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Ticking Along (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/01/ticking-along.html)
19 January 2014, 10:11 pm
Cummingston, that slippery little minx. On the face of it, what's not to love? Wave sculpted golden sandstone, pocketed pillars and caves. The sea lapping on the beach, the fulmars chuntering away on their ledges. On a clear winter day the white pyramid of Morven stands out across the Moray Firth in Caithness. The problem? There's always a problem. The coastal humidity, and the north-facing beach of rocky nooks and crannies is often sheltered from a drying wind. I've been burnt too many times: arriving to find a coat of sea smeg on everything. So, pick your conditions wisely. Falling temperatures, a brisk westerly and low tide in the early afternoon, and you should have a day of it.
Last weekend the stars aligned and I had a rare chance to do the oft-damp Gorilla, a funky 7A prow of heels and slaps (and one of the few at the grade that go up rather than sideways!). After knackering myself working out how to do it I spent the rest of Saturday failing. Knowing how rare it is to have it dry I had an express re-match on Sunday and did it 1st go. The importance of rest.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TlUF5q9gKFk/UtxAEF0ZV6I/AAAAAAAABw8/tgNxBiGgQ2I/s1600/Gorrilla.png) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TlUF5q9gKFk/UtxAEF0ZV6I/AAAAAAAABw8/tgNxBiGgQ2I/s1600/Gorrilla.png)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Cummingston's Gorrilla [/td][/tr]
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This weekend it was back to Torridon for the first forays of 2014. Friday's highlight was doing the full version of a brilliant wall of Rich's called Indian Winter. When he originally did it he must have been feeling strong because he gave it 6B (the Betts 'go-to' grade), but then couldn't repeat the sit start when he showed it to me back in October! The stand start is a brilliant 6A on it's own, on some of Torridon's best rock, but there are obvious good holds for a low start so a sit makes sense. I had a try a few weeks later and got no-where, but this time a little more perseverance and sensible rest saw me through. There was some magical winter light when I was trying it so the camera came out:
Indian Winter - Torridon (http://vimeo.com/84462820) from Gareth Marshall (http://vimeo.com/user6155988) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
And finally, the line of the season so far. On one of my first ever visits to Torridon I watched heart in mouth as Murdo repeated Rich's uber-highball Vapour Trail. I was impressed. It's not really that hard, 6C in the guide and with the crux throw at the start, but it is pretty tall, and with a few blocks in the potential fall zone. It's more of a grit route than your typical boulder. It's a proper striking line though, and perhaps for that reason alone it was always on the to-do list, but I've always had a soft-spot that psychological realm where boulders meet routes. Realistically though, I never knew when I'd ever feel ready. I'm still not sure what changed this year, perhaps becoming better acquainted with the place, perhaps feeling a bit stronger and more confident. Regardless, I tentatively tried the start back in November and did it quickly. Game on. Now I just needed a crew with a big stack of pads. Oddly, this isn't something that happens much in the Highlands, so I had a go on my own with my three but just couldn't bring myself to commit. I gave up and held out for another day. Today I went back out with Rich, padded the landing and offending leg snapping blocks and strapped it on. So good.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xH3HLbfpKQc/UtxAI3INpsI/AAAAAAAABxM/YHLYdTfw1Y4/s1600/Vapour+Trail.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xH3HLbfpKQc/UtxAI3INpsI/AAAAAAAABxM/YHLYdTfw1Y4/s1600/Vapour+Trail.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Photo: Anne Falconer[/td][/tr]
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[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8U7eQLY3nco/UtxAFcvsT9I/AAAAAAAABxE/_ESnTEyYeJU/s1600/Vapour+Trail.png) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8U7eQLY3nco/UtxAFcvsT9I/AAAAAAAABxE/_ESnTEyYeJU/s1600/Vapour+Trail.png)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Having it.[/td][/tr]
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Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Soggy socks (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/02/soggy-socks.html)
16 February 2014, 8:02 pm
Most of the time, it's hard to see the wood for the trees.
On a few occasions lately I've come away from a climbing session feeling pretty despondent. Despite upping the training effort this year I don't really feel any different. I've not broken into any new grades and, most frustratingly, my long-term projects are still long-term projects. But then, every now and then something happens that makes the grind seem more worthwhile. Today was one of those days.
There's a problem of Rich's over the back of Duntelchaig called The Dagger. It's a bugger. The approach is a pain in the arse, over a fence and then a stomp through swampy bog, heather and bracken. The landing consists of a load of boulders jammed together over a stream. It's OK with a couple of pads, but there's a pointy block right below the final stretched out mantel moves, and big holes just waiting for your brush, keys and phone. The rock's good, solid steep gneiss, but as is the way with most of the stuff round Inverness, it's sharp and off the beaten track is pretty dirty. Rich showed me The Dagger a few years ago, introducing it as something I might be able to flash. Great, a soft touch. Game on. Except, of course, I failed on the flash attempt, and failed on every other attempt from then on. I don't know how many times I've done that horrible trudge over there, and despite sorting most of the moves pretty quickly - crossing through a line of perfect edges on a mega leaning wall and then a big burly throw to the lip - I never once managed to top it out. In the end I told myself I just wasn't tall enough to make the massive lurch over the top of the final slab and binned it, relieved never to have to go there again.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D9l2Hgn_BBY/UwEXzj605KI/AAAAAAAABxc/6-lguTVRwP8/s1600/5787443865_20790d0a70_o.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D9l2Hgn_BBY/UwEXzj605KI/AAAAAAAABxc/6-lguTVRwP8/s1600/5787443865_20790d0a70_o.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The first session of too many... (Photo: Richie Betts)[/td][/tr]
[/table]But today I went back. It's not somewhere I'd normally think of going, but after bailing from Ruthven due to icy top-outs, and warming up nicely at Farr, it seemed like a good idea. It must be at least a year since I last tried it, so if nothing else it would be a good measure of my current standing. Getting there hasn't got any better, but after ringing out my socks and arranging the pads over the Jenga-pile landing I got involved and finally saw it off. I think maybe I'm a bit stronger than previously so can put a bit more oomph into the final lurching slap. Or perhaps it was a combination of conditions, rest, skin and confidence. Whatever it was, I'm mainly happy that I don't ever have to do that walk in again.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Closedown (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/03/closedown.html)
14 March 2014, 3:00 pm
Off for a week of sunny sport climbing in Catalunya tomorrow. The bags are packed and Ropegun Jamieson locked and loaded to warm up on all my projects. Mind you, he'll be weak and feeble after a winter spent shuffling between ledges, while I'll be strong like an ox after months of bouldering. The routes are only a few moves long, right? Perhaps not, but it should be a good pre-season arm-stretch for the inevitable long hot Spring and Summer that await. Ahem.
I've been seeing this trip as a book-end to the winter bouldering season proper. It's been okay, and I seem to have managed a steady trickle of quality problems, but without success on Malc's Arete it can only be considered a failure. To be fair, good conditions and weather have been hard to come by so I've not been having consistent sessions on it. But, despite feeling stronger than last year I've not made any progress at all on the move. C'est la vie. I think that trying and training for Malc's brought some of the year's successes within reach, so that's cool.
Here's few video clips from trips out this year:
Highland Boulders: Winter 2013-14 (http://vimeo.com/89099999) from Gareth Marshall (http://vimeo.com/user6155988) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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The Rest Day (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-rest-day.html)
23 March 2014, 9:29 am
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SSFY5JWZ6UM/Uy6nDJbOBnI/AAAAAAAABx8/zoR3j1yobcc/s1600/20140319_183415.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SSFY5JWZ6UM/Uy6nDJbOBnI/AAAAAAAABx8/zoR3j1yobcc/s1600/20140319_183415.jpg)
Siurana day 4: Wednesday.
At least, I thought we’d discussed taking it easy on Wednesday: A trip down to Cornudella, the café, a perusal of shiny kit we don’t need in the climbing shop.
As with every other day, Murdo’s up with the lark, breakfasted and brewed before most folk in the campsite have even thought about thinking about waking up. Bleary eyed, I stagger to the washroom and play the hot shower/cold shower lottery. I lose. I join cheery Murdo as he lights the stove for brew number two. My back aches. My fingers creak. My shoulders ache. I think I’m getting old.
Yesterday was a good day for me. I’d onsighted Terra d’ Om, a 7a groove at Ca L’Onassis, then did the 35m 7a+ Cop de Roc at Can Codolar second go, and rounded the day off by flashing the 7a wall Secallonaat Siuranella Central as the sun started to dip towards Monsant. But maybe now I’m starting to pay.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NiSw0g0MrRA/Uy6j5T75kAI/AAAAAAAABxs/kQNbXj0xmCc/s1600/DSCF4860.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NiSw0g0MrRA/Uy6j5T75kAI/AAAAAAAABxs/kQNbXj0xmCc/s1600/DSCF4860.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Breakfast: Time, Tide and Murdo wait for no man...[/td][/tr]
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There’s no talk of rest as I chew my muesli, and before long bags are packed and we’re heading over to Ca L’Isabel by the village. Well, I might as well try. I’ll warm up on a nice little 6b. Except, it’s desperate blind grey rock and it’s all I can do to claw my way up. Then I failed on the 6a+ next to it. Not good. Murdo casually warms up on a 6c+ corner, then after some work on the boulder start does Boys Don’t Cry 7c smoothly. Hmm. He’s psyched. There’s a change. So it’s down to Piqui Pugui ‘just for a look’ at Anabolica 8a. He gets distracted by Souxie 7c+ first, but it’s a stamina beast’s nightmare: burly mono action precipitates swearing and a retreat. I try again up a long 6b+ traddy groove thing, just about making the chains but I know when to stop. Now it’s a rest day. Anabolica’sfree so he gets on it. More burly pockets. More swearing. Another retreat. Maybe now we can pack up and eat cake.
Just one more? Down to Ca L’Onassis. I only take my harness and gri-gri to the crag, as a show of solidarity with the cake. Murdo hops on a good looking 7b but lobs off so he’s got to redpoint. Second round is a charm. The boy looks tired now though and is happy to call it a day there.
“Un café con leche y un croissant por favor. Muchas gracias.”
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yj6QM4zj_tM/Uy6nC0OFRhI/AAAAAAAABx4/45LrIvTvZ9w/s1600/20140320_182952.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yj6QM4zj_tM/Uy6nC0OFRhI/AAAAAAAABx4/45LrIvTvZ9w/s1600/20140320_182952.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pink tips[/td][/tr]
[/table]Next morning he’s up even earlier, keen to catch the morning shade on Memorias de una Sepia, an8a down at Siuranella Central. He creaks on the warm up, then gets shut down on the crux. That rest day is catching up. Meanwhile, fresh armed (for now) I see off the cracking 7a+ Si vas niquel fas tard. Who’s the winner now eh?
Last day, he does L’Escamarla 7c+ second go. He is. Bastard.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZoAtccJQvxs/Uy6nRU1mnBI/AAAAAAAAByI/DBlkMF7yFD8/s1600/13347547624_de87c75ccb_o.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZoAtccJQvxs/Uy6nRU1mnBI/AAAAAAAAByI/DBlkMF7yFD8/s1600/13347547624_de87c75ccb_o.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]About to take big air of Lo deje to blanco (Photo: Murdo Jamieson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52986281@N08/?v=1))[/td][/tr]
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Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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My Climbing Spleen (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/04/dear-diary-as-well-as-providing.html)
28 April 2014, 10:41 pm
Dear Diary,
As well as providing somewhere to vent my climbing spleen, one of the good things about writing a blog is that it gives an opportunity for reflection. In climbing, and life in general, it's so easy to get carried along with the tide, going where the weather's good or where your mates are, and before you know it time has flown by and you've not actually achieved any of the goals you were originally aiming for. Sitting down to write gives me a chance to take a step back and be a bit more objective about where I've been, and where I'm trying to go.
As I alluded to in a post last summer (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/writers-block.html), I sometimes find this time of year tricky. I switch from being a winter boulderer with very specific aims (e.g. get stronger, go to Torridon, do Malc's Arete) to being a route climber, in which my aims are more general and opportunistic (e.g. go where the sun is shining and do the good routes there, do more E3s, redpoint more 7bs). Basically, after the rigidity of the bouldering season I feel a bit like a headless chicken when the route season starts.
It's been over a month since my wee trip to Siurana with Murdo, and in that time we've been pretty lucky with the weather. I've enjoyed fun times on the boulders, sport and trad crags and am just loving being out and riding the waves of glorious spring in the Highlands: willow warblers and fluorescent bud burst, hanging on and getting pumped, squeaking oyster catchers and redshank, laughing with friends. It's not all doom and gloom.
After getting back from Spain I got myself down to the Tom Riach (aka Nick Carter) Boulder quite a few times to try to keep some fitness in the arms. The South West face traverse is a sustained 20ish move sideways shuffle that makes for a good local there-and-back pump-fest. It's been a while since I was last there, but I've been busy:
The first trad foray of the year was a morning at Jetty Crag at Gruinard with Murdo where I belayed him on a respectably smooth ascent of the thin and rarely repeated E5 Gogmagog before doing Gaffer's Wall, an early season gift at soft-touch E3. We topped the day off at Goat Crag where I nearly did Mactalla (which I've still not repeated since first doing it on Royal Wedding Day in 2011, oops). Next day out was shower-dodging at Moy with Tess, of which the highlight was almost falling off the top of the warm up Little Teaser and then almost being sick due to monumental hot aches. The 7a Silver Fox was a pleasing addition to the ticklist too, as it's one of the few there that I'd still not done.
Next day it was nice sunny but super windy oot East so I joined the Betts/Bronwen team for a Cummingston boulder session. A few of the old classics, a good new classic (KinkyBitch 6C), a few embarrassing failures. The usual. In the week I was working down in Galloway and crept out one sunny evening to find the Rankin Boulder and had a lovely hour or so on it's rough granite. At first I got all excited by doing Retroclaim 7A+ really quickly, but then when I made it back to the land of the internet I watched Roddy Mackenzie and Fiend do it and I'd used a hold they'd missed. 7A+? 7A? 6C? Who cares.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-97gKmOVK-kk/U17KGe2bAMI/AAAAAAAAByg/jKdn5gEB4pA/s1600/DSCF4872.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-97gKmOVK-kk/U17KGe2bAMI/AAAAAAAAByg/jKdn5gEB4pA/s1600/DSCF4872.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Rich on a new thing (?) at Cummingston[/td][/tr]
[/table]Next weekend my old mate Luke, who I very first started climbing with 10 years ago was up visiting, so we did some bouldering at Ruthven (surprisingly close to doing White Russian aka Mike's Problem) and went out to explore some of the wee sport crags near Poolewe. A sunny day was spent on the beginner friendly Clown Slabs and easier routes on Kuhjo crag, and I squeezed out a redpoint of the hidden gem Wicked and Wierd, a 3 star 7a+ lurking in the trees. Despite climbing up here for a while, I'd never heard anyone mention this route and was surprised by quite how good it was, and how much of a punch it packed!
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HPzEQ4SPWQw/U17KOWKkutI/AAAAAAAAByo/g2vQy_XIg4c/s1600/DSCF4906.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HPzEQ4SPWQw/U17KOWKkutI/AAAAAAAAByo/g2vQy_XIg4c/s1600/DSCF4906.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Luke on Don't Kick the Bolt 6a, Kuhjo Crag[/td][/tr]
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Right up to date, I had a cold day at Ardmair with Nick in the wind and cloud and threatening drizzle and only came away with a brace of HVSs, bloody hands and a bruised ego. To reverse the misery I got back on the horse at the friendly Road Crag in Gruinard Bay yesterday and did the remaining E2 Trojan and E3 Mongo that I'd not done there, before lying in the sun on the beach.
So, as an exercise in reflection and planning ahead, all I'd say is: more please!
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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The Woods (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-woods.html)
30 May 2014, 8:24 am
It's the sound of a coin spinning on a table top, a high-pitched speeding and slowing bubbling. A wood warbler. One of the small migrant birds that arrive to breed in our broadleaf woods each summer, adding it's ululations to the choir. Moving through the gorge, dappled sunlight and fluorescent whispering leaves and water roaring below, they're all around us. Blending with the willow warbler's laugh and the chaffinch's chirrup. At this time of year the Atlantic woods of the West Highlands burst with life.
It's been years since I last walked through these woods, and each twist of the path brings a half familiar scene. Old acquaintance reunited. We stop, Blair and I, and he points out some geological nuance, a subtle vein of granite bleeding through the brown schist. An echo of long-dead unspeakable forces.
It's funny, this association. If climbing didn't take me to these places, would I love it so much?
Destination: Wave Buttress above Steall Meadows in Glen Nevis. Time is short so there's only time for one route each, no warm up. I'm mildly terrified but positively elated as today is the day to do Edgehog, the classic of the glen and high on my must-do list since forever.
Racked up, tied in, chalked, I step on and the woodland choir falls silent...
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Imbalance (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/06/imbalance.html)
30 June 2014, 9:18 pm
Back in the winter Murdo spent a wee bit of time staying with Sarah and I. It was fun having him around, a constant source of psyche hunched over his evening teapot, as he scoured the internet for conditions and gossip and the occasional loud exclamation of "dick" whenever he discovered someone had done a route he hadn't. It was particularly amusing seeing Sarah realise that we had a disciplined, single-minded athlete in our midst, with his carefully considered diet and training and endless climbing banter. Before then she thought I was a motivated climber, but with him around I pale into a lackadaisical shambles. She, understandably, failed to comprehend how anyone could be so singularly driven.
Anyway, the winter came and went and Murdo moved on and as the summer has ticked by I've not seen that much of him. With Sarah away on a three week work trip to Malawi we penciled in a weekend to get out. Having kept an eye on his exploits on his Flickr page (https://www.flickr.com/photos/52986281@N08/?v=1) it's clear that he's in what Test Match Special's Henry Blofeld would call "absolute mid-season form", and as our weekend approached a nagging fear started to grow. What was he wanting to do? And how the hell was I going to follow him up it? I really didn't want to have to make him compromise on his objectives just because I'm a weekend punter. So, I prepared to swallow my pride. And dusted off the jumars, just in case.
