of the sun rise just hitting the top of Mont Blanc and the Grand Jurasses. At that point while I was looking at those sun capped mountains, despite being 3700m above sea level, having only eaten a handful of cereal bars the previous day on the route and having slept on a bed of pointy granite, I would not rather have been anywhere else in the world!

The sun set over chamonix

We had a quick bite to eat and then got stuck into the monotonous routine of abseiling and descending down to the Charpoua Hut. Once at the hut we then started the long-ish walk down the moraine and ladders which led to the Montenvers train station. We then jumped on the next train down to Chamonix and back to the apartment, were we sorted our kit and relaxed for the rest of the day.

The wonder bivi

Not a bad view to wake up to!

It was awesome to have ticked a classic route on Les Dru and it was good to get our first Alpine route of the season done quickly, which happened to be the first Alpine route Ally and I had done together. All within three days of being in Chamonix. I’m sure this is the start of good things to come.

Photos on the way!

For Ally’s thoughts on the route, check out his blog -

A Picture Speaks A Thousand Words!

2011-06-26T17:20:00.002+01:00

Some more amazing pictures from the Islands trip.

Me mid-crux on "Save Our Souls" E5
Photo credit - James Dunn

Me Spying the way to go on
"Little Miss Sitting Pretty" E5
Photo credit -Paul Swail

Mid-crux on "Little Miss Sitting Pretty" E5
Photo credit - Paul Swail

Starting the crux section of
"Save Our Souls" E5
Photo credit - James Dunn

Recovering before the crux moves
of "The Raven" E5
Photo credit - Paul Swail

Abandoned on an Island - what more could you ask for?

2011-06-22T19:43:00.002+01:00

Loading the Boy James to head to Pabbay

On Wednesday the 8^th, Ally Swinton, James Dunn and I lugged our pile of gear and food bags onto the train in Waverley station and headed for Oban. We met up with Liam Ingram at Glasgow, who was one of the other guys heading out to climb on the islands.

Once in Oban we lugged our gear from the train to the ferry terminal and dumped it there for a couple of hours while we headed into town for some last minute supplies. This consisted mostly of chocolate and fishing gear, everything you need in case it rains on a climbing trip!

When we arrived back at the terminal, the pile of gear had tripled in size and we met up with the rest of the guys who were heading on the trip, Adam Russell, Eddie Barbour, Paul Swail, Rob Askew, Jamie Foxen and Andrew Latham. Once we had all said our hellos and introductions, we made the long gear haul down the gangway and onto the ferry, just in the nick of time!

James on "Pabbarottie"
Photo credit-Greg Boswell

As everyone had had a fairly early and hectic start to the day, we all just chilled out and mostly slept on the ferry, arriving fresh and awake on Barra around 7pm. After getting the gear off the ferry we convoyed it straight onto Donalds boat (The Boy James), which is a converted fishing vessel that he uses to take climbers and tourists to the islands. This was waiting for us in the small harbour in Castlebay. After this was packed to the brim, it was off to Pabbay.

Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived on Pabbay, but it didn’t take us long to set up camp and get the group tent erected. Once this was up, there was some shelter to relax and chat about where we were going to head the next day. By the time we all went to our tents to go to sleep the rain had died off and the sky was starting to clear up. This made everyone mega psyched for the up and coming days climbing that was soon approaching.

Ally sorting ropes with Mingulay in the background
Photo Credit-Greg Boswell

When we all woke the next day, it was the usual wall to wall sunshine that seems to surround the Barra Isles. I had butterflies in my stomach as we lugged the heavy bags up to the gear stash at the high coll. Having been to Pabbay three times before, I knew what kind of amazing climbing was in store for us when we reached our chosen venue for the day.

We had decided to head to the Poop Deck, which is a single pitch venue on the far side of the Island. It has a number of routes for all levels ranging from HS-E7. We all thought this would be a good place for everyone to head to on the first day so that we could climb together and everyone could get used to the steep island Gneiss. It also helped so that the people who had been before could point out the different venues to the first timers on the way to the crag; Ally and I also took this chance to stash my 100m Edelrid abb rope at the top of the Pink Walls ready for the next day.

Back to camp for team 2011

Ally and I did a bunch of routes on the Poop Deck from E1-E3 throughout the day and I finished off by doing the 4 star E5 “The Raven” which heads up the mega overhanging wall via crack systems and then breaches the large roof before heading onto the vertical headwall above. This was a route I had had my eye on ever since I had first gone to the island five years ago, and it did not disappoint!

After a very heavy and random hail/rain shower, the sun soon reappeared and we all headed back to camp in high spirits and chatted about where to head the next day.

Ally rapping into Pink Walls
Photo Credit-Greg Boswell

Ally starting up "Amber Nectar"
Photo Credit- Greg Boswell

The next morning Ally and I opted for the 90m abseil into Pink/Grey wall area and we headed for the uber immaculate line of “Amber Nectar” the three star E5 on the Grey wall recess. After we had ticked that amazing route, we headed to Hoofers Geo to find Paul Swail halfway up the four star E4 “Sugar Cane Country”. This was a good photo opportunity and once I had got some brilliant shots of Swail on the wall and he had topped the route, the heavens decided to open and our plans to try the harder lines in the area where swiftly washed away. We rapped in anyway and after spying our intended routes that where totally soaking, we did a good E2 called “Fracture Clinic”, then bailed back to camp with plans to revisit Hoofers the next day.

Me on crux pitch of "Amber Nectar"
Photo Credit- Ally Swinton

As soon as we had done the usual morning routine of breakfast and banter, Ally and I headed back to Hoofers for some unfinished business. We started the days climbing off with the three star E1 “Hoofers Route” which had not yet come into the sun and was still a little damp from the previous nights dew. Once we had done that route, we rapped back in to find the sun beaming down on the main wall and both our intended routes where catching the warm rays directly which was drying the lines nicely.

I then did an E5 called “More Lads and Molasses”, which in the guide book is described as serious with tricky climbing. After some committing moves high above the ground with very poor gear, I then reached the easier groove and followed this to the top. I swiftly rapped down and stripped the route, then Ally went on to cruise his way up “Sugar Cane Country” and also rapped back down to the ledge stripping the route on his way.

Paul Swail on "Sugar Cane Country"
Photo Credit- Greg Boswell

We both chilled in the baking sun for a while and then decided to do one more route at Hoofers (“As Sound as Mr J.A”, a fun little E2) before walking over to The Great Arch area to do the famous four star E2 “Prophesy of Drowning” in the glorious setting sun. I had done the route before on a previous trip so I ran the first three pitches together (moved together on the last part of pitch 3) and then Ally went on to lead the awesome four star exit corner pitch of the route. We both enjoyed the quick ascent of the 100m+ route and agreed it was the perfect way to end our last day on Pabbay before we moved on to the Island of Mingulay the next day.

On the Sunday morning we all packed up our gear and then sat around in the sun waiting for Donald to come and pick us up and take us on the short journey across to Mingulay. He arrived around 10:30am and by 12 noon, we had loaded our gear, travelled across the water and unloaded on our second Island of the trip.

We swiftly set up camp and then Ally and I shot up the hill to The Red Cliff (Creag Dhearg) and had an awesome afternoon doing three good 50m routes. Ally lead “Big Chief Turning Bull” E4/5***, then I went on to do “Little Miss Sitting Pretty” E5*** and we finished off the evening with an ascent of the immaculate four star E3 “Fulmar Squaw”. Swail and Adam had also joined us at The Red Cliff to do a few routes in the evening sun.

Me on "More Lads and Molasses"
Photo Credit- Ally Swinton

Over the next two days we braved the walk past famous dive bombing Bonxies (Arctic Skua, (big sea birds)) and headed to the The Boulevard at Guarsay Mor which is a good one or two pitch venue with lots of good routes that pack a hard punch for their length. Then we walked over the hill to the awesome crag of Dun Mingulay, which is known for its long 100m+ routes, most of which are of three and four star quality.

At The Boulevard after watching the Basking Sharks less than 10m away from our belay, Ally lead a hard three star E3 called “A Word With The Bill”, which was made even more taxing by the fact that it followed a steep rounded crack system that in the baking sun was starting to get very smeagy and slippy (a good lead). I then went on to do the truly breath taking E5 “Save Our Souls” which takes a direct line straight up the right hand side of the crag. The line goes through the 3m capping roof at the top, which is where the crux of the route lies. After some mental heel-hooking and steep yarding over the lip there was a hard rock over and the route was complete. Another good route and again...”what a way to end an awesome day on the island”.

Ally on "Sugar Cane Country"
Photo Credit- Greg Boswell

On Dun Mingulay we did the 4 star E5 “Big Kenneth” which cuts through the huge triple roof system that bars the way up the 100m wall. I lead pitches one and three and Ally took pitch two. As is warned in the guide book, the first massive roof was seeping and the large undercuts and foot holds where pretty wet. But I battled on anyway and after some slippery lay-backing, I was very happy to reach the first belay and see that the upper part of the route looked a lot dryer. Ally made short work of the second roof and the technical wall above to belay beneath the steep cracked roof of the last pitch. After some up and down shuffling and trying to dry the damp crack with chalk, I placed some high gear, got psyched up and made the final hard and powerful moves out onto the super exposed headwall and then easier climbing lead to the top.

Once at the top we where both buzzing after having just ticked one of the best routes either of us had done on the Islands. But we weren’t settling for one route, so we swiftly sorted our kit and rapped down the second abb line that was set up by the rest of the group. We met up with Rob who had been working on his tan at the top, and then the three of us made short work of the 4 star E2 “Sula”. This route was home to some fun slab climbing at the start and a totally contradictory second pitch of steep jug pulling for 40m. I finished off by leading the slightly loose tope pitch and then onto the top of the crag where the rest of the group where relaxing and chatting about the awesome day they had all just had.

Me chilling at the top of "Prophesy of Drowning"
Photo Credit- Ally Swinton

As we walked back to camp, the wind was starting to pick up and it was obvious that there was some weather coming in and it looked like rain was approaching, so Ally and I opted to have a rest day. The next day (Wednesday) was spent mostly at the camp and on the beautiful white beach where we all relaxed and recovered after a good weeks cranking on the outstanding island routes.

On Thursday we waited until the afternoon before heading back up to The Red Cliff as the sun doesn’t hit the routes until after 2pm, and the rock would still have been fairly damp. Ally and I did a pretty nippy 3 star E5 called “Variations on a Dream” with the hard climbing kicking in straight off the belay ledge, and didn’t let up until the top of the second pitch. Then it was an easy last pitch to finish. After that route we sat around at the top and made the most of the views and setting sun while also watching some of the other guys from the group climbing some awesome routes, Including Liam Ingram leading his first E3; the 4 star classic “Fulmar Squaw”.

The Boy James in Mingulay bay

This was our last day of climbing on the trip and once we had returned back to camp, the heavens opened and it rained hard for most of the night and well into the next morning. There was a short lull in the rain on the Friday morning which gave us the chance to take down our tents and sort out all our gear in preparation for Donald's arrival later that day. Even though the rain had subsided, the wind was still blowing hard. The waves and swell in the sea where crashing against the rocks and even once Donald had arrived he had to wait in the bay for over an hour before he could attempt to get close to the rocks in his little tender to pick us and our bags up and shuttle us back to his boat.

Adam Russell on "Swimming to America"
Photo Credit-Greg Boswell

After a lot of slippery bag and gear convoying across the wet rocks in the bay and a few trips back and forth in the tender, we were all finally on our way back to Barra and the end of another magnificent Islands trip had finally arrived.

