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The bit in between
12 December 2013, 12:26 am

Right now, I’m still progressing quite well with my return to climbing from surgery. The weather in Scotland has been rubbish, so much of my climbing has been indoors. Every night, I’ve been working away on my basic balance, ankle and and body strength exercises. It's not very glamourous stuff; just standing on one leg with my eyes shut and making shapes, over and over again. I had some alarming losses in strength to regain. But the nightly work is paying off and I can notice that I can get a lot more weight through my foot on steep ground since I was Spain a few weeks ago. The surgeon is happy with my progress, although he did say there was a fair bit of trauma (osteophytes trimmed back from both my talus and tibia) to recover from.

On a rope, I feel reasonably confident now, but in bouldering, I’m still very timid to land for good reason. I went to TCA last night and still have to climb everything as if I’m soloing and climb back down rather than jump or fall. It will probably be good for my climbing to do this for a little while.

So I’m in the bit in between being a surgical patient and recovered climber. There is still work to do, but I’m enjoying the progress. As I write, I’m en route to speak at the Bozeman Ice Festival this weekend. Hopefully, when I return at the end of next week there will be some winter conditions for me to get into back home. Then it’s only a short time until I go on a rather exciting climbing trip!Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Commencing the wait
5 January 2014, 1:56 am



Calum, Ben, Ally and myself have just arrived in El Chalten, Patagonia. We are here with the plan to climb on Cerro Torre, if we can. Any of you who have been to Patagonia already know that any firm plans here are, shall we say, subject to some adjustment. We want to climb rock, so we will have to wait until the liberal coating of snow and ice currently covering Cerro Torre melts back a bit.

I’ve never been here before. Back in 2001 I was considering it when my friend Alan Mullin was going there. He pretty much put me off it with tales of two consecutive two-month trips which consisted of sitting in the hut waiting for a weather window that never came. But then, one might be lucky, and Patagonia is somewhere you really ought to visit at some point. So since Calum and I both had eyed up the same projects here, I thought now was as good a time as any.



I was fully braced for a month of editing my book and getting fat, and on arrival in El Chalten, the forecast duly delivered. No weather windows in sight so far. However, I didn’t really appreciate that the bouldering here is so good. So while we wait, we are bouldering, a lot. I’ve had two great days climbing so far. I’ve done some nice granite sport climbs and got some good links on Iker Pou’s famous power endurance problem V12 ‘Wasabi’. I’ll be back on that again soon. It’s great to be on a climbing trip after so long on the couch after surgery. Here’s to the next month, whether it brings chilly adventures in the mountains, or ‘waiting’ amongst the granite boulders and adventures on small crimpers.



Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Patagonia first days
7 January 2014, 4:27 am



Repeating Wasabi, V12, near El Chalten (video still: Calum Muskett)

We have now been in Patagonia for 4 days, and our expectations for getting some free climbing done in the mountains soon are coming down to reality. We’ve met lots of familiar faces around El Chalten, and many new ones. Everyone wants to be up high doing long rock routes, but everyone is waiting for the wind, snow and rain to stop. At least two climbers who’ve spent a few seasons here have informed us that there is no chance of our primary objective on Cerro Torre coming into condition. So we have some plan Bs, Cs and Ds.

Most of those still require it not to be snowing and blowing a hoolie on the granite towers. So for now it’s time to crack on with the excellent bouldering. Straight away I’d got stuck into trying Wasabi on the superb boulders near El Chalten. It gets Font 8b although I think it’s a bit easier than that. Today it dawned rainy but cold. I worked on my book until lunchtime and then wandered up for another session on it. My first try saw me right up at the lip of the boulder but scared to carry on in a pumped state with no mats. Thankfully David Lama turned up with a mat and I got it done next try. I have a little video of this, but the internet connection is far to slow to bring it to you.

I’m told there is a hotel in town with something resembling a real connection. Given the forecast, it shouldn’t be too long before it’s time to go for a cup of tea there, so I’ll send it then. Tomorrow’s forecast is stormy, then stormy again the next day, and the next. Patagonia: hardcore bouldering destination and writer’s retreat! If I could run, I'd be doing plenty of that too.

I had a great time today at the boulders and certainly looking forward to getting stuck into more hard problems while we wait.Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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At last some mountaineering
11 January 2014, 9:39 pm



Seconding a brilliant VII,8 pitch on the Aguja Guillaumet, Patagonia. Photo: Calum Muskett

With a one day weather window forecast for Friday, we packed our things and wondered what objective to point ourselves at. The options were a bit limited. So just going up and being there was all we realistically hoped for. It had snowed very heavily the day before and many of the approaches would be dangerous. The rock routes would be in winter condition, and the window was too short to go on a really big wall.



Me leading a nice ice runnel on pitch 2. Photo: Calum Muskett

So we decided to go to the Guillaumet and see if we could safely get to a mixed route on its east face. On Thursday’s walk in, it was still windy, snowing and clagged in. My ankle hurt like hell with a heavy pack on and for the first hour I was unsure if I was going to make it. But after a while it became tolerable and I could think about something else. Near the snow line, we made a small bivi with rocks under a boulder and settled in for the evening.