Luckily for me, a chilly northerly and the threat of passing showers meant that plans for scary mountain E7s were binned and instead we both got to climb great routes at our own, somewhat lopsided, standards. I won't bore you with the gory details but to summarise: in two days we climbed 8 routes and clocked up 32 E points, of which I lead 5 routes and added 11. So, Mr Jamieson added the remaining 21 E points in just 3 routes. Fortunately, I didn't have to second any of them, as we'd probably still be there.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cp9P1YJMQto/U7HBprfsbQI/AAAAAAAABzE/4jO-ZgqPxCA/s1600/14535682354_92d5729728_o.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cp9P1YJMQto/U7HBprfsbQI/AAAAAAAABzE/4jO-ZgqPxCA/s1600/14535682354_92d5729728_o.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Super Crag:
Murdo onsighting the run-out Heart of Beyond, his first E7 onsight.
(Photo: Murdo Jamieson)[/td][/tr]
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[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q0sEK3k9hEg/U7HBpvEeprI/AAAAAAAABzI/QVSlyfx2GB8/s1600/14536205122_c398dff7ac_o.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q0sEK3k9hEg/U7HBpvEeprI/AAAAAAAABzI/QVSlyfx2GB8/s1600/14536205122_c398dff7ac_o.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Lochan Dubh Crag:
Me in a re-match with Call of the Wild. I took a memorable ride off the top of this last year, but this time round the laps at the Tom Riach boulder seemed to pay off.
(Photo: Murdo Jamieson)[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EIuFcv73mTs/U7HBsXNajnI/AAAAAAAABzU/FlsK-Hc8qug/s1600/DSCF4944.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EIuFcv73mTs/U7HBsXNajnI/AAAAAAAABzU/FlsK-Hc8qug/s1600/DSCF4944.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Lochan Dubh Crag:
You can just about make out Murdo abseil-inspecting Welcome to the Terrordome. After two abseils, during which he sussed the gear and some of the moves he did it on his first try. E8 6c in the guide, but all Murdo said was that the route him and Iain Small did on Carnmore was harder. All I can add is that it looked about E3 the way he climbed it... [/td][/tr]
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Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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The Perfect Day? (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-perfect-day.html)
14 July 2014, 8:10 pm
How do you know when it's the right time? Is there ever really a right time? I guess if it ever was, it was now.
Deep breaths. I try to pack some more chalk into the gouge in my fingertip, to hide it. It's not there. Helmet on. Eyes closed, I go through the sequence once more in my head. When I open them I turn to take in the view, the deep green sea and the bay. And then I feel it: rain. Surely not now.
*************
Rewind a year and a half. On a routine internet scouring session I stumbled across this photo on Neil Morrison's Flickr page (https://www.flickr.com/photos/8027420@N04/):
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oJLYy_qKiTo/U8Qk_LvyIeI/AAAAAAAAB0s/guyFdztZh5w/s1600/P1010482.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oJLYy_qKiTo/U8Qk_LvyIeI/AAAAAAAAB0s/guyFdztZh5w/s1600/P1010482.JPG)
The caption read: "a fine challenge for someone who likes blank slabs". My ears pricked.
I emailed Neil to find out more and one rainy Friday a few weeks later I headed out to the beautiful coastal village of Diabaig nestling in it's sheltered bay, donned my boots and struck out. Up on the hill above the peninsula's isthmus, beyond the honeypot Pillar and Main Wall, lie two amazingly contrasting and aptly named crags. Ugly Crag; steep, bulging, brutish. Pretty Crag: slabby, smooth, short. Pretty Crag has a couple of VSs and an E1 on it, but an obvious gap in the middle where a hanging crack is guarded by a smooth wall of blank, pristine gneiss.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k1_0zioxVMk/U8QkxK8v7rI/AAAAAAAAB0U/rRT6p-3QuKY/s1600/WP_20140713_001.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k1_0zioxVMk/U8QkxK8v7rI/AAAAAAAAB0U/rRT6p-3QuKY/s1600/WP_20140713_001.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td](Photo: Sarah Jones)[/td][/tr]
[/table]My love of slab climbing began with some of my first ever climbing experiences in the esoteric limestone quarries of Somerset. Open, delicate movement, snaking the centre of gravity between minimal points of contact, and as a grade-chasing beginner I enjoyed the inverse relationship between protection and grade. I guess in the Peak District and elsewhere these kinds of short bold slabs are ten a penny, but up here in the Highlands, and more specifically the North West Highlands, they're few and far between. Had I just struck upon the line I'd always dreamed of?
Initially I assumed it would be a top-rope rehearsal job, but then when I was there and looking at it I could see a thin crack that might muster a runner to protect the blank section before the safe top crack. I changed my mind, and decided I should try to onsight it. Time passed and 2013 came and went and the slab stayed in the back of my mind, but circumstances meant I never had a chance to return. Finding a partner that would want to go out to this esoteric backwater was a bit of a struggle as there's not masses of other stuff that would keep them entertained. Also, a selfish part of me didn't want to go there with someone who would clearly waltz up it after I failed, stealing 'my' route. Childish, I know. So, after weeks of favours, chores and bribery I managed to persuade my fiancée Sarah to come out and belay.
Now, Sarah has a complex relationship with climbing. Actually, no, it's very simple. She doesn't like it. When we first started seeing each other, in the dark and distant past, she put on a good show of pretending that she did, and I dragged her up quite a few classic Scottish routes: Eagle Ridge, Agag's Groove, Ardverikie Wall, Cioch Nose and numerous horrid cold wintery things (which she enjoyed more than me). But she doesn't need to pretend any more, she's got me. Hence having to resort to bribery and corruption to get a belay nowadays.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AXAZitf6QMM/U8QmKO6YhNI/AAAAAAAAB04/uZLy0lDU05I/s1600/DSCF4947.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AXAZitf6QMM/U8QmKO6YhNI/AAAAAAAAB04/uZLy0lDU05I/s1600/DSCF4947.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Psyched to be here![/td][/tr]
[/table]
Finally back at the crag at the end of May, it looked steeper and blanker than I remembered, but I'll just nip up the E1 to warm up then get down to business. Or that's what I thought. When I promptly fell off the top of the E1 I suddenly realised that I might be biting off more than I could chew. It would be easy if it was a couple of degrees more slabby, but it's actually too steep to just smear feet and rely on friction, it's proper face climbing. So I realised three things: 1. I'm very bad at crack climbing, 2. the E1 is more like hard E2, but more importantly, 3. the potential new line would be significantly harder than anticipated.
An ethical dilemma arose: onsighting/groundup is good. Top-roping is bad. But then, as far as I was concerned, it would be a first ascent of a necky, tenuous route of the style and in the very place I really love. Regardless of how, doing it would be a special experience. Perhaps if it was elsewhere, where there are more and better climbers doing this sort of thing I would step aside and let someone else do it, but since it's in the remote North West that might mean it never actually gets done. And perhaps if there was an obvious good gear placement round the crux I'd be happy to go for it and take the inevitable falls, but there's not and I think you'd be into ankle hurting territory. In the end I thought sod-it. Headpoint project. Wahoo!
That day I just abbed it as Sarah was getting bored, but I went back on my own with the shunt the next week and established just how thin the bottom 6 metres are. The protection here is hard to see but OK: two No.3 Black Diamond Micro-Stoppers in a shallow crack, and although they've responded well to tugging from the ground I'm not sure if they'd take kindly to a fall from the last hard moves into the bottom of the hanging crack.
More time passed and I did some proper climbing: Neist, Elgol, Super Crag, Lochan Dubh, but the route still nagged away as an enticing challenge. I had to get back. But who with? Everyone was busy. Sarah? That would take some serious bribery. But then I remembered the lovely new restaurant Gille Brighde (http://www.gille-brighde.com/) that's opened in Diabaig. Perhaps if I offered to pay for dinner she'd acquiesce to another belay? Hooray! She agreed! Surely this would be the last possible time I'd get her out there, so this had to be it.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tTkq_dZX434/U8QkylflE_I/AAAAAAAAB0k/5XiF7a_iW7M/s1600/20140711_122151.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tTkq_dZX434/U8QkylflE_I/AAAAAAAAB0k/5XiF7a_iW7M/s1600/20140711_122151.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The top of Pretty Crag and the end of Ugly Crag in the shade.[/td][/tr]
[/table]
On Friday I went back and played again on my own and was shocked by how hard it still felt. But slowly I pieced it together, and although I didn't link it in one go I felt that I had the best sequence and knew the gear well enough. Sunday had to be the day.
*************
We huddle in the open as the rain shower passes over but there's blue sky beyond and a breeze and other than interrupting the bubble of self-belief I'm trying to inflate around myself, we're unscathed.
I'm nervous. But excited and energised. And nervous. On my first go I get off lightly, getting through most of the crux and getting the wire clipped in the bottom of the main crack before a foot scuffs and I'm off. 3 seconds earlier and it would have been very different. A silly mistake, all down to nerves.
Strip the gear and go again. The first committing step through to the smear, the razor crimp, the four foot moves, the finger tip in the crack, the second razor crimp, fumble the wire, clip, balance, good finger-lock, smear, better finger-lock, wire, and then the glory of the crack and it's cams of joy and I'm on top.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IBF-jrB4-Lw/U8QkxQ47OEI/AAAAAAAAB0Y/rBLZgPZQK0w/s1600/WP_20140713_003.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IBF-jrB4-Lw/U8QkxQ47OEI/AAAAAAAAB0Y/rBLZgPZQK0w/s1600/WP_20140713_003.jpg)
And then, of course, it's over, and the impenetrable wall you've built and couldn't see past is gone.
On the walk back to the village and dinner we disturb an otter down by the shore, a compliment to the black-throated diver we watched in the loch on the drive down that morning. Back at the car, I look back across the turquoise bay and see Pretty Crag glowing white in the evening sun.
Info:
Pretty Crag, Diabaig Peninsula
We, the Drowned 10m. E5 6b**
Gaz Marshall, Sarah Jones. Headpointed 14th July 2014
The blank slab into the obvious central hanging crack. Gain the port-hole feature and place small wires in the incipient thin crack just above, then step right and tiptoe upwards to reach the safety of the main crack.
Of course, the grade is a guess. It felt technically harder than Firestone, but it's only 10m high and the top 3m are very safe and relatively much easier. I think you could hurt yourself if you fluffed the last few hard moves and I think the style of climbing would make it a very hard onsight. But I'd love to be proved wrong!
Oh, and the pretentious name is after the brilliant book by Carsten Jensen.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Unawares (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/09/unawares.html)
6 September 2014, 11:23 pm
Way back when, on a showery day in March 2010, I clipped the chains of The Warm Up at Am Fasgadh. I'd been trying it over a few visits to the crag that winter - the first winter that I made a point of dropping out of winter climbing and knuckling down to all-year rock climbing. It meant quite a lot to me as it was my first 7b and I saw it as a personal justification of my decision to quit the winter game.
Later that day I had a quick play on Curving Crack, a 7b+ which is the first section of the 7c Primo, scooching off right to an intermediate lower-off. It felt absolutely untouchable. I think I made a comment on this blog at the time, saying that it was the first time I'd been on a route and not been able to do all the moves in isolation. But something about the route attracted me and I decided to work at it as a project. Like many of Am Fasgadh's routes it's short and powerful, intricate and technical and there's not really anywhere to rest. Almost all the hard moves are on sidepulls and layaways so it's all about footwork and body position.
Since then I've put quite a few sessions into trying Curving Crack. I was briefly distracted in the 2012/13 season when I tried and eventually did The Shield, but in total I must have spent at least 12 sessions over the four winter seasons trying it - far and away the most time I've spent on one route. It took me a while to pin down a sequence for the crux, and then the problem was having the fitness to execute the moves. I could do it in overlapping halves, getting to the quartz jug and clipping and going for the next move, then falling off, resting and going to the end. It's been like that for the last few years.
Today me, Murdo, Ian and Tess sneaked up to the crag while it was still in it's summer hibernation, tucked beneath it's blanket of bracken. Showers washed over the West coast all day so this was the only dry rock for a long drive in any direction. We're right on the cusp between Summer and Autumn now, still with some heat in the sun but the air is cooling and the hill slopes and leaves have a tinge of gold. We were all hoping that a stealth attack so early in the year would find the crag still slumbering, and with it's guard down it would allow for some rare successes.
Over the last few months I've been trying to concentrate on endurance and fitness as I'm off on a trip to Australia in October. Usually at this time of year I'd be starting to think about the approaching winter bouldering season and trying to get strong, but instead I've been keeping up the circuits and foot-on fingerboard routines from the summer. I've noticed some good results over the last month or so, doing the long stamina routes of Giza Break (7b/7b+) at the Camel and The Clansman (7a+) at Moy pretty quickly, and getting pretty close to doing The Link (7c?) at the Tom Riach Boulder. In addition to this a fairly regular dose of fingerboarding will hopefully have added some steel.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R0hzHdzwQVI/VAyjRsWQEfI/AAAAAAAAB1I/-3Xammz2FF0/s1600/20140907_121817.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R0hzHdzwQVI/VAyjRsWQEfI/AAAAAAAAB1I/-3Xammz2FF0/s1600/20140907_121817.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]To illustrate, here's a photo of the door that I have the key for to Rich's board in his garage. Clearly no 45 degree power bouldering for me this summer.[/td][/tr]
[/table]I'm not sure what it was, either my training or catching the crag unawares, or a combination of both, but something worked because earlier today, and I still can't work out how, I managed to climb from the ground to the lower-off without falling off. You absolute beauty!
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Uncle Tom (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/09/uncle-tom.html)
23 September 2014, 4:29 pm
It's funny how knowledge cascades and fashions form. Tom Riach, the conglomerate erratic boulder up near Culloden has been the flavour of the season for Inverness locals this summer. I blame Nick Carter, who worked out that he could fit in a good session in the three hour gap he has between dropping and collecting Lily from nursery, so he started going down and getting keen, and then he told someone, and they told someone, and they told someone, and so on. I've not long started a new job so at long last have free evenings in which to train, rather than fester in strange B&Bs.
As a bouldering boulder it's not really very good, with no real lines and nothing above 6B+, but as a local's training venue to try and get some fitness it's pretty handy. The traverses of the South West and North West faces are both good problems and contrast nicely in style, with SW being a bit steeper on bigger holds and NW being very thin and fingery. Being on conglomerate it's pretty friendly on the fingers too, unlike Ruthven which has also become popular among sideways shufflers in recent times.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r2wfyA89m3c/VCGP2IxwWLI/AAAAAAAAB1Y/XJx6viLNl64/s1600/TomRiach.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r2wfyA89m3c/VCGP2IxwWLI/AAAAAAAAB1Y/XJx6viLNl64/s1600/TomRiach.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Another sweaty after-work lap. Photo: Alpha Mountaineering (https://twitter.com/AlphaMountain/)[/td][/tr]
[/table]Over the last two summers as we've been getting more familiar with the boulder a number of Tom Riach challenges have emerged, so here's a rundown of the current classics. Grades are complete guesses, but are based on an assumed consensus of the Stone Country and UKC grade of SW Face being Font 6C+. I've done it so many times it feels about 6A, so have no idea:
- SW Face traverse R-L from a sit start, finishing up arete, aka 'There' - Font 6C+
- SW Face traverse L-R from a sit start, finishing up arete, aka 'Back' - a bit easier, maybe Font 6C?
- There & Back (SW face R-L then L-R, sit start) - F7a route grade?
- There with Butcher Finish (SW face R-L, finishing up Butcher Lefthand, rather than easy arete) - Harder than original, so Font 7A?
- NW Face Original (R-L, stand start, finish up arete) - Font 7A (route grade F7b?)
- NW Face Deziree's backwards way (L-R) - Font 7A? I've not tried it.
- The Link (sit start SW face R-L into NW face R-L, finish up arete) - F7c route grade.
- The Knil (reverse of The Link) - F7b+? I don't think it's been done yet.
I was well impressed when Nick did The Link for the first time back in May, as I was still falling off NW Original. But as the sessions kept coming I started ticking through the list until The Link was the obvious challenge left. Murdo tried it when he was tired and reckoned it was hard, but then came back rested and did it quickly, mooting a route grade of about F7c. For me it's about 45 moves long with a couple of pretty poor rests and the crux right at the end moving past a cool 2-finger edge. Brilliant power endurance training.
Before I go to Australia for a month of climbing I told myself that I had to do Giza Break at The Camel and The Link at Tom Riach. I nailed the former on my second session in early August, but the latter held out over quite a few sessions in sub-optimal conditions until last night and the first breeze we've had here in weeks.
Hopefully now I'll be partly ready for the ego-bruising sandbag grades Australia will throw at me. Or not.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Ya Flamin' Galah! (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/11/ya-flamin-galah.html)
19 November 2014, 10:04 pm
Despite being fairly keen, I’ve always known that I’m not really a proper climber. Since university I’ve opted to follow the path of a ‘normal’ life: 9-5 jobs, fiancée, house and all the trappings and commitments that come with it. I’ve not spent months away on trips, I’ve not climbed around the world, I’ve never dumpster-dived and lived the dirtbag dream. I climb when I can, but realistically that’s only on weekends and certainly not every weekend, and normally just day trips in the North of Scotland. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’ve made all my decisions consciously and gladly, but as we all know: one door opens, another one closes. I don’t climb E5, and I still haven’t done Malc’s Arete, but I have the important things: happiness and security and a loving relationship.
But of course, sometimes you’ve got to feed the rat. A few years ago I started to realise that the breadth of my climbing experience was really shallow: UK trad, Euro sport, Font boulders, that’s pretty much it. No Yosemite, no Squamish, no Todra, no Ton Sai, no Arapiles. So, I decided enough was enough and started canvassing opinion among friends to see if anyone wanted to go away on a month-long trip somewhere, anywhere.