For me this was the best trip to Pabbay and Mingulay I had been on. The weather was good on the climbing days, the company of other group members was awesome and the routes I got ticked with Ally where all of impeccable quality. I always look forward to going on trips to these Islands and up to now, I have never seemed to regret it! I recommend that if anyone ever gets the chance to go to these Islands in the Outer Hebrides that they jump at the chance and if there psyched and fit, they will not regret it either.

I would like to thank Ken and Buffy Lacey for giving James, Ally and I a place to stay late on Frifday night after the long ferry journey...It was very much appreciated!

Also you can check out http://www.swailmountaineering.com/Site/Blog/Entries/2011/6/22_The_Scottish_Islands!.html for more pictures and Paul's views on the Islands.

Me on pitch 3 of "Big Kenneth"
Photo Credit- Ally Swinton

Ally on pitch 2 of "Big Kenneth"
Photo Credit- Greg Boswell

Me chilling in my tent on the rest day

a good core workout never goes amiss

The stunning Mingulay Bay
Photo Credit- Greg Boswell

ecosseimages.co.uk

2011-06-07T20:51:00.000+01:00

ALL NEW.........

Check out my Dads new website http://www.ecosseimages.co.uk/. He will be running photography holidays and workshops throughout the year in partnership with Simon Yearsley's Big Tree Campervans taking photographers into the wilderness of Scotland.

His images are also available to buy direct from his web site.

Please check it out...

Off To The Islands

2011-06-07T18:37:00.000+01:00

Since the weather was so nice over the past few weeks, last week I managed get two good evenings climbing after work at Dunkeld with Ally Swinton. We did a fair few laps on most of the sport routes at upper cave, in preparation for our up-coming Pabbay/Mingulay trip that is swiftly approaching.

Having had a good weeks sport climbing at Kilnsey the week before, and having got some good trad routes ticked at Cambusbarron last Sunday, I am starting to feel pretty psyched and rock fit for the amazing trad routes that the Islands have to offer.

We're heading off early tomorrow morning and will arrive on Pabbay late afternoon. After setting up camp, there will be lots and lots of crankaggge over the next 10 days! So keep an eye on my blog to see how we all got on.

Pabbay last year 2010
Photo credited. Ally Swinton

I would also like to thank Julbo for sending me a pair of Dirt (zebra) sun glasses for the summers rock season and look forward to using them soon. Fingers crossed that the sun stays out on our trip.

Training Makes The World Go Round!

2011-05-15T12:07:00.000+01:00

Me on my project at Steall Hut crag

Recently I have been planning my summer, and trying to organize and cram as many trips into the sunny months as possible. While still fitting in some time to work on the farm and save money to fund these ventures.

Tweedley busting a move at Steall

Over the last month I have done some days on the trad and also a couple of sport days,while managing a few good ticks during these sessions. But mostly I have been training, both climbing indoors and out and loads and loads of cardio. In the next two months is when hopefully all this training will pay off.

Firstly its off to Steall Hut in Glen Nevis to get on my project and hopefully see some gains! Then to the Yorkshire limestone for a week for some bolt clipping action, and after this I'm off to the Barra Isles (Pabbay and Mingulay) for 10 days of immaculate trad climbing at one of my favorite venues. And if that all wasn't enough, in July I'm off out to the French Alps to spend most of the month in the mountains (totally psyched).

Check out that view!!! Not a bad place to go sport climbing!

So during this time, I will try and keep my blog updated and fill you all in on my recent exploits. So watch this space and I hope you'll enjoy what you read.

But for now I've got to run.......Literally!

2011-05-03T09:41:00.000+01:00

Me Looking for friction on "Monkey Spanking"
Photo. Neil Carnegie

Last night, Adam Russell, Neil Carnegie and I headed to Cambusbarron for an evening rock session in the sun. We started off by doing the awesome boulder problem "Monkey Spanking" which ascends the steep slab with friction only foot holds.

Once we had done this Adam went onto do "Big Country Dreams" which is a classic E4 crack climb that is home to some spicy moves between ok rests.

Ahhhh jug!
Photo. Neil Carnegie

Neil was trying a very technical E5 but decided to wait until next time to get on the sharp end. I decided to go for the flash on this route, but came off mid crux and as the light was almost gone I decided to wait until next time to have another go at the clean lead.

It was a fun evening, and it was good to be out on the rock.

Adam on "Big Country Dreams"
Photo Neil Carnegie

Funkeld!

2011-05-01T20:52:00.000+01:00

Today I headed up to Dunkeld (Fun-keld) with Ali Robb for some sport action in the beaming sunshine. I was keen to get back on the 7c+ "The Silk Purse" soon, as I had had a couple of goes on the route last week and was getting pretty close to ticking it.

After warming up and putting the clips in the route, I managed to get it on my first go, then Ali also got it straight after. So it was team sendage at the crag today and once we had done Silk Purse we went on to do some of the other routes for a bit of training.

All in all it was an awesome day in the sun and it was good to get some routes ticked.

There can be only one!

2011-04-30T10:30:00.000+01:00

Over the past six week I have mostly been bouldering and dabbling in a bit of sport climbing, trying to get some finger strength back after the winter season. But on Wednesday James, Nial Harris and Neil Carnegie and I all jumped into my faithful Renault Scenic and headed NW for some sea cliff trad action.

We headed to Reiff on Wednesday and after the long-ish drive up and going slightly off route on the walk in, we arrived at the crag (Leaning Block area) at 1pm-ish.

James cruising to victory after the crux
Photo. Neil Carnegie

There was no hanging around and everyone had soon ticked some awesome routes. By 6pm, James and I had done a handful of routes from HVS to E3 with Neil and Nial also having ticked a bunch of good lines. I wanted to try the awesome looking route “The Quickening” E5, which trends diagonally across the first half of the super steep wall of “Otto”. After some corny quotes from the classic movie Highlander, I jumped on the route and climbed up to the top break where I placed some gear and then down climbed back to the ground for a quick shake out away from the ludicrously steep wall. I then jumped back on and charged for the arête, then onto the slab and finished up the easier ground above.

Me on "The Quickening"
Photo. Neil Carnegie

This was the first time I had climbed at Reiff and It was definitely not the last! That night we camped beside the beach and after eating some well needed dinner, we discussed where to head the next day. We wanted to head back to Leaning Block but when we woke on Thursday, it had rained overnight and it was threatening to do so again. So we opted for the closer venue of Ardmair.

Neil Carnegie on "Brave Heart"
Photo. James Dunn

Nial Harris feeling exposed on the final
hard section of "Gravity's Rainbow"
Photo. Neil Carnegie

After a good morning of climbing 3 star routes in the sun, the dreaded rain stuck again, but this time it was a show stopper and we high tailed it back to the car and headed south to Creag Dubh.

Neil Carnegie had a route he wanted to finish off at Creag Dubh so he and Nial headed off to do L.M.F which is one of the classic E1’s at the crag. James and I headed up hill a bit to try another good looking line, but after trying it and not feeling psyched for the line we opted for the retreat button.

Stac Pollaidh

As it was getting late now we all decided to call it a day, and we headed back home content with our good little trip up North. Not a bad way to start my trad season off.

Fatty McGinty!!!

2011-03-19T16:28:00.000Z

Yesterday, James, Mhairi and I headed back to Glen Clova to sample some more of the awesome bouldering that this picturesque glen has to offer. We all got some good problems sent and also opened up some short term projects.

It was pretty cold, with a chilled breeze blowing down the glen over the snow capped hills. But this made for good friction and an awesome view.

James brought his new camera along, and as you can see from the pictures below, he is definitely getting the hang of it!

James showing Me and Mhairi how strong his thumbs are
on "Fatty McGinty"!
Photo Credited to Greg Boswell

Me trying hard, (but not hard enough)
Photo Credited to James Dunn

Photo Credited to James Dunn

Mhairi on "Peel Session"
Photo Credited to James Dunn

Failure Is A Result of Trying

2011-03-16T10:35:00.000Z

Me on Monty Pythons
Photo credited to Sean Bell

Recently I have had a few trips down to Kyloe In and Out. Over the past week James, Andy Moles, Sean Bell and I have made a couple of trips south to sample some of the awesome bouldering thats hiding in the woods in Northumberland.

Having only been to Kyloe (In) once before, it was good to get stuck into some of the classic problems that this venue has to offer. After a good day on Friday, James, Andy and I headed back down on Monday and this time we spent the morning In the woods and headed to Kyloe (out) in the afternoon. Unfortunately some of the steeper stuff at (out) was a bit smeggy, so we stayed on the dry slabbier problems, which offered some fun smearing and testing mantles.

Andy Moles on Hitchhikers
Photo credited to Sean Bell

James on Bad Company
Photo credited to Sean Bell

Me on Hitchhikers
Photo Credited to James Dunn

Sean on "Jocks and Geordies"
Photo Credited to James Dunn

Erik snow swimming

On Sunday, I met up with Erik for an attempt to go winter climbing. We drove up early, but when we reached the snow gate at Cairngorm it was shut, and the staff member manning the gate said due to excess snow fall he doubted it would be open to head up all day. So we opted for the long walk and set off up the hill on foot.

It was a pleasant walk, and didn't take us long to reach the top car park. But after a lot of persistence and wading through chest deep powder, we decided to have a quick bite to eat behind some sheltering trees and then bailed back to Aviemore for a coffee. If the wind had not picked up, we probably would have trudged on and got a route done. But the enjoyment soon got taken away when the snow started to blow around. I you don't try, you don't get!

It might be time to keep the rock boots on!!!!

Me and Erik having a quick bite to eat

Rock Rock and more Rock

2011-03-06T21:16:00.000Z

Hamish Teddy's at Dunkeld
Photo Credited to Sean bell

Over the past week I have been making the most of the sunny dry conditions. The trad season is swiftly approaching and it’s been good to get some training done outside on the sport routes and boulders, rather than stuck in a stuffy climbing gym!

Dangleberries at Orchestra Cave
Photo Credited to Peter Boswell

Last week I made two trips to Upper Cave in Dunkeld and got a good pump on doing some laps on the sport routes that where thankfully just dry enough to climb.

Then on Friday I headed to Orchestra Cave with James, Tweedley, Dave Redpath and my Dad for some more steep and burly sport action.

Dave, Tweedley and I all tried the first half of Dangleberries which was dry up to the big roof. This was a mega route which was home to some steep technical moves up the grossly overhanging wall...Fun fun fun! We all seemed to be making progress on the line and I don’t think it will be long before we return for another day at this venue. My Dad and James where hanging around on ropes getting some awesome pictures of us on the steep ground.

Today James, my Dad and I headed to Glen Clova for an awesome days bouldering in the sun. Thankfully there was a cool breeze blowing over the snow covered slopes further up the glen which made for some good friction.

Me on Dangleberries
Photo Credited to James Dunn

This was the first time I had been bouldering in Clova and it didn’t disappoint. We only went to one of the three recorded areas in the glen but what we did was good fun and had some hard problems on offer. We started on some easier stuff and worked our way through some of the best problems in the area. Between us we did a range of problems from V1 to font 7a.

I’m really enjoying the dry weather and I’m starting to get really psyched for the summer rock season. Bring it on........

"Sheep Pen Wall" Glen Clova
Photo Credited to Peter Boswell

Making the span on
"Le Toit du Cul de Mouton"
Photo Credited to Peter Boswell

The crux of "Le Toit du Cul de Mouton"
Photo Credited to Peter Boswell

Me on "Le Toit du Cul de Mouton"
Photo Credited to Peter Boswell

Me on "Le Toit du Cul de Mouton"
Photo Credited to James Dunn

Hurting By Name Hurting By Nature

2011-02-19T20:20:00.000Z

A few weeks ago, while sitting on the belay ledge below the top pitch of “Omerta”, I witnessed Andy Turner top out on the 2^nd ascent of “The Hurting”. This route had been in my thoughts for a while, but the bold start had made me hesitant. However, seeing Andy top out was so inspirational that the psyche was building to a sufficient level to give me the final push. So I decided to give it a try.

