[Dingdong]

I made my way up the Beinn Airigh Charr boulder field yesterday. Incredible day out with an excellent and easy approach especially using E-Bikes we rented from Badachro Inn for 50 quid for the day. The approach takes around 40-50 mins depending on your mountain bike skill level as the approach goes from tarmac to gravel to woodland trail and finally into a two mile stretch of technical rock single track.

The boulder field itself is incredible, some of the blocks there would definitely lend themselves to hard trad routes. I scoped out and did a number of boulders, some rock is a bit chossy and loose and requires cleaning, I did have a number of holds explode in my face but climbed well after a good clean, other rocks have fully bombproof holds, lots and lots to go at, the size can’t be understated.

I found the most incredible roof, around 4 meters in length and 50 or so degrees overhanging peppered with flat edges and side pulls, probably a good 20 or so possible boulders in that roof alone.


All in all I would say there is potential for 200+ boulders there and many trad routes. I took lots of pictures and videos which I’ll share as a reply once they’re done uploading

I did 6 boulders - we were only able to carry in a moon warrior and a Pluto so couldn’t really try anything big big, but what I did do was fantastic! I was also limited with time to 3/4 hours before we had to return the bikes so only really scratched the surface!

The Spire 7Aish - climbs the shield feature from sitting compressing on slopey crimps and using guppies - favourite one I did!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsmRCGntnIl/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Turbulence 6Cish - the first thing I climbed on the day, climbs an overhanging wall on crimps - good riding landing on this one

Loch, Stock 6Cish - starts sitting on a flat edge and traverses left along the boulder topping out on the left

The three boulders below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsnszDZNyjh/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Two Smoking Barrels - 6C+ starts as for Loch, Stock but upon reaching the centre of the boulder you gain two face crimps and dyno to the top

Hatchet Harry - sit start the left side of the boulder on two neighbourly crimps and use a series of flat edges to top out the middle of the boulder

[Bonjoy]

I've been curious about those rocks for ages now, cheers for putting the effort in to go check them out. That roof looks outrageous!

[andy moles]

Nice one making the effort to get in there. Not bad at all with an e-bike!

I might head in to Carn Mor at some point this summer, might stop in for a gander if I do (though I won't have a pad).

[Dingdong]

Nice one making the effort to get in there. Not bad at all with an e-bike!

I might head in to Carn Mor at some point this summer, might stop in for a gander if I do (though I won't have a pad).

Cheers Andy, appreciate all the beta from you and Jon, made it easy to organise it! I think on a normal bike you’d be looking at maybe another 30 mins to an hour. Approach looks to be 2.30 by foot.

You should definitely check it out, unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to scope out the whole place but I know for sure there’s loads of amazing stuff there to be done!

[tc]

Good work 👍

[Dingdong]

Folder full of pics and videos here
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-5enk9ddjmWOOXoj2o0OWB-kpdCG8FQC

[Ross Barker]

Looks absolutely insane. Nice job getting out there!

[andy moles]

I ended up passing (twice) in the last few days, but didn't have the time for a proper explore, and didn't think a brief one would achieve more than confirming a) some of those blocks are the size of hotels and b) there must be tons of bouldering on the smaller ones.

I did have a look around the various likely looking blocks at Carnmore, most of which don't look that great but there are a few class lines there for anyone who can be bothered to double the Airigh Charr approach!

[Dingdong]

I ended up passing (twice) in the last few days, but didn't have the time for a proper explore, and didn't think a brief one would achieve more than confirming a) some of those blocks are the size of hotels and b) there must be tons of bouldering on the smaller ones.

I did have a look around the various likely looking blocks at Carnmore, most of which don't look that great but there are a few class lines there for anyone who can be bothered to double the Airigh Charr approach!

Even with 4 hours I was only able to really look around the first bunch at the base of the field but didn’t get to scope everything out. Definitely years worth of bouldering/trad/sport there. I’ll definitely be going back one day!

[Ross Barker]

Is the approach the sort of track where you could cart along some food and a tent to make a sort of base camp near the boulders? Could be a good way to get a good amount of time there without having to repeat the lengthy walk too frequently.

[Dingdong]

Is the approach the sort of track where you could cart along some food and a tent to make a sort of base camp near the boulders? Could be a good way to get a good amount of time there without having to repeat the lengthy walk too frequently.

The walk in is around 2.5 hours, can be done quicker on bikes for sure, even normal bikes is probably an hour and a bit, I was thinking of camping there, just have to deal with slightly wild conditions, it’s quite the wind tunnel!

[andy moles]

Is the approach the sort of track where you could cart along some food and a tent to make a sort of base camp near the boulders? Could be a good way to get a good amount of time there without having to repeat the lengthy walk too frequently.

The walk in is around 2.5 hours, can be done quicker on bikes for sure, even normal bikes is probably an hour and a bit, I was thinking of camping there, just have to deal with slightly wild conditions, it’s quite the wind tunnel!

Wind tunnel >>>>>>>>>> midges!

Last couple of days they were bad for late May when the wind died at night.

I'm just after biking in and out all the way to Carnmore on a hardtail with full trad climbing gear, tent etc and two days food. It's a bit of an arse riding with a big pack on but still 90% rideable, and the first half to the boulder field nearly all rideable. Without a big pack/bouldering mat it would actually be a really fun XC ride, it's pretty fun even with one. It's ten years since I used a trailer on a MTB but if you were able to lay hands on one of those I'm pretty sure it would follow you fine on that path too.

Learned my lesson from last time and took padded shorts...

[Dingdong]

Is the approach the sort of track where you could cart along some food and a tent to make a sort of base camp near the boulders? Could be a good way to get a good amount of time there without having to repeat the lengthy walk too frequently.

The walk in is around 2.5 hours, can be done quicker on bikes for sure, even normal bikes is probably an hour and a bit, I was thinking of camping there, just have to deal with slightly wild conditions, it’s quite the wind tunnel!

Learned my lesson from last time and took padded shorts...

My bum still hurts from the ride in