In steps Mr Energetic, aka Rob Greenwood. He replied to my message saying he’d been thinking of a trip to Australia, to the hallowed walls of Arapiles and the Grampians. Was I keen?
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ivbz9q3pcCw/VG0QeXKLxhI/AAAAAAAAB2U/dSOE1aJnioQ/s1600/DSCF4972.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ivbz9q3pcCw/VG0QeXKLxhI/AAAAAAAAB2U/dSOE1aJnioQ/s1600/DSCF4972.JPG)
Now, I didn’t really know Rob that well. We’d met years ago when I lived in Aviemore through his then girlfriend Helena, who I knew from uni. He’d stayed at mine a few times on winter climbing raids, and I’d stayed at his a few times on North Wales raids, and we spent a week together on Pabbay and Mingulay in 2011, but that’s pretty much it. We’d stayed in touch down the years and I’d followed his escapades through various blogs, tweets and facetubes: Yosemite, Patogonia, Canada, the Himalaya, Alpine endeavours, and in the last few years his move to Sheffield, his gritstone wrestling and his fruitful quest for 8a glory. Comparing his CV to mine doesn’t bear thinking about, but he’s a positive chap and seemed ignorant of my punterdom, so I agreed. Australia! Ya little rippa!
Leave was arranged, flights were booked, cars hired. Other than a vague bubble of awareness of a photogenic roof called Kachoong and a beautiful orange wall full of hard sport routes called Taipan, I didn’t really know anything about where I’d agreed to go. I bought some guides and surfed the web and very soon started to salivate.
Life and weather meant that my prep in the month before leaving was almost exclusively shuffling sideways on the Tom Riach boulder, but I also managed my two hardest sport redpoints so felt vaguely positive. Little did I know that 90% of my time in Oz I’d be trad climbing so really I should have been, well, going trad climbing.
I won’t bore you with the details of the trip, but will try to summarise some highs and lows in bullet form:
· Long flights = lots of films. Brief review: The Railway Man (sad but good), Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson, therefore genious), Notting Hill (awww), Zero Dark Thirty (gripping), Les Miserables (catchy show tunes), A Million Ways to Die in the West (Family Guy in a cowboy hat), Edge of Tomorrow (meh). I’ve forgotten the others so they must have been crap.
· Camping in The Pines, legendary climbers doss. A pole from our £70 tent from ‘BBQs Galore’ in Horsham snapped on the first day.
· Arapiles = sandbag. Australian grades = arbitrary number. Ego = bruised.
· Grampians: more striking lines, more scenic locations, but possibly fewer routes for punters like me.
· Lots of amazing routes that start to blur into one. On average you could sum up most Arapiles climbs as: steep, physical and very safe.
· Surprisingly cold nights. Should have brought a bigger sleeping bag.
· Really friendly locals in Natimuk (the nearest village to Arapiles), with a strong ex-pat British scene.
· Rest days visiting the swimming pool in Horsham for a shower, drinking coffee and eating cake in Nati Cafe.
· Lots of the classic harder routes seem to go sideways, which were always ‘fun’ to second.
· Pines life hanging with Rob, and Ben, Kath and May Bransby: cooking on the campfire, Ben reciting potty-mouth gangsta rap over breakfast, trying to make brews on the worlds crappest stove, 8 year old May singing all the way up the classic 13 Muldoon.
· The crazy wildlife: kangaroos, wallabies, stump tailed lizards, possums, echidnas, koalas, wedge-tailed eagles, yellow-crested cockatoos, galahs, australian magpies, and a long-distance siting of a platypus (apparently).
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HfeHmVw7Q1U/VG0N__WuHQI/AAAAAAAAB1o/vVSkUjoy4Yo/s1600/DSCF4961.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HfeHmVw7Q1U/VG0N__WuHQI/AAAAAAAAB1o/vVSkUjoy4Yo/s1600/DSCF4961.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]May Bransby chillin' at Taipan, part way up a tree.[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E8hd74SYrm8/VG0OAjOGkSI/AAAAAAAAB1s/FcDCk3rErHM/s1600/DSCF4963.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E8hd74SYrm8/VG0OAjOGkSI/AAAAAAAAB1s/FcDCk3rErHM/s1600/DSCF4963.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Ben Bransby chillin' at Taipan, part way up Fisting Party.
[/td][/tr]
[/table]It would be fair to say that from a climbing point of view, I found it pretty hard going. It’s hard to know what on earth Australian grades mean and how they compare to British grades, but I’d be surprised if I climbed any trad routes harder than E2/3. I did grow to really enjoy it, but to begin with I found the steep traddy style pretty intimidating. C’est la vie. I came across very few sport climbs in the onsightable/holiday redpoint bracket but that was probably because a large chunk of the Grampians was still closed after a big fire.
I had a great time, climbed some amazing routes, and had the pleasure of watching Rob and Ben climb some even more amazing-looking harder things. For me though, and I know it’s a massive cliché to say it, the best thing about the trip was the people and the places: getting to know the Bransbys; spending more time with Rob and trying to understand his wild positivity and unceasing optimism; being somewhere totally new: new climate, new plants, new horizons.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WMpg3RGq6ak/VG0OkfQLpOI/AAAAAAAAB2I/7lnK4swWKHM/s1600/DSCF5007.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WMpg3RGq6ak/VG0OkfQLpOI/AAAAAAAAB2I/7lnK4swWKHM/s1600/DSCF5007.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Rob on Archimedes Priciple, Eureka Wall. Possibly the most perfect single pitch trad climb in the world?[/td][/tr]
[/table]Thanks Rob, ya flamin' galah!
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5znAEcIR_wo/VG0OAt6y_3I/AAAAAAAAB10/TwRCMqO0mW8/s1600/DSCF4968.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5znAEcIR_wo/VG0OAt6y_3I/AAAAAAAAB10/TwRCMqO0mW8/s1600/DSCF4968.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Rob rather pumped after Have a Good Flight lived up to it's name.[/td][/tr]
[/table]
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-REWtfwJxbQA/VG0OiVqrlkI/AAAAAAAAB2A/TI_s66VTGxU/s1600/DSCF4982.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-REWtfwJxbQA/VG0OiVqrlkI/AAAAAAAAB2A/TI_s66VTGxU/s1600/DSCF4982.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Sierra Blair-Greenwood[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Light! (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/12/trying-catch-7b-at-scatwell.html)
3 December 2014, 11:10 pm
Trying The Catch 7B at Scatwell. It's hard.
(Photo: Rich Betts (https://www.flickr.com/photos/richiebetts))
I know you shouldn't wish your life away, but for the last week or so of our trip to Oz I couldn't help but think about the things that waited for me back at home. As I've said many times on this blog before, I love the changing seasons and different activities they bring, and perhaps most of all I love the simplicity of winter bouldering. There's something about the north and winter time that is a big part of me. From the other side of the world, where it was late Spring and heating up to a balmy 30 degrees in the daytime, the thought of cold days and sandstone slopers seemed very distant, but I couldn't wait to get home.
Talking of which, the weekend after touching down on UK soil Sarah and I got the keys and moved into our new home. It's the first time we've owned a place, so suffice to say, we're dead chuffed. Proper little country mice now. The board has yet to be built in the shed, but it'll happen. In the mean-time, two campus rungs screwed into the shed rafters are providing me with some good exercise.
In climbing terms, the best thing that's happened lately is the purchase of an XQ Lite FL1188, or in other words, a rechargeable lamp for night bouldering. My relatively new job means that I'm no longer away from home in the week so having a lamp has revolutionised good weather evenings. I'm still working out the best venues but so far Scatwell and Cummingston have come up trumps.
The Cummingston episode was a bit of a repeat of last season when I found rare amazing conditions on Gorilla. I got really close in a session but ran out of steam so, knowing how rare the combinations of cold dryness and tide are, I had to go back the next day to dispatch. This time the problem was Fingerlicker, the desperate thin 7A traverse in the big cave. Almost every time I've been there it's been humid and smeggy, even when everything else is in great nick, and I'd just about written it off as something I'd never do. On the Sunday it was better than I'd ever seen it, in fact, even the perma-smeg Cave Beast 6A was dry enough to finally do, so after a wee circuit I spent a fair bit of time piecing the moves together under the watchful eye of crag guardian "Buddha" Dave Wheeler. I got to the point of having proper goes from the start, but soon the skin was sore and returns diminishing so I bailed, frustrated. As soon as I got home I checked the weather and the tides for the next few days and put the lamp on charge. Two days later I was back in the cave after work and it was still in good nick, so I fired up the lamps (I'd borrowed Rich's for some extra lumen power) and got it sent. The next day the temps shot up and a warm wet front rolled in and the cave would have been back to smegsville. You've got to cash in.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aJTGL19MqiU/VH-XqVe9sfI/AAAAAAAAB2k/phAN8qPi_wM/s1600/Fingerlicker.png) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aJTGL19MqiU/VH-XqVe9sfI/AAAAAAAAB2k/phAN8qPi_wM/s1600/Fingerlicker.png)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Dancing with my shadow on Fingerlicker.[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Rich on a new problem in the Corridor at Cummingston: Feel the Lumens 6C+(+?). Apparently it has "the nicest hold to pull on in the whole district." I suspect that means a minging rat crimp.
Photo: Rich Betts (https://www.flickr.com/photos/richiebetts)
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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2014: Top 3 (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-top-3.html)
20 December 2014, 10:50 pm
Another year comes and goes and we keep stumbling on. Queue the annual reflective blog post.
2014 was definitely the year I grew up: getting engaged, turning 30, buying a house and finally getting a job that doesn't mean I'm always away from home. I'm sure the 20 year old me would be deeply disappointed to see me now: a slave to the wage with a mortgage. But it seems to me that unless you're very lucky, very talented or willing to live hand-to-mouth from other people's charity there's not much choice. Anyway, we've just bought a cool house in the sticks and I'm doing a job that 20 year old me would be proud of, so there.
In previous years I've listed my climbing, reading and musical highlights, so I'll follow the tradition, but this time I'm doing top three's (in no particular order):
Trad routes:
1. We the Drowned, E5 6b, Diabaig. The realisation of a long-held ambition: a tricky new slab route in the North West Highlands. I was well chuffed when I heard that Jules Lines had on-sight soloed the 2nd ascent. Nutter! He agreed with the grade and reckoned it would be 3 stars on grit. I guess he would know.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b1jJj6d9pwA/VJX6rGg9mOI/AAAAAAAAB3M/NmGRz-nkUoo/s1600/P1010482.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b1jJj6d9pwA/VJX6rGg9mOI/AAAAAAAAB3M/NmGRz-nkUoo/s1600/P1010482.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pretty Crag at Diabaig[/td][/tr]
[/table]2. Sumo, E3, Beinn Eighe. A great day out with Ian T who's almost ticked the crag so was happy to be my belay bitch. Steep, positive, safe climbing and on a crag with one of the best views in Britain.
Sumo Pitch 2 (Photo: Ian Taylor)
3. Kachoong, 21, Arapiles. The only route I'd heard of before we went out to Oz. I'd blown it up in my head as a must-do, so was pretty relieved not to take the ride.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YA_7cg-xhCs/VJX6CXiNj4I/AAAAAAAAB20/h7UKOtHwqXA/s1600/Kachoong.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YA_7cg-xhCs/VJX6CXiNj4I/AAAAAAAAB20/h7UKOtHwqXA/s1600/Kachoong.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Quality bumshot (Photo: Rob Greenwood)[/td][/tr]
[/table]Sport routes:
1. Primo (Curving Crack), 7b+, Am Fasgadh. Four years passed between first attempt and eventually clipping the chains, which is quite a long time for a 15m route.
Game face (Photo: Ian Taylor)
2. Giza Break, 7b/+, The Camel. I totally fluked this on my first redpoint of my second session, three days after turning 30. Happy birthday.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3uZ89FsDwSk/VJX6boJ-cSI/AAAAAAAAB3E/wbznaaHzeOQ/s1600/Giza.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3uZ89FsDwSk/VJX6boJ-cSI/AAAAAAAAB3E/wbznaaHzeOQ/s1600/Giza.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Starting up the 30m long potato field of The Camel (Photo: Nick Carter)[/td][/tr]
[/table]3. Wicked and Weird, 7a+, Kujho Crag. Spring in the North West Highlands: birds singing, sunny redpointing and no midges. A punchy little route too.
Boulders:
1. Vapour Trail, 6C, Torridon. On the to-do list for a long time but I'd never plucked up the courage before this year. Superb.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zT3hx6017uQ/VJX6JNHdcNI/AAAAAAAAB28/WIpZPQWDlVU/s1600/Vapour+Trail+Fail.JPG.png) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zT3hx6017uQ/VJX6JNHdcNI/AAAAAAAAB28/WIpZPQWDlVU/s1600/Vapour+Trail+Fail.JPG.png)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Getting high by myself.[/td][/tr]
[/table]2. Scatwell Massacre, 7A?, Scatwell. A classic Richie Betts sandbag ('Betts 6C+') at my new local boulder, tucked away in the woods of Strathconon.
Lamps out at Scatwell (Photo: Rich Betts)
3. The Link, 7c, Tom Riach. OK, so it's a long boulder traverse, but I'm counting it. My hardest link on anything to date, pieced together over a couple of months of summer after-work evenings.
Book:
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel. Part one of Mantel's fictional biographies of Thomas Cromwell. Uniquely written and about an era that it would seem GCSE and A-Level History skipped over. Poor old Catherine/Anne/Jane/Anne/Kathryn.
Tunes:
This is always impossible, so rather than thinking too hard I'll just pull up three from my current 'most-played' list:
1. Remurdered (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et_dCnXYSBA) by Mogwai.
2. Marcos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqes0Usn_j0) by Kan
3. Open Eye Signal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q04ILDXe3QE) by John Hopkins
All in all, not a bad year on the rocks. Merry Chistmas one and all!
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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The Setup (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-setup.html)
19 January 2015, 3:48 pm
There are many reasons why becoming a homeowner has been really exciting, but high up on the list is the fact that I now have the space to construct my own board. I've been living in rented accommodation since leaving my parents and going off to uni in 2002 so I've never been able to drill, saw and generally vandalise my home in order to dangle from my fingers. I've partly circum-navigated this issue by using temporary kit – rock rings hung from rafters and a Beastmaker mounted on a board that fits onto and off an Argos pull-up bar (a design dreamed up by Murdo, my training guru), but nothing beats the convenience of having your own setup in the garage.
Since Rich built his I've been a regular in the exclusive Bettsmaker user group, and although every session I have there is a general lesson in punishment and humiliation I do think it’s probably given me some gains. If nothing else, I love the simplicity of board sessions: short, sharp, hard. In the near future I can only imagine that life is going to get busier, so being able to get in regular good sessions without having to trek into town will be a big bonus.
So now it’s on. The month of January, a month that’s brought some of the wildest weather for a while, has been put aside for me to convert our big wooden leaking shed into a, um, big wooden leaking shed with a board in it. At the start of the process I knew almost nothing about construction or woodwork or design, but a couple of weeks in I’m pleasantly surprised at how things are going. I still know nothing about construction or woodwork or design, but I’m learning that with a liberal application of cement, screws, bolts and half-arsed trigonometry and with regular trips to Wickes, Homebase and Highland Industrial Supplies to buy an armoury of metalwork, you can make things stand up and stick together.
There’s still a fair way to go before it’ll be ready, but I’ll let you know when it’s done and you can start the countdown to my first injury.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Creating (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/02/creating.html)
1 February 2015, 7:29 pm
Very little to report on the climbing front of late. There seemed to be no respite from the January storms, so when the boulders weren't wet from rain they were wet from snow. Not to worry though, I've been busy creating things:
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RzBURUDvQkA/VM5u_twzr1I/AAAAAAAAB3g/NVsspY8JZhU/s1600/20150201_161829.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RzBURUDvQkA/VM5u_twzr1I/AAAAAAAAB3g/NVsspY8JZhU/s1600/20150201_161829.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The nearly-finished shed board. Not long after I took this photo I boarded over more of the rafter space where the campus rungs are to make a bit more height. The remaining holds are waiting on a delivery of more T-nuts and bolts before they can go on, and then with the addition of a few more shit screw-ons for feet it'll be done.[/td][/tr]
[/table]
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IWOjYIscJ18/VM5vH82SBPI/AAAAAAAAB3o/v0NO6NPqOOo/s1600/20150201_134859.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IWOjYIscJ18/VM5vH82SBPI/AAAAAAAAB3o/v0NO6NPqOOo/s1600/20150201_134859.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]I spent most of today cleaning up this bit of Easter Ross esoterica to produce a couple of just off-vertical granite crystal teetering beauties. I've not tried them yet as they were still damp post-clean and that wasn't going to change in today's watery sunshine, but I think they might be tricky. [/td][/tr]
[/table]
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Different (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/03/different.html)
11 March 2015, 8:28 pm
It's hard to know what was different on the last go. Sometimes things just click.
I'd been there for well over an hour already, my toes starting to freeze in the March night, my fingertips starting to burn. I existed with the boulder in a glowing bubble of white in the inky darkness, spotlit by two lamps and my headtorch, the woods and roaring river beyond forgotten. I'd never been so close to success, but with each failed attempt I new the window of opportunity was getting smaller: the accumulation of skin loss, fatigue and battered motivation all taking their toll.
This was my fourth session here in two weeks: two on weekends, two on weeknights with lamps. After each one I'd come away with a glimmer of hopeful progress: a new hold reached, a shift of weight. The unknowns becoming known. I'd occasionally tried the first few moves before, but was no-where near making or sticking the crux move. It's hard to say exactly what had changed, but building a board at home probably helped. Tonight's task was to bring them all together in one: a series of static points of contact linked through movement, timing, balance and power. Now, after the umpteenth crash back to the pads, the clock was ticking and I was gearing up for another defeated retreat.