Last Saturday, with a good weather forecast and a willing belayer, Ken Lacey, I headed into Coire an t’Sneachda and up to the base of the big imposing wall. On the way into the coire I was hesitant and nervous, not for the upcoming climbing but worried whether or not, due to the recent thaw, that I would find the route in condition. Thankfully when the wall came into view, I could see that the route was in good nic, with neve on all the ledges and a good dusting of the white stuff..... It was game on!

Trying to warm up my hands on my first attempt.
Photo Credited to EcosseImages

After a long drawn out battle of mind and stamina I had finally figured out how to reach the mid way ledge under the roof and started to make the thin moves high above my last runner. Unfortunately the ledge was sloping and I couldn’t seem to figure out how to get any higher, the fear soon set in as the prospect of falling from this place was not high on my list of things to do. My last runner was good, but it would not have stopped me from bouncing off the lower ledge on my way down. Thankfully, using some very thin ice hooks and some dodgy smears for my feet, I managed to get under the roof and find some well needed good gear placements .....Ahhhh......And Relax!

Even though I now had ok runners, my mind was still running wild with the prospect of the steep overhanging crack that loomed ahead. Not wanting to get cold, I gathered my psyche and swiftly set off up the head wall above. This was very short lived, as when I pulled over the lip of the roof on a thin hook, I got my feet high, but then my axe ripped and I ejected myself backwards into the air. My next words should not be repeated before the watershed!

Thankfully Ken offered to rapp off and retrieve my gear. I was very grateful of this, as I really wanted to get this route ground up. On the walk out I had decided in my mind that the route was too scary to try again anytime soon. I then made the slow drive home with the moment of the axe ripping, playing over and over in my mind.

The next day I checked the weather, and saw that on Tuesday the sun would be shining and there would be very little wind. All my previous thoughts about not getting back on the route went straight out the window and I swiftly made plans to return for day two on “The Hurting”.

Eying up the ledge under the roof on my first attempt
Photo Credited to EcosseImages

I had arranged to climb with someone who I had not met before but he sounded cool and I’m always psyched to meet new climbers. When I met Erik in the Cairngorm car park, it was obvious that he was psyched and keen, but the weather forecast was very wrong and the 80mph winds and snow did not fill me with confidence for the upcoming days climbing.

Starting up the route, I soon realised that all the useful neve and ice had now gone from the ledges and the starting moves felt even harder and scarier than two days before. Now having to rely on very small rounded edges and smeary feet, which was made all the worse by the strong wind gusts buffeting my feet from the tiny placements and on one occasion left me hanging from only one tiny pick placement with no gear between me and the ground. I soon regretted getting back on the route in that weather, but it was too late to retreat. I pushed on and eventually found myself at my previous high point, but this time I got my pick seated a little better and managed to yard my way onto the headwall and into the hidden crack.

I soon regretted this, as I was now well above the gear below the roof and I couldn’t see my feet due to the roaring spindrift that was shredding my eyes and face. I fought as hard as I could to place a cam in the iced up crack while bracing myself against the strong gusts. I moved up the crack not knowing what my feet where on and reached into the blind seam above. As I reached up with my right axe, my left bicep was cramping from the cold, at this moment an almighty gust of wind hit me side on like a truck. Then the inevitable happened, gravity took over and I was falling through the air. Down again..........

Looking for the thin hooks in the windy blizzard
Photo Credited to James Dunn

Erik swiftly offered to retrieve my gear and I gratefully accepted. He did this, then we high-tailed it out of there, back to the car.

Now knowing that I was in with a chance of the prize, I was very eager and psyched to get back on the route as quick as possible. I checked the weather and it looked like Friday was going to be the best day (if the weather was correct). So I rang round some mates and arranged for my very good friend James Dunn to give me a belay.

So yesterday I made the journey from Fife to the Cairngorms for the third time, hoping to get the route done. As we approached the bottom of the ski road hill, the trees were swaying furiously back and forth. My stomach sank, it was clear that the forecast was wrong again and the mountain was a mass of spindrift and wind as we arrived in the upper car park. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t want to get back on the route and fail again because the spindrift was freezing up my eyes!

Pulling over the roof on my successful effort
Photo Credited to James Dunn

We decided to walk in and have a look...... seeing as though we had driven all that way. So off we trotted into the hills, passing many people walking out of the coire who had turned around due to the high winds. As we arrived at the base of the route, I could see that the wind was not only blowing hard, but it was also doing a good job of covering the route in a thick white layer of icy hoar frost, a lot more than my previous attempts. The next thing was the decision of, to climb or not to climb. I decided to give it a go.

Due to the large amount of new ice in the cracks, the lower half of the route was very hard to protect and I only managed to get half as much gear in as on my previous goes. This made it the scariest attempt yet. But despite the heavy hoaring and mega spindrift gusts, I eventually managed to pass my previous high point and stuffed two cams into the icy crack on the way. I charged through the steep thin hooks to reach the lesser steep but very technical top section of the headwall. I found a good axe placement but unfortunately the foot holds where very rounded and the wind was getting stronger with every second that passed by. My right foot blew and as it did this, I looked down to see my last gear which was two cams way below me moving in the icy crack every time there was a gust of wind. I then started to feel very scared and didn’t know whether to jump off while I still could, or continue up the head wall and move even further away from the already suspect gear. I tried to find another piece of gear, but nothing would stay in the tiny turfy/icy crack. In the end I placed a Black Diamond 000 microcam and gave it a tug, but to no surprise it pulled straight out. I shoved it back into the placement and decided not to test it again, thinking it might hold next time (What you don’t know can’t hurt you).

Not knowing where to go I started to feel a little sick with fear as every hook I pulled on blew and I was now way above my last partial runner! I eventually forged my way further up the wall on some of the thinnest hooks I have ever used. I moved diagonally up and left until I was within a few meters of the top, but I still couldn’t find any hooks. I made a massive reach off a horizontal rounded seam and swung with my left axe...... nothing..... my feet were now scatting on the smeary foot holds and I felt the energy draining from my right arm. I knew the prize was slowly slipping away from me. But then I heard James scream from below through the howling wind “HAVE IT MAN”, and this gave me the boost I needed. So I locked off with all my might and swung again.........THUD..... It was good. I then reached up with my second axe and....THUD.......it also got a good stick, I gave it one last yard and found myself secure and comfortable on easier ground.

After a big hug from my Dad who was on the ridge, trying to take photos of the ascent, I then built a rapp station and abed the route to retrieve all my gear. Once at the bottom, I thanked James for his patience and for shouting the encouragement when I needed it most. We then stuffed all the icy gear and ropes into the bags and made a hasty retreat back to the car.

Happy and a little frosty at the top.

I would like to say a big thanks to Ken Lacey, French Erick and James for belaying me on the route. And also a massive thanks to my Dad, who came out with me to take photos on all three days despite the horrific weather Yesterday and on Tuesday. Thankfully he managed to get some good ones on Saturday, when the sun was out!

I’m not sure what is next on my agenda, but I’m sure I can think of something good to suffice my next climbing fix!

I suppose this is good Training for Something

2011-02-02T19:56:00.000Z

After being pretty wiped out for the last couple of days from my recent cold/flue thingy, I decided that I needed to get out the house for some fresh air and do some training. So today I arranged to meet up with Ines, Charly and Hans for some mixed tooling action at Newtyle quarry (Dunkeld).

When we arrived at the cave, Ines and Charly where pretty taken aback at how big and steep it was. But none the less they were keen to get stuck into the hard technical routes that this awesome venue has to offer.

It was Inspirational to watch Ines warm up on and flash the hard M10+ “Fast and Furious”, which she made look about M5. After she had done this it was my go, and the pressure was on to try not to get shown up too much at my local training venue. Thankfully it all went smoothly and I also got the route clean on my first go of the day (phew). Next Charly had a go, but as he had never done any continental style mixed routes, he found it a bit hard to get his head in gear for the steep yards and fig of fours. So he worked the moves then came down.

It was Ines’s go again, and this time she went for the steep M12 crack line “Training for Something”. This route was a little easier to read but it is also a lot stepper and has very big powerful moves at the start. She seemed to be cruising the route, until ¾ of the way up her axe ripped and she was left dangling in the air, and asked to be lowered to the ground. Again it was my turn to get cranking, so I also opted for the steep crack line. Unfortunately my fitness was no match for the former multiple world mixed/ice climbing champion, and I fell off halfway up the route. Even though the route was pumpy and hard, it definitely felt doable and I feel that I have just opened a new project worth training for.

Charly then had another go on “Fast and Furious” and came unbelievably close to ticking the route on his third go, but it was not to be as he was sent flying through the air when his pick ripped. Ines went on to have a second go on the M12 and came off only a few moves from the chain when the foot holds ran out and the arm pump was too much. After a couple more laps on “Fast and Furious” I decided to call it a day. Charly then said he was going to give it one last shot, and much to his surprise he cruised the route all the way to the chain and lowered off with a big beaming smile on his face.

All in all it was a good day and everyone was happy to salvage some mixed climbing even though the mountain routes are in bad condition. We weren't the only people that where grateful for the quarry, as Andy Turner was also there. He was mostly on the easier routes today, continuing his mixed climbed course, but popped into the cave to say hi and to see what was going down.

Tour Guide

2011-01-29T13:16:00.000Z

Over the past three days I have been making the most of the post thaw conditions in the mountains.

Charly Fritzer on "Ventricle"

On Wednesday I met up with Ines Papert and her friends who are over from Germany and Austria for ten days of Scottish winter mixed madness. We headed up to Coire an Lochain on Wednesday morning, with Pete Macpherson and I being the so called locals, it was thought that we could show the tourists where the good lines are.

Ines and Pete did “Daddy Long legs” on No.1 buttress, while Austrian Charly Fritzer and I did “Ventricle”. This was Charly’s first ever Scottish winter route, and it seemed to be well within his abilities. It was fun to climb with new people and to see how these European Alpinists found our Scottish winter routes.

Ines Papert on "Daddy Longlegs"

On Wednesday night Ines and Co and I headed west to Fort William, ready for an early start on the Ben on Thursday. We met up with Mike Tweedley that night and we all slept in the Nevis range car park, Mike and I in my car, and the German crew in one of Simon Yearsley’s Big Tree Campervans.

Charly in the sun on
"To Those Who Wait"

On Thursday we all headed up to No.3 Gully Buttress area for some second ascentage action! Ines and Charly went for my route “To Those Who Wait”. This was very inspiring as Charlie managed to get it second go (ground up) and it was only his second ever Scottish winter route. Ines had a go first but slipped off at the crux so passed the sharp end over to the Austrian beast!

Mike and I did Steve Ashworth’s new route “Apache”. This was possibly the second ascent of this route. The route was originally given VIII/9, but this was in blizzard conditions and in my opinion, things always seem harder when the weather is bad. Mike and I both agreed that the route was steady VIII/8, but still an awesome line and it was a good effort for Steve and Paddy on the first ascent.

Me leading the crux pitch of "Apache"

We split the pitches a little differently from the first ascentionists. I took a belay on the good ledge up and right from the belay of Sioux Wall. This was after all the difficult climbing and meant that the second pitch was a bit more interesting for Mike, rather than one hard move then easy ground. I think this is the best way to split this route.

