[chrisbrooke]

Very impressive climbing. Thanks for sharing that one.
Makes for an easy walk-in I suppose. I'd be wanting about 5 pads on that (not that I could climb it, obviously....)

[AMorris]

Amazing! Can’t be many harder things worldwide at this sort of angle? I have some vague recollections of hard face climb boulders in Japan maybe?

Kakusei is a true slab at Ogawayama, graded 5-Dan, which is something like 8B+/8C.

The left hand exit that he runs a few laps on for a warm up is 8B! Also no pads, as per first ascent.

Holy crap. Just the idea at looking up at a slab that blank and hard and deciding to try and find a sequence is far beyond my climbing imagination. Superb.

And great work Dan, the line looks as aesthetic in both form and setting as anything anywhere.

[Johnny Brown]

Amazing! Can’t be many harder things worldwide at this sort of angle? I have some vague recollections of hard face climb boulders in Japan maybe?

Kakusei is a true slab at Ogawayama, graded 5-Dan, which is something like 8B+/8C.

The left hand exit that he runs a few laps on for a warm up is 8B! Also no pads, as per first ascent.

😍😍 Have you been Tom? That boulder looks AMAZING!

[Tom de Gay]

Amazing! Can’t be many harder things worldwide at this sort of angle? I have some vague recollections of hard face climb boulders in Japan maybe?

Kakusei is a true slab at Ogawayama, graded 5-Dan, which is something like 8B+/8C.

The left hand exit that he runs a few laps on for a warm up is 8B! Also no pads, as per first ascent.

😍😍 Have you been Tom? That boulder looks AMAZING!

Hoping to go and pay homage this summer. I think there are four straight up lines on the slabby face of that boulder and the easiest is 8B. The left arête is Banshousha, which Nalle repeated many years ago.

[Johnny Brown]

Lucky you, look forward to the live vlog!

[andy moles]

Here we go, I wanted to share the beauty of that south face of the Ship Boulder in the last minute of sunshine on Sunday:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CpMpCxIN7O3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[MischaHY]

Here we go, I wanted to share the beauty of that south face of the Ship Boulder in the last minute of sunshine on Sunday:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CpMpCxIN7O3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Looks totally amazing. Is 'Boulder Scotland' the best guide for this? Looks like a lot of development happened in the last 6 years. We're likely up that way in May and mega keen.

[SA Chris]

There is a specific Torridon Bouldering Guide. It's a few years old, but still good to get you to most things (produced by 2 occasional posters on here) and miles better than the Watson guide.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Torridon-Bouldering-Ian-Taylor/dp/0992704405

I'm psyched to get back too, been far too long. Tons of great trad too, Seana Mheallan (aka Sienna Miller) is great, plus a ton of other stuff.
 

[GazM]

To supplement the Torridon guidebook there are a couple of useful updates on the Ullapool Outdoors blog:

https://ullapooloutdoors.co.uk/northwestoutdoorsullapool/2014/11/torridon-bouldering-update.html

https://ullapooloutdoors.co.uk/northwestoutdoorsullapool/2020/2/22/torridon-bouldering-update-2020

[andy moles]

Despite its popularity Torridon still feels like somewhere you can just wander around and discover undocumented stuff too.

Going there the other day reminded me that in 2017 I climbed a nice 7Aish wall up the hill somewhere, that it turned out Richie Betts had done a couple of weeks before, but I can't identify it in the update.

If you're there in May Mischa, there's also excellent single pitch trad nearby at Seana Mheallan (sandstone) and Diabaig (gneiss) - or even better, the high quartzite routes on Beinn Eighe which are as good as any UK mountain trad, if it's warm enough for that.

[SA Chris]

To supplement the Torridon guidebook there are a couple of useful updates on the Ullapool Outdoors blog:

https://ullapooloutdoors.co.uk/northwestoutdoorsullapool/2014/11/torridon-bouldering-update.html

https://ullapooloutdoors.co.uk/northwestoutdoorsullapool/2020/2/22/torridon-bouldering-update-2020

Wot's Hairpinning

clear winner from the the names.