Calum setting off on steep cracks on pitch 3

The dawn slog up onto the glacier brought a sunny morning and the greatest surprise of the trip so far - no wind. After hearing so much about the wind in these mountains it was a little surreal to be standing in the morning sun looking at the granite walls. Our plan A, a route on the Mermoz, was immediately ruled out after a block test in the snow revealed an easy shear. Later, we met some Austrians who did venture across the glacier, but gave up before they even got to the foot of the Mermoz, in chest deep fresh snow.

We weren’t about to waste the chance to climb something, so we headed right to the Guillaumet and eyed up a 6 pitch steep wall with some snow and ice clinging to various cracks and corners. A short route by Patagonian standards, but as we found out, it packed it in, with one pitch of Scottish tech 6, one of 7 and three of tech 8.



Calum starting up a big tech 8 corner on pitch 5.

Calum got two great pitches in the middle of the route. First a smooth wall with thin cracks and good hooks at VII,8 and a long steep corner which was around VIII,8. I had another VII,7 pitch with lots of great steinpull moves on rounded flakes. But the highlight for me was the final pitch which I got to lead; an improbable looking ramp leading into a smooth overhanging corner above. Both features didn’t give anything away until the last minute. The ramp went with a series of undercut placements in a row, with feet on a delicate smear of thin ice. The top corner went with lock-offs, feet not able to help much at all!



Eyeing up a thin ice smear on pitch 6. Photo: Calum Muskett.

Counting an hour back at our bivi boulder to have some Clif Bars and tea, we walked out in 6 hours. Calum had the march on. He was gunning to get back to El Chalten that night. I   scurried along behind him, trying to keep up through the forest as the darkness crept up. Just before midnight, Calum suddenly flung down the haulsac in frustration that we hadn’t got back to the road yet, pulled out his bivi bag and within seconds he’d retired for the night. I crawled into my bivi bag and settled in, only to hear a truck go over the bridge in the road, about 200 yards away round the next bend in the path. In the morning we only had a short stagger and a quick hitch back to El Chalten.



Lovely clouds above the Poincenot.

Even if that turns out to be our only weather window (which it might, the way the season has gone so far), It was great experience to get some climbing done on the Patagonian towers. As far as we know, it’s a new route too. I certainly felt like we made the most of the tricky conditions to get a good route done. So now, it’s back to bouldering, sport climbing, eating steaks and watching the forecast.



Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Plan B
20 January 2014, 3:15 am



Sunrise on the glacier below the Mermoz. Whatever happens today, it’s going to be a good one.

We are recovering after our second venture into the mountains in Patagonia. Everyone in El Chalten seems to be talking about which bits of their tired bodies are hurting the most and how many hours they spent on the go yesterday. The weather, for one day, was pretty good. But still not enough for rock climbing.

We had our eyes set on a rock climbing objective on the Aguja Poincenot and packed our rock rack, shoes and chalk bags. We still took pairs of ice tools, just in case, and trekked in to a high loch to camp for the night. We were unable to make it up to our intended bivi spot at Paso Superior since some climbers coming down had triggered a small slide with the snow softened by the afternoon sun. We weren't about to go up and risk doing the same for the sake of a longer walk in the morning. So we got into our sleeping bags around 6pm and failed to sleep.



Fitzroy bathed in the early morning sun.

At 3am we put on our crampons and slogged up onto the glacier, with sweat dripping from my helmet. We were rewarded with a stellar sunrise, bathing the Fitzroy range in lovely morning sunlight. There were some clouds blowing in though, and it was freezing as soon as you stopped moving. A quick discussion established the obvious; we would have no chance of having enough hours of warm sunshine in the day to free climb a hard 16 pitch rock route. Plan B? Get the ice tools out.

I had already spied a stunning looking new mixed line to attempt on the nearby Mermoz, a huge steep groove feature with thin runnels of ice that looked no more than a foot or so wide in places, flanked by blank vertical granite on each side. So we headed for that, even though I must admit I thought it looked far too hard for us to actually succeed on. But that’s new routing - you just have to go and try. Lots of folk say they would rather go for routes they think they can do, and I understand this; it’s nice to get to the top of things, at least once in a while. As a personal choice I’ve always erred on the side of trying a harder line, and never been too bothered about having poor or very poor odds of success. I’d rather fail on a hard route than succeed on an easier one, or to use a bit of aid to ensure success (as some of the routes here have done). We could have been certain of success on one of the easier lines on the day. But I would only have been walking down, wandering if that groove which had caught my eye would have been possible, or not.



Steinpull moves and thin ice on the hard pitch.

After a pleasant first pitch on ice, I belayed below a desperate looking corner containing an ice choked off-width crack. In my mind I thought we would be abseiling off shortly. Calum led through and had a go. He took a short fall after 20 feet and came down saying he thought it was too hard. I had a go and grunted my way up it. The pitch was about VIII,9 and took a lot of energy. So I was happy to soak up the morning sun on my belay and try not to fall asleep hanging in my harness!



Calum sets off up another amazing runnel of steep ice.

The next three pitches were amazing. They were all primarily on steep, narrow ice runnels with hard cruxes getting over bulges or dealing with cruddy ice. On one pitch I swung my tool, breaking a large chunk of dense ice off the runnel. I was in too much of a precarious position to get out of the way and it hit me square in the jaw. Once I was happy I still had all my teeth in my head, and that the bleeding both outside and inside my mouth was only minor, I carried on.



About to break a big blob of ice off, which nearly got me back by trying to break my teeth off. This was an amazing pitch. The granite on either side was totally smooth. My whole world was a foot wide sliver of ice for about 30 minutes.