"Apache" crux pitch

Mike seconding the crux pitch of "Apache"

On Thursday night Mike and I stayed at Dave and Clair Mcleods, while Ines and Co headed off to find a hostel so that Hans (their photographer) could dry all his camera equipment.

Mike on the first pitch of "Omerta"

Mike and I headed back to the Gorms yesterday to repeat Pete Macpherson and Martin Moran’s route “Omerta”. This turned out to be an awesome line and It certainly kept up with the Northern Corries reputation for short hard routes. Mike led pitches one and three and I led the crux second pitch. The route was super sustained and the crux and last pitch where hard to protect due to dirt and Ice in the cracks. I managed to climb the route clean with no falls or rests, but this was more to the fact that I didn’t trust any of the protection on the crux pitch. So falling was not an option, even though I was very pumped and tired by 3/4‘s of the way up the pitch.

Me starting up the Crux pitch of "Omerta"

Me high on the second pitch of "Omerta"

All in all I thought that this route was very good but also very hard/sustained. Well done to Pete and Martin on the first ascent.

While belaying Mike up the last pitch of “Omerta”, I got the chance to chat/shout to Andy Turner who had just done the second ascent of the “Hurting”. This was an awesome effort and he seemed very pleased with his ascent.

Ines, Charly and Dave Macleod also did a new route on the Ben yesterday, but I’m not sure on the details yet. So watch this space for more info as soon as I’ve got the low down.

Mike on the last (very icy) pitch of "Omerta"

A rest day today, then I’m out again with Ines and Co in the Gorms tomorrow for some more awesome winter action.

New Sponsorship

2011-01-29T13:15:00.001Z

I am pleased to announce that I have recently agreed new sponsorship with The Mountain Boot Company. This exciting development now means I am now associated with Grivel, Deuter, Outdoor Research, Scarpa, Lorpen and Ski Trab. As a result of my sponsorship with MBC I now have the support of an established outdoor company at the forefront of technical innovation in climbing. I am pleased to also remain supported by Edelrid. This new sponsorship will allow me to concentrate full time on my climbing.

Climb now, Rest later!

2011-01-23T10:42:00.000Z

Pulling through the steep bulge on Prore Direct
Photo Credited to Graeme Melville

After an awesome day on “Happy Tyroleans”, Mike headed home and I met up with Guy Robertson that evening for another days climbing tomorrow. We slept in our cars in the Cairngorm car park and were up bright and early the next morning ready and eager for another days cranking in the mountains.

Looking for the way
Photo Credited to Graeme Melville

We walked into Lochain under the full moon and reached the Corrie just as the sun was peeping over the mountains. Even though I was a bit tired from the previous day’s antics on “Tyroleans”, I knew it was going to be another good one, and was psyched for our intended project.

Getting a quick heel/toe rest
Photo Credited to Graeme Melville

We where planning on trying a new line in the corrie and this is where we started. Guy set off up the first pitch and swiftly got stuck into the steep climbing that loomed above. After some ascending and descending on the start of the hard section, it soon became apparent that he wasn’t feeling up to it. Unfortunately for Guy, he has been plagued with a nasty flu virus for most of the winter season and hasn’t been able to shake it off yet. But his psych levels where so high that he just had to get out climbing even though he wasn’t firing on all cylinders! He asked if I would like a go at the pitch, but I said that I thought it would be a waste of time if I had a go as I was also pretty gubbed from the hard previous days climbing!

Mike looking for gear on "Inquisition"

Guy quickly down climbed from his high point and we trotted off to the base of Number 4 buttress. This is where our Plan B was situated. We decided to do “Prore Direct”, a route which was put up by Ian Parnell in 2007. We quickly swapped over the rack and I set off up the start of the pitch, which was home to some very steep moves and it was tricky to get situated over the bulge. I then moved up and left to make a series of strenuous moves to gain the original line of “Prore” on the main face. As the guide book describes it had minimal gear but also involved some technical thin moves to reach the arête.

Once we had reached the top of the route, we used the rapp station at the top of “Savage Slit” and descended back down to our bags. We then made another relaxing walk to the car under a magnificent full moon.

When we reached the car, I got a call from Mike to say he was on his way back up North from Edinburgh and that he was nearly at Aviemore, so we arranged to meet at the chip shop for a quick bite. After dinner, Guy set off home to Aberdeen and Mike and I headed to Fiona Murray’s where we were going to spend the night, ready for yet another day on the hill on Friday.

Mike showing me how strong you need
to be to winter climb.

On Friday morning Tweedley and I headed into Lochain again, and this time we headed for the route “Inquisition” on No. 2 buttress. As I was pretty much spent from the previous two days in the corrie Mike lead the route, which involved digging through the very iced up corner to try and find some gear. This turned out to be harder than we had thought it would be and even when he found some kit, it would probably not have been any use if he had weighted it! But thankfully Mike cruised the line and was on the easier ground in no time. He brought me up and we then rapped off an in-situ belay back down to the bags and we were on our way back to the car by 1pm.

This was a nice relaxing day in the mountains and it was a good way to end an awesome three days climbing. I am now resting up to get ready for another upcoming week of cranking.

Happy Happy Happy

2011-01-22T10:31:00.000Z

This week I decided to visit what would normally be one of my regular winter haunts, but which recently I have actually been neglecting. As is always the case with Coire an Lochain, no matter how long it has been since you last visited, it never fails to deliver. This trip was no different.

A 4am start on Wednesday morning saw me meeting Mike Tweedley at Bridge of Earn where we proceeded to head north for an early start in the corries. At 7:30 we started the walk in, this could never be described as a trudge when there’s the anticipation of a great days climbing ahead of you. And this day proved to be no exception.

When I realised the route was in condition.

As we grew closer it was evident that all the routes in the corrie were in perfect mixed condition. Amongst them was our intended route for the day, the ludicrously steep “Happy Tyroleans”. The perfect conditions certainly did not provide any form scapegoat; the only option would be to make an attempt at this well known test piece with a notorious reputation. It was at this point that the butterflies in my stomach felt like they were on steroids!

We ascended the bullet hard neve to arrive at the base of the line, from this perspective the routes steepness was even more apparent. I could see that the recent training on the overhanging “Fast and Furious” was going to pay off.

We suited and booted while trying to suppress the ever increasing nerves and build the necessary psych which is always the key factor to being successful on a route that’s at your limit. There was no doubt that this route would be in this category.

At the start of the difficulties

After moving past the initial thin moves followed by a small bold section it was obvious that I had reached the poor stopping place which, according to the guide book, signified the start of the difficulties. It was in this precarious position that the dark thoughts of potential failure crept into my mind, as the onset of fatigue from my last week of training gradually weakened my arms. This was the first time this season that I had truly doubted my ability to finish a route. The placing of a solid piece of gear gave me the mental and physical reassurance to continue. I decided to ignore the thoughts in my head and accept that you can’t be successful on every route but it’s always worth a try.

Fighting to recover below the steepest ground

To my surprise, and relief of not yet falling, I found myself ascending the steep crack which leads to the desperate rock over. As anyone who has knowledge of the history behind this route knows, this is the point at which all previous onsight attempts have failed. As I progressed through this final hard section I could see why. Thankfully the adrenaline that always seems to kick in at the crucial point carried me through these powerful moves onto the slab. Normally at this point you would be home safe with the belay a mere move away. This was not the case for me, however, as my axe was well jammed in its previous placement. Never a good situation to be in, but made even worse by the fact that the rock over move had taken me full stretch away from my axe, with the last piece of gear out of sight below me. This led to a teetering retrieval mission which involved me utilising every limb and I was eventually successful by using my foot to work the axe free.

Trucking on

To great elation I was finely at the belay. All that was left to do was to give out the necessary whoops of joy that were reciprocated by Mike and set up the belay for his ascent. He made a swift and clean second of the pitch except for the repeated glitch of a stuck axe in exactly in the same place. However, after a similar retrieval he was at the belay with me.

Mike on his way up the icy second pitch

It was then mikes turn to lead the easier second pitch to finish the route. Easier, however, does not mean easy! The pitch was extremely icy and the protection was hard to find under the thick layer of verglass. Mike put in a sterling effort to complete the pitch despite his earlier comments of being tired from the pumpy first pitch. Once he had shouted to me that he was safe, it was just a case of me seconding to success.

Two Happy Tyroleans made the first ascent,
Two Happy Britoleans made the first onsight!

We rapped back down the line to our bags, sorted the gear and made a tired but happy descent back to the car park.

Considering the route was at the highest grade I have as yet climbed. I was surprised but pleased to find it wasn’t at the edge of my limit. Although I found it physically tiring, I knew this was mostly due to the lack of rest from the previous weeks training. I’m looking forward to seeing how I fair on another route of this grade when I’m fresh and fully recovered.

No rest for the wicked!!

2011-01-16T19:22:00.000Z

Since the recent thaw has hit Scotland, I have had the chance to do some well needed work to restock the bank balance and also get some good training sessions in over the past week.

On Wednesday Mike Tweedley and I headed up to the Cairngorms, planning on getting some winter action in Coire an Lochain. But as the wind was gusting 85mph and the temperature was +3'c, we decided to give it a miss and head to Newtyle Quarry near Dunkeld for a beast of a training session in the tube cave.

After this I had two days working on the farm, which to me is just like doing two full days of training! I love working on the farm, as the labouring work that is involved can be so hard that your body is totally drained when you get home. This is usually after moving 400 tyres off the silage pit or chopping logs all day, I find it a brilliant way to train for long hard days on the hill.

Me doing laps on Fast and Furious (3/4 hight)
Photo credited to Peter Boswell

Yesterday I had another good training session, but this time it was at Ratho. This involved trying some of the new routes that have recently been set on the new competition wall. I'm hoping that training on the steep ground will get me fit for some of the routes I intend to try later this season!

Even though I was feeling pretty spent from yarding my way along the steep roofs at Ratho all day yesterday, I was still psyched to get another session in today. So this time it was back to the steep cave at Newtyle Quarry with Lindsey Yule and my Dad (who was armed with his camera), for some more laps on Fast and Furious. Unfortunately one of the holds 3/4 of the way up the route blew on my first go, this made the route nearly impossible to do fully. So I ended up lapping the first 3/4 of the route as many times as I could in the day. This proved to be very pumpy and I'm sure that all this recent training will pay off very soon.

I'm heading back up to Newtyle Quarry tomorrow with Mike Tweedley armed with the implements to repair the route, and to have one last training session before the forecast weather brings the mountain routes back into condition and the winter sendage hopefully continues.

The Duel

2011-01-08T22:24:00.000Z

Today I headed up to Stob Coire an Lochain with Steve Lynch. I only had one route left that I really wanted to do before I headed out the France. This route was The Duel!

Steve Leading the first pitch

We headed up early this morning to the foot of Summit buttress, and got stuck in just as the sun was coming up over the surrounding mountains.

Steve led off up the first pitch which crossed Scabbard Chimney and followed the stepped turfy ground to the base of the crux pitch of The Duel.

After I had seconded the first pitch, I got ready and psyched for the second. I climbed up and clipped the in-situ gear, as the guide book describes. Then I reversed back down to the base of the wall and headed up the thin technical ground towards the niche in the overlapping roofs. There where some pretty sketchy hooks and thin axe torques to gain the hanging slab that loomed above the imposing roofs. The route was pretty white under hoar and snow and involved a fair bit of clearing/hoovering to find the tiny hooks. Then came some big rock-overs on calf burning small edges, but thankfully the hooks where a bit better here.