[Andy B]

Thank you very much.

[remus]

Aidan's got to work quickly out in Switzerland by establishing Unison ~8C. https://www.instagram.com/p/CpN5YtfDgkh/

Unison - First Ascent

This climb felt to be a rather special one for me and my experience with it has been dispersed throughout my trips to Ticino. I actually first visited this area just one year ago but have since spent over 3 months in these beautiful valleys. Now, as I begin my latest trip, I have begun to realise my attachment to this place. It’s hard not to appreciate the rock quality and the landscapes but my observation feels to supersede this still, I refer to that comfort of a landscape which feels familiar, and almost like a home.

With this has come the satisfaction of feeling to help develop an area which has offered me so much. Indeed, the trip thus far has mostly been focussed on opening new lines I have been inspired by.

I actually saw this face on my earliest days in Ticino, but with no landing and dirty holds it barely looked possible for me at that time. I’d almost forgotten about it actually, until @shawnraboutou showed me it again last Autumn and we got a little excited by its potential. So my first rest day this trip was filled with cleaning the holds and carefully arranging logs. But still it looked a little dangerous to try. And so the following day, after getting a strange split on another climb, @onceuponaclimb @luke_murphy_98 @tompeckitt @giuliano_cameroni rallied and together we crafted a solid log platform which somewhat transformed the safety of the boulder. In the dying light, we were able to sample the moves enough to know that the line was possible.

We soon returned and I promptly settled on this sequence. It felt hard, the edges are small and required a lot of precision, the feet are similar and yet the true difficulty feels to lie in coordinating use of the two. I’d say the style suits me almost perfectly and after a good rest I was able to climb it on my first try from the beginning.

It’s hard to gauge the difficulty, especially when this suits me so well. But consensus was that it was perhaps 8C. Hopefully future ascents will shine more light on it. But with the memories around this boulder, it feels not to matter so much and I hope others enjoy it similarly. Thank you for the spots and good times to those who helped

[PlainCroi$$ant]

Ace looking line!

[SA Chris]

IG is blocked on my work PC and I can't see anything on Aidan's page, where is the quote from?

[Moo]

It’s from Instagram where Aidan likes to post in the style of Herman Melville.

Great looking wall.

[MischaHY]

Cheers for all the Torridon beta folks!

[User deactivated.]

It’s from Instagram where Aidan likes to post in the style of Herman Melville.

Great looking wall.

I'm waiting for someone to put together a compilation of Aidan using the word 'puzzle'. It could be a drinking game at this stage; during new episodes of Careless Talk, take a shot every time you hear the word!

Anyway, that's enough blaspheming, I'm still a fully subscribed member to the church of Aidan. Incredible line and I'm looking forward to seeing what's next!

[SA Chris]

I can see it now, was looking in the grid bit not the vid bit. Looks like hard crimpin'

[teestub]

Another stunner! I knew Switzerland had awesome potential, even in the popular areas,  but it’s been incredible watching the amount of 5* hard lines go up over the last few years.

[AMorris]

I'm still a fully subscribed member to the church of Aidan.
[/quote]

Is it UKB policy that we must always form a church to honour the current strongest crimper in the Lakes? I don't hate it.

[Fiend]

I would think so, why not??

Also when did the amp get cranked up to 5 stars?!

[Wellsy]

If a slab gets 3 stars a crimpy overhang must get 5, stands to reason

[Fiend]

Knob.

[Will Hunt]

On a point of order, I don't think that's a 5 star line (assuming 5 is the max score). It's a cool wall but it's basically a 2-number-grades-harder Manson's Wall. On the same bit of rock, the groove/ramp to the right is the better line.

Cool bit of climbing though. Allow me to supply the UKB equivalent of a bicep emoji.