One more go. This one really will be the last. I even said it out loud to the darkness beyond my island of light. "One more go". Sat on the pads, chalked and ready, a thought crossed my mind. Every time I've done a problem I've found hard I've tried to work out what made the difference on that final attempt. More often than not I couldn't tell you what it was. Better accuracy? More power? Maybe it's more mental than physical: focus, desire. Sometimes things just click.
On the final go last night something clicked again. A millimeter shift of body weight? An intake of breath? Perhaps. Suddenly I found myself outside my bubble of torchlight, dark and alone, and standing on top of The Catch at Scatwell.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5-Q_tfT8B-M/VQCdEFLK0OI/AAAAAAAAB4k/p4EBpd_UDE0/s1600/Catch1.png) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5-Q_tfT8B-M/VQCdEFLK0OI/AAAAAAAAB4k/p4EBpd_UDE0/s1600/Catch1.png)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Dancing in the darkness[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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The Clamour (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-clamour.html)
31 March 2015, 10:23 pm
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nDrkFH4_4ng/VRsJYrv1UBI/AAAAAAAAB48/LG0oj9gKE-E/s1600/KM+3.png) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nDrkFH4_4ng/VRsJYrv1UBI/AAAAAAAAB48/LG0oj9gKE-E/s1600/KM+3.png)[/td][/tr][tr][td]You'll never find this.[/td][/tr]
[/table]
The changing of the clocks is supposed to herald the arrival of Spring, bringing the promise of sunshine, dry crags and getting pumped. Instead, as I write there's fresh snow falling on the hills just outside the house, which makes me think that the winter bouldering season is lingering on.
The generally crap weather has meant limited trips to the West coast sandstone Meccas: I think it's only been one day at Torridon and Three at Reiff in the Woods. I've been getting withdrawal symptoms. If you're a boulderer living near Inverness these really should be your first choice venues. Amazing rock, genuine national standard quality problems across the grades and in a truly beautiful setting. And they're really not that far away. I'm not entirely sure why I'm banging the drum, because I like them as the quiet, unspoilt places that they are, but with more and more people bouldering at the wall in Inverness and all the current clamour on Facebook for better indoor climbing facilities, I find it strange that all these 'climbers' aren't actually doing it out in the real world. The truth is, you're more likely to meet climbers from Sheffield at Torridon than from Inverness.
Rare sunshine on Wild is the Wind at Reiff in the Woods (Pic: Richie Betts)
Closer to Inverness, where the weather can be a bit more reliable, there's still quite a bit of half-decent stuff in Easter Ross that I'm pretty sure 90% of boulderers using Inverness wall will never have heard of. Having moved out of Inverness to the sticks near Muir of Ord I've spent a fair bit of time exploring these esoteric delights this season and I can't help but think that some of them deserve more people knowing about them. The vast majority of it isn't hard to find out about, with topos, pics and videos all online. And if you fancy some development, there's still stuff out there, if you're willing to do some walking and cleaning.
I'd already visited Scatwell quite a few times before moving house, but it's now very much my local boulder. The Richie Betts classic 7As of Road to Domestos (bunched up slapping into graunchy mantel) and Scatwell Massacre (scary heel-toe or biiig jump?) pave the way to the Mike Lee 7B crimp-fest The Catch. Highly reccomended.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BjW2BfpWkDo/VRsJB0Su6bI/AAAAAAAAB40/QSsJkpinQYs/s1600/Domestos.png) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BjW2BfpWkDo/VRsJB0Su6bI/AAAAAAAAB40/QSsJkpinQYs/s1600/Domestos.png)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The Domestos graunch.[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Back out towards Contin, on a lone block underneath Glenmarksie trad crag is the singular attraction of Super Beetle, a great 6C crimp rail traverse into an exciting rounded top-out, another Betts number. Cross the Meig dam back into Strathconon and you've got the Meig Boulders, developed by Rich Betts (see the theme?) and Nick Carter. I need to go back and give them a spring clean before getting stuck into them for a good local after work circuit, but I did Nick's 6B The Lone Ranger on a flying visit and it was a little corker. Here's Rich showing the way:
On the way back from an abortive soggy Am Fasgadh session a while back I visited Inchbae for the first time and did the crag classic Long Winning Streak. Not a bad spot.
Suffice to say, I've never met anyone else at any of these places.
This weekend I was up Strathrusdale (where?) and did two really cool granite slab problems that I cleaned up a while back. Probably a 6B and a 6C, but who knows. Good slab problems, forest bouldering and granite are all rare in these parts, so I was pretty chuffed. When I first found boulders up there a few years ago I did the problem in the video below, and there's more to be done for the keen.
Somewhere in Easter Ross (https://vimeo.com/50847553) from Gareth Marshall (https://vimeo.com/user6155988) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
No-one will ever find them, which is a shame, but that's Scottish bouldering for you. Oh yeah, I forgot about all the keen climbers clamouring for a new training venue in Inverness. They'll be straight there....
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Clearing the Decks (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/04/clearing-decks.html)
14 April 2015, 4:05 pm
My job as Capercaillie Project Officer for RSPB, SNH and Forestry Commission Scotland means that around now things all get a bit hectic. There aren't too many of these elusive forest grouse left in Scotland, but for those that are still holding on, mid to late April is business time. Capercaillie breed by their peculiar lekking bahaviour, when all the males in an area get together and have a battle to establish who's the biggest and baddest and gets to pass on his genes while females hang around the sidelines and decide on the winner. It makes for a pretty dramatic spectacle, but in a rather antisocial manner all this happens deep in the woods and within the first hour or two of daylight. In order to get an idea of capercaillie numbers from year to year, it's part of my job to spend the next two weeks sleeping out in hides, or getting up very early to get into position before dawn and, naturally, they don't have weekends off. The data we get from the famously grueling two weeks of lek counts are the basis for much of the rest of my work, and as this is my first year in the job, I'm pretty excited.
Still, from a climbing perspective the next two weeks are going to be a sleep-deprived caffeine-fuelled write-off. I've known this was coming for a while, so have been trying to get out as much as possible in the last month or so to make up for it. As luck would have it, there's been some pretty good weather up here lately, as the state of my fingertips bears testimony.
The routes season started with two glorious March Saturdays in a row at Goat Crag, and despite tying-on for the first time since Australia in October I came away with a nice haul of amnesia onsights and a redpoint of Too Old to be Famous, my first of the original Goat 7bs. Next weekend I joined Dr Dave for a guided tour at Zed Buttress at Brin. This is Andy Wilby's latest sport development crag, with about 15 routes bolted between 6b and brick hard, and home to his piece de resistance and the areas hardest route; The Force, at a possible 8b. Ouch. As per my first visit to Crag One at Brin (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/courting-controversy-brin-rock.html), I was well impressed with the work Andy and co. have put into the crag - cleaning, bolting, occasionally reinforcing suspect holds, and generally making it a cool place to be. I managed not to disgrace myself by onsighting the warm up (phew) and then flashing future area classic The Rockness Monster Returns, a morpho 6c/7a/7a+, depending who you talk to. It all went downhill shortly afterwards of course, with a failed siege on Little Minx 7b(+?) in the hot sun. Next time? There's plenty there in the grades I'm approaching, so I'm psyched for a return.
Andy on The Force 8a+/8b (Photo: Murdo Jamieson)
On a sunny evening after work last week I put two long-held boulder ambitions to bed: the high but not too hard Brin Done Before 6Cish, which I had walked under to get to Zed Buttress a few days before and could hear it mocking me: "call yourself an Inverness boulderer? Not without me on your ticklist". With another hour of daylight I raced over to Ruthven and put paid to White Russian/Mike's Problem 7A+, which I first tried in 2013 but lacked the power. It's nice to see some things changing.
The olden days on Brin Done Before (Photo: Rich Betts)
Betts doing White Russian.
Nearly up to date: this weekend I made 3 trips across the Dirrie Mor towards Ullapool. It was Reiff in the Woods on Friday afternoon for another battle with The Crack, an unsung 7A+ gem that I still can't do, then Saturday and and Sunday turning left at Braemore Junction and heading to the church of Am Fasgadh with Tess and Murdo respectively (see why I've got no skin?). I was keen to do Warm Brown Streak, with it's crux of three long powerful moves after a strenuous clip. I'd been on it late last year, but that was before the shed regime. On Saturday I was close, but puntered myself by working out better beta late in the day when I was too tired to perform. I managed to persuade Murdo he wanted to go there on Sunday and eventually got it done by the skin of my teeth on the 3rd go. I'm not sure about the grade. If The Warm Up is 7b then Warm Brown is 7b+, but who know's what The Warm Up is (http://www.northwestoutdoorsullapool.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/essential-ticks-for-north-west.html)? Regardless, it's enough to keep me happy and the FOMO at bay for the next two blurry weeks.
Right, I'd better get some sleep.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Remember to charge the battery! (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/04/remember-to-charge-battery.html)
30 April 2015, 9:10 pm
I put together a very rough video compilation of some of this season's local (ish) boulder problems. Naturally, I ran out of battery or forgot to press record when I did some of the year's better problems, so it's a bit of a random assortment. If anything it's perhaps a showcase of what's lurking out there if you can be bothered to put in the effort.
Highland Boulders: Winter 2014-15 (https://vimeo.com/126466258) from Gareth Marshall (https://vimeo.com/user6155988) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Scraps (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/06/scraps.html)
19 June 2015, 7:55 pm
I think I write this exact same blog post this time every year. Summer stagnation. To be fair, I've probably picked a good time to have a slightly tweaked A2 pulley and to be planning a wedding, as the weather really has been unhelpful. It's not been crap in a dramatic, torrential downpour kind of way, but more in an insidious, cold, blustery showery kind of way. I mean, you probably could have got out quite a bit if you had endless free time to sit out the showers, but for me it's just been easier not to bother. C'est la vie. You can hardly live up here and complain when it rains.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xtle7GQbINc/VYRkj5oF7xI/AAAAAAAAB5Q/S9OT_Z-tQ1A/s400/DSCF5122.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xtle7GQbINc/VYRkj5oF7xI/AAAAAAAAB5Q/S9OT_Z-tQ1A/s1600/DSCF5122.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Murdo sitting out another shower between gardening and hot aches at Duntelchaig[/td][/tr]
[/table]Don't get me wrong, I've done odds and sods: time spent cleaning forgotten local routes and exploring for hidden rock. I'm yet to find the new Ship Boulder lurking in the woods, but I've not given up yet. I've even managed a bit of climbing too (in addition to laps of open-handed circuits on the board). The trad highlight would probably be The Hill at Creag Dubh, a great voyage through the center of an impressive historic wall. On the sporty front the best (and only?) route for a while would probably be Shakin Like a Leaf, a classic Cheddar Gorge 7a that I did on a balmy West Country evening while down south visiting family. Due to a slightly tweaky finger I've been laying off the bouldering recently, but while south I visited the Forest of Dean's sandstone blocks at Huntsham and came away impressed. Local classic The Golden Bicep 6C+, with it's slopers straight out of Fontainbleau, was probably the best of the day .
As ever, the dreams of an endless sunny summer haven't materialised quite yet. My cunning plan had been to bite the bullet and learn how to jam, and I was looking forward to dropping the ego and getting mauled on routes with lowly grades. It's something I've always shied away from and am pretty bad at, having always been drawn to the thin, delicate end of the spectrum rather than honest burly tussles. I think that my trip to Arapiles last year really showed up my lack of competence and confidence in climbing in this style and the reality of trad climbing is that you need the full repertoire. I'm hopeful that the sun will eventually shine for long enough on a weekend and I'll be able to traipse to the sandstone west and have a fight. In the meantime, is that a something between the trees?
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0abNO7bU16o/VYRkxmMp6tI/AAAAAAAAB5Y/xgoFHnQmrqo/s400/20150517_114130.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0abNO7bU16o/VYRkxmMp6tI/AAAAAAAAB5Y/xgoFHnQmrqo/s1600/20150517_114130.jpg)
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Two days of Summer (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/07/two-days-of-summer.html)
3 July 2015, 9:25 am
Circumstances finally came together to merit exploring a local riverside micro-crag above a deep pool last night (i.e. two days with temperatures above 15 degrees). If you've ever driven into Strathconon from Contin you'll have driven past it, just right of the wee bridge after the turn off to Glenmarksie. I forgot to pack a belay device and discovered that down-jumarring is possible but a pain in the arse.
By the time I'd scoped a line and given it a scrub the black clouds had gathered and it was pouring with rain, but the steepness and trees at the top kept it dry, and it was pretty easy, maybe Font 5/Brit 5b? It was so much fun I ran round and set up the camera to record a second lap. If there's more hot weather I'll scrub some more lines as there's more to do.
Conon Wall (https://vimeo.com/132509820) from Gareth Marshall (https://vimeo.com/user6155988) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Whinging (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/08/whinging.html)
9 August 2015, 10:03 am
I've heard it said that the temperature in Inverness on midsummer's day this year was the same as on midwinter's day last year. I've struggled to find the data that backs this up, but given the general cold and wet summer we've been 'enjoying' I can well believe it.
Trying to turn a negative into a positive, I've pretty much given up on thinking of going trad climbing this year - a measly 13 routes climbed so far - and I've mainly been spending my minimal climbing time picking the low hanging fruit by filling in the gaps at local sport crags. At Brin this meant the 7a+ brace of Despicable Me and Vagicil Overdose. The memory of the lonely runout slab at the top of the latter in a howling gale will last long in the memory. At Moy Ian T's new Kite Mark (6c) is a worthy Flat Wall addition, and a week or so later I voyaged into the dusty realm of the less-travelled Forbidden Forest at 7a/+. All good fun, but over rather fast.
So what now? Time is getting tight before our wedding in September, and after that I expect my mind will start wondering to Torridon and boulders, so I'm fairly limited in my options. So, I've decided to use this pressure as an opportunity to focus on a project. I feel like I've been coasting along over the summer, going through the motions but not really having an aim, so now it's time to change gears. After scouring the local crags I've settled on a gnarly little 7b+ called Whinging Consultants at Brin - brilliantly named after the oft-voiced opinions of Dr Pete Clarkson and Mr Dave Douglas, two NHS employees and active local climbers. I've had two sessions on it so far and it's slowly moving along the spectrum that starts at impossible and hopefully ends in clipping the chains. Time will tell. It's got a really sustained and powerful crux round the 3rd and 4th bolts, followed by a half-decent rest and then easier but pumpy climbing to the top. If I can make it to the 4th bolt I'm hopeful I'd be able to keep it together for the top, but getting through that crux is bloody desperate.
Watch this space.
Ps. If anyone in the Inverness area is keen for Brin evening sessions let me know, I'll repay belays with witty banter, lectures on capercaillie conservation and rehearsals of wedding speeches. What's not to like?
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Whinging Part 2 (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/08/whinging-part-2.html)
17 August 2015, 9:16 pm
I know you're dieing to ask: How am I getting on with my wee project of redpointing Whinging Consultants before my wedding on September 12th? Well, it's still a project. That's the short answer. The long answer is that it's starting to come together.
I've now had three sessions on the route. The first was with Tess, on one of our seemingly regular 'it's wet in the West, Brin is the last resort' days. I'd not been on the route before and was very glad of use of her clip-stick to dog the draws in, otherwise I reckon I'd still be projecting the third clip. That day I had a couple of tries on top-rope, sussing where it all goes, quite how powerful the crux is, and how easy it'll be to pump-out on the top wall if you can't get much back from the rest.
The second session was an evening after work with Mhairi, and it's fair to say that work that day wasn't hugely productive as I started piecing together the route in my head. I'd not done an evening at Brin before, and what with the Vietnam-style bracken slog it's hardly roadside convenience, but Mhairi had an appointment with One and Only, so was keen. My aim that session was to work a sequence for the crux and integrate clipping into it. I guess in that respect it was a success. It's tedious reading other people's waffle about sequences and holds, but in summary the crux section of this route boils down to working round a roof and having to use a righthand gaston, matching it and turning it into a layback to pull up into a distant undercut. The difficulty comes from the complete lack of footholds that you really want on the left which would allow you to lean out rightwards from the layback, so instead you're all bunched up using feet straight beneath you. I told you it was tedious. Above the crux there's a half decent rest (only half decent, mind you), followed by easier but brilliant climbing. More importantly, Mhairi redpointed One and Only.
(https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6073/6053640899_a0afc4f6e9_z.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/highlandrock/6053640899/in/photolist-8CV8b4-adWtVe-adWuwX-bY99Jj-bY98eL-adZhN9-adWswV-7w8r2F/)
Andy Wilby showing how its's done, and seeminky using a totally different sequence to me.
(Photo: Dave Douglas (https://www.flickr.com/photos/highlandrock/))
On my third and most recent session I was joined for another post-work jungle-bash up the hill by Andy Moles, a man that I'd last seen throwing shapes in a sweaty tent at Tiree Music Festival. The aim this time was to start redpointing and making links, which I guess could be described as successful too. There was an initial false start when I found the hardest move impossible despite doing it in previous sessions - having matched the gaston and worked the feet up to turn it into a layback (hooray for dismal climbing chat!) I just couldn't stand up into the undercut. However, Moles was on hand to talk about flagging feet and counter-balancing and I think I've now got the crucial knowledge. On my third go (first to get the clips in, second to warm up) I linked from the floor into matching the gaston flake, which seemed a million miles away when I think back to my first session nine days earlier. Just two more moves and then it's a rest. More importantly, Andy onsighted One and Only.
(https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6142/6005326886_2f03a11a05.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/6005326886/in/photolist-rVZwoE-bX9taw-bX9saL-bX9tQJ-bX9sCY-bX9rSC-a9C5G8-a9ESsJ-r2uuTx-fKWaDJ-bX9ru3)
Whinging consultant Dave Douglas entering the crux (photo: Ian Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/))
Time was tight this weekend (wedding admin, aka 'Wadmin') but I was all set up for a Saturday morning session but rain spoiled play. I'm lined up with Dr Clarkson, one of the route's namesakes, for tomorrow night but there's rain in the forecast again. I'll keep you posted...
