Trad Roundup

The Link Boulder, Cairngorm

Line of The Executioner E2 5b, Reiff

It's raining now, as it's July, so the summer monsoon has arrived right on time. So time for a brief (photo) roundup. May and June were roasting, the way it should be.. Trips to Reiff, Etive Slabs, Creag Dhu, Ben Nevis, Aonach Dubh, Lakes, Glen Nevis, The Cobbler, The Buachille and North Wales were all productive due to an abundance of sun, which we are paying for now..

Highlight Routes:

Inbred HVS 5a on Creag Dhu, wanted to do this route for years, quality.

The Excecutioner E2 5b at Reiff, and many more at this great wee out of the way place.

Swastika E2 6a Etive Slabs. Last of the Etive classics falls! Aid may have been used on last pitch..

Crack Attack E3 6a and Edgehog E3 5c(ish) at Wave Buttress. Good leads from Dougie.

Power of Endurance E5 6b, Cambusbarron. Top roped clean - now for a lead..

Yo Yo E1 5b, Aonach Dubh. Wet, classic, sustained climbing. Awesome. Hard E1.

Ressurection E4 6A, Dinas Cromlech. Belaying Irish John whilst he decided to lob off the top was interesting. What an awesome climb, clean on the second, should really lead this..

Diagonal HVS 5a, Dinas Mot. Great to lead all pitches on this hard rock tick, and topping out just as darkness fell after starting at 8pm.

Gladiators Groove Direct E1 5b, The Cobbler. Cobbler sketching at its best..

Torro E2 5c, Ben Nevis. On possibly the best possible day to do it on. Bone dry, immaculate rock, one of the best routes i've done.. Hard 5c crux though..
The Chasm VS, The Buachille. Classic day out, great adventure, very dry conditions but still got a little wet..
Aphasia E2 5b, Sergeant Slabs Crag. Awesome sustained slab climbing, with supper grippy rock.
Terminator 2 HVS 5a, Sergeant Slabs Crag. Another awesome route on a great crag.

And many, many more..

Have picked up a wee tendon injury on my left arm, probably due to bouldering without warming up properly, so we'll see how that goes. Also in the middle of all this was the MIA training at PYB, which filled my head with more ropework senarios that you should ever need. Now for an assessment..

The Evidence: (some of it)

Dougie on 'The Dude', font 7a Ruthven Boulder

The right lip, font 6c (not) on the Link Boulder, Cairngorm

Reiff Landscape

Dougie on Inbred

Sun drenched rock at Reiff

Pitch 1 Yo Yo

Me nearing the end of Pitch 1

Spot the climber..

Dougie gets eaten by the chimney on pitch 2

Cramped belay

Me setting out on pitch 3, YoYo

Yo Yo pitch 3

Dougie comming up pitch 3, YoYo

Glad to be at the top after the very loose vs pitches to the summit..

Top out on Yo Yo, cheers to Vicky for the pictures

N. Wales tyrolean

Sea level traverse

Tyrolean not tight enough..

Terry on the Zip

MIA Zip Line

John on pitch 2 of Gladiators groove Direct, The Cobbler

Mina on the Cobbler

Mina on Pain Pillar, Hawkcraig

Irish John coming up pitch 3 on Torro

Irish John approaching the crux of Torro, pitch 4

Amazing looking unclimbed(?) arete

Starting pitch 7 Torro

Pitch 7 Torro, common with Centurion

Me on Pitch 7 Torro

Irish John surveys Carn Dearg

The Ben in perfect summer nick

A very dry Ben

Easy Introductory pitches

Chasm Entertainment

Unclimbed walls of the Chasm

The Piano Pitch

High up the Chasm

Converging walls - sketchy

The Converging Walls

John at home in The Devils Cauldron

In the Devil's Cauldron

Escape from the Chasm Pitch 16

UFO's over Rannoch Moor

Bouldering in Sweden - old video

Here is an old video I filmed while on a wee bouldering trip to Kjugekull, Sweden a few years ago. its been hiding on the camera the whole time, probably due to it being not very exciting. Anyway, can't believe this was 3 and a half years ago.. Was a good trip, though I wasn't particularly strong. Markus goes for the 'send'

Not enough free time!

Not convinced I'm cut out for the 9-5, with 20 hrs of travelling a week. Eats into way too much free time, and gets in the way of more pleasant activities. Oh well, don't think this jobs going to last for ever, so best stash the cash for now and get the head down.. I'm pretty sure free time won't be a problem soon!

Have been out occasionally, not enough, but its always good to get out cragging. Was taking advantage of being next to the Salisbury Crags for a while, convenience bouldering in the centre of Edinburgh, and perfect for some post work de-stressing. Black Wall traverse out of the way at a soft font 6c+, and plenty of easy traversing/soloing done before the nights drew in.

View from Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh. Pic from Internet, never had a camera up there!

Headed up to Dunkeld some time in September, on a cracking day, and was completely shut down on Hamish Teds, a pretty impressive (for Scotland) F7b+. Long, pretty sustained and technical, this one will take some work. Just a pity its so far away, otherwise would make a cracking project..

Random on Hamish Teds Excellent Adventure, F7b+ doing it properly..

Also on the cards was a weekend trip to the Aviemore area with Jamie, and a visit to Creag Dhu, a crag I'd only ever climbed on once before, and a damn long time ago too. Chilly weather meant we stuck to the lower grades, climbing 'Brute' and 'King Bee' both pretty good value at V.S. 5a.. must be going soft. Next day Al joined us, and we headed over to Hell's Lum, in the Loch Avon basin in the Cairngorms. Excellent place, always impressive no matter how many times I go..

We climbed 'The Clean Sweep', again only V.S., but with a very sustained long crux pitch, which I managed to blag/was lumped with. Been a while since V.S. has felt that hard.. But all good fun, and was a great day out in a remote setting. Need to get some winter routes done over there this winter..

The impressive 'Hells Lum' crag in the Cairngorms

Jamie strikes a pose

Next up, after an obscene amount of time with hardly any climbing, (about 3 weeks), a Saturday with an excellent forecast appeared, and full advantage was taken. Dougie and myself headed up to the Etive Slabs, first trip there this year.. Why?? The Slabs were pretty busy, with teams on alot of the routes, including Swastika, our intended route. We decided on 'The Valkyrie' as it looked driest, and had a couple of stars in the Guide. However, at E2/3 5b, and 210m long, it was going to be a long day.. After much gardening, sketching on unprotected slabs, falling of overlaps, wet feet and mild hypothermia, we finally found a way out at the top, just as it was getting dark, and proceeded to sketch down the pretty dodgy descent path in the dark. An excellent day out, and some much needed adventure. Funny how climbs like this always seem better in retrospect?

Escaping the Slabs, through the choss at the top (almost..)

Always a nice view at the belays

Sepia belay view

While it was still warm..

Morning view, Loch Etive

Na, one headtorch will be fine...

Dougie fiddling in the most useless psychological bit of gear ever

And that is that. Autumn is not exactly the best time of year for climbing in Scotland, however you can snatch good days here and there. Now is a good time to make the most of the dark nights and get indoors, i suppose, and get strong again. Have been trying to get to Ratho regularly, hopefully this will continue.. And here's hoping to a good cold snowy winter! Bring it on..

Part of the cycle commute

The Glasgow Science tower, way home from 9-5