[teestub]

http://davemacleod.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-248.html

An excellent coincidence of skill and weather!

[Teaboy]

Brilliant effort

[Danny]

Amazing. I like that he'd done the standard three 8s by 9:15 am. A lifetime goal of mine in a few hours.

[kelvin]

That's pretty inspiring, what with all the injury woes he's had the last few years.

Effort.

[Will Hunt]

That looks like an amazing day out. Waddage.

[Doylo]

Meaty as fuck.

[andy popp]

Simply amazing.

[SA Chris]

Love the bizarreness of it. Can’t be many places. You can do it. Shame he didn’t couldn’t have got touring skis on at ticked 800m of descent on those Munro’s

[asmallman]

Love this and top effort. To my mind this is what climbing is about, enabling awesome adventures in amazing places with good people.

[SA Chris]

Love the bizarreness of it. Can’t be many places you can do it. Shame he couldn’t have got touring skis on and ticked 800m of descent on those Munros.

Corrected. It was early..

[Stu Littlefair]

You could still have smashed in an 8A+ by that time - you've no excuse.

[SA Chris]

Guess I'm a punter in every respect.

[Falling Down]

Fantastic day out - Sounds exhausting!

[fatneck]

Epic!!!

[highrepute]

It's the 8 munros bit that gets me. 8A+, 8a, E8, VIII somehow wasn't enough!

[Will Hunt]

I've no concept of how hard VIII 8 is, but it says something about it that he casually knocked off the rock routes by breakfast and spent the rest of the day doing the grade 8 and doing a long walk. Does anyone who knows the area know how much ground they covered doing the Munros? The Cuillin Ridge has 11 and that took us a little over 12 hours from the first top to the last.

[Johnny Brown]

40km total I think, plus the ascent and descent. So a decent mountain marathon.

I haven't done VIII either but V is always equated with HVS (which is fair) and I've heard VIII compared to big trad E5/6. Pete should have a decent perspective. So on paper perhaps the easiest, but I'd guess there are less folk in the UK operating at VIII than any of the other disciplines here.

I think this is the most impressive thing Dave has done. Very inspiring.

[duncan]

It's great idea and, as usual with DM, the planning and preparation leaves little to chance (that's a compliment in my book).

It's the 8 munros bit that gets me. 8A+, 8a, E8, VIII somehow wasn't enough!

Dave's a proud Scot and the inclusion of a uniquely Scottish element to the challenge won't be an accident. This certainly dethrones "King of the Pass", can we now crown him Emperor of Lochaber?

[Johnny Brown]

Yeah, it makes King of the Pass look like an after-work bouldering session.

Agree on the planning element. But also the detailed understanding of local conditions and geography, night navigation, team building etc. I can't even get a partner for Burbage.

Either they rename it Ben MacLeod or Dave changes his name to David of Nevis.

[SA Chris]

Dave's a proud Scot and the inclusion of a uniquely Scottish element to the challenge won't be an accident. This certainly dethrones "King of the Pass", can we now crown him Emperor of Lochaber?

Laird of Lochaber surely?

[teestub]

Looking a the route he took on the map, it looks like he basically walked home on the high ground from Ben Nevis, taking in the Munros on the way, which is awesome. I wish he'd had a GPS on, as he must have covered some serious vertical meterage too!

[Fiend]

8 munros cracked me up, it's so provincially Scottish. Wish he'd finished it off with 8 pounds of haggis and a dram of an 80 yr old single malt for effect. Pretty sure a keto extreme diet allows the former?

[Yossarian]

Or an 8 second bottle of Buckfast...

[Fultonius]

I've no concept of how hard VIII 8 is, but it says something about it that he casually knocked off the rock routes by breakfast and spent the rest of the day doing the grade 8 and doing a long walk. Does anyone who knows the area know how much ground they covered doing the Munros? The Cuillin Ridge has 11 and that took us a little over 12 hours from the first top to the last.

If you can boulder 8A, I guess "doing an 8A" is relatively straightforward (i.e. not much physical effort, just performance). Doing an VIII is never going to be quick, but I'd hazard that its a much more "achievable" level than either of the other "8"s.

Quick comparison of my regular "VIII level" partners and me.

Me: Done a couple of VIIIs, onsight E5, Fr8a boulder 7B
AI: Loads of VIIIs, some IXs, onsight E5, Fr7c+ Boulder 6C+   (he is notoriously shit at bouldering though)
NA:  Loads of VIIIs, some IXs, onsight E4, Fr8a, Boulder 7B
GM: Some VIIIs, some E5s, Fr7c, boulder?

i.e. VIII is setting the bar low on the "8s" comparison table.

Great achievement by Dave.    Always been keen for some kind of Ben Nevis trilogy with ice, rock and a gully ski in a day.