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Whinging Part 3 (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/09/whinging-part-3-no-more-whinging.html)
1 September 2015, 10:24 pm
Sarah's hen weekend meant I had a full two-day pass with no wedding admin. I'd lined up Robin Thomas for Saturday and since we'd not climbed together before I thought it would be a bit selfish to ask him to slog up to Brin to belay me on my project. So, the west coast and Diabaig gneiss it was, or at least until the wind died and the midges forced an early retreat. Murdo was lined up for Sunday and I didn't feel quite so bad about making him go to Brin. Even then, I was still praying for an iffy forecast that would rule-out the trad climbing F.O.M.O. In the end it worked out well because Murdo is working The Force at Zed Buttress, just down the hill. We agreed that I'd have the morning redpoint shift while Murdo gently warmed up and then we'd head down for his turn in the shade.
It would be a lie to say conditions were optimal that day: hot august sun beating onto a south-facing crag, but a strong easterly took the edge off and made it worthwhile. Building on gains from the previous sessions I made another babystep forward: discovering a knee twist that makes the penultimate move in the crux sequence more manageable, and on my best go I pinged off going for the last hard move before the rest. Enough progress to keep the dream alive.
More importantly, Murdo made his best links yet on The Force. I hear the send-train a' comin down the line.
Diary scanning after that showed an alarming lack of time for potential Brin trips before the wedding bells ring out but luckily for me Mhairi was happy to squeeze in an evening session on Thursday. It won't be long before there's not enough daylight left for after-work sessions and I could feel the pressure mounting. I decided to be canny after a full redpointing session on Sunday. Monday: rest. Tuesday: session in the shed trying a sustained 10-move problem trying to replicate the length of the crux sequence. Wednesday: 40 minute run but no climbing.
Thursday came along and I was concerned about the lack of time I'd have at the crag to get the clips in, warm up and still have time for a couple of redpoint goes. Seeking inspiration from Murdo I remembered him talking recently having really good sessions in the afternoon after light fingerboarding in the morning. Something about recruitment? I still don't understand physiology. I guessed it could either work well or ruin me, so in desperation I raced to the wall in my 45 minute lunchbreak and dangled from the campus board for a bit before racing into town to pick up the waistcoats a friend has made us for the wedding and then back to the office for a few hours.
Driving to the crag I implored Mhairi to ignore the drizzle tickling the windscreen: "it'll be bone dry in this wind". I tried to sound confident. Luckily I was right. Putting the clips in and resting bolt-to-bolt I could tell the rock felt much better than Sunday and things were looking pretty good, although if anything there was a danger of it being too cold. Also, in the back of my mind I was very aware that I'd not actually done the full link from the rest after the crux to the top. Between the 5th and 6th bolts there's a stiff pull that I could imagine coming unstuck on if I didn't get much back from the rest. Still, nothing ventured...
It all came together on the second redpoint that evening. After clipping the second bolt I downclimbed into the niche and sat looking out over Strathnairn and the relentless motion of the Farr Windfarm turbines sailing round on the wind. I closed my eyes and ran through the 11 move crux in my head. Even though I was climbing in my mind, by the time I hit the flake jug at the 4th bolt I was pumping with adrenaline and had to take another minute to get my heart rate back down. As is always the way, when the time came to move it all flowed and before I could think I was bowling over into the jug and milking the rest for as long as possible. When you rest, you rest. When you climb, you climb. Eventually, when I got some blood back into my fingers, I flicked the switch between the two states and swarmed through the top section as I'd hoped, yelping into the wind as I clipped the chain. Another journey over.
Phew. Now I can get married.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Moray's Finest (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/10/morays-finest.html)
1 October 2015, 11:04 pm
Just back in from finishing off a short and fiery love affair on the Moray coast. On Sunday Mrs M and I headed down to see what all the fuss was about at Primrose Bay, a supposed Cummingston 2.0 with a prettier sandy beach and clutch of recently developed boulder problems. Something for everyone. We weren't dissapointed.
The hidden sandy beach is flanked by orange sculpted cliffs. They have the appearance of the Grampians in Australia, but sadly lack the structural integrity. However, hidden through a cave in a second pebbly bay I found the crag classic: Amateur Acrobatics. I think Hamish Fraser and others have been developing problems here for the last year or so, and from what I saw this problem stands out as THE line. That's one of my complaints about this coast: it doesn't really have that many lines, just lines of holds, and more often than not you jump off at an arbitrary jug. Not this one though.
Here's Hamish on it:
Amateur Acrobatics, Primrose Bay, Moray (https://vimeo.com/119598681) from Hamish Fraser (https://vimeo.com/hamfunk) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
And here's Bettsy:
Primrose Bay (https://vimeo.com/140345946) from Richard Betts (https://vimeo.com/user3118030) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
I was on a flying visit on Sunday so didn't expect too much, but got dead excited when I linked into the crux after a few tries. That was it for that session though. The crux seemed to be using a high heel to flick round the lip into a big slopey pinch thing, but I couldn't hold the swing. Again and again and again.
I was so impressed and excited (and the weather, tides and fickle coastal conditions were too good to miss) so I came back with the lamp the next night after work. After failing to hold the swing for the umpteenth time I started asking questions of my sequence and rapidly realised that the burly heel could be replaced by a cheating kneebar, which made the reach to the slopey pinch thing static. Hamish, I apologise wholeheartedly for ruining your creation with wack beta. Blame Alex Barrows. Still, by the time I'd worked this out I was so goosed that I still fell off with my fingers tickling the top-out.
After two days of rest I was back again tonight. I had the lamp, but really I was racing the sunset as I had a dog in tow that we're road-testing and might be re-homing. I didn't want it to get dark and then lose her on an unknown beach. Fortunately, things came together nicely and I topped out as the blue Caithness coast disappeared beneath an orange burning sunset.
All told, I probably drove the best part of 300 miles doing three round trips to Primrose Bay in the last 5 days. And for one problem. But was it worth it? Without a doubt.
And I didn't lose the dog.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Good effort Gaz! It's a great problem whatever way you got up it! :thumbsup:
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Cheers Hamish. Aye, great work getting that done and spreading the word about the place. Also, good effort getting up to Laggan and doing Strongbow. It's a fair trek from the road!
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Aye that was a fair old mission! Quality hard problem.
Get yourself over to the Isle of Rum, plenty of good problems and first ascents for the taking!
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Biding Time (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/11/biding-time.html)
5 November 2015, 7:29 pm
No matter which choices I make, when it comes to climbing they often seem to be the wrong ones.
Being a lonely misanthrope I decided that my wedding in mid-September would mark the transition into the bouldering season. In past years October has brought periods of great cold and dry conditions. Last year I was away in Australia getting pumped on sweaty trad routes and missed all the happy social scenes in Torridon, so this year I decided I'd start preparations early so I could be steely fingered as soon as the weather changed. Of course, what actually happened was we had the warmest October for years and all the sensible people have been climbing routes while I've been greasing off my projects. Still, its been fun getting back into the swing of things.
I barely tried my arch-nemesis Malc's Arete last year so I'm engaging it once more with renewed vigour. This must be at least the 6th season of trying, which smacks of desperation, but the old minx keeps teasing me. The one time I've been there in OK conditions this year I had some pretty good goes with a slightly different sequence than in the past, leading me on to hope that there might be a way to do THE MOVE keeping a foot on, rather than an all out jump. Watch this space (again).
In the interim, I'm still amazed at the number of problems in Torridon that Rich and co. have done in recent years that I've still not done. One of the benefits of being a punter is that you have to project everything, which eeks out the joy. On the last couple of visits two great problems in the 6B-6C range have really stood out and deserve more acclaim.
A few years ago I remember sniffing around a boulder to the west of Torridon village when I was doing some survey work in the glen. I never got round to climbing on it but Rich did the obvious arete a year or so after and gave it one of my favourite names around: Sticky Damph. Conditions were suitably warm and damp when I did it.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7529/15696224646_ff1c15def9.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/richiebetts/15696224646/in/photolist-pV2fJS-pV2wkG/)
Even more years ago I remember pointing out a cool looking highball wall in a bay hidden behind some lovely old birch trees on the level up from the main jumble. As per usual, Rich did the obvious problem quickly and called it Bay Crack. I didn't doit and then forgot all about it. Last year Rich did a harder sit start into the original and gave it another quality name: 50 Days of Grey. Reminded by this, I went back and did the easier original last week. The highball rounded top-out felt a bit committing on my tod, but at least our new addition was there to spot me.
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1358/5108614958_4ff4368829.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/52986281@N08/5108614958/in/photolist-8MnXcH-9jVWyC-gBMeoi-pECN1G-8FNr3G-peNR2G-pFFbpo-8MnVuF-pFF6ms-8MnWDv-8FKfTZ-8RK856-gBM2hK-pWRhHp-8RNes3-gBM3QL-oJNacF-peNVLG-gA67su-9jVW1w-gA74iv-pwioYn-pDvbDh-gBM8Bt-8RNeVo-p1hCW2-pp724i-8MqZff-vfMMa2-peP7sR-oJN1jF-oqaM4W-8vDsNR-opKQPY)The day we found Bay Crack (photo: Murdoch Jamieson)
On that note, I finished the last blog entry with a cliff hanger about road-testing a dog. We took the plunge and are now busy teaching her the dark arts of spotting, as displayed here:
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RZuztKkMFdo/VjutNx4tb-I/AAAAAAAAB5s/I3UIv3HZvx0/s400/010.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RZuztKkMFdo/VjutNx4tb-I/AAAAAAAAB5s/I3UIv3HZvx0/s1600/010.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Photo: Anne Falconer[/td][/tr]
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Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Stick Damph is awesome.
I think richieb should be problemnamer general for the UK.
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The Road (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-road.html)
14 November 2015, 10:33 pm
Today, something very strange happened. It's something that I've been working towards for years; an ambition that has taken me on a long and winding road, and finally, somehow, today I brought it to reality. I still can't quite take it in.
I first set eyes on Malcolm Smith's Arete on the Ship Boulder in Torridon on a muggy Sunday in July 2008. Blair, Jenny and I had been midged off a day of trad climbing on Seanna Mheallan and were kicking our heels in the glen, not wanting to call a premature end to the weekend and have to drive back home to start the working week. We ended up strolling round the Celtic Jumble, the chaos of boulders where Liathach falls into Loch Torridon, and straight away were drawn to the most aesthetic feature there: a curving arete forming the righthand prow of a rippled pink block, soaring above a perfect flat landing. It screamed out to be climbed.
Of course, those of you that have read this blog before will probably know that the seed that was sown on that day germinated into a giant's beanstalk that I've been trying to reach the top of for years. I'd love to be able to quantify the energy that I've expended on it - not just attempts on the actual problem, but every time I trained with it in mind, every time I talked about it, every time I tried to envisage success, even the times I dreamed about it. I strongly recall a time while a priest was saying prayers at a friend's wedding (they will remain nameless) when I escaped into my own spiritual reverie and tried to work out a new sequence for the crux. It didn't work.
In those first few years it was clearly an objective that was way beyond me, but for some reason I decided to keep trying. The first breakthrough came when I learnt how to use the sidepull crimp (Rich's advice to face Applecross is right), but then I couldn't reach the slopey shelf. Then we worked out a way to use a heel to lock you in rather than jump, and with two small intermediates I could just about bump to the shelf. Then came the long barren years of reaching the shelf and getting no further. THE MOVE: a throw to the sloping lip at the very apex at the top of the arete, feet popping off, pirouetting backwards. I recall reading a blog from Mina Leslie-Wujastyk in which she described failing on a move almost becoming part of the sequence. That definitely happened for me. For about three years Malc' Arete meant jumping, slapping, spinning and hitting the pads.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ngFden-cHZc/Vke1lTbWjaI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/w-IB9hJFsis/s400/DSC_0127.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ngFden-cHZc/Vke1lTbWjaI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/w-IB9hJFsis/s1600/DSC_0127.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The inevitable pirouette. (Photo: Rory Brown)[/td][/tr]
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I've always tried to keep going with good humour, but along the way there have been a few black days when I've seriously doubted myself and toys have been thrown around. Why was it so hard?Why was I so weak? What did I have to do to get up this bloody bit of rock? Why had I sacrificed so much time and energy on something that was so clearly beyond me? Who was I kidding? For a while I genuinely thought I'd never do it, that there was something about that move and the geometry of my body that meant it was fundamentally impossible.
However, something kept dragging me back. There are a load of reasons why it's such an enchanting line - the history of the legendary first ascentionist, the prime location in pole position in one of the most beautiful bouldering venues in the country, the holds, the landing, the height, but most of all for me, I think it's the visual appeal of the line. It's just a beautiful regular curve that stands out in a landscape of jagged edges. Added to this, the positivity and seemingly blind faith of the small band of Torridon devotees who kept telling me that one day it would happen. I couldn't let them down.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LbsAevgzhkY/VkexS0K9zPI/AAAAAAAAB58/g8T-DGS-z7Y/s400/DSCF1586.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LbsAevgzhkY/VkexS0K9zPI/AAAAAAAAB58/g8T-DGS-z7Y/s1600/DSCF1586.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Positivity from Anne and Nige[/td][/tr]
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I guess it would be fair to say that I've been pretty motivated for it this season and I've been trying to be serious with sessions on my board. I'm probably slightly stronger than before and now able to use a slightly higher foot that had been no help in the past, which meant I could push further with less likelihood of the foot cutting. Straight away it felt better and I got a flutter of hope that a new door was unlocking. I set a problem on my board to replicate the move and went from not being able to do it to doing it almost every time - each go learning a bit more about how I was positioning the rest of my body around the holds I was using.
After I wrote my last blog, I had a session in good conditions and had my best go yet - the last of the day as I held the lip for a millisecond, the foot cut and I spun off, missing my pads and landing ankle-deep in the bog.
Well, today it was the end of the road. This happened:
6 years in the making: Malc's (https://vimeo.com/145737018) from Gareth Marshall (https://vimeo.com/user6155988) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
A huge, huge thanks for all that have helped me along the way, but in particular to Rich for the shared psyche (and the video), to Anne and Nige for the note they put on my windscreen when I was going through a dark patch, to Dan for his beta while I tried to onsight the top-out, and to Sarah for listening to my babbling about a little rock in a glen on the west coast for the last six years.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Nice one! So easy for the long term projects to slip away - must be a great feeling to have nailed it!
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Nice one Gaz, you were due. Use of knee on top out invalidates ascent due to poor style. Back around.
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Nice one Gaz, you were due. Use of knee on top out invalidates ascent due to poor style. Back around.
I don't think he did use a knee there to be fair Chris. Can't have been easy blocking out my less than helpful beta up there. That's one top out you don't get to practice though, I think I was more nervous than Gaz.
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Cheers chaps. Yeah, don't think the knee came into play but to be honest I'd have used anything at that point!
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Third umpire says knee may have touched at 1:02, but giving you the benefit of the doubt.
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Home for Christmas (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2016/01/home-for-christmas.html)
5 January 2016, 7:16 am
For the first time ever, we spent the festive season at home rather than traipsing the length of the UK to visit parents and friends. It's been bliss. I don't think I'd realised just how much I needed a break; 2015 really has been a busy year. We had family here for Christmas and then friends for New Year, but amongst all the eating and socialising I've managed to get a good few days out bouldering, a couple of runs (first in ages, ouch) and even a session scrubbing new problems.
So far, I'm really happy with the way my bouldering has gone this winter. It feels pretty rare that I'm satisfied with my climbing, but this year I'm content with my little haul. After doing my long-term nemesis of Malc's Arete in November I've been free to explore elsewhere and have slowly been ticking through some of the other Wester Ross classics that had been shoved to the back of the queue. Below are some of the highlights from the last couple of months. Hunt them out!
The Crack 7A+, Reiff in the Woods
The day after doing Malc's I managed to pull this out of the bag having failed on it on three sessions last season. An innocuous looking thing but surprisingly burly.
Ian's Problem 7A, Ardmair Crag
A long throw to a hidden hold. Lawrence's Crack is by far and away the better problem here, but this is still pretty good. I couldn't do it when I tried it in the summer, so it was nice to see it off. Helpfully, this whole wall is almost perma-dry.
The Prow 7A, Balgy Boulder
Year's ago I tried this and got absolutely no-where. This time it was the salvation of a freezing wet day in Torridon when almost everything else had a veneer of verglass.
McBonzai 7A?, Torridon
Having failed on both my objectives for the day I wondered over for a look and managed to trick my way up it pretty quickly. I found a kneebar that I can only assume Dan Varian and subsequent repeaters hadn't, because it aint 7B this way! 7A is my guess, but regardless it's a great little problem.
Sparrow Legs Wall 6C+/7A Reiff in the Woods
This always gets overlooked by it's (admittedly better) neighbour Haven, but this also epitomises the style of technical Torridonian sandstone walls - crimpy, balancy and high enough to have a hint of spice. I tried it last year and couldn't get off the ground but the New Year easterly gales had it in cracking nick this time.
Clach-mheallan 7A, Reiff in the Woods
When I saw Ian trying this a few weeks ago I wrote it off as the start looked absolutely desperate - a teeny crimp, a sloper and a heel impossibly close to the groin. However, inquisitiveness got the better of me and I had a few goes, and with Ian's handy beta and a very welcome spot it came together nicely.
Romancing the Stone 7A, Reiff
I'd never bouldered at Reiff before but Ian gave me a tip off that this was a handy venue in an easterly gale so I fled there on the last day of the festive holidays. Another techy sandstone wall, a good height and lovely to be down by the sea.
I captured a few of these ascents along with one or two others for posterity:
Wester Ross Boulders: Winter 2015/16 (https://vimeo.com/150725202) from Gareth Marshall (https://vimeo.com/user6155988) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
Here's hoping 2016 continues in a similar vein. Happy New Year!