On the 6^th pitch I climbed through a hard and precarious bulge back onto an ice runnel with an improbable looking overhanging corner above, which was dripping with thin blobs of ice. Until then, the route had been quite well protected, so we had both been happy to push hard with the climbing. But here, there was no rock gear to be had. Everything was verglassed. Because another mixed route was strictly our backup, we hadn’t taken any spectres or ice screws, which would have been the only protection for the next 60 feet or so. It was pretty frustrating. I could see it looked about tech 9 and would probably go. But there was no way I could justify trying with my last good protection already 40 feet below. So I made the only decision available; to go down. Even though there was no way I was going to risk my neck to carry on, it’s still a tough choice to reverse from a route in such a special place.



Setting off into overhangingness, only to retreat from 60 feet higher.

After the abseils off, walking back to camp and then El Chalten was ankle hell. Today I’m barely able to walk at all. But I’d love to go back to the route for another go with the right gear, if the weather gives us a chance before we leave. After studying my photos of the face, it looks like only another 60 to 80 feet of hard climbing before the wall leans back and starts to become more featured again.

I’m also learning a lot about the logistics here, and in the process making a few mistakes. We carried a little too much gear, and should have walked in from Chalten earlier in the day so the snow was in better condition to get to our intended bivi spot. There wasn’t much we could do about having the wrong gear for the mixed route, since that wasn’t our planned objective. I was amazed that we got as far as we did. Unfinished business is unfinished business. It's not in my nature to completely forget about that. However, in this case, the climbing to our highpoint was just so good that my mind was filled with the great moments we had up to there, and how nice it was going to be to finally take off my boots after walking and climbing for 30 out of the last 37 hours.







Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Orient Express FWA
19 February 2014, 1:04 pm



Adam Hughes seconding the crux pitch of Orient Express IX,8, Ben Nevis

I’ve been back from Patagonia for a week or two and every waking hour has been filled with family time, travelling to lectures, a bit of filmmaking and continuing to work flat out on my injuries book. Oh and a bit of mixed climbing.

Given the ridiculous volumes of snow on Ben Nevis this season, I had a mind to return to a route I’d had an abortive attempt on a few years ago. Orient Express is a summer E2 5c on the first platform of North East Buttress. After I did the first winter ascent of Steam Train (HVS) just to the right in 2006, I decided to see if it would go in winter. I had my doubts, since it was a slabby and bold looking E2. I guessed it might be too slopey and too bold to be climbable with ice tools.



Good winter line for an E2!

I had a go with Michael Tweedley in a pretty bad blizzard and got to the technical crux, where I could find no hooks at all. It felt like a total dead end, with only rounded smears leading up a steepening in the slabby ramp. But Nevis new lines tend to simmer in my mind, and I felt that if it ever got any real build up on the ramp, there might be some useful neve to make progress.

In early Feb I returned with Calum Muskett and subjected him to a long, cold belay while I probed around back at the blank looking crux for ages. There was some cruddy snow sticking to the ramps, but it was useless for the tools. Eventually, I found the tiniest flat hooks, a few mms wide to teeter upwards and onto a good flake and some gear. But above was a long section with only a couple of very poor peckers for protection, followed by another crux to gain access to the upper ramp system. I teetered about for ages, but finally couldn’t find any hooks to get over the bulge and decided to downclimb to the last gear I was happy to weight, apologising to Calum for inflicting such a cold belay on him.



 The ramps were well covered in snow, and I thought the recent freeze-thaws at this altitude might turn them into some useful ice. So yesterday I returned with Adam Hughes to see if I could get any higher. I regained my highpoint after an hour or so and could see a couple of blobs of cruddy neve well out left of the top bulge. Over the course of a good number of forays, I stretched up and tried to reach the ice blob, but it was just too far. The best I could get was a highly dubious stick just below it. After a bit of working up to it, I committed to swapping hands on the bad stick and reached the ice blob above, which did rip through a bit as I rocked over onto the bulge. Too late, I was either going up, or off!

Thankfully the peckers weren’t tested today and we continued up lovely ice on the ramps to the top.



Adam getting stuck into great, if poorly protected ice on pitch 2.Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Review of 2013 climbing
14 March 2014, 11:10 am



Eiger north face. One of the best bits of 2013 climbing for me.

I wrote the post below a while ago, but just posting it now. It's mainly for my own benefit to see what I did in 2013 and get an idea of what direction to head in 2014.

2012 which was a year of intense projecting for me (to climb Font 8b+ in Switzerland and redpoint my long term 9a project at Steall). So in 2013 I made a casual decision to swing the other way and go to some new places and do some disciplines (multipitch climbing and dry tooling) which I haven’t done much of for ages.

In January 2013 I was just learning to climb again after surgery on my right ankle. I kicked the year off with a nice week in Spain where I was able to start gaining some confidence and claw some fitness back on Malsonando (8c).

In February I started to be able to move around cautiously on crampons and in the mountains, and after a couple of short winter routes, I inadvertently got involved with the huge overhanging walls near the CIC cascades on Ben Nevis. I had gone up with Kev Shields to have a day of ice pitches starting with the cascade itself, but I ended up deciding to give the big seam across the roof a look and this became the best dry tooling route I’ve ever done. It was a fantastic piece of climbing. Unfortunately it proved a bit too controversial for the Scottish winter scene, so I ended up not even claiming it as a route. I say it was a bit too controversial, but any time it comes up in conversation with climbers, they have universally told me they couldn't see the problem a few folk had with it. It's just that they didn't say so on the public discussion at the time.