[T_B]

Yeah I've always equated Scottish VIII with E5 and 7a+ as the winter climbers I know who lead VIII tend to operate around those grades on rock and maybe Font 7a on a good day. So, in some ways D-Mac's mashup is a bit unbalanced but I still think it's cool and more about being able to do all those disciplines in one small geographical area (he could have done a Font 6a, French 6a, E4 6a etc as far as I'm concerned). Kudos etc.

[petejh]

I'd have thought you could put the 3 rock disciplines close together in terms of how acheivable they are, if they're routes you've practised before and you're redpointing.. Although the sport 8a is perhaps the most 'achievable' for most people?
Depending on prior winter climbing experience the grade VIII is either: relative to the 3 rock genres physically easy; relative to the 3 rock genres physically nails; or impossible.
No amount of rock climbing, beyond what you'll learn getting competent at E3/4 i.e. being comfortable with exposure, steepish ground, run-outs and finding tricky gear etc., will prepare you for the uniqueness of British trad mixed climbing.

The munros.. anyone can get hill fit if they're keen can't they. 

Thinking of if in Wales:
8A any number from the Cave
8a - any number of routes on LPT
E8 - Rare Lichen? (run-out 7c)
VIII - Travesty (easy for the grade)
8 x 1000m peaks

[Ally Smith]

Looks like a good ticklist - how about Une Jeune Fille... at Nesscliffe - you'd tick E8 and 8a at the same time then!?!

Thinking of if in Wales:
8A any number from the Cave
8a - any number of routes on LPT
E8 - Rare Lichen? (run-out 7c)
VIII - Travesty (easy for the grade)
8 x 1000m peaks

[SA Chris]

Conditions wise is it less likely in Wales though due to less altitude difference? If VIII in the mountains is in, surely something like Rare Lichen will at least be very cold and wet.

[Doylo]

And LPT is grim in winter .

[SA Chris]

Glen Nevis isn't exactly a tropical nirvana.

[duncan]

Conditions wise is it less likely in Wales though due to less altitude difference? If VIII in the mountains is in, surely something like Rare Lichen will at least be very cold and wet.

If the mountain crags are in condition for an VIII, the E8 will probably need to be at Gogarth or the Llyn (shudder). 

[Teaboy]

E8 - Rare Lichen? (run-out 7c)

Are you saying one of the most sought after E9s in the country is actually more amiable than some of the E8s? Do we need some sort of wooden spoon emoticon for this or is that generally accepted now?

[Doylo]

And LPT is grim in winter .

You’d be better off doing Simon Says on Upper that time of year. More sheltered and bigger holds.

[Ally Smith]

E8 - Rare Lichen? (run-out 7c)

Are you saying one of the most sought after E9s in the country is actually more amiable than some of the E8s? Do we need some sort of wooden spoon emoticon for this or is that generally accepted now?

Caveat - I've not lead it...

Rare Lichen is more like a Malham 7b+; certainly easier than Obsession.

The gear really isn't that bad - a young whipper-snapper fell off the upper crux and was fine - caff had sage words of advise for said youngster in an entertaining blog post.

There's a good RP/IMP3 below the crux, along with a scattering of other gear that aren't great, but nor are they so bad you wouldn't bother placing it - note that you need to file the RP3 down a bit to fit perfectly (or have fallen on it a few times so it's a bit smaller than normal...)

My logic was this: screamer/revolver on the RP3, skinny 8mm ropes to reduce the impact force on everything. End result;  likelihood of death if you fell off, <10%? IMHO not E9 in a million years

Further caveats - being lanky was useful on the upper crux, but made the lower (E7 6b?) section slightly more sketchy as my bum stuck out a mile - this bit scared me more than the upper arete

[Doylo]

E8 - Rare Lichen? (run-out 7c)

Are you saying one of the most sought after E9s in the country is actually more amiable than some of the E8s? Do we need some sort of wooden spoon emoticon for this or is that generally accepted now?

Caveat - I've not lead it...

Rare Lichen is more like a Malham 7b+; certainly easier than Obsession.

The gear really isn't that bad - a young whipper-snapper fell off the upper crux and was fine - caff had sage words of advise for said youngster in an entertaining blog post.

There's a good RP/IMP3 below the crux, along with a scattering of other gear that aren't great, but nor are they so bad you wouldn't bother placing it - note that you need to file the RP3 down a bit to fit perfectly (or have fallen on it a few times so it's a bit smaller than normal...)

My logic was this: screamer/revolver on the RP3, skinny 8mm ropes to reduce the impact force on everything. End result;  likelihood of death if you fell off, <10%? IMHO not E9 in a million years

Further caveats - being lanky was useful on the upper crux, but made the lower (E7 6b?) section slightly more sketchy as my bum stuck out a mile - this bit scared me more than the upper arete

Never E9 then. Which was fairly obvious anyway. Leo gave it E8 originally.

[Doylo]

[Fiend]

Nice film, captures the challenge and environment well, I like Dave's appreciation of the sunset on the go. Although it still has to feature some bloody pipe music somewhere!