Trip Tales: trad climbing

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

Winter is over, long live winter 2009/10! Great season..

Spring is probably my favorite time of year, generally dryish weather, dry cragging, and still ice up high. The last few weeks have been a nice mix of rock and winter, mainly rock actually due to a lack of enthusiasm from some partners, probably beasted after the long season. After Tower Ridge at the start of March, a frustrating mix of weather, partners etc, meant no winter action till the start of April.. a bit disappointing. Winter finished for myself with a late season ascent of the classic Zero Gully (v,4) on the Ben, in great conditions on 18th April. Run out grade 4 climbing, and miles of unprotected grade 2 at the top ensured a quality day out, and an excellent end to the season.

Approach to Zero Gully

Pete sets of on first pitch, Zero Gully

Spicy 1st pitch

Pete running it out to the 1st belay

Pete coming up second pitch on Zero

Pete on 4th? pitch of Zero Gully

Last time down from the CIC this winter..

Other winter outings included a solo trip up the Sron na lairig in Glencoe, a nice ridge of about grade 2, in perfect sunny Alpine conditions, and an attempt on North East Buttress on the Ben again, which was thwarted by a huge dump of snow the night before, slow moving parties in front, and the 'short cut' of Slingsby's Chimney which was pretty desperate. Ended up on the CMD arete which gave a top day out anyways..

Retreat from North East Buttress, way too much powder..

Arriving at the CMD Arete

CMD Arete

John on CMD Arete

CMD Arete

The Lost Valley, Glencoe

View from top of Sron na Lairig, Glencoe

Also a solo ski tour in the Cairngorms, taking in Cairngorm, Ben Macdui, and Beinn Mheadhoin, with the skins becoming so saturated by the wet snow that they refused to stick, forcing a bootpack back to the carpark from Loch Avon - good fitness training! Light was a bit flat that day, so not too many good shots, but the amount of snow in some spots is crazy, and will be about for a long time to come yet. A few more walks in places I've not been before wrapped winter up for me.

Loch Avon, about the point where I had to practically swim through the meltwater

Artic landscape

Loch Avon

Ben Macdui

Snowy Loch Etchican

And that pretty much rounds off winter 2009/10. An awesome year, loads of ice climbed early season, some classic routes that never come into condition, bit of a disappointing March winter wise for myself, but finished of with some great April days out. Highlight routes of the year were probably, in no order, Monolith Grooves on Xmas eve in perfect cold sunny weather, Oui Oui and Steall Falls for the novelty value, No.6 Gully on Anoach Dubh, Sc Gully in perfect weather, Tower Ridge, lots of ice adventures on Ben Udalaih, Twisting gully early season, The Smirk/Organ Pipe wall, Zero Gully... the list goes on.. Roll on next year, hopefully with a little more mixed routes, and lots more on Ben Nevis..

Dawn on Beinn an Lochan, Xmas eve

Summer rock climbing has kicked of to a good start, with trips to Glen Nevis, Dunkeld, Limekilns, the Peak District, and various other spots. Tis good to be on the rock again, and feel im climbing not too badly, though could do with a bit more strength and stamina. But isn't that what every climber wants? Some sketchy E2 and E3 onsights out of the way, and a fairly straight forward E4 redpoint at the Mighty Auchinstarry done so far, miles ahead of where I was at this point last year. Still feel that there is nowt much left to do in the central belt without breaking the legs, though some routes that would be nice to get done are; Velvet Glove, satin finish, E4, Big Country Dreams E4, Through the Motions E3, Gorilla font6b+, and a few other gaps. We'll see how that goes..

3 days in the Peak was awesome, lots of mileage, and some classic gritstone routes ticked, including Tody's Wall, Goliath Grooves, Eliminator, Hargreaves original route, 3 Pebble Slab, Valkyrie, took the obligatory fall from Flying Buttress Direct, Downhill Racer second go on the top rope, and many, many others. Having not climbed much on grit before, was really good to get the millage in rather than concentrate on difficulty. Still don't like jamming though..

A roasting weekend in Glen Nevis was also great, again mainly concentrating on mileage. Climbed many unstarred and one star routes, finding them to be great anyways, repeated Storm, finding the crux pitch stiffer than I remember, and found Phantom Slab, a great stiff VS on Pandora's Buttress. There is so much to do in the Glen, it's amazing. Next time the Wave Buttress will be looked at, and a few others - can't wait!

Bring on Summer..

Some shots from the trad of the last few weeks: