[ardeer]

had an interesting conversation with a geological curator at the Hunterian museum today about glacial erratics today, he seems to think the are many hiding in the tree plantations and is going to look out some stuff for me, including some journals from the 1900s of the scottish boulder society who were interested in "boulders of some stature"

i shall share these in due course, maybe when spring come we will have new toys....

[ardeer]

https://archive.org/details/reportofboulderc60roya

for those who are interested.

[Stewart]

My mum sent me this pic last week - they're out there!

[Pebblespanker]

Interesting looking little group Stewart... are they granite hard to tell from the photo??

Realistic approach or apocalyptic marathon length bog-flog/tree-wrestling session with mat after a protracted suspension-wrecking journey down rutted forestry tracks?
GPS/NSA satellite/The Force to locate?

[Bubba]

That photo reminds me of when I thought I'd discovered Stanton in the Woods for the very first time. 

[Stewart]

They're schist i think, i was hoping to go check them out sometime but i've not had a chance yet. Not sure about the approach either but if my mum can do it at 74 then it can't be that bad can it?! They're just off the kilbo path i think on the glen doll side somewhere. I shall attempt to get a more accurate reference and walk in time if anyone fancies taking a look. I think the ground is pretty steep and it looks as if they're a bit bunched so landings might not be ideal but who knows...

[Pebblespanker]

Thanks Stewart that would be cool, if its the Glen Doll near Kirrie its the right side of the Cairngorms for me and my mate to have a nosey, agree that the landings look to have spice potential happy to share what we find

[SA Chris]

I can't see the flickr pic, any idea why? I've sse a few that side of the glen, and wondering if they're the same.

[Stewart]

Flickr seems to have removed it for some reason. I've reuploaded

[Stewart]

OK, not sure why that photo is teeny, it's here anyway

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27296482@N02/10666617656/#in/photostream/

The best description i can get from my mum is walk 20 - 30 mins from the Glen Doll car park up the kilbo path (for Mayar). It's about 1.5km so i'm thinking about 272754 OS map ref. Apparently you can't miss them from the path and there are a lot more smaller boulders all the way.

I've not been up that path since i was little so can't remember anything, I'm only going by the photo as well so apologies if they're crap!

[SA Chris]

Hmm, sounds like same area I've spotted some, but not the same ones. Ones I've seen are in Corrie Sharroch (which the Kilbo Path drops into) on the south side of the corrie, just before you enter the forest. A highball and some lower stuff. I went for a bit closer look, but didn't see that much as they were covered in a good bit of snow, and the direct appoach to them was a bit boggy. There's potential though.

Does anyone know the exact location of the stuff in Mike Cunningham's videos? He doesn't give much away.

[Pebblespanker]

Went for walk in Clova yesterday as prep for the winter ice season and had a couple of observations that I thought might be worth sharing and one hopefully saves some wasted time...

On the walk up to Corrie Fee there are a load of new 'signposts' numbered in order and oviously for the kids so they can engage with the evironment, one however mentions 'can you spot the huge boulder?', naturally we got rather excited and started firtling about the trees...  after a fruitless 10 mins or so we moved on up and 150yds further on at the next sign post all is revealed... the 'huge' boulder is about 4ft high! 

More interestingly do you guys know of anyone working any hard(ish) problems in the glen, specifically the Glen Doll end? We found a lovely boulder yesterday and started cleaning a couple of decent lines (one looks around 5/5+ the other decent looking 6B+/6C ish arete) with the intention to return weather permitting with mats. Both lines had not had recent traffc, if ever, as the lichen was thick and undamaged as far as we could tell, especally on the arete; however someone had obviously been working a hard looking prow (Font 7's??) feature on the front face as there was still a bit chalk on the sheltered undercut holds and an obviously brushed sloper.