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Inside the Bubble (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2016/01/inside-bubble.html)
17 January 2016, 4:48 pm
It's hilarious when you look in from the outside. What a preposterous way to spend a weekend. The coldest weekend this winter too, with a clear forecast saying that the weather would be better in the east. But I'm inside the bubble, and I don't care.
I've been seduced into another project on the sandstone of the West. This time I'm in Applecross, or more accurately, Kishorn; trapped on the slope tumbling down from the chicanery of Bealach na Ba where a handful of boulders are strewn across the heathy hillside. A blunt arete, Dave Macleod's 7B Changed Days, points towards the leaden sky above as I lie back on the pads and apply another layer of tape and superglue to my bloody fingers, then, shivering, hat, scarf, gloves, gilet and downie are pulled close. I can hear the burn pouring from Coire nan Arr and a distant car on the Lochcarron road, perhaps on their way to a cosy cafe or a log fire and pub lunch. My flask will do for now. They're outside the bubble, I'm inside.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-midiaFaAnsU/VpvFYZGVrJI/AAAAAAAAB6o/-8p7qqP_i8Y/s400/Changed+Days.png) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-midiaFaAnsU/VpvFYZGVrJI/AAAAAAAAB6o/-8p7qqP_i8Y/s1600/Changed+Days.png) Slapping and scraping, a guttural oath pierces the air as I hit the pads again.
It's hard to explain what drives the motivation. Right now I'm cold, I'm uncomfortable, my ripped fingers sting, my bloodless toes are crying out for release and I'm trapped on my dry island of pads in a sea of snowy heather. I've driven for over an hour to be here and already I know that today isn't the day of success. Yet, I can justify it all to myself so easily - this is where I want to be. Inside the bubble.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Poetry Gaz. I think we can all relate.
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Cheers Chris. We're staying at the Applecross Inn this weekend so I'm hoping for a break between the blizzards to pounce and despatch. If not, my next blog will simply consist of one large expletive.
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Capture (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2016/02/capture.html)
6 February 2016, 5:57 pm
Last time around I tried to capture something of the bizarre, irrational and selfish game of projecting boulder problems in the cold of a Highland winter. I captured some of my battling on camera for posterity and have stuck it together in the wee edit below.
Changed Days at Kishorn (https://vimeo.com/154421355) from Gareth Marshall (https://vimeo.com/user6155988) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
On the subject of footage of bouldering up here, Rich has unearthed some gold buried deep in his hard drive and stuck it together in his film The Archive below. No names, no grades, no locations, but the sheer number of different problems and places speaks volumes about Rich's voracious appetite for the game. And yes, that is me that falls in the river.
The Archive (https://vimeo.com/150441875) from Richard Betts (https://vimeo.com/user3118030) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Witness the (un)fitness (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2016/03/witness-unfitness.html)
22 March 2016, 10:22 pm
The days of cold bouldering conditions must surely be numbered. It's been a great season. My best ever without a doubt, with a pleasing list of completed projects and fairly quick ticks. The last time out in Torridon I finished off one of the last problems that I'd had on my season's optimistic ticklist by slapping my way up Wee Baws. Regular use of the board in the shed has definitely paid off. And with that I'm pretty content to put the boulders to bed and start thinking about ropes and harnesses and all that faffery.
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1661/24990622249_1d00ca54d3.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/24990622249/in/dateposted/)
Within half an hour of topping out Wee Baws my transition was in full swing and I was slumped on the rope, straining to fiddle out wires while trying to follow Ian up a punchy new route he'd just done on one of the short walls above the boulders. There's work to be done.
I followed up with a pilgrimage to the ever-dry Am Fasgadh the next weekend with Murdo. Despite it being the first time on the sharp-end for the best part of 6 months I just about hauled myself up the Warm Up and tickled the chains on Curving Crack so felt fairly happy with my endeavors.
In a bid to start injecting some endurance into my one-move wonder arms I took Frankie the dog down to Tom Riach for the year's first after-work sessions. After getting reacquainted with There, Back and the (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/uncle-tom.html)Butcher Finish (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/uncle-tom.html) on the SW face and with the trickery of the NW face I started working the Knil, the traverse of the NW face into SW going left to right and the obvious next thing to do after doing the original Link. I was surprised to fluke my way through it on my second visit, so now I need another local project to keep me busy.
[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P2cf52qp2Ks/VvG8nEbVZVI/AAAAAAAAB7A/aOihztnK3k4Ph4SnlfTuo04pO6kHDh6JQ/s400/20160315_181753.jpg) (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P2cf52qp2Ks/VvG8nEbVZVI/AAAAAAAAB7A/aOihztnK3k4Ph4SnlfTuo04pO6kHDh6JQ/s1600/20160315_181753.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete turning the arete on Tom Riach's Link.[/td][/tr]
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[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8bews2u9BfI/VvG8flYm7oI/AAAAAAAAB64/JHiWSVUAHk8aRfwqV77wKV84lC8gstbyg/s640/IMG-20160319-WA0008.jpg) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8bews2u9BfI/VvG8flYm7oI/AAAAAAAAB64/JHiWSVUAHk8aRfwqV77wKV84lC8gstbyg/s1600/IMG-20160319-WA0008.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]I kicked off the 2016 trad year with a three day trip to the Peak District. Here I am getting horrifically pumped on the The Tippler at Stanage. (Photo: Phil Applegate)[/td][/tr]
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[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-prbX6EiyxeI/VvG8i8z2zhI/AAAAAAAAB68/C2xp7T7URXMNyFAW-zvqcchzkP_dlWLiA/s400/RU+1.jpg) (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-prbX6EiyxeI/VvG8i8z2zhI/AAAAAAAAB68/C2xp7T7URXMNyFAW-zvqcchzkP_dlWLiA/s1600/RU+1.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The last route of the short trip, the legendary Right Unconquerable. (Photo: Rob Greenwood) [/td][/tr]
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Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Tom Riach doesn't look right without the trees.
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Spring 2016 (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2016/06/spring-2016.html)
13 June 2016, 7:38 pm
A typical Highland day in June. The sweet damp greens of summer unfurled; leaves and flowers and fronds uncurling. Brilliant yellow broom, bluebell blue; swallows and swifts and martens race each other through the drizzle.
Months have passed without a word. You've probably forgotten the cobwebbed pages of Soft Rock. I know I have. I think I left the last installment with a vague promise that bouldering would cease and ropes would be used. I've tried to keep my word, but on quite a few occasions in the last months I've had to resort to the easy default of the loner; bumping pads and brushes and cleaning paraphernalia to the big blocks, scrubbing new climbing into existence and resurrecting unloved old gems.
Ian pointed me to the Bus Boulder, an Inchbae erratic perched by the Blackwater river, 10 seconds from the road. It's too far from Ullapool to be in his patch and only 20 minutes from home for me so he gifted the development duties (it's got nothing to do with acres of West coast quality he's still got to unearth). Leafy summer dank has now postponed activities until the Autumn cool returns, but before the midge ended play I'd squeezed out a couple of good lowball 6Cs. Hopefully there'll be more to come later this year.
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7631/26365336903_f69064bd91.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/100362744@N02/26365336903/in/datetaken-public/)
As Spring wore on I managed a few trips to the likely sport crags Am Fasgadh and Zed Buttress, fluking my way up the crimpy 7b Little Minx at the latter and power shrieking my way up Super Warm Up (7b+) at the former and kidding myself into believing that I was getting fitter. A later date at Goat on a high humidity day took me back to earth with a bump when I barely got up Ian's new Sun Rays (7a) second go and then ungraciously failed on the 6c+ Bamboozle. Arse.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7611/16425796013_63ddc941f7.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/16425796013/in/photolist-E5ktkp-otgheD-otgi8x-qcpAC7-doaYx5-7FsxY7-r9gqqr-7wTVth-nh4khN-DF6xbb-8jYPxm-8jYPxs-dUsjrP-8jYPx7-7SRf6z-7wTVgb-CHZn7s-E5khF8-CAJVqU-CcN9FR-r2uuTx)
Trying Little Minx at Zed last Spring (Photo: Ian Taylor)
Tradding? Once my raison d'etre, now a rare treat. I've done so little these last years and with so little consistency that I think I've gone backwards. I listened to a podcast with Stevie Haston the other day and he talked about the hardcore traddies of the 80s having 'head skills'. That's definitely something missing from my repertoire. For me, I don't think there's a way of short-cutting the path to confident trad climbing, you've just got to put in the hours. Faffing with ropes, weedling in wires, running it out. The odd day here and there just doesn't do it. After bleeding my way up Town Without Pity (E2) at Ardmair I started to feel happy with my jamming abilities, but then last week I followed Murdo up the top pitch of Mid-flight Crisis (E4) on Stac Pollaidh and realised that I am still really shit at it. Failing on Seal Song at Reiff yesterday confirms my belief. Maybe I need to try something that isn't a steep sandstone crack.
So, the odd bit of roped climbing lately but, depressingly for this time of year, my biggest tick has been a boulder problem. A high gravity morning at Brin sent me and Murdo down the hill to Richie's long-forgotten cracker The Scientist 7B. It's a proper good line, and when Rich first showed it to me (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/balancing.html) years ago I was pretty inspired to try it. I think I had one quick session and gave up without linking any moves. Roll forward 6 years and somehow I managed to do it in two sessions, with an interim visit in the rain to clean up the top-out. Thoroughly recommended and big respect to those early pioneers back in the day...
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7458/26963368800_d09e665023.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/100362744@N02/26963368800/in/datetaken-public/)
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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The Potterer (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-potterer.html)
21 August 2016, 11:16 am
"Call this summer?"
It amazes me how short the collective memory is. For a nation that's supposed to be obsessed with the weather our obsessions don't seem very grounded in reality. So many people I talk to seem to have a rose-tinted view that the summer months of July and August should bring picture-postcard long hot sunny days, mountain crags, nights under the stars, sea cliffs, bronzed bodies frolicking on beaches - the dream sold to them by social media and marketing - and feel cheated that in the Highlands it's generally two months of humid, midgy, bracken-choked rain.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7691/28706698205_47af40e02c.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/28706698205/in/datetaken/)Goat Crag.Video: Ian Taylor
[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vRQPyyOGjxA/V7Lp5v67y4I/AAAAAAAAB7g/YxQg3bihyKYa-4C37nBq3gphlSS42-mBwCLcB/s320/20160814_121959.jpg) (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vRQPyyOGjxA/V7Lp5v67y4I/AAAAAAAAB7g/YxQg3bihyKYa-4C37nBq3gphlSS42-mBwCLcB/s1600/20160814_121959.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Brin
Photo: Tess Fryer[/td][/tr]
[/table]
For me, I've lived here long enough to realise that it's better to write these months off for big objectives, to keep ticking over in anticipation for the cooler months ahead and then to consider any climbing that happens as a bonus. The summer seems to have consisted of pottering about at local crags and boulders. Fortunately the hard work of a handful of folk means there are a few great routes round here that are well worth doing over and over again. I'm not sure I'll ever get tired of doing Little Teaser at Moy, scraping through those last metres to the belay using different holds every time. Then at the Camel Stone of Destiny never feels like a certainty and is pretty stiff for a warm up, and then The One and Only at Brin is just superb, straight up the middle of the wall.
There's also a ready-supply of routes at these crags that I'd still not done. Ian's Little Squeezer (6c) at Moy is aptly named but well worth it, filling an obvious gap on the Big Flat Wall. Neil Shephard's Over the Hills and Far Away (7a+) at the Camel put up more of a fight and wasn't helped by the midges and passing rain. Up at Brin I finally got round to redpointing Andrew Wilby's classic The Pink Wall (7b) over two sessions. Despite only being 8 clips and 15 metres long this packs in quite a bit of climbing, and for a scaredy-cat like me it feels pretty airy up there. Another one bites the dust.
Having written all that about the crap weather, this last week has actually shown signs of summer and the local pottering has continued in force. I've been back to the River Conon where there's a cool steep wall (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/two-days-of-summer.html) above a deep pool to try to do a fierce micro-route that Andy Moles told me about last year. I'd previously abbed it to check for holds, but have been trying to climb it ground-up and have now taken the splash-down from the same place 7 times. Dry chalk bags and shoes (and midge tolerance) are becoming a limiting factor - not to mention warm sunny days that make the thought of falling in a river attractive - so I think I'm going to have to try it on a rope. Watch this space.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8280/29048887261_1a49d5eb89.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/100362744@N02/29048887261/in/datetaken-public/)
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Get it while it's hot! (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2016/08/get-it-while-its-hot.html)
23 August 2016, 10:59 am
I buckled under the pressure and spent some time trying my little DWS project on a shunt. All ethical scruples go out the window when there are only a handful of days each year that I'm willing to fall into a river. Majorca this aint.
Pleasingly, there are some pretty meager grips up there and the easiest sequence I found was still pretty hard. I still couldn't link it on the rope, so although I knew what to do a nervous air of mystery remained.
Last night my motivation was pretty low. After a day at work the grey skies and breeze didn't make the thought of another watery plummet particularly inviting. I checked the forecast in the hope that tomorrow would be nicer but it wasn't looking much better. Shit. Maybe that was the window. If I don't go now maybe I'll have to wait another year. Shit.
Knowing what I was in for, I knew I would have to be well warmed up to have half a chance; one of the many reasons I love having a board at home. I slowly started the process, going through my list of warm up problems: Juggy Circuit, Undercut, Left-hand Yellows, Left-hand Yellow Mirror, Moon Pinch. Eventually, as the mists of the work day started to part, I started to feel the psyche arrive. That bubble in the gut. That burning. I dived in the car and turned on the tunes.
Get it while it's hot! (https://vimeo.com/179810782) from Gareth Marshall (https://vimeo.com/user6155988) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Good effort. My DWS project has remained untried since 2008!
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Cheers Chris. It's nice when things come together.
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Ticked Off (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2016/12/ticked-off.html)
13 December 2016, 7:38 am
Another Soft Rock hiatus. It probably reflects where my climbing is these days: kind of aimless, wondering, opportunistic. This time last year I’d climbed my six year project and was floating on a cloud of egotism, well into a productive winter of bouldering . This year I feel like I’ve not even got going yet.
In a bid to change things, yesterday I had a great day out circuiting with Rich in Strathnairn; my first time out in that direction for a long time, and my first day out with Rich this season. Brin was pleasant enough and we managed a few problems between falling down holes and losing dogs, including the dubiously named Celebrity Leg Penis. Despite telling me he’s not had much form and not been training much, Rich still burnt me off on everything. It’s good to know your place. Farr was in much better nick with a cool breeze and, frankly, is a much nicer place to climb; far better and cleaner rock and fewer holes in the ground. If only there was more of it. As the light started to dip we raced up to Ruthven for a nightcap.
Throughout the day, between falling off and throwing tennis balls for dogs, the conversation regularly turned to the increasingly evident impact of boulderers in bouldering areas and in particular the mortal sin of not brushing off tick marks. It’s a funny old thing, and certainly something that seems to be increasing in frequency, both at the crags near me and everywhere else, and documented with righteous indignation in the brilliant Hall of Shame (http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,1942.1150.html) thread on UKB.
Fair enough, you might feel the need for a line of chalk pointing to where a cryptically camouflaged or hidden hold is, but not everyone does, and not everyone will use your sequence so might not even use that hold. If it’s an obvious hold, what do you need a tick mark for? And is a line 3 inches long really necessary? After considering all that, if you still need a tick mark, just brush it off when you leave. It's not hard and we all carry a plethora of expensive brushes with us these days.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sQFba-4xOrE/WE-jVi7FMLI/AAAAAAAAB8Q/2vFLwxvkTD4Mgbrxg2wAaT6ubiGXWqgNACLcB/s1600/IMG_5061.JPG) (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sQFba-4xOrE/WE-jVi7FMLI/AAAAAAAAB8Q/2vFLwxvkTD4Mgbrxg2wAaT6ubiGXWqgNACLcB/s1600/IMG_5061.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Brin: Remind me, where are those holds? (Photo: Rich Betts)[/td][/tr]
[/table]It’s hard to know exactly why it irks me so much, but I think it shows a massive lack of respect for whoever comes to the boulder after you, an assumption that they’re happy to climb in your mess and embodies a wider selfish attitude where the boulders and places we all love are just there to be consumed: leave your mark, move on to the next, repeat. Is it a symptom of more climbers graduating from walls, swinging between brightly coloured blobs, into the real world where you need a bit more skill and experience to spot holds? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean you can’t brush them off afterwards.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hIcL5og-G4k/WE7YLL2A9hI/AAAAAAAAB8A/9sJQypAROi8cHkt8M2pzNJiuzZzWBxkEACLcB/s640/20160825_132725.jpg) (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hIcL5og-G4k/WE7YLL2A9hI/AAAAAAAAB8A/9sJQypAROi8cHkt8M2pzNJiuzZzWBxkEACLcB/s1600/20160825_132725.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Ruthven: What is this even pointing to? (Photo: Murdoch Jamieson)[/td][/tr]
[/table]It’s something I know Rich wrestles with. Having co-authored a guide to one of the best but least-frequented bouldering areas in Britain, is he basically opening the door for the hordes to come and trash it? I guess it’s inevitable that the more people that come to an area, the greater the impact they’ll have, but by acting responsibly there’s really no reason why those impacts need to be significant and to impact on other’s future enjoyment.