In March I put a bit of work into my linkup idea, but it didn’t come together this year. There were about 4 days when it looked like I might get lucky and all the climbs would be in condition. But it was always going to be a tall order, and so it’ll have to wait. It’s such an amazing project though, so I am super keen for my next opportunity to try it.

For the rest of the spring, I did some important work to set me and my family up for the long term. We moved house in the summer to Roybridge and now have a great base for all our MacLeod needs. Settling into a good house is something I feel is very important to be able to sustain a good lifestyle over the decades to come. It takes a huge amount of work and some sacrifices in the short term. But I’m certain it’s worth it. So during April and May I worked as hard as I could to prepare my house for sale. Houses in the highlands often take north of 2 years to sell, and that would have made life quite difficult for us. I was determined to give ourselves the best chance to complete the sale and move more quickly.  The work paid off. We sold our old place in Letterfinlay to the first couple who viewed it.

During this period I was also doing a bit of running. Right after my surgery in Nov 2012, I entered the West Highland Way footrace (95 miles) as a little goal to help me with my recovery, and because It’s something I’ve always wanted to try. Unfortunately, the injuries to my foot and ankle were just too bad to allow it. I could only run intermittently during the spring and although I did manage some not bad runs, my plantar fascia which was nearly ruptured in the accident started to hurt more and more in the couple of weeks leading up to the race. I still lined up at the start line, knowing full well I wouldn’t be going far. I ran 20 miles to Balmaha. Although the rest of me was not even warmed up, my right foot was screaming in pain and I got in the car. It was a bitter moment for me. I doubt that I’ll ever be able to run again due to the damage in my ankle joint, although I continue to keep an open mind about this.

My trip to Pabbay with Donald King was a nice contrast to the running. We went with the objective of making the first free ascent of the Pabbay Arch project, tried by Cubby and later Steve McClure. I redpointed it very quickly and it is one of the most spectacular trad climbs I’ve ever seen. I’d love to go back to that roof sometime.

It was around this time that I had a call to say my father had been taken into hospital with pneumonia. What followed was a difficult three weeks where his condition looked initially not too bad, then deteriorated steadily until he died. Needless to say this had quite an effect on me and the process of dealing with it is not really over.

I hadn’t climbed for around 6 weeks when the date came around to meet Calum in the alps for a few weeks of trying hard alpine faces. I was unfit, but not really in a caring sort of mood, so I was happy to go straight for the hardest route on the list (Paciencia on the Eiger north face) and just see what happened. I was able to climb it by leaning on skills other than fitness. It was a fun experience, but in hindsight I still was not really in a good place.

After the Eiger we headed to the Dolomites to repeat Bellavista on Cima Ovest, but we were met by a week of thunderstorms. So I went home and hastily arranged a last chance return trip with Alan Cassidy two weeks later.

Unfortunately, during that two weeks, while climbing with Natalie, I made a little mistake while leading Hold Fast, Hold True (E9 6c) in Glen Nevis and decked out, badly spraining my left ankle and breaking off several bone spurs around the rim of the joint. They had been growing since I last broke that ankle, 16 years ago, when a hold snapped during a solo of a grit E8. I knew I would need surgery, but couldn’t get it until after the dolomites trip. The day before I was due to leave for the dolomites, the swelling went down enough to get a rock shoe on my foot, so we went out, again with a ‘don’t give a ….’ attitude on my part.

I had to walk on the scree as if I was walking on broken glass, but once climbing I felt like I could go up the rock, if a little like a robot. Nothing was working anyway, it was raining, snowing and then really snowing. So on the last day when we went up to strip our fixed rope from the crux roof, I really didn’t care. That, combined with the training effect of trying to climb it when it was soaking wet for the preceding week, was a perfect scenario. It was winter conditions, but finally dry, and I was in the mood for a good fight with the pitch. So I climbed it. On the place home I remember not quite believing I’d managed to get two great alpine ticks like those two routes despite such poor preparation before the trips.

Once home, I was just on surgery countdown, and afterwards, taking the long walk through the valley of rehab, every night, doing my strange exercises standing on one leg. It’s not a whole lot of fun, but there’s no choice. Rehab exercises make you better. Finally after 6 weeks, I’m able to do winter walk-ins and even managed to jump down from about head height onto my feet at TCA.

Just now I’m flying to Patagonia for a month of whatever the Patagonian weather throws at us. I’m a little apprehensive about my lack of recent climbing, to say the least. However, I am never the type to rate my chances. What I need to remember is how much good climbing I got done in 2013 despite 2 surgeries, 2 months of DIY and dealing with the loss of my father. I also found time to write another 40,000 words or so of my injuries book which gets ever closer to being ready. I’m halfway through a redraft now and the ingredients are one by one falling into place. Working on this book has taken a huge amount of my energy and I think it will be a massive weight of my shoulders when it is complete, not to mention freeing up a lot more hours in the week for everything from climbing to spending time with my family.