Me clearing the pitch trying to find the thin hooks

More clearing required
Photo credited to Ken Applegate

I eventually reached the belay and brought up Steve, who thoroughly enjoyed the pitch, but was pretty drained from the technical climbing. So we decided that I would lead the last hard pitch to get things moving quickly again.

Once we had reached the top of the route we traversed right and rapped down the line of Scabbard Chimney and back to the snow covered bags at the base of the Coire.

Making progress on the Duel
Photo Credited to Ken Applegate

The Duel was an awesome line and I was psyched to climb this technical and teetery route on-sight. It has been a good start to the season for me, and I just hope that it continues when I'm out in Chamonix.

More info on Steve's blog
http://steve-lynch.blogspot.com/

Me clearing the way high on the top slab of the crux pitch.
Photo credited to Ken Applegate

Compare and Contrast

2011-01-06T21:57:00.000Z

Yesterday Adam and I headed up to a very, very snowy Ben Nevis. I have not seen Adam for about 6 months, so it was good to get out with him again, and what better to do but get cranking on some winter routes together!

On my way to calf pump on the first pitch of "The Secret"

Adam has not done much this winter (yet), but as usual he was super psyched to get on anything as long as he was out in the mountains. So we headed for the very well know route "The Secret".

I was very keen to get on this line asap, so that I could compare it to the route that I put up last Friday. It turned out to be much easier than "To Those Who Wait", but none the less "The Secret" was an awesome line and one of the best routes I have done on the Ben.

Pitch one of "The Secret"

I led both pitches, Adam thought this would be quicker as he had not done much this winter and we knew the top pitch wasn't going to be quick because it was very white under a thick layer of rhime and hoar frost, there was also a generous amount of verglass lacing the crack. But none the less Adam put in a sterling effort seconding the line and most of the top pitch in the dusk/dark light. I was very appreciative that he agreed to do this route with me and told him that I now owed him one (big time).

I didn't think the route was too hard, it was a bit tricky finding the hooks under the blanket of white, but that is always the case in winter! I am now very keen to see how people get on with my new route and to hear what they think of my suggested grade of IX/9.

Cleaning out the verglass on pitch two of "The Secret"

Nearing the end of the difficulties on The Secret

Adam showing good winter skills

Today we opted for the shorter walk in and did a route on the Douglas Boulder. We were going for the route Cutlass, and I think this is what we did. I'm not totally certain that we were on the correct line, but nonetheless Adam put on a good show on the long first pitch with some very insecure climbing and marginal gear, due to the verglass. I then went on to lead the second pitch through a short roof via a very juggy chock stone. This was good fun, but then came the deep snow and buried hooks for another 90m. We eventually reached the top of the buttress and rapped into the gully below. A quick 200m bum slide through the powder snow and a short trot back to the hut and the days antics were all over.

Me leaving the belay on pitch two

It has been a good couple of days on the Ben, but I am now looking forward to heading out to the Alps on the 15th. Bring on the steep ice and high mountain mixed routes. PSYCHED!!!!!!!!

How to get it wrong and still get it right!

2011-01-06T21:00:00.000Z

Will rapping into the route

After a good day on the Ben on the 31st, Will and I decided to head up to the NW for some Beinn Eighe action.

Once we had traversed the whole of the ridge (got lost walking in) and eventually found the crag, we did the route Blood Sweat and Frozen tears.

It was the first time for both of us on Beinn Eighe, and it did not disappoint. The route was top quality and there didn't seem to be a bad move on any of the three pitches.

Will topping out

At the top of the first pitch, Will asked if I had noticed that it was getting dark, I replied with "no way, it's way too early". We soon realised that my watch was playing up and we had been running 3 hours behind all day and it was actually 2:45pm. Which was not ideal. So we swiftly stepped it up a gear and Will only had to lead the last part of the last pitch by torch light.

When we reached the top and got back to our bags, it was snowing very heavily, and it didn't let up until we where just about back at the car. Which got the psyche pumping for more winter action later in the week!!!!!

More info and photos on Will's blog http://willsim.blogspot.com/

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

2011-01-04T16:22:00.000Z

On Thursday I drove West again to meet up with another friend of mine who was over from Chamonix (France) for the festive period. This time it was Will Sim, who was just stopping off in Britain on his was back to the Alps after a successful trip to Patagonia with John Griffith.

I picked Will up at the Green Welly Stop in Tyndrum, where his parents had dropped him off on there way north. We talked about where to go, and from the weather forecast it was obvious that we had to get as high as we could due to the high temperatures that where melting most of the Scottish winter conditions. So the Ben was the obvious option.

Will was psyched to get on something hard and preferably a new line, and I had just the route in mind that would enter into both those categories. It was an amazing looking line that Guy Robertson had tipped me off about and I had spied a look at it when I did the route "Babylon" on No.3 gully buttress. It follows the steep crack line up the overhanging wall which is round the arête to the left of "The Secret".

Topo of the route.
This pic was taken on a clearer day

After describing this route to Will and showing him some pictures of the line that I had on my laptop, the psych began to flow freely and we were both eager to give it a go.

When we were walking up No.3 gully, the temp was only just below freezing and the humidity was obviously very high. This did not fill us with confidence for finding our intended route in condition! But we trudged on upwards anyway until our steep objective loomed above us.

Our weapons of choice

The route looked fierce and very intimidating, but we where keen to give it a shot. Thankfully all the snow and turf was well frozen and there was ice smears on the first pitch, while the second pitch had a very light riming of frozen hoar frost. Unbelievably, It was looking good!

While we where stood at the bottom of the route, Will commented that the rock was still literally rhiming/hoaring up before our eyes. The wind was blowing straight onto the main/top pitch and it was swiftly getting whiter and whiter. So there was only one thing for it..........

We sat in the freezing wind and snow for 2 hours eating biscuits, chatting about past trips and gathering all our psych. Until we eventually decided to go for this beast of a line. So now the turf was frozen, there was ice and neve on both pitches and the top pitch was in exceptional hard mixed condition, IT WAS GAME ON!

Will started up the first pitch, which climbed a thin ice smear in the right facing corner, then up right onto a steep rock shield, he then traversed further right into the hanging chimney (hard) and up out onto the snowy turfy ledges to below the impending steep rack in the looming headwall.

Will starting up the ice smear on the first pitch

Once I had seconded the pitch and was also under the steep second pitch, I soon started having second thoughts about the days objective. "F**king 'ellllll, it looks well harder from here".

Will gave some good words of encouragement and said just to give it my best, so that's what I did! I started up the immaculate crack and much to my disappointment there was very little progress to start. There where no chock stones or good hooks anywhere to be found and after a few up and down climbs I thought it was an unrealistic objective.

I looked around, and saw what looked like a potential sequence to get higher up the pitch. Not wanting to spoil other peoples on-sight of this awesome line, I'm reluctant to go into too much detail on how I did the lower crux moves, but what I will say is that it was super thin, super hard and very pumpy! Once I had reached the obvious chock stone at about half height I swiftly tried to get into a comfy position to try and get rid of the raging pump in my forearms. From my so called rest position (a place where I got even more pumped) I looked up at the rest of the pitch that loomed above. I could see the obvious ledge at 3/4 height that would be home to a very comfy rest, all I had to do was figure out the second crux to get there.

Me heading into battle on the crux pitch
(unfortunately the humidity killed my camera lense)

After some more up and down climbing from the semi-rest position I had placed some marginal kit below the bulge in the icy crack and had kind of figured out how I was going to surmount the ledge. There was a tv sized block hanging over the lip of the ledge which looked like it was welded down by ice and hard snow. I pulled up and hooked this. Suddenly it moved closer and started to topple off, I swiftly shoved it back onto the ledge as far as I could, but all the time I was doing this I was locked off on my left axe and my bicep felt like it was going to explode. I quickly reversed back to the good axe hook and tried to slow my breathing and focus on getting some strength back in my arms. I knew it was going to be very hard getting onto the ledge without knocking off the block, but I had to, because if it was to fall it would defiantly have crushed Will, and that would not have been Ideal!

On my second attempt I managed to get a very high right foot on the ledge, to the side of the block and make an all mighty press move off my left axe while trying to avoid touching the block. The next few seconds are a bit blurry in my mind (probably due to fear) but I found myself stood on the ledge with the block between my feet and my chest pressed hard against the overhanging wall above. I was in a fairly stable position and managed to place a high runner above my head. Unfortunately the ropes where now getting caught round the block and it was starting to move again.

We decided that I would stand very still and in balance on the ledge while Will untied from the belay and soloed further up the turfy ground below to get out of the way of the block. Once he was in a safe position, the only logical thing to do was knock it off the ledge so that it would be safe for when Will seconded the pitch and other teams on future ascents. I knocked it with my foot and it smashed into the ground exactly where Will had been previously standing (gulp!!).

After this I launched up the last overhanging section of the climb and somehow managed to find myself slumped at the top 10 minutes later. I let out a might whoop of joy and swiftly set up a belay to bring Will up the pitch.

Will looking drained after seconding the top pitch

Once Will had arrived at the top, he said that he had no idea how I had got onto the ledge without knocking the block off, as he said that he found it unbelievably hard, and the block wasn't even there. We then sorted the ropes and chatted about a grade and a name for the route. During this conversation I said to Will that "Good things come to those who wait", in relation to the fact that we had hung around at the bottom for the ideal conditions. So this is how we got the name.

"To Those Who Wait" - IX/9

For more information and some pictures check out Will's blog here;

http://willsim.blogspot.com

We then went on to climb on Beinn Eighe on Sunday, but Im off know to drive up to the Ben again, so that blog post will have to wait.

One Last Hit Before Christmas

2010-12-23T12:21:00.000Z

As Christmas is fast approaching, people are travelling all over the world to be home with their families. Ally Swinton (a good friend of mine) is one of these people, and last week he flew home from Chamonix in the French Alps to surprise his parents and to be home for the festive period.

As I had not seen him for nearly six months, the first thing I did when I heard he was back in the country for a week, was to call him and make plans to get out in the hills before he headed back to Cham.

Ally on the first pitch with Sioux Wall above him

So on Tuesday night we drove across the country to the Ben Nevis NF car park and kipped in my car, ready for some awesome weather and an awesome route the following day. When we awoke, the moon was still flooding the night sky with light and as we walked up onto the mountain we didn't need to use our head torches, even on the forest section of the approach.

We walked up to No.3 Gully Buttress and as we approached, we could see the that routes were in awesome condition. We did the route "Sioux Wall", which is another mega classic on the Ben. As it was only Ally's second route of the season and his hardest Scottish mixed route to date, I offered to lead all the crux pitches, although his main pitch packed a fair punch!

Me on the 2nd pitch

We soloed halfway up the first/access pitch then Ally lead the section to below the 2nd pitch. I then went on to lead the very enjoyable wall pitch to the top of the first crack section (below the obvious corner groove) where there is an in-situ belay. We where following the summer route description in the Ben guide book, but a friend of mine who had done the route previously, said that the winter route splits the second pitch into two pitches.

Ally seconding the 2nd pitch

So that is what we did, and once I had brought Ally up to the belay, he sorted the rack and set off up the corner pitch. After a good battle with the technical groove and icy cracks he eventually made it to the belay below the steep crack (crux) pitch, and brought me up.

Ally heading into battle

I then ran the crux crack pitch and the continuation crack pitch together, the first crack section was a little strenuous to start but it soon eased off, although it remained technical and hard enough to stay interesting. Once I had pulled over the last tricky section I arrived on the large platform of "Number Three Gull Buttress". I brought Ally up to here and he swiftly ran up the exit pitch of NO.3 buttress in the dark to reach the top!

Me on the crux pitch

It was good to get out in winter with Ally and now I'm super psyched to go to the Alps in January to get on some steep ice and Alpine routes with him.