Didn't want to state the exact location of the boulder just yet in case I spill the beans on someones project, could this be one of Mike Cunningham's?? PM me if you want. If it's an abandoned project it will be well beyond me anyway and will be happy to share location details etc.

Lastly for those that are intetrested there appeared to be ice building up nicely in B Gully Chimney

[SA Chris]

Mike C is on facebook, might be best source. Does it look like anything in his vids? Otherwise Kris Devlin, also on FB.

What ice was forming is no doubt gone in last night's mild wind and rain, how low is snow cover?

[Pebblespanker]

I have no access to FB from my work laptop, will see what I can do though

Just checked the SC wiki for stuff in Winter Corrie and thought I'd share that the huge boulder in the bottom of the winter corrie appears to be untouched, mind you the somewhat strenuous approach might be to blame for that ... will dig out a couple of photos from last winter and PM over as I'm sh*te at posting pictures on here - great highball potential...

In Corrie Fee the snow very light and only on the top 10% of the main face, it was below 0deg on the corrie bottom by 3pm puddles, refreezing etc. and -1C on the drive out by the time we left the loop road on the way back to Kirrie. The boggy ground in the base of the corrie was pretty solid, well it suported a fat bastard like me! Looked to be significantly more snow further into the Cairngorm plateau. Agreed about last nights temps Chris probably fecked it all up

We were going to have a dabble on the traverse near the Peel boulder but we were too late down from Fee, shame as temps were bang on, will try and let you know the next planed trip up there

[Jack.G]

There is a good howf in Winter Corrie, might not be so bad humping your gear up the evening before and bouldering the next day.

There is a very tantalising boulder on the skyline seen from Peel Session looking south-east toward Cairn Inks, even more of a "strenous" approach.

[SA Chris]

There is a very tantalising boulder on the skyline seen from Peel Session looking south-east toward Cairn Inks, even more of a "strenous" approach.

That's "The Sentinel" you can see I suspect. See Scottish Climbs for probs list. Great boulder IMO, worth the walk (which isn't really that bad) good rock, good landing, amazing aspect.

[Jack.G]

On the other side of the Glen, top of the hills (the actual skyline), about 750m alt. Obviously a very big boulder, possibly more hidden up there in the depressions along that ridge. Worth adding to the bouldering potential in Clova.

[SA Chris]

ah ok. Quite a hike then! I need to copy the Clova stuff to the UKB wiki before i can start adding content.

[Pebblespanker]

Dug out the winter corrie shot, forgot how good and how big the boulder was! Landings looked OK mostly but with all the snow that day it was hard to be sure. The descent may need a bit of planning too...

Will try and push it up to Flikr and share a link. Maybe have a gallery on the Wiki for open projects???

[tomtom]

What about these bad boys!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2013/11/15/medieval_monsanto_village_in_portugal_is_built_around_boulders.html

[SA Chris]

Meh, find me a few more Farr boulders out there.

[Stewart]

Mike C is on facebook, might be best source. Does it look like anything in his vids?

Is this the vid you're talking about?



Hadn't seen this before. Looks like Jock's Road with the last boulder being possibly up Bachnagairn? The first few look really good.

[SA Chris]

Yeah that one and the one called Glen Doll on his Vimeo page.

[Pebblespanker]

Chris, Stewart et al no joy with Flikr from the work machine so in the spirit of sharing with other East Coast  activists I have pragmatically posted Winter Corrie boulder on UKC in the crag shots section, there are others in the Corrie... didn't have time to scope them all out on the ice trip... if you look behind Mark in the photo there is another large boulder behind him. Given my work schedule between now and Xmas (mostly in Dublin on a DCM project) its unlikely we will make it up for a session plus there is the small matter of punter level ability... fill your boots gents

http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=230633

[SA Chris]

Is that not the same as the B & W pic on the left?

https://www.scottishclimbs.com/wiki/Glen_Clova_Bouldering#Below_the_Winter_Corrie

Hard to say, the location is hard to discern in the little map.