In 2014 my goals are to be a bit more organised about trying the projects I want to try. Instead of just taking things as they come I want to focus on one thing until it’s done. I always work better in this mode and I need to get back to it. I also have realised I want to make some major changes in the way I train. Some of these are practical things which will mean I can get more training done and keep better control over it’s content. But I also want to change my approach to performing a bit too. I think it will make a big difference. You never know what life brings, but I would like it if the next year had less big upsets than last year. After a lot of travelling in 2013 I’m really excited about spending more time based at home in my new house and raiding projects from there. I'm also looking forward to be neither awaiting or recovering from surgery, after the year of being held back by injuries.

After Patagonia I’ve got some great Scottish projects lined up in all the climbing disciplines for the spring and early summer and then I’d like to go to the alps to try a mind blowing new route I’ve seen. I’m also going to build the most badass training board ever in my new garage!Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Clif Bar
14 March 2014, 11:28 am



I have a new sponsor! During our arrangements to head to Patagonia I spoke to Clif Bar and will be now be eating a lot of Clif Bars in the hills. I’ve always been buying Clif bars by the box load online and had thought about speaking to them directly for some time. So it was a nice surprise that we got in touch with each other through our Patagonia trip.

Their Energy Bars (oat, raisin and walnut bars are my favourite) have long been a staple for me for mountain days. But I also often eat the Builder’s Bars after training sessions or when I’m trying to be careful about weight. I used to get boxes of them from Amazon if they were hard to find in the retail stores, but they are much easier to find in outdoor retailers now, such as Cotswolds. Finding energy/recovery bars that are actually nice to eat and made of good ingredients can be a lot harder than you’d think it ought to be. For running back in the spring I was using a lot of their Clif-shot blocs as an alternative to gels. I still use gels when the time is right but the blocs are pleasant to eat on training runs and a good way of pacing your CHO intake.

I'm off to munch one now..

Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Sorting my life out
14 March 2014, 12:16 pm



Walking out from the Mermoz in Patagonia, frustrated by yet more crap weather and conditions. With a bit of time to think about our trip there, the memory of the waiting is fading and the fire to return growing. Photo: Calum Muskett

During February Ive had a lot of sorting out of my life to do since getting home from Patagonia. These sorts of periods are never very good for your health. It’s not good for you to get less than 8 hours of sleep for long periods. So I have to be careful. However, I have got a lot of important stuff done or in progress.

First of all, I have been continuing to tie up my injuries book. I’ve been editing the text and  collating feedback from other I’ve shown it too. I’m most grateful for the feedback which has been excellent. John at Croft Eleven is preparing the illustrations and I have finalised the list of photos I need to take. It’s really taken a huge step forward over the past three months and I’m excited to see the last bits fall into place. I’ve read a huge amount of research over the past months and most eager to share the developments in the different fields of sports medicine that are relevant to climbers.



A little help from friends. Kev and Michael helping place a lot of T-nuts in my new climbing wall.

Second, I’ve been preparing to build my uber, badass, kick ass, stormer of a climbing wall at my new place in Roy Bridge. I have a large double garage which is shortly to be the best private bouldering centre in Scotland. Hopefully, some of you will be climbing at it too as I might run some technique coaching courses here at some point in the future. Scott at Dream Climbing Walls is designing and building the wall with me. To say I’m excited to see it done is a bit of an understatement. The garage is emptied, prepared and painted and the panels are T-nutted ready for us to start building in a couple of weeks time.

With various lectures and bits of work during Feb out of the way I was hoping to get out winter climbing, but there is a bit of a blip just now with some warm weather, which was needed anyway to consolidate the snow on the hills. Yesterday I was out on rock in Scotland for the first time this year. I was feeling not bad for a start to the season. I did a bit of bouldering and trad with Calum, showing him around the Polldubh crags.

Finally, I've been starting to plan my trips for the summer. I have at least three big trips to new place in Scotland in mind, and one big one to the alps. Most definitely motivation for training as the rain falls outside.



Calum on the less than well protected Centrepiece, E6 6b, Glen Nevis yesterday.



Calum enjoying Jahu, E6 6a, Glen Nevis



Two nutters walking straight up towards number 5 gully on the Ben on a Cat 4 day with tons of snow being blown around. Surprise surprise, they got avalanched a few minutes later. Some folk are so casual with their own chances of survival.



Trying a new route on Ben Nevis with Donald. The storm got worse and worse and Donald eventually lowered off a pecker hand placed over a flake. We had to crawl in a whiteout back to the CIC hut. Good to be out in weather like that.



Two huge avalanches in the Grey Corries, taken from my living room window last week. Cant imagine how much snow moved in these two monsters.Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Two videos from Patagonia
17 March 2014, 12:57 pm



Above is a video of a super problem I did in Patagonia called Wasabi (V12). I made the video while I was out there but the connection was too bad to upload it. I’d seen video of it before I went out and was determined to climb it while I was there. In the end it only took a few sessions.

The next video was put together by Calum Muskett of an attempt on a hard new mixed route on the east face of the Mermoz. Unfortunately we didn't have the right gear to protect a pitch high up and just didn't get another weather window to try again, this time.

Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Andy Nisbet film
18 March 2014, 9:20 am



Here is a little film that myself and Claire made about Andy Nisbet. Every year the Fort William Mountain Festival make an award for excellence in Mountain Culture. Andy was this year’s recipient and this film talks about his contribution which is huge. I went out filming with Andy and climbing partners, attempting a new route on Beinn Fhada and captured some pretty scary footage of them going for it and falling off! Enjoy!