The One Horned Pony!

2010-12-21T11:40:00.000Z

Yesterday Mike Tweedley and I headed up to Stob Coire an Lochain to have a pop at the mega classic line "Unicorn". We had talked about climbing this route together two years ago but had never actually got round to getting on it.

We arrived at the bottom of the route just as the sun was turning the Aonach Eagach Ridge a beautiful pinky/red colour in the light of dawn. After another technical game of rock, paper, scissors it was decided that I would lead the first pitch and that we would alternate leads after that.

Me starting up the awkward first pitch of Unicorn

I set off up the huge looking corner line hoping that there wasn't going to be as much verglass in the cracks as there was on the Ben on Saturday. As I progressed up the pitch it was obvious that there was some verglass around, that made finding good protection more difficult than usual. Especially in the crux niche where the thin crack at the back had filled with rock hard ice which made it very strenuous to protect, as I had to clear the ice away before I could place any wires. So I opted for the bold option of placing one nut at the bottom of the niche and charging to the good hooks higher on the pitch.

Me high up on the first pitch of Unicorn

That was a decision I soon came to regret, and as my left foot was standing on tiny rock crystals and my right foot was just jammed precariously in the V-niche, (which kept popping out and making me over grip my axes which sapped more of my energy), I prayed that my axe picks wouldn't rip out of the very thin hooks I was yarding on. Always in the back of my mind was the fact that I was high above that one little nut in the icy crack (WHAT A STUPID DECISION!).

Thankfully they didn't rip and after another 20 meters of climbing, I arrived at the first belay fairly unscaved, apart from being a little mentally drained from the crux section. I quickly set up a belay on the hanging stance and started to bring Mike up the pitch.

Once he was at the belay and we had sorted the gear, he set off up the steep second pitch and swiftly got into the motions of technical egyptians, big lock offs and raging calf bump/burn. This pitch was home to some amazing moves and very technical climbing. Not bad for Mikes second route of the season.

Mike starting up the second pitch of Unicorn

Mike nearing the top of the technical second pitch of Unicorn

After my next pitch which also had some hard moves at the top, Mike lead the last short section under the light of an almost full moon, and once at the top of the route the whole of Glen Coe was lit up in the clear nights sky. This was the icing on the cake for me, I could have sat up there on those snow covered rocks in the still nights air for hours. But we quickly sorted our kit and headed down the easy gully (glissading) back to our bags.

Unicorn was an awesome line and it was good to get it done with Mr Tweedley after having talked about doing it in the past. What an awesome day!

Tired but content at the top

The Art of Survival!

2010-12-19T11:46:00.000Z

Yesterday Tony and I headed up for some winter action on the freshly rhimed up buttresses of the North Face of Ben Nevis. We both had our own projects in mind and we agreed that a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors at the hut would decide on which of our two routes we would do.

We did this and the lucky Mr Stone won the game, so off we trotted up the hill towards the buttresses. When we were half way up, the wind and spindrift was starting to get very strong and it soon became apparent that the forecast weather of little winds and a high percentage of clear sky's was not going to arrive and that it wasn't a day for trying hard project routes in the mountains.

Tony just before retreating from a Verglass nightmare

We agreed on another route,but as Tony started up this, I noticed that he was 20m up without a good/any piece of protection. He soon shouted down that the verglass was making it impossible to protect this hard route and that he wasn't comfortable to press on without any good gear. I agreed and Tony then down climbed back to the base of the route.

We then decided to go and try a route that I had wanted to do for a while and Tony had done previously called "Cornucopia". As it was getting late by this point we agreed that I would do the whole route in one big pitch and then rap off and strip the route, hopefully before it got too dark!

A quick photo of me on Cornucopia before another spindrift cloud hit!
(the ropes show the wind)

I stared up the route, and after fighting my foot free due to getting it well and truly stuck (mid crux), getting my eyes frozen shut numerous times, not being able to look at my feet without getting blinded because the epic spindrift and running out of good gear placements from the amount of bullet proof verglass on the route (more like trying to survive than actually climbing). I finely pulled onto the top and the proceeded to quickly rap back down and strip the route to a very festive/frosty looking Tony.

We pulled the ropes and retreated through the gale force winds and blizzards back down to the hut as quick as the deep snow would let us, while trying to avoid the unstable avalanche prone slopes on the way.

On the walk back to the car and once we were out of the wind, it turned out to be a lovely decent due to the almost full moon beaming down on us and lighting up the path and forest trail, meaning we didn't need to use our head torches on the entire decent.

It was then back home for the Christmas party on Sunday and back out climbing again on Monday!

Bring it on!!

A good way to end a trip

2010-12-09T17:30:00.000Z

After an amazing, but tiring, previous day on The Brack I was up again at 3:30am yesterday morning to drive to yet another winter climbing venue. I was an hour into my journey when my intended climbing partner texted me to say that his car had broken down and he wasn’t going to be able to make it. This turned out to be not too bad, as I knew some friends of mine where heading over from Edinburgh to go climbing on the west anyway. I swiftly rang James (the Stig) who was about to set off to drive west and told him about my lack of partner situation and he said it was ok as they were in a three and I could join them to make two teams of two.

The Route Topo

We arranged to meet at Tyndrum and as I arrived well before we had decided to meet (as I was already on my way) I was keen to catch up on some well needed sleep. I jumped into the self made bed in the back of my car and snuggled into my cosy Vaude sleeping bag. When I awoke it was light outside and there was not a cloud in the sky. I knew that even though I was tired from Tuesday’s antics it was still going to be a good day and I was keen to get out even if it just meant seconding some easier routes due to my fatigue.

approaching the route

We ended up going to Beinn Udlaidh which I was keen for as fat Ice climbing doesn’t involve too much energy. We walked up the snowy forest trail and in to the base of the Coire. I was planning to climb with Neil Carnegie; a good friend of mine who is keen for easy or hard routes (which is always a bonus). As we gained sight of the ice falls only one route stuck out in my eyes, this was a big ice fan hanging down from the lip of a very steep looking wall. Suddenly all my thoughts about being tired and taking it easy went out the window and I was super psyched to get on this hard looking thin ice line.

Starting up the first bulge

Gaining the Ice

I set off up the first steep mixed section and it soon became clear that there wasn’t much gear to be had, and when I committed to the technical traverse I was quite far away from a very poor nut. I then reached an icy blob on a small ledge which I used to hang around on to find some gear before I committed to the crux moves onto the ice fan.

Getting established on the fan

The only kit I could find was a half hammered in pecker, but it was pretty good (so I hoped). I got psyched and charged for the thin ice, which turned out to be pretty good and it didn’t take long to get established on the fat ice pillar, Ahhhhhhhhhhh...... thats better!!! Apart from the start of the second pitch which was a bit thin and teetery, the rest of the route was fairly straightforward but great fun.

I gave the route VII/7*** (with a bold start) and called it “The Crooked Smile”.

Home free on the fat ice

All in all it was a good day, apart from leaving a rack of nuts at the top of the route which I had to run back for from the bottom of coire (fairly tiring after a week of back to back climbing). But I can’t complain because it was been an awesome week’s climbing and I’m looking forward to next Monday when I’ll hopefully be out doing it all again.

Thanks to Sean Bell for all the amazing photos.

There will be blood, but it will be worth it!

2010-12-09T14:36:00.000Z

Feeling pretty psyched from my previous three days in the mountains (earlier blog posts) I was yet again ready and eager to get out climbing again. So early on Tuesday morning I met up with Guy at the forestry commission car park as for The Brack.

We had a quick cup of coffee and discussed our intended options for the day. We knew it was going to be a hard one but we were both keen to have a go.

We were planning on trying to get the FWA of an E3 called Mammoth, which is a route that has a lot of history and is described in the guide book as dirty and green (ideal for a winter ascent).

We began the steep walk up to the buttress and after some wading through waist deep snow we arrived at the base of the route. We dug out a ledge and dumped our bags, as we geared up we both where a little quiet due to the uncertainty of the up and coming days difficulties!

Once we were both ready to go we trotted to the base of the route and I tied into the sharp end. The moves off the ground seemed to be absolutely nails and after a few good attempts on my behalf which resulted in bleeding hands and many down climbs back to the base, Guy offered to have a look. After a sterling fight through the first section he had soon dispatched the first pitch and we were one step closer to our goal. But we knew we couldn’t relax yet as there were still three hard pitches above us and the second pitch was the crux of the summer route.

Even though I had given a good fight on the first pitch I still felt fairly fresh (apart from the sore hands) and was psyched to give the second pitch a go. As I reached the base of the steep crack an anxious lump arrived in my throat, I had never climbed anything that looked this hard in winter before and I knew it was going to be a battle. But If you don’t try, you don’t get. So off I went and as I suspected the climbing was super strenuous and pumpy with a very hard/awkward cruxy move in the hanging pod half way up the pitch. My biceps were cramping up at this point from all the deep locks and as I pulled into the pod and tried to get a rest from a knee jam in the steep crack opening I realised I still had yet another steep roof section to go before I got to the belay. Another lump arrived in my throat, I had just fought as hard as I ever have on a winter route, and I still had to pull through that gnarly looking roof crack. My biceps were not pleased with this! But yet again I thought I might as well give it a try. I got some gear and set my sights on the snowy/turfy ledge that could be seen on the lip of the last steep section. Another series of deep powerful locks and I had reached the good turf. All I had to do now was conjure up some energy to get onto the ledge, which involved what I like to call a manly power shout but Guy said it sounded more like I was in pain! But either way I was on the ledge and could see the belay just above me at the base of another big crack.

Guy starting up the third pitch

Me at the lip after the steep wall (hidden below me) of the third pitch

As I was bringing Guy up the second pitch I had a good look up at the third pitch and as I did this I was very happy that I didn’t have to lead what looked like another very sustained crack that overhung a fair bit at the top. Soon enough Guy had gained the second belay and after the obligatory well done/good lead/that was hard conversation he was off up what we thought would be the slightly easier third pitch (oh how wrong we were). It turned out to be just as sustained as the previous pitch and as Guy was cranking his way up the last super steep section of the pitch, all the muscles in my arms and back decided to started cramping up (which is never ideal). After one last huge explosive yard for the lip Guy had reached the belay and It was my turn to second.

Me pulling onto the belay at the top of the third pitch

As the sun was starting to go down, I tried to climb the pitch as fast as my tired muscles would let me and as I got moving again my muscles loosened up and I was feeling ready for the steep section. I too made a huge hall ass move for the lip and after two more moves I slumped onto the belay ledge at Guys feet with him telling me that the next pitch looked easier than the last three (thank f*** for that I thought).

Me leading the last pitch

The last pitch was not as strenuous as the previous ones, but it was definitely not a walk in the park. It was hard to protect in the first half and there was more steep climbing after the tenuous traverse. By this point my whole body was tired and I was eager to get to the top, so I just pushed on and eventually found myself pulling onto the easy angled turfy ground that lead to the summit.

As I was bringing Guy up the last pitch my body started to cool off as the night air pulled closer. This cold breeze brought back the muscle cramps in my biceps, but this time I didn’t care as I had just climbed my hardest winter route to date and we had successfully achieved our intended objective. Better yet we had climbed the two very sustained crux pitches onsight and still managed to climb the rest of the route clean, what more could you ask for.

View from the top of Mammoth

Thankfully the walk out wasn’t as hard as the walk in as we just followed our tracks back through the waist deep snow and down the forest track back to the car. Once back at the car we both congratulated ourselves and before parting ways to start the journey home we decided on a grade for the route.

We gave it..............Mammoth-IX/9***

What an awesome weekend.