[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VMUehZzxbvU/WE-jWDl7ZhI/AAAAAAAAB8U/avDLJ2J4R-ww4EmYY6NIYbE8LGX9NkaZwCLcB/s400/IMG_4162.JPG) (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VMUehZzxbvU/WE-jWDl7ZhI/AAAAAAAAB8U/avDLJ2J4R-ww4EmYY6NIYbE8LGX9NkaZwCLcB/s1600/IMG_4162.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Torridon: That's a starting hold you can reach from the ground.(Photo: Rich Betts)[/td][/tr]
[/table]Last weekend I had 3 days in the Peak, at Stanage, the Roaches, Cratcliffe and Robin Hood’s Stride, and was appalled at the state that some people leave some of these boulders in – massive tick marks pointing to obvious holds that aren’t brushed off, excessive loose grains of chalk plastered on every conceivable hold (including the ones you really don’t need), yellow chalk stains everywhere and, inevitably, the signs of broken holds and erosion that come from climbing on wet rock. If you then include the soil erosion under the landings and around the footpaths you’ve got to accept that a sport that’s been in existence for less than 40 years is starting to trash places that have been around for millennia. Forget the annual furore about crampon scratches on a distant mountain crag, where's the anger about the state of our boulders?
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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I'd forgotten about that arrow in Torridon until I dug out the photo recently :no:
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Retrospective (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2016/12/retrospective.html)
24 December 2016, 4:48 pm
The annual retrospective blog post: what have the 2016 pebble-wrestling highlights been?
This year in particular the haul feels pretty insignificant - lots of bouldering, a bit of sport, very little trad. It's strange that despite really loving bouldering, in my own scoring system I still attribute more personal value to climbing routes, and more for trad than for sport. I mean, it's not about one being better than the other, I love them all, but when I look back on the memries, I do feel like I still get more reward from a good trad fight than a sport redpoint or a worked boulder. I can't really put numbers on it - is an onsighted E3 more valuable to me than a redpointed 7b? Probably. So, because of this weird skew in my head, it feels like I've not really had a good year, when in reality I've done a load of really good things. Here's a single highlight from each month:
January: Clach Mheallan 7A, Reiff in the Woods
An unexpected start to the year. I'd looked at the obvious steep arete a couple of times before but the low start always seemed impossible. The necessary change was Ian being there to give me the beta, so basically, I cheated. Regardless, a top tick from one of my favourite bouldering venues.
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5709/23762329479_b8a183901b_n.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/23762329479/in/photolist-NvSqpW-N7DjYo-otgheD-qcpAC7-doaYx5-7FsxY7-r9gqqr-7wTVth-nh4khN-DF6xbb-8jYPxm-8jYPxs-dUsjrP-8jYPx7-7SRf6z-7wTVgb-8jYPwL-CHZn7s-E5khF8-E5ktkp-CAJVqU-CcN9FR-r2uuTx)
February: Changed Days 7B, Kishorn
Chronicled here (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/inside-bubble.html). I'd actually gone to Kishorn to try The Universal but I never even got to it as this little number sucked me in. It eventually took three sessions plus an aborted attempt when the road was blocked with snow. Totally worth it.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-midiaFaAnsU/VpvFYZGVrJI/AAAAAAAAB6s/lz0SZ1b_ixkeU9bIR_vvx0GgD9NgYXYtwCPcB/s400/Changed+Days.png) (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-midiaFaAnsU/VpvFYZGVrJI/AAAAAAAAB6s/lz0SZ1b_ixkeU9bIR_vvx0GgD9NgYXYtwCPcB/s1600/Changed+Days.png)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Changed Days[/td][/tr]
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March: The Tippler, E1 5b, Stanage
I backed off this at about 8am one cold misty morning in March 2012, the last time I was at Stanage. So, on this trip it was imperative that I didn't get shut down again on a mere E1. If I'm honest, it was still pretty touch and go but I somehow clawed my way to the top. It was my first trad route of the year and I was confident that it heralded the start of a long spring and summer of battling, but of course, life intervened.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8bews2u9BfI/VvG8flYm7oI/AAAAAAAAB7E/gIFqEQgtgu0T-gB6wJWO4YF3gjdLahZxQCPcB/s400/IMG-20160319-WA0008.jpg) (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8bews2u9BfI/VvG8flYm7oI/AAAAAAAAB7E/gIFqEQgtgu0T-gB6wJWO4YF3gjdLahZxQCPcB/s1600/IMG-20160319-WA0008.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Getting horrifically pumped but somehow only 5 metres off the deck. Photo: Phil Applegate[/td][/tr]
[/table]April: Little Minx, 7b, Zed Buttress, Brin
April is always a tricky month for climbing. It's the peak period of capercaillie breeding so I go semi-feral and spend most of my time out in the forest counting them at their leks. Doing Little Minx doesn't feature in the list due to it's quality (it's good fun but fairly forgettable) but because it was a triumph of localism - a couple of quick sessions at Inverness' nearest sport crag, squeezed in between nights spent sleeping in cramped hides. Enough to keep the rat fed.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/391/19887954722_1ed5773b83_n.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/52986281@N08/19887954722/in/photolist-wiqY45-xDnFRA/)
May: Town Without Pity, E2 5c, Ardmair
Going on pure numbers, in May I had one of my most unexpected successes when I somehow squeezed my way up Rich's The Scientist boulder problem at Brin, but going on that skewed value system I seem to have the fight I had when I did Town Without Pity at Ardmair definitely comes out as a more worthy victory in my memory. Strange, eh? To be fair, it is bloody brilliant.
June: Throw Lichen to the Wind, E2 5c, Ashie Fort
Another nod to localism and probably the most esoteric route on this list. I'd never trad climbed on conglomerate before so was a little un-nerved by the whole process, but the rock was solid and clean(ish), the crag was sunny and the route was pumpy and safe. And then we drove to Dores Inn for ice cream by Loch Ness.
July: Over the Hills and Farr Away, 7a+, The Camel
I think this only qualifies as it's the only route I did in July that I'd not done before. Not the best route at the crag, but to be fair it does pack a punch. It was a typical July climbing day: overcast, mild, midgy and showery, trapped in that dark gully, belaying in midge nets and duvet jackets. One of those days when getting anything done is a victory in itself.
August: Pink Wall, 7b, Brin
If you'd asked me on the 1st of January what routes I wanted to climb this year, Brin's Pink Wall would have been one of the first on the list. There aren't many three star 7bs in this part of the world, but this is definitely one of them. This probably marked a high period of my climbing year, as two days later I managed my Conon DWS project (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/get-it-while-its-hot.html). Within the week I was off sick with a viral infection.
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/7/6135/6004782695_8da54a3608_n.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/6004782695/in/photolist-8iPEE7-bX9sCY-a9C5G8)
September: Scorchio, 7a, Am Fasgadh
The weird viral infection hung around for a few weeks, affecting my balance and making me knackered, so September was a bit of a low point, but I did manage a fun day out with Tess to Am Fasgadh. The three routes on the right side of the crag are normally wet when I'm there so I'd never tried them but this time they were in and I managed to come away with all three - resorting to doing the best one, Scorchio, second go.
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/7/6218/6330833303_860f989285_n.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/6330833303/in/photolist-aDrbbk-boeUCL-boeUUQ-aCZjiQ/)
October: South Groove, E1 5c, Trewavas Head,
I'd not placed a wire since July, but a family holiday for my Mum's 60th in Cornwall offered the opportunity to blackmail a belay from Sarah ("we can't come all this way..."). Trewavas Head fitted the bill for a non-tidal crag within a short drive of our accommodation, and it was a beautiful spot ticking all the Cornish cliches: golden granite, turquoise sea, wind-clipped heathland, an old tin mine and chattering choughs overhead. I only did a couple of routes, of which South Groove was the more memorable due to it's non-hold granitey weirdness crux, but both were well worth the trad faff, reaffirming my trad> sport> bouldering value system.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8407/30352865136_282b868e9e.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/100362744@N02/30352865136/in/dateposted-public/)
November: Teasel, 6B+, Bus Boulder
When Ian gifted me the Bus Boulder (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/spring-2016.html) for development back in the Spring I had concentrated on looking for a way up a steep wall and hadn't paid much attention to it's vague left arete. But then one day, with a slightly tweaked perspective, I spotted that there was a line to be done but that the top needed a serious clean. I eventually got round to getting on a rope on a horrible wet day and did my best to clean it up but then didn't go back for a few weeks. Eventually I got there in the middle of a really good spell of cold high pressure, when the trees were white with rime, the rocks by the river were shiny with verglass and Ben Wyvis resembled a giant meringue. I'd originally envisaged a sit start, but that seems pretty futuristic for now. However the stand is a cracker. The day before, Teasel the family's 16 year old Jack Russell terrier was put down, so the name seemed like a fitting memorial.
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5349/31086897575_6fc1ae0b93_n.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/100362744@N02/31086897575/in/dateposted-public/)
December: DIY, 6B, Stanage
Similar to March's top tick, on that trip to Stanage in 2012 I tried and failed on a lovely highball called DIY, so it was on top of the to-do list for another quick trip in early December. It's possibly the definition of my perfect climb: just off-vertical, high enough to be exciting, short enough to be safe above pads.
So, all in all not too bad a year. Here's hoping that 2017 brings more, and hopefully a bit more trad. But there's a winter of bouldering still to come...
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Good write up Gaz. Bus boulder looks good will need to get details if passing
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Ticklist (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2017/03/ticklist.html)
12 March 2017, 9:00 pm
Back in January, Sarah and I took ourselves off to New Zealand's South Island for a 13 month overdue honeymoon. It was never going to be a climbing trip, but we'd budgeted a couple of days of our hard-won annual leave at the famed limestone boulders of Castle Hill. However, fate, or more accurately Qantas Airlines, conspired to scupper those plans and we were delayed in the transit hell-hole that is Dubai for two days. While sitting in a strange hotel ballroom with 300 other stranded passengers waiting for news of our flight we started re-working our holiday plans and it was natural that the two days at Castle Hill got the boot. Sarah doesn't climb and two days was never going to be enough to feed my rat. Bye bye boulders.
Faced with three weeks of holiday with no climbing, as we travelled and played our way around the beautiful South Island I couldn't help but think about the winter rock season slipping by at home - all those projects, all those days of perfect friction, all those Torridon sunsets with the sun slipping behind a snowy Beinn Damph. Fortunately, sporadic checks of the MetOffice app reassured me that the weather at home was crap and I wasn't missing anything. This was verified by the lack of uploads on the Highland scene's Flickr pages - no FOMO. But with three weeks of no climbing I knew if I was to get anything from the shortened season I'd need a plan of action on my return: some serious time spent on the board and a ticklist of routes and problems to aim for.
I've now been back from New Zealand for seven weeks. To begin with the board was mean. The warm ups were hard, the classics were projects. But by sticking at it I started to feel better and get back to being able to do last winter's classics and then I started to feel even better and even some of last winter's projects started to go.
The ticklist is still with me. Some of the things on it I've not tried, some of them I have but are still incomplete, but there are a few that I've managed to see off. The last couple of weeks have been particularly good, with my three 'list' succeses all going down in that time.
The first to fall was an arbitrary local's link-up at the Scatwell boulder. It's a version of Fly Tip Lip, the right to left lip traverse which I managed in March 2016, but for some inexplicable reason I couldn't repeat the last long move when I tried it this autumn. So instead I started trying to drop down off the lip into the last moves of Alcove Left Hand, turning it into a bit of an endurance issue and opening my eyes to the possibilities for other link-ups for the myopic local. I've no idea what grade it would be. Font 7A+? It took much longer to do than I thought it would, about 4 after-work lamp sessions before we went away, dropping the last big move back up to the lip about 10 times in a row before managing it on the first session there in 2017. In the end it was a relief to see off.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2874/33240896155_6b6e954f8e.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/100362744@N02/33240896155/in/dateposted-public/)
Next came a rare success at Am Fasgadh. I've not been there much this winter, but the project du-jour was Pillar-Up, which links the start of The Pillar into the top of Warm Up at around 7b+. The Pillar section has really intricate climbing; about 15 hand moves for about 5 metres of height gained before joining Warm Up and having to keep it together for it's heartbreaking clip at the lower-off. I didn't really expect to do it that day, I was just going to be a fun day out climbing, but I managed a few beta tweaks and refined a clip that seemed to make the difference and before I knew I was at the chain. The only problem is that now the next obvious route to try there is going to be one of the hard ones.
Two days later I was in Torridon, geared up and dry-mouthed underneath Ian Taylor's Super Pittance, a pokey little trad route that climbs the steep wall above his original boulder problem in the pit at the Jumble. I belayed and seconded Ian on the first ascent of this last winter, catching him when a hold broke on an initial direct finish attempt. He reckoned it would probably come in around E6 for the onsight. Knowing that it was pumpy but safe (Ian's gear held!) and feeling a tiny amount of ownership in the first ascent process, it seemed like a good choice to have as my first headpoint project in years.
I was pleasantly surprised how quickly it all came together. A few weeks ago I had two days bouldering in the Glen in quick succession and halfway through the second day my skin was in tatters. It seemed like a logical time to stop bouldering and to inspect the route so I abbed it to check the gear. A couple of weeks later I went back again with the shunt and worked out the moves. Then along came this weekend. I managed to blag a belay off Lawrence Hughes who was projecting on the other side of the Glen. He came over to the Jumble after his session so I'd had plenty of time to re-familiarise myself with the gear and the sequence. Few people are as positive as Lawrence and with him holding my rope I didn't even question whether I was ready - he was psyched and so was I. All went roughly to plan, including the pumpy downclimb to the rest that you can't rehearse on a shunt, although I did manage to punter a cam placement and drop it.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/687/33010096730_c7eecb0775.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/100362744@N02/33010096730/in/dateposted-public/)
The remaining projects on the ticklist are all sandstone boulder problems so will require good cold conditions if I'm to stand a chance. Lets see what the weather brings...
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m8ex21dYVjo/WMWzY-ax2OI/AAAAAAAAB84/bAo4foJglo8qLRuhj-Tb0MLaCo8fdhh-ACLcB/s400/IMG_2457.JPG) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m8ex21dYVjo/WMWzY-ax2OI/AAAAAAAAB84/bAo4foJglo8qLRuhj-Tb0MLaCo8fdhh-ACLcB/s1600/IMG_2457.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Topping out into the sunshine on Super Pittance (Photo: Lawrence Hughes)[/td][/tr]
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Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Seismic Shift (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2017/04/seismic-shift.html)
28 April 2017, 1:36 pm
This is the fifth day in a row that I've been stuck at home feeling sorry for myself. It's that time of year, the capercaillie lek time when I'm supposed to turn semi-feral and sleep out in the woods night after night to be up early to count the birds strutting their stuff. But instead, part way through proceedings my Judas body has turned on me and crashed and I've been jibbering at home with a virus instead, marshalling the survey team via texts from my bed.
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m8h9jg-M_Dk/WQMv3p4JIDI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/ILMoojHtvWAyaFAJGcFDIiq11EbQWzUUACLcB/s400/WP_20170416_21_00_56_Pro.jpg) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m8h9jg-M_Dk/WQMv3p4JIDI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/ILMoojHtvWAyaFAJGcFDIiq11EbQWzUUACLcB/s1600/WP_20170416_21_00_56_Pro.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Mr Caper at twilight, photo through binoculars.[/td][/tr]
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I've attempted to start writing this blog a few times while killing time but keep packing up because there's not been a whole lot to report lately. Work, work, family visits, a wedding, work and more work. Except, I guess, for the seismic-shifting news that Sarah and I are expecting a baby later this year.
But what about my already stuttering and minimal attempts to be a climber, which is what this blog is supposed to be about? What indeed. I already seem to have very little time to get out, and now with the imminent arrival of a bundle of laughs and vomit time will be even tighter. I'm doomed!
I'm seeing it as a two fold opportunity: In the short term before the yoof arrives I've got a clear deadline by which I want to try to achieve a couple of long held ambitions. In the long term, when we're in the midst of nappies, sleep deprivation, toddling and teething I reckon I'll have to be pretty organised and disciplined to keep getting sessions in on the board and to make hay when the rare opportunities to get out present themselves, so I expect I'll become very project-orientated (which I kind-of am already). Although trad headpoints are a bit of a cop-out, for the time-starved I can imagine that they might feed my rat admirably.
As ever with these things, I'm a bit nervous about setting my ambitions out in a public space like a blog, because then if I fail it's for all to see. But conversely, it should act as a driver - I've said these things, now I need to do them. With a due date of 30th September, I've got 5 months.
Short term ambition number 1: redpoint 7c.
I've done a handful of 7b+s around these parts but never once tried a 7c, so it's a logical step. It's always seemed like a magic and unattainable grade, but I'm realising that I'm really bad for putting restrictions on myself like that and never just having a go.
Choosing the right route will be the initial issue, as it'll need to be somewhere other's are regularly going otherwise I'll never get a catch. I don't imagine this will be a one session project. Potential contenders would be Prow Lefthand at Goat Crag, the north's most famous at the grade and at one of the most popular and reliable crags. Then there's Primo at Am Fasgadh, which I've done the first part of as Curving Crack, but Am Fasgadh isn't generally a summer venue. More locally, Brin It On at Brin would be available for after work evening sessions, or maybe something at Zed Buttress perhaps. Or what about Loch Maree's Super Crag? Thinking outside the box, something at Dunkeld might be an idea, but it's a fair trek to have a project. I'm also on a family holiday to Yorkshire for a week in July, any soft touches at Kilnsey?
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8249/8612114405_8c66a0bef9.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/8612114405/in/photolist-e82kz8-84WzGm-e2X6oZ-dr8ssh-dr8rWw-atDEAJ-doaQ3F-6fiYcp-bMWdHD-bSNhsT-aFNzBK-bMWdtX-bB9PFe-atDEAS-dmEkah-aCVqS4-bz2xub-gkv6uG-aFNznp-bSNh9K-aFNyVc-atDEB5-a3j5w1-8U8Emu-6fiYoP-8roVmo-bFvz26-7ogKBw-8U8E7h-bMWdC8-bFyYtg-Fs1HeF-bFvzJH-bSNh4F-bsAGCy-boeUrG-6fo9LA-aFNyuz-4tZ7fh-aFNAyM-bFvzsc-bEEQoZ-bsAKif-5uC7SJ-bFvBBz-8roVPW-bsAKy5-bFvyWp-84UwF5-bDTzj7)
Short term ambition number 2: Onsight E5.