It's great to see Andy recognised for being an inspiration to so many climbers and a huge direct help to them through his exhaustive and diligent guidebook work over the decades. Thanks Andy.Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Choosing carefully on the Ben
27 March 2014, 10:04 am



On the steep corner of Rutless, VII,8 Ben Nevis. My camera misted up a bit in the west coast air!

After a huge dump of fresh snow, a lot of folk, including myself, were desperate to get back up the Ben and get some winter routes in. I walked in on a rather wet morning with Helen and Harry to see what we could safely get to. Not much. In the CIC hut, we went round in circles trying to figure out what would be frozen, but not going to avalanche us. In the end, we walked out of the door with no plan, and just went upwards, expecting nothing.



Ice damage

Harry had mentioned a steep wall on the Douglas Boulder. Going beyond this looked dangerous, and it looked a bit more frozen than expected, so we tied in and started going up. After Helen’s tunneling pitch (in snow) and my tunneling pitch (the Gutless chimney), we arrived below the wall. Harry passed me back the lead and I set off, at first trying to go rightwards, before getting pumped trying to get any protection in an ice choked overhanging crack. Eventually, I settled for going left which was a god bit easier, although I was already quite tired from the direct venture.



 Helen moving a lot of snow to make upward progress.

Our late start and chilled out pace meant it was actually getting dark as we were abseiling off the top of the Douglas boulder. With bottomless windslab in the gully below, we continued abseiling down the slopes all the way back to our sacks for safety. We later found out that the route I took had been climbed a few years before by Nick Bullock and Matt Helicker (Rutless VII,8). It’s a good choice for a stormy or dangerous day on the Ben.



Harry and Helen enjoying the belay ledge.



A lot of folk walking out in the morning owing to the tricky conditions for accessing the classic routes.Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Climbing wall build, Day 1
27 March 2014, 10:10 am



Day 1 of building my wall! Moving trusses, sawing, grinding, drilling and generally trying to keep up with Scott Muir from Dream Climbing Walls.

So excited.Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Climbing wall, Day 3
31 March 2014, 7:59 am



By day 2 of building my climbing wall, we’d moved the horizontal trusses up, giving four metres of height. Then it was time to start cutting and drilling the timber frame.



By the end of day three, we’d build most of the frame and I could start to see what the wall space will be like for the first time. It looks soooo good!



Scott from Dream Climbing Walls would be back on Monday, so I had the weekend off. I was feeling a bit fatigued after the building mission. But I was too excited and carried on over the weekend, doing more building and making holds out of hardwood. With any luck, within a week or a bit more, I'll be training on it and getting fit for the rock season.

A nice break came in the form of taking Freida camping since the Lochaber monsoon has finally broken at last. We had a great wee adventure. I woke to the sound of heavy breathing outside the tent in the wee small hours. I peeked outside to see around 15 highland cows surrounding the tent. I’m very much looking forward to taking Frieda on more adventures like this in the hills over the summer.



Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Climbing wall, week 3.
8 April 2014, 3:05 pm



I was hoping to keep posting some daily, or at least frequent climbing wall progress updates. But the chain 16+ hour days working on it kept me rather busy. It has come on a lot over the past week.



All the ply is now on and tidied up with a mission of long hours and going for it with Scott Muir from Dream Climbing Walls. Now the structure is built, it’s up to me to get it all finished. Last night was a bit ridiculous, still washing sanding dust off it at 4am. But today the first coat of paint has been going on and it’s looking great.



I took a couple of days off after Scott left and went to Glasgow. I managed to get my hands on some of Malcolm Smith’s new resin holds which are launching in a couple of weeks under the brand Stonesmith. They are pretty cool and I’ll post up some pics as soon as the paint dries on the wall and I can get them on.

I’ve also been making some of my own holds from hardwood. I’ve never had the tools for working with wood before, but have accumulated some better tools over the past year and I’m really keen to get better at making nice holds. Well made wooden holds are something a bit special.

Not too long now before I can get rockshoes on and start training on this beast!







Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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4 new titles in the shop.
26 April 2014, 3:02 pm

We’ve just added four great new books and DVDs to the shop. The first three books are all major contributions to the literature on improving at climbing and I’d recommend getting hold of all three. Well done to the authors of all of them who have made a great contribution here and no doubt these books will be the first step to many hard ascents and goals realised in the future.

Gimme Kraft: The Cafe Kraft gym (Kraft = strength btw) in Nurnberg, Germany has gained a great reputation for coaching a string of fantastic climbing talents over the past few years, most notably, Alex Megos who became the first climber to onsight 9a. Their coaches have put together a new book and DVD detailing the principles and exercises they have used to help their talented young climbers become super strong and fit beasts.

So the book is very focused on physical strength and endurance training, both on and off the climbing wall. It provides a great and easy to follow manual for sharpening up weak areas in your strength. This is particularly useful since it can be hard to choose or adapt core strength routines from other sports for climbing.

Both the book and DVD show clearly how to do the basic strength and endurance exercises and the DVD contains many interesting interviews with climbing legends about training and climbing performance.

Training for the new Alpinism: Steve House and Scott Johnston’s new book on training for alpinism is a much awaited and weighty addition to the available literature on training for climbing. It is the first book to focus solely on alpinism and brings the field right up to date. It is very much training focused (as opposed to skills focused), which is both it’s greatest strength and weakness.