2010-12-06T14:14:00.000Z

On Friday night I met up with Paul Prentice and Lindsay Yule at the Ben Nevis north face car park, we headed up to the CIC hut that night for an early start on Saturday. We arrived at the hut at around 12 midnight and after a quick cuppa and a look at the guide book we got into our bags and dosed off.

After a quick bite to eat on Saturday morning we commenced our journey up to No.3 gully buttress through some deep but fairly stable snow. As we grew closer to No.3 we could see that the buttresses where in perfect mixed condition and all the lines looked ready for the ticking.

Paul and Lindsay kitting up

Paul on the first pitch of Babylon

We ditched our bags and kitted up at the bottom of “Winter Chimney”, then Paul started up the first pitch of “Babylon” which was our intended route for the day. After a quick lead Paul had reached the first belay and was ready to bring Lindsay and myself up the pitch. After we had seconded, Lindsey then went on to lead the next two shorter pitches which involved the crux cracks of a route called “Gargoyle Wall” and a very tenuous traverse pitch which finished on a very small ledge below the last pitch of “Babylon”. Once the three of us where secure and cramped up on the small stance, we swapped the ropes and kit and I set off up the last (crux) pitch. It had a tricky start, which involved pulling over a small roof directly above the belay ledge then into a short off-width chimney which leads to a larger easier chimney and to the top.

Lindsay on the Gargoyle cracks pitch

Lindsay on the tenuous traverse

I quickly got safe, then Lindsay and Paul had fun seconding the tricky/awkward pitch and the beaming smiles that emerged from the top chimney showed that everyone had had a good day.

Me pulling through the crux overlap on Babylon

Throughout the day we had been watching two other climbers opposite on the mega classic hanging chimney line of “Darth Vader”. It looked like an amazing line and watching the other two climbers have so much fun on it made me mega psyched to get on it.

We grabbed our bags and descended down the mountain back to the car. After organising kit we parted ways and got stuck into our separate journeys.

I headed to some good friends of mine, Ken and Buffy Lacey who stay on the Isle of Seil just down the road from my old house where I lived before I moved east to Fife. This was good as it was not that far from the Ben and I was planning on climbing with Ken on the Sunday anyway.

The obvious chimney of Darth Vader

After four hours sleep Ken and I were up at 2:30am and on our way back up to the Ben. I must have dosed off in the car, as when I woke we were in Fort William and soon to be approaching the north face car park. We leisurely walked up to the hut and followed the tracks I had made the previous day up to No.3 area. The buttresses looked even better than the previous day and the weather was about as good as it gets in winter in Scotland, there was not a cloud to be seen and the sun was brightening up the sky.

Ken leading the first pitch of Darth Vader

Me on the second pitch of Darth Vader

All the way up from the hut we could see the prominent chimney line of “Darth Vader” sticking out from Creag Coire na Ciste. This is the route we were heading for and once we were at the base of the line we organised a belay and Ken started up the first pitch. After this I went on to lead the rest of the route, and what a route it was. It was home to some very varied climbing, from the pumpy 3m technical wall which bars access to the chimney, to the thin powerful pull out of the crux cave on the third pitch. The route never stopped giving and although it was not super hard it was very enjoyable all the way up to the last move.

Once Ken had reached the top we gathered our stuff and descended for down No.3 gully for the second time in two days. We trundled back to the car and headed back to Kens house. I stayed there again last night and I am currently organising a partner for some more winter action tomorrow.

Second pitch of DV

Ken entering the hidden cave on DV

Me pulling through the crux roof of DV

Roll on the good winter!

Deep inside the Black Cleft

2010-12-03T15:47:00.000Z

On Wednesday I braved the deep snowy roads in Fife and headed up north to Inverness where I met up with Guy Robertson. He dumped all his kit in my car and we set off towards Skye.

Thankfully the roads on the west weren't as bad as they where on the east and we made good time, arriving at our intended sleeping spot on the VERY cold Isle of Skye by 9pm. We sorted our climbing kit for the next day and swiftly settled down to sleep in the back of my car. Temperatures supposedly reached -20 that night but thankfully it didn't have much affect on me as I had my snugly down Vaude sleeping bag to hide away in (hope you like the product placement I did there).

Sun rising on the Cuillins

When the alarm rang at 3am the stars where still out in full force and there seemed to be very little wind. I could tell it was going to be a good day, as we ate some food the thought of the up and coming days antics was giving me butterflies in my stomach. Once we were kitted up and ready to go we started walking along the path towards the Cuillin Ridge, while all the time the big looming buttresses in the surrounding area where just visible in the pitch dark and seamed to be looming down on us from above.

As we reached the top of the ridge the sun was just starting to rise above the hills and this gave us the opportunity to scope out our decent and observe what routes where in winter condition. Unfortunately our intended routes weren't in nic, but one of our back up lines was!

We did a route called "Black Cleft" which hadn't had a winter ascent before. Even though it was a last hope option the route was totally awesome and gave a good variety of wall climbing and winter chimneying. The route was sustained but never super difficult so we decided to give it VI/7 *** and we both agreed that it was one of the most enjoyable routes we had done in a while.

Guy approaching the route

Above; Me pulling over the last roof exiting the chimney

Once we were back on the ridge we sorted our kit in the beaming sun with a spectacular view of the Scottish islands and the Cuillin ridge with its surrounding mountains. We took some pictures and then set off on a leisurely decent back to the car whilst the sun set behind the Isle of Rhum.

We arrived back to the car as night was just setting in and we were both pleased to be back before it was dark and to get going swiftly so it wasn't to late on the drive home. Unfortunately my car battery wasn't playing ball and my car was struggling to start. After a lot of swearing and persistent turning of the key we realised that nothing was happening. We where literately in the middle of nowhere and there was only one house within 5 miles of us....... so off we walked. Thankfully there was someone home and the local farmer was very friendly. After asking us all about our days climbing and telling us stories of his current adventures he gave us a jump start and the car was ready to rock.

The roads where still free of snow and we got back to Inverness in very little time, I dropped Guy back at his car and headed to my friends (James Dunn) house in Aviemore. I slept there last night and I'm about to head west again to Fort William to climb on the Ben tomorrow. Hopefully it will be as good as our day on Skye.

Burning and Looting 21/11/10

2010-11-28T10:38:00.000Z

Last Sunday Neil McGeechy and I headed up to the Gorms to try and get some early season climbing done. We went in to look at a particular route but as the turf was in no way frozen we opted for an easier/rockier line on Fiacaill Buttress.

Pic- Neil on second pitch

We did the route "Burning and Looting" which was a good little line to the left of Balhaven. I did an alternative less turfier first pitch to the original route which bumped the grade up a touch and made the whole route a little more sustained. Neil then went on to lead the second pitch which had some fun technical climbing and finished by climbing through an eye of a needle feature in the rock.

Pic- Neil bringing me up to the eye of the needle.

It was a very relaxed day and it was good to see Neil get stuck into some more technical mixed climbing as he hasn't done very much.

It's finely here!!!!

2010-11-10T22:15:00.000Z

Winter has finely arrived, and maybe a little too much.

Today Guy and I headed into a very snowy Coire an Lochain. As we got close to the buttresses we could see that they where in good nic although there where a lot of icicles hanging from the steeper cracks. We decided to try a route called Nocando Crack, which is an awesome looking line that follows a huge hanging flake between The Migrant Direct and The Vicar. This route had been on both our tick lists for the past few years.

I started up the first pitch (picture above), but it soon became apparent that there was a lot of useless ice around and the Verglass was making progress and protecting the route very difficult. I persevered and once I had done some thin moves to reach the belay (that where made even spicier due to the lack of protection from iced up cracks), I brought Guy up to the stance and we discussed our options for the rest of the route.

As this route is such an amazing looking line, we where both very psyched not to mess up our clean ascent. So we decided to bail off Nocando due to the fact that the cracks on the next two pitches where totally glazed over with a bullet proof layer of Verglass ice which would make protecting the two harder pitches nigh-on impossible.

We decided to traverse onto the easier line of "The Migrant" which I had done a few seasons ago. Guy ran the last two pitches together to give a good long pitch and even though I had climbed this before it was a very enjoyable way to finish off the days climbing. All in all the whole route went at around VII/7 (due to conditions) and it was a good way to blow away the cobwebs and get the psyche pumping for the up and coming winter season.

Climbers on Fallout Corner:

There where three other teams on No.4 buttress which looked a little less icy and in good condition, No.1 and No.2 buttresses where very snowy and most of the routes looked like they would need a lot of clearing on the less steep ground (not that inspiring).

Hot Tips

2010-07-18T08:58:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Michael Shorter and I head to Dunkeld, except this time we headed to Polney. I have not done much climbing at this crag so there was lots to go at for me, and Mike was trying to tick off the rest of the routes he hasn't done there.

Even though the weather forecast was for rain showers throughout the day, we managed to avoid getting wet. Between us we got a handful of routes done of all grades and I got to spy some routes that I would like to go back for.

Mike did two E2's, soloed an E3 he had done previously and did an E3 called "Springboard Variation" which packed in a heavy punch on the crux section.

I did "Crash test dummies" E3,5c, then I soloed "Psoriasis" E3,6a, after some lunch I did "Hot Tips" E5,6b and finished off the day with an easy solo of "Ivy Crack" VS,4c. It was a fun day and thankfully the rain stayed off and we got our planned routes ticked.

As I've managed to find a job for a few weeks, I am going to have to do what most people do and wait until next weekend to get out cragging again. So lets hope its a dry one!

Sun sun sun

2010-07-07T20:53:00.000+01:00

Today Mhairi, Andy and I headed up to a very sunny Dunkeld, this made a change from the wet and windy Isle of Lewis that I was visiting last week.

Below: Mhairi on Squirm.

We all had things we wanted to get done and due to the awesome conditions we all got our intended routes ticked.

Below; Me on "Lady Charlotte"

Mhairi did the classic E1 "Squirm" to start. I then went on to solo the E1 "Deaths Head" to get warmed up and get my head in gear for my intended route later in the day.

Above; "Lady Charlotte"

Andy did the direct start to Squirm, "Squirm Direct" E3, 5c, and then in the afternoon I got the three star classic "Lady Charlotte" E5, 6a. Which was home to some sustained climbing with just enough kit to make it safe, but you had to look for it.

Bellow; Me on E5

As the sun was still high in the sky, Mhairi decided to give her project "Silk Teddy's"7c one last shot before we headed home for the day. She cruised up to then through the crux and styled it all the way to the top. With a beaming smile on her face she retrieved the draws and then we headed back to the car in high spirits.

It was a fun day and as always, Dunkeld offered some amazing climbing for everyone to enjoy. Truly a three star venue!

Lewis trip

2010-07-01T14:10:00.000+01:00

Above: Mangersta Cave (Screaming Geo)

For the past few days I have been on the Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The weather has been on and off with rain, but when the rain is not falling the sun has been out and the views and scenery are spectacular.

Even though I am away with my family, I have managed to get a few days of climbing and the routes I have done have been top quality! The first venue I went to was Dalbeg, I climbed the 4 star route "Neptune" E2/5c. This was an awesome line, but the harder routes to its Left on the main face look totally amazing and I will definitely be returning for some of that action.

Bellow: A spot of post route fishing

Yesterday James and I ventured over to Mangersta, this area has some breath taking views and the climbing and situation is second to none. I did a route called "Killer Fingers" which is a 3 star E5/6a and the route was home to some funky steep moves with a smeggy/damp crux (which is always good value on the onsight).

Below: Me on "Killer Fingers" E5/6a

With the rain coming down again today, I have opted for the touristy family time option and will hopefully get out again tomorrow and Saturday when the weather improves.