This is the one I'm far more nervous of. I've only done a handful of E4s and still not that many E3s really, and in recent years my trad climbing has stuttered to stagnation with just a few routes done each year. With trad, confidence is key and confidence comes with mileage, and trad mileage just comes with lots and lots of time at the crag. In general, that's not something I have a huge amount of. But hell, if not now, when? I've got a 10 day trip booked with Nick C at the end of May in which I'll hopefully make a good start to clocking up the mileage, and then hopefully I'll be able to keep plugging away with days here and there over the summer.
It's much harder to be specific about what routes I want to do as I think it will really depend on where the sun ends up shining. If pressed, in the north I'd say I probably have more chance on something long and gneissy rather than short and sandstoney, but I'll take each route as it comes, and build up a base of fitness and familiarity with the trad faff.
Any advice or route recommendations?
Above all, I'll have to try to remind myself that it's all just a bit of fun in the end, and if I don't achieve these things it's not the end of the world. By having a go I should get to some cool places and climb some good routes along the way.
Just thinking, there are 3-star E5s and 7cs at both of these crags, they seem like good places to start...
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8003/29391638356_e94e5c3d23.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/29391638356/in/photolist-oCZoZr-GGfDn3-FbFZQU-G79d5K-AyLdRa-6tGtN3-HqiKwo-zEdkGW-G1hDSx-AxkvkE-zBD4YM-rLNB2M-G4oQYd-G4u9Ke-G4usNP-GVV9uC-GyLSGS-G4uiKZ-Mm5uj1-LMeQ6s)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4044/4639096264_e04f75e11c.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/4639096264/in/photolist-84WzGm-e2X6oZ-dr8ssh-dr8rWw-atDEAJ-doaQ3F-6fiYcp-bMWdHD-bSNhsT-aFNzBK-bMWdtX-bB9PFe-atDEAS-dmEkah-aCVqS4-bz2xub-gkv6uG-aFNznp-bSNh9K-aFNyVc-atDEB5-a3j5w1-8U8Emu-6fiYoP-8roVmo-bFvz26-7ogKBw-8U8E7h-bMWdC8-bFyYtg-Fs1HeF-bFvzJH-bSNh4F-bsAGCy-boeUrG-6fo9LA-aFNyuz-4tZ7fh-aFNAyM-bFvzsc-bEEQoZ-bsAKif-5uC7SJ-bFvBBz-8roVPW-bsAKy5-bFvyWp-84UwF5-bDTzj7-atDEB3)
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Any advice or route recommendations?
My advice: If you don't have some specific routes in mind that really fire you up that you just would love to do.....don't bother trying to push the number. Follow your desires!
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Cheers Fiend, wise words. Well, Prow LH at Goat definitely fits into the dream route category so I think I'll have to have a dabble there.
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That was for the trad btw ;) For sport have you considered The Camel too? The conglomerate could be quite fun to redpoint on.
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Congrats as well Gav! Going to be a wild ride.
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'Holiday' (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2017/06/holiday.html)
5 June 2017, 8:56 pm
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4269/34587463440_73cfb2844b.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/34587463440/in/contacts/)Batman and Robin at Goat (Photo:Ian Taylor)
A few things haven't gone quite as planned lately. Firstly, I wasn't supposed to be ill during the peak busy survey season - languishing at home watching Netflix while others did the work I'm supposed to specialise in. Then secondly, at the end of May I was supposed to be away on a climbing trip with Nick. That's right. Me. Away. The first multi-day trip exclusively dedicated to climbing since 2014. But a week before the off poor old Nick fractured his ankle while out running. So that was that.
I sent out a rumble on the jungle drums to see if I could find a Carter replacement, but the best I could muster was stringing together several partners up here, so I did that instead. On the plus side, it meant that I could keep a few days of leave to utilise if there's good weather later in the summer. Despite not being away, it felt so nice to have multiple days climbing in a row, something that life just doesn't seem to afford these days. Here's a tedious blow by blow account:
Day 1: Creag nan Cadhag with Murdo
Summertime sport (until the sun comes round at 4pm). Drip, drip, drip, one of the original 7as who's name says it all, was dry so I had to cash in. Murdo described it as like an esoteric ice route that rarely forms, so when it's in condition you have to do it. I very nearly didn't as the crux pulling onto the slab was a reminder that I've not pulled on small holds for a while, but it eventually gave in. A class route. Next up was The Greek Exit, a 7a that breaks out of Axe Grinder, the original 7a+. By then I might have been tired, but it felt as hard as it's parent route did when I did it last October. 3rd redpoint, last go of the day. Got it by a ball hair, as the locals say.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4163/34722613785_1f67bca718.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/100362744@N02/34722613785/in/dateposted-public/)Murdo and Frankie jus chillin'.Day 2: Work
Day 3: Seanna Mheallan with Tess
Despite really loving Torridon and bouldering on the redstone I don't have a good track record with routes there. Today was no exception, falling off a route I backed off about 5 years previously (Mark of a Skyver, E2 5c). Not great for the confidence, and a clear sign that crag classic The Torridonian will have to wait. Tess did a couple of good routes (Crack of Ages and Edge of Enlightenment) and as I topped out on a pleasant E1 Left in the Lurch the threatening heavens opened and she had to follow in full waterproofs. Game over.
Day 4: Heavy rain. No dice.
Day 5: Ashie Fort and Duntelchaig with Murdo
I'm still not sure how I persuaded Tain's best all rounder to visit Inverness' premier conglomerate trad crag, but there we were. Ruby Tuesday E2 5b was a nice start, but clearly not enough of a warm up as shortly afterwards I was slumped on a cam on Brain Damage E3 6a. I guess 10 metre E3s that have 5 metres of VS at the start are bound to have hard moves. Deep down I knew I was lacking the trad grit required for such endeavors. Then we went over to Duntelchaig so I could pay Murdo back for his patience. He had his eyes on Bett's Transvision Clamp. It was given E6 6b by a presumably on-form Rich after headpointing, so full marks to Murdo for trying it on-sight. Murdo's not exactly shit these days (he'll love this), but after a valiant effort he realised it was hard, techy and involving fiddly small gear. In the end he decided that he'd need to come back and have a try on a rope. A day of unfinished business for both of us.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4201/34672805021_0ecda52e42.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/52986281@N08/34672805021/in/dateposted/)Me about to get flamed on Brain Damage. (Photo: Murdo Jamieson)
[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-78nD1Xu0jA8/WTWwOWGJ2TI/AAAAAAAAB9o/JVuZcZrOuDs1DiHbSDmqzsjGuvS7E29WQCLcB/s320/DSC01399.JPG) (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-78nD1Xu0jA8/WTWwOWGJ2TI/AAAAAAAAB9o/JVuZcZrOuDs1DiHbSDmqzsjGuvS7E29WQCLcB/s1600/DSC01399.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Murdo opening the account on Transvision Clamp, E6 6b (at least).[/td][/tr]
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Day 6: The Camel with Murdo
My excuse is that I was tired from the previous day's spanking on a 10 metre route, but this turned into the low point of the 'trip'. Stone of Destiny was no warm up, Inverarnie Schwarzenegger was ny on impossible. The less said the better. Manwhile, Murdo climbed a life's ticklist of routes in a few hours. Dick.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dmG__x-4qzY/WTWws9fBURI/AAAAAAAAB9s/ZMKpNjtNM7IGV1Y5KuAioeQQ3Y-889oeACLcB/s320/DSC01400.JPG) (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dmG__x-4qzY/WTWws9fBURI/AAAAAAAAB9s/ZMKpNjtNM7IGV1Y5KuAioeQQ3Y-889oeACLcB/s1600/DSC01400.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Murdo and Ubunto 8a at the Camel[/td][/tr]
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Day 7: Work
Day 8: Work
Day 9: Secret Sport Crag with Ian
The heatwave struck and we had 2 options: Secret Sport Crag or the mountains. We plumped for the latter, one of the latest offerings from the beady eye of Andy Wilby and perhaps my favourite so far. I'm not sure how top secret it is, so I'll not witter on too much, but the routes I did were ace, and there's plenty to return for.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4271/34081706933_81a45436d2.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/34081706933/in/dateposted/)Me on Scatman Crothers 6c+/7a (Photo: Ian Taylor)
Day 10: Shelterstone with Mhairi
Day 2 of the heatwave, so we headed into the hills for Mhairi's first mountain route. It was so lovely to be back in the Cairngorms, over the back and dropping into the Avon basin, a reminder of the days I used to spend over there when I lived in Aviemore. Super classic E2 Steeple had somehow been missing from my C.V. so we plumped for that, relishing 7 pitches from basin to plateau on a gorgeous blue sky day. Mhairi acquitted herself brilliantly, as expected, and not a bad introduction to climbing in the hills. The only problem is that it doesn't get much better than that, so she might aswell give up and become a boulderer now.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4220/34757790832_59e3da468e.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/100362744@N02/34757790832/in/dateposted-public/)Ashie Fort, or some other crag. They're all the same.
Day 11: rest, eat cake, paint the nursery.
Day 12: Goat Crag with Tess
It was a funny old forecast, supposed to be chilly with showers so we thought about AmFasgadh, but it was actually pretty warm so we went uphill to Goat. After another failure to warm up on a 6c+ and minor toy throwing out of pram session I decided to open an account on Batman and Robin, a route I'd wanted to try for ages (and one of the few dry routes that day). After a working go I managed to power-out twice in a row with just one move to go. Then the arms gave up. More unfinished business.
Day 13, The Last Day: Goat Crag with Mhairi
Predictably, I managed to persuade Mhairi that she wanted to go to Goat (which, to be fair, she did). After warming up on the actual warm up (rather than the local's warm up), Batman and Robin went down first go after putting the clips in. Phew, first 7b for a while. Or is it 7a+? Regardless, another gratuitous tick and just in time to massage my ego through the dark days back at the office.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CNnnML-W9to/WTWw_6qTEtI/AAAAAAAAB9w/9s072cQeRx8b13cempSuITiJJQws1Pc5ACLcB/s320/DSC01434.JPG) (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CNnnML-W9to/WTWw_6qTEtI/AAAAAAAAB9w/9s072cQeRx8b13cempSuITiJJQws1Pc5ACLcB/s1600/DSC01434.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Ian on his way to smashing The Prow Direct, 7c+, at Goat[/td][/tr]
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Thanks to all the folks I climbed with. Perhaps next trip I go on I'll actually leave the house.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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Primo (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2017/07/primo.html)
17 July 2017, 7:46 pm
The bracken was over head height in places. A flourecent ocean of summer dampness choking the path, fibrous fronds a haven to the legions of midges, just waiting for their chance to unleash hell. No-one's been to this crag for a while then. Really, Am Fasgadh is a venue for the short cold days, best approached over browned bracken skeletons, not through the living green mass in late June. It's short tests best attempted in winter-dry friction, not in summer smooge. But here we were. 12 degrees, breezy, showery. Where else was going to offer a day of guaranteed dry climbing? The clip-stick came into it's own as a bracken basher, and between that and a bouldering mat dragged about like a tractor-mounted topper we got the worst of it down, freeing the starting footholds from their submersion.
Now we're here, where to begin?
In the bright optimism of Spring I foolishly sprayed a couple of goals I wanted to achieve before becoming a dad. One was to onsight E5, which, in the reality of a full-time-working-midgy-drizzly-not-very-traddy-Highland-summer, I'm reneging on. Just not enough mileage in the head. The other was to redpoint a 7c sport route, a grade that I'd not climbed before. This latter goal felt much more realistic, involving far more factors that I could control. I had a handful of routes that would potentially fit the bill and one that I thought I might have a pretty good chance at was Am Fasgadh's Primo. The first 5 bolts of Primo on their own are a fierce little 7b+ known as Curving Crack (AKA C.C. for the rest of this blog). Where perma-dry C.C. slopes off right to an intermediate lower-off Primo keeps going for another 6 bolts through the quartz roof umbrella to the top of the crag. After around 4 seasons of attempts I eventually did C.C. in 2014, boring it into submission.
So that's where I started. Trying to re-aquaint myself with old friends on C.C. - evil old friends I had spent years battling: the quartz 'jug', the crozzly pinch, the stab into the crack, the delicate cross into the finger-lock. They were as stubborn as before, but at least I knew what to do and that would hopefully just be a matter of persistence to bring them together.
Then there was the top section. I'd never tried it before but had belayed a couple of folk on it a time or two and had a memory of hearing that it was easier than the lower section. The first time up that felt like a big fat lie to me. There was a grim move pulling through a roof on a horizontal hand jam that as soon as you moved up and the hand was level with your foot bit savagely into my wrist, spitting me off in squeaks of pain. Then the next move seemed like a huge span from a small undercut to an awkward diagonal hold. I went home with my tail between my legs - happy to have at least opened an account on a pre-baby goal, but knowing there was work to do.
A week passed. The board took a hammering and I even dusted off the running shoes. Surely summer would return and Am Fasgadh would be back off-limits? But along came the weekend and it was 12 degrees, showery and breezy again. Back to it.
The C.C. links started to grow that day: ground to quartz jug, off, quartz jug to the crack. Tess' beta got me from C.C. into the quartz roof but then the horror-jam wasn't working so I was stuck. I eventually unstuck this by a complete fluke, squeezing a toe under the roof to take weight off the jam and turn it into an undercut. It was so satisfying, turning a stopper into a fairly do-able move. But then there was the span. It was infuriating. Tess, who is shorter than me, pissed the move that day so I really shouldn't have been having a problem. Clearly I was doing something silly with my feet. I made some headway, but didn't feel secure. After that section I was pretty sure I could hold the rest together to the chain.
Suddenly success distilled down to three things: repeating a short 7b+ that I had managed three years ago, getting enough rest below the roof and sorting my feet to get high enough for the 'stretch'. Oh, and getting a notoriously midgy, sheltered, south-facing crag in good condition in early July.
Another week passed. Routes at the wall on Monday, circuits on Tuesday, boulder problems on Wednesday. Friday I was off work, but their wasn't much wind forecast. A potential midge-fest. But then it was looking showery so no-where else was guaranteed to be dry. Mhairi wanted a re-match on C.C.so I had a keen partner. Sod it, let's gamble.
The gentlest breeze tickled the green bracken sea. The rattling leaves on the aspen tree above the crag - the Am Fasgadh weathervane - gave a slight tremble. The midges sat tight. I clawed my way through Curving Crack to the semi-rest, to the roof, shook out and shook out and shook out, and then: jam, step, toe, undercut, undercut, step, step, reach... Either I crept past as the Am Fasgadh gods were sleeping or they just got bored of me, but either way, I'm now one step closer to being ready for parenthood.
Source: Soft Rock (http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/)
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This is such a top quality blog :yes: :2thumbsup: Thanks
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Thanks Dave!
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Assume blog compiler is still kaputt?
Here's my latest spewing.
http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/adaptation.html
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Good words Gaz. PS your 7B is actually 6C+ I flashed it (you are weak and sequence is bogus).
Only kidding, no idea where any of it is.
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I know blogging is sooo 2005, but I still enjoy the writing. Another punter update from north of the wall:
http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/gold-dance.html
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Gaz, i finally got back and did Gale Force at the weekend. Kudos for putting it up. Belter of a line!
Looks like a decent link up could be possible from the base of summer breeze into the finish of Gale and the obvious "hard/impossible" project is direct up the face left of Gale. Don't know when i'll ever find the time or the skin though....!
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Gale Force is Gaz's?? I thought the SS was someone else tho?
It is world class :)
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Fiend's right, neither the stand or sit we're first done by me. As far as i know, Mike Gale from Aviemore did the stand (hence the name). Back in the early-mid noughties there were a few strong quiet types like Mike in the area doing local stuff and not really documenting it.
I got interested in the potential there and did most of the other 'filler' problems and wrote them up and retro-named Gale Force.Then when giving Blair Fyffe the tour he pipped me to the sit start.
There are a few gaps to fill and I've been meaning to go back and try them for years, but we moved away so it's harder to get to now. Get on them!
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Cheers for the info, I enjoy a bit of Scottish bouldering folklore! :thumbsup:
Great set of problems up there and the walk in isn't too bad either.
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The latest tale of Highland choss chasing: http://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-year-ticks-by-and-im-still-chipping.html?m=1
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That wall looks great, good work Gaz. If you are ever out this way I've plenty of esoterica to share..
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Nice one. Agreed about that wall. And the prow looks classy too. How midgie are they atm? It looks quite vegematated.
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Cheers both. Yeah, the wall is good and the prow could be mega, if only there weren't jugs all the way up it. I fear that the midge will be starting to emerge now. I was last there a couple of weeks ago and didn't see any midge, but since then I think the dreaded M-Day has passed and the little shits are starting to appear. I had my first midge misery on Saturday developing more choss nearby. The Rogie stuff is all in the woods and is roughly east facing, so you'd probably need a stiff breeze/gale to guarantee a midge-free ascent before October.
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Ouch. I was out camping on Deeside on Saturday night, and can confirm they were out then too. Not brutal, but enough to be an annoyance.
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Gaz, any beta for the Strathy @ Laggan 2?
Is it essentially a one mover? I could reach a number of crimp options from the deck but didnt have time to really try it in the fading light. There are very good holds in the crack at chest height to the left of the higher thin holds.
Any info appreciated.
Marble prow was good! :thumbsup:
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Not written a blog in a long while but I enjoyed doing this one. Can esoterica get more esoteric?
https://gaz-softrock.blogspot.com/2018/12/if-not-now-story-about-completing.html
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Good effort, that looks very respectable indeed. Richie should buy you a whisky.
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Good effort and good writing Gaz. Shame it's so remote, looks like a lovely bit of rock. Crowdfund a chinook to relocate it?
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Thanks chaps. I had a fun time up there. I agree Chris, it really is the arse end of no-where. Ive thought about putting a topo together but really can't imagine anyone ever wanting to go so can't be added.