It contains clear and extensive sections on the basic principles of sports physiology, but with the discussion relating directly to climbing in an alpine setting. So you no longer have to learn and then adapt the principles used in other endurance sports to effectively plan your training regime. It also has great and focused sections on strength, mental skills, nutrition, altitude, schedule planning and choosing your training goals. It also contains some fantastic contributions from other world class alpinists, sharing what they have learned about the most effective ways yo improve your alpine climbing.

Its focus on physical rather than technical skills training means there should probably be more than just this book in your training library. However, it joins a collection of titles that are essential reading for climbers who are serious about improving.

The Trad Climber’s Bible: The skills for trad climbing are about as broad as in any sport. This is especially true if you wish to climb in many different settings - hard, technical single pitch climbs, big walls and and alpine faces. The Trad Climber’s Bible comes at the challenge of passing on these skills from a different angle from most instructional manuals.

I jumped at the chance to order it in for the davemacleod.com shop simply because it was authored by the American trad legends John Long and Peter Croft. I was fascinated by how they had approached the challenge of writing about trad skills. They have written the book in a narrative style, with many stories and anecdotes from their combined 70 year experience of pushing their limits on trad all over the world.

Some of the sections, such as those on ‘fiddling’ and ‘embracing the weird’ made me smile as they highlighted the sheer range of unusual skills that are nonetheless essential to be a successful trad climber. It’s a big, thorough, entertaining and inspiring book which will provide much food for thought and arm you with many more skills to throw at your next big lead. Excellent photography throughout and great value for what has clearly been a huge project for the authors.

Wideboyz II: The Wideboyz, Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker, have decided to turn their hand to finger cracks, with the goal of repeating the hardest and most famous of all finger cracks - Cobra Crack (8c) in Squamish. In their own Wideboyz style, they convert their offwidth training den into a finger sqaushing setup and proceed to train, hard. Still, Cobra Crack put up a good fight! Entertaining as ever, and a reminder that focusing and trying damn hard goes a long, long way.Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Holds going on my wall, and new routing on Harris
26 April 2014, 3:21 pm

Some holds going on the climbing wall at last!

After a month straight of 16 hour days on average, my climbing wall is finished. Well, apart from getting all the holds on. I must admit that after completing the build and various other jobs that needed doing at my place, I was a bit too broken to even climb on it. I just wanted to sleep! But now there are some holds going on it I’m getting more and more excited as it turns from a building project into what I had originally envisioned - a brilliant place to train.

However, rather than jump straight on it, I opted to take advantage of the dry weather and head to the Outer Hebrides for a couple of days new routing and prospecting with Calum Muskett. We did a handful of new lines from E3 to E5 and I worked on this immaculate 40m wall of perfect Gneiss that has been on my projects to look at list for a few years. It was just as good as I hoped, if maybe a little hard.

There were a couple of different ways you could go. The best, and hardest looks upwards of 8b+ climbing with adequate gear. But the crux is super hard. On the first day I was climbing all day in a Citadel jacket and still had numb hands in the wind. In those conditions I could get some purchase on the crux crimps, but couldn’t see how to use them. The next day it was much warmer and I needed a bit of help from the rope to stay on, but did get a sequence that may work. So now I have something great to direct my training, and an excuse to get the ferry back to Harris pretty soon.



A very very hard project to go back to.

Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

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Hebrides with Natalie
12 May 2014, 12:17 pm



Natalie Berry enjoying The Prozac Link, E4, Screaming Geo, Lewis.

Natalie Berry has been a very successful youth competition and sport climber for several years. Now in her early twenties, with podium places and 8b red points under her belt, she is motivated to move into adventure climbing and has just started trad climbing. We had a few days booked in to head north and get some routes in, taking the Hot Aches Productions crew with us. Although I’ve known Natalie for many years from our days living in Glasgow, we’ve never climbed outdoors together until last year. These days we are colleagues on the Scarpa and Mountain Equipment teams too!

The poor forecast told us to get the ferry to the Western Isles for the best possible chance of dry rock. With a wealth of mountain and sea cliffs of all different shapes and sizes, and plenty of new routes still to explore, Lewis and Harris are always still high on my list of places to hit when the warm weather arrives, despite the fact I’ve climbed there a lot over the years. To be honest, I like to go there for the general vibe of the place even more than the climbing. Stress tends to disappear here. After 5 days here I feel like I have more energy than I have for many months.

Sunshine at the Aird Uig sea cliffs, Lewis. Photo: Hot Aches Productions

On our first day, the mountain crags were looking a bit windy, wet and cold so we ended up at the Uig sea cliffs, where Nat dispatched her first E1 with ease. She was still looking a little uncertain how to approach trad pitches; arranging the protection, breaking the pitch down into chunks, and dealing with ‘trad’ type features of wet jamming cracks loose rock and the odd bird.

I got a nice E6 done, initially thinking it was new but later finding out it had been done by Jacob Cook recently. Good to see some other folk visiting the islands and putting routes up.



Repeating a nice E6 at the Flannan area. Photo: Hot Aches Productions.

The next day we went to Aird Feinis with Cubby’s excellent Top Tackle Tips (E6) in mind. But big waves battering the base of it prevented us. So we had a top rope play on two new routes, one hard E7 and the other hard E8. Nat also had a play on the E7, and obviously had no trouble doing the moves.