Plan B

2010-06-26T22:18:00.000+01:00

Above: The descent path to Cummingston

For the past week I have been bouncing all over the highlands to make the most of the good weather that they were having up there. I was away with James, Neil McGeachy and Ross Kirkland.

We were planning on heading up the North West but as the weather didn't look too promising we decided to go for Plan B and use James' parents house in Aviemore as a base and move around to different venues from there.

Below: Me on the "Fuhrer" E4

On the way up North we stopped at Creag Dubh, this was the first time I had been to this venue and once I got used to the type of climbing this crag has to offer I started to really enjoy the routes. We enjoyed it so much that we returned the next day and over the two days I managed to get some good ticks under my belt. The highlights were onsighting, The Fuhrer (E4) and The Final Solution (E5).

Above: Me on "The Final Solution" E5

We then headed further up north to the sea cliffs of Cummingston. This was also a new venue for me and as soon as we got to the crag I knew what route I was going to do. It was the amazing looking line of "The Prow" (E5). This is an overhanging prow the juts out above the sea from one of the surrounding sea stacks. The line followed some very steep ground with less than adequate protection, what more could one ask for!

Below: Me on "The Prow" E5

On our last day we headed to Glen Clover, and yet again this was a new venue for me. I really liked the crags in this area, but unfortunately the sun was beaming down on us all day and whether it was sun stroke or fatigue from the weeks climbing but unfortunately I didn't have much energy to get up my chosen route. I will definitely return for round two though and get on some more of the good looking classic lines in this area.

Below:Me at Glen Clover

James, McGeachy and Ross also got some amazing routes ticked on the trip, so check out there blogs for more info. These can be found in my Links section.

Climbing, a Spectators sport!

2010-06-21T09:57:00.000+01:00

Since my return from Pabbay, for the past two weeks I have been suffering from a very annoying chest infection. I have been getting out climbing a bit recently but every time I get on something slightly tricky, I go into an uncontrollable coughing fit (which is never good when you are trad climbing).

Even though I have not been getting many routes ticked, its been fun to head out and watch everyone else ripping it up on the trad! Neil McGeachy and Jonny did there first E7 last week (Neil got the flash), James onsighted his first E1 on Friday and and there has been much more going down as well!

Im off to Reiff this week so hopefully my cough will subside a bit and I will be able to get some good routes ticked.

Pabbay Tradding Paradise

2010-06-08T12:22:00.000+01:00

For the past week I have been climbing on Pabbay, which is an uninhabited Island in the Outer Hebrides. I have been to the Island twice before, except I was not planning on going again this year. When a friend called to say his climbing partner had bailed on him and he was looking for a partner to head out with, I jumped at the chance to go back out.

I love climbing on these Islands. There are no amenities and the only access to water is a small stream running down the side of the hill and the only fresh food is fish out of the Atlantic Ocean. So the only thing you have to think about is the climbing (which is always such a hardship).

The climbing on the Island Is totally amazing, it is classed as one of the best tradding venues in the world. The rock quality is Immaculate and the surrounding sea and wildlife is incomparable. Once you have climbed one of the many four star routes the island has to offer, you will never want to trad climb anywhere else again.

Bellow; Ally on the top pitch of "Endolphin Rush"

There are endless amounts of things to keep you occupied on the hanging belays on the longer steeper routes, whether it’s dodging the swooping birds that dive from the cliffs or watching the Basking Sharks filter through the plankton in the turquoise sea bellow. No matter what the weather, there is always something to keep you occupied.

Thankfully the weather held out and we managed to get climbing every day. Over the course of the week I managed to get loads of three and four star routes done, everything from E1 to E5. We visited as many of the different venues on the island as possible and no matter where we went all the routes where as good as the last. But there was one wall on the island that stood out above the rest, this was the 100m high Pink Wall that was home to many four star routes from E2-E7. This is where Ally and I spent most of our time on the trip and it was time well spent.

The week soon past by and by the time Saturday came round we were all sad to be leaving such a beautiful place and we knew we would miss the amazing climbing. So we packed away our tents and ferried the bags onto the fishing boat that was taking us back to civilisation.

I always miss the Islands once I’m home, but then again we can always go back next year. And I plan to do just that.

More pics to come

Satin Finnish

2010-05-06T12:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Charlie and I headed to Limekilns for a fairly easy days trading. I hadn't been there in over a year so It was fun to warm up on some of the classics then moving onto some trickier stuff.

Firstly I did "Marley's Ghost" which was one of the few E2's at Limekilns that I had not done before and it was surprisingly good despite the bold start.

Charlie then went on to try "The Struggler" but unfortunately the route lived up to its name and he came off mid crux. Thankfully he is psyched to head back soon for round two.

I then headed round to the steeper side of the little block and jumped on an E4 6a called "Satin Finnish". The bottom half of the route follows a steep corner crack which was very slimy and greasy which made the climbing a little more strenuous then usual, but the holds soon dried out as I moved higher up the wall. This was a good route and it felt a lot more sustained then its neighbouring E4 "Velvet Glove", which I had done a few years back.

Silk Teddies

2010-05-04T20:27:00.000+01:00

Mhairi , Charlie, Stuart and I went up to Dunkeld (upper cave) today. It was looking dry and everyone was psyched and ready to go.

As I put the clips in the sport routes, Stuart made short work of "Crutch" which is an awesome little two starred severe.

Charlie, Mhairi and I then had a go on the sport routes. Charlie is making good progress on "Hamish Teddies" while Mhairi and I where on "Silk Teddies" which I got on my second go today and Mhairi is looking very close to getting it soon.

After this Stuart got on "Coffin Corner" which was his second HVS and he cruised it with little difficulty (totally awesome for his first summer rock climbing).

The Snow Pimp

2010-04-24T21:19:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Guy and I headed up into the Gorms for one last blast before the winter climbing conditions leave us to make way for another summer.

Below; Guy on first pitch

Last time we were in Lochain we had spied a few new lines that looked totally awesome. One of which was a steep overhanging crack line to the right of “Hookers Corner”. We scoped the line form below and decided to go for it. There is another route that weaves around and follows all the easier angled climbing close to this one but we decided to go direct and take the steepest line throughout.

After sorting the kit and drawing straws (long and short quick draws) to see who would go first, we got stuck into the pumpy climbing that loomed above. As guy climbed up to below the crack it started to look steeper and steeper with every move he made.

Below; Guy making progress on the first pitch

After placing some high runners and reversing back down to de-pump on the lower ledge, Guy took some deep breathes and charged up the technical wall above. Once I had seconded the pitch and had pulled through the ludicrously hard crux, I looked up at the next section which was another hard looking overhanging corner crack except this time it was my lead!

Above; Me starting up the second pitch

A quick swapping of the rack then I was off on my way up the second pitch trying to find a line of weakness over the cracked capping corner/roof. I shoved the largest cam I had into the crack but it was only just big enough, the type of gear that you would definitely not want to fall onto. I finely gathered the courage to pull over using some strenuous laybacking on thin hooks, then came the fighting to get situated on the slab over the roof. All the time that dodgy cam was in the back of my mind except now it was way below me (not reassuring). After another short steep corner I pulled over onto the summit and quickly found a belay.

Above; Me on the second pitch.

The wind was blowing hard by this point so once Guy had seconded up to me we swiftly found a rap point and descended back down to our bags at the base of the route. On the way back to the car we talked about the grade and a name for the route, we decided to call it “The Snow Pimp” VIII/9.

Below; "Snow Pimp" topo

I was glad we made the effort to get one last route done before summer sets in for good and I am totally psyched for next winter and looking forward to see what it has to offer. But if it stays cold this winter might have one last adventure to offer, we’ll have to wait and see.

Big Country Dreams

2010-04-20T21:05:00.000+01:00

Today Adam, Mhairi, Charlie and I headed to the Cambusbarron quarries for some smeggy dolorite action. Thankfully it was fairly cold today so the smeg was low and the friction was high.

We started in the out-quarry and all did a number of routes, Mhairi onsighted "the doobie brothers" E1 5b, Charlie did a few E1's along with Adam and myself.

Below; Adam "Public Spirited Individual"

Adam then went for round two on "Public Spirited Individual" E3 5c, he had had a go on this route yesterday but unfortunately a hold blew off while he was climbing. So he jumped back on it today and put on a good show while doing the route clean.

Later on we ventured into the inner quarry and I jumped on an E4 6a called "Big Country Dreams". This route was home to some awesome climbing and I was pleased to do this cool looking line onsight.

Below; Me on "Big Country Dreams"

Charlie also had a go at "Big Country Dreams" unfortunately he took a good fall and managed to get his foot caught and flip upside down, resulting in a sore bum!!!

Below; Charlie collecting air miles.

All in all it was a good day and Im psyched for a Dunkeld sesh tomoz!

Laughing Gnome 15/4/10

2010-04-15T09:30:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we headed back to Dunkeld for some more trad and sport crankage. Mhairi and I were keen to get on "Silk Teddy's" and Andy was psyched for "Hamish Teddy's Excellent Adventure" so we started by sticking the clips in our routes and getting warmed up.

After a few goes on the sport wall I decided to go for the E5 "Laughing Gnome". This route is well known for its steep climbing up an overhanging arete with little gear protecting the crux. I had been putting this route off for a while but having felt good on the trad latly I decided to give it a go.

Below: Me moving up the Arete on "Laughing Gnome"

A couple of deep breaths, then some steep moves and a long heave over the lip, I latched the good holds and pulled onto the slab. A whoop of joy then some easier moves to the top.

Below: Me on "Laughing Gnome"

Once we were back down we headed to the sport wall for a few redpoint attempts before Andy also got psyched for some trad action. This time it was the steep E3 crack of "Marjorie Razorblade" that was on the menu.

He put in an awesome effort fighting up the sweaty crack in the mid day sun, and it did not take him long to reach the top and scramble up the mossy ground to victory.

Above: Andy getting stuck into "Marjorie Razorblade"

Once Andy was back down we all spent the rest of the day trying our chosen routes on the sport wall and as Mhairi and I are getting tentatively close to sending our routes we are psyched to head back up there again soon.

Below: Daisy scoping the moves and getting in the zone for her onsight attempt.

Pass Of Ballater 12/4/10

2010-04-13T09:40:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Mhairi, Andy, Stuart and I headed up to Pass Of Ballater for some more granite trad action in the sun. Everyone got a bunch of routes done, including Stuart who did his first HVS which was also his 3rd trad route lead. Not a bad way to start his summer.

Mhairi and Andy also had a good day, Mhairi did the classic E2 "Anger and Lust" and Andy put on a good show doing the tricky E2 6a "High Steppa" (photo).

I had a good day doing lots of routes, the highlights were "Crumbling Dice" E2 5c and "Cold Rage" E4 6a.

It has been awesome being able to get out everyday for the past 10 days whether it has been on my road bike, running or climbing due to the good weather. Lets hope it continues for the summer.

Soggy Crag

2010-04-07T21:44:00.000+01:00

Today Mhairi, Andy and I headed to Upper Cave (Dunkeld). We were all psyched for the sport routes but when we arrived at the crag we realised the sport wall was totally soaked through. Which was a shame, as the weather was awesome and the sun was shining.

We had a look around and realised that some of the trad routes were still dry. Which always means a good day out.

Mhairi and Andy both ticked the Dunkeld classic "High Performance", which was a bit damp but nothing too drastic. As I had already done High Performance, I jumped on the well renowned crack climb "Marjorie Razorblade". After a battle and some amazing climbing up the steep crack, I got the route ground up later in the day.