On day 3 we visited the Boardwalk where Nat onsighted an E2, again without any bother at all. I climbed one E4, then backed off another soggy one. At the end of the day, Nat went for an E4 with a bouldery crux right off the ground. After some deliberation about where to start, she pulled off the ground, only for the very first hold to break off a nanosecond later. Nat plonked down on her bum on the wave platform, and we laughed that she survived her first trad groundfall. I tied in and tried another hold that stayed on the wall.

An obvious good objective for the trip was the super classic Prozac Link (4 pitch E4) in Screaming Geo. It’s widely regarded as among the finest E4s in Britain, and it’s a mega trip across the great arch; guaranteed to provide an adventure. We started up it in glorious hot sun, but cracks still damp from the sea spray, so I led. The next two pitches had a couple of wet holds or unobvious gear so I led those too, and both of us were enjoying the increasing exposure.

Hanging on the belay before the final and crux pitch, I thought it would be interesting to see what Nat decided about this pitch. Would she lead? On such a classic route, on a great day, it seemed like a good moment to take a step up. Would she feel ready? When she arrived at the belay, it was obvious she was determined to go for it. Once she set off, her movements across the wall made it even more obvious. She was going up this pitch no matter what. It was great to watch.



Natalie setting off on pitch 4 of The Prozac Link, E4, Screaming Geo.





View from the Hot Aches Productions camera of Natalie leading the Prozac Link, E4.

The next day we returned to Ard Feinis with the E7 wall in our sights. It was damp and already raining. But I was totally psyched to do it if at all possible. Natalie linked it on the top rope with ease but still opted to pass me the lead until she had more experience placing the few crucial small cams that only just protect it.

The rain got heavier and heavier, so there wasn’t time to lose. I kept my chalkbag dry by tucking under my top until I was under the crux roof before flinging it off, drying my hands and feet and launching up the wall. Apart from a few seconds off faff drying my hands after fiddling with rainsoaked cams, I enjoyed every second of the wall, especially grabbing the monster bucket wet jug at the top and throwing on my pre-stashed Gore-Tex jacket. A first E7 since coming back from surgery and a good milestone in regaining my confidence. Nat seconded into a faceful of drips from the top of the wall, and we scurried back to the car to thaw out, happy.I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve had a nice rest this week with lots of sleep after all those 16 hour building days at home, because I’ve been back to climbing, or because I’ve been climbing in inspiring surroundings all week, but I feel a burst of energy right now. I’ll have to use it for something good.



Looking across to the Flannan isles from Screaming Geo, Lewis. Photo: Hot Aches Productions

Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog

[Wood FT]

The last photo of the E4 is brilliant, need to be there

[SA Chris]

Get there. It's brilliant. Take trad gear, boulder pad, MTB, fishing gear, surfing kit and loads of camera batteries. And wellies and a raincoat!

[T_B]

I went there years ago having spent a week at Strone Ulladale and it looked a bit small and uninspiring! It looks great in those photos though and I was probably being snobby  A great trip would be to Strone, Creag Dubh Dibadale (we walked in and it rained) and Uig.

[Johnny Brown]

Our consensus was that if the Screaming Geo was at Gogarth it'd be the best bit, and by some margin. Can't imagine how you'd think it uninspiring (we'd been at Strone too), unless you misperceived the scale. The rock is better than Strone too. And there's a bothy built into the crag. And no midges. And a short walk to a beach. I could go on.

[T_B]

Can't imagine how you'd think it uninspiring (we'd been at Strone too), unless you misperceived the scale. .

Probably. I do have an 'issue' with spatial awareness 

[Nigel]

Screaming Geo is just as good as it looks I thought, Prozac Link is fantastic. Worth the trip. I haven't been to Strone yet so can't make the comparison, but its not like for like anyway I suppose. Tom, Creag Dubh Dibadale is great, shame it rained. Probably the least developed crag I've seen in the UK relative to potential. Overall a fantastic area, get it sorted Guy. Really good to see Dave Mac keeping the fire burning after his ankle injury.

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Foot training
13 May 2014, 10:02 pm



Climbing Romancing The Stone E5 6a today at Wave Buttress, Glen Nevis. Photo: Steve Holmes

May is often a month of sore feet for me. After a winter of climbing short and very steep things, when I start trad climbing my weak and unfit feet get kind of sore. I remember having this problem particularly badly a few years ago on my first visit to Cloggy one june after a month of climbing upside down in the Anvil.



Kev Shields making good progress on his project.



So today I joined Kev, Steve, Joe, Dot and Ewan at Wave Buttress for some slabby wall climbing and toe endurance training. Kev has been working away on a project up there which will be a nice E7 6c. He toproped it with apparent ease today and was looking strong on it. I had some laps on it too and enjoyed myself in the May sunshine. It has a very thin thumb press move with just enough gear to entice you on, followed by a sustained E6 6a to the top.

 

Joe and his shadow leading Edgehog E3 6a.

Afterwards I went round and did Romancing The Stone E5 6a with Joe. It was a little dirty in places and I took my wire brush with me to clean the odd hold as I went. As predicted, my feet felt worked. I enjoyed the route finding, although another decent runner on the lower part would’ve been nice. The other guys were giving On The Beach (E5) some traffic.



Natalie on a thin groove problem on Harris on our pre-ferry boulder session the other day.



It was a little hot for crimping this hard. That's my excuse anyway.

Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Source: Dave MacLeod blog