Tonight I was climbing with Al Halewood on Scimitar Buttress at Polldubh, where we did Nutcracker Chimney (steeply awkward HS 4b, and Al’s lead because I’d done it before… in 1990!) and Diagonal Crack (simply steep VS 4c, and my lead). (more…)
30 July 2009
19 July 2009
The Self-Coached Climber
Having serious intentions of improving my technique with both personal climbing and coaching youngsters in mind, I’d bought Dan Hague and Douglas Hunter’s The Self-Coached Climber back in January and started to read it. But then I’d largely moved outside for rock climbing with the coming of better weather at Easter, and only just started to work systematically at the exercises this week with some rainy summer holiday days to tempt me back onto the wall. (more…)
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18 July 2009
North-west with Mr Facetious Bridge
Taking a long drive north in search of the best (least bad!) conditions yesterday, Jamie Bankhead and I set off with Skye in mind but finally diverted (after spying the Cuillin shrouded in thick cloud) to the Stone Valley Crags on the south-west side of Loch Maree. (more…)
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16 July 2009
Aonach Eagach
Yesterday Anne Petty and I took a slight chance on an indifferent forecast to traverse the Aonach Eagach, which she’s been looking forward to doing for some time. (more…)
Running ‘for Dario’
This afternoon I put on my 2007 WHW Race top (the one I earned by running the race rather than sweeping the final stage) and set out to run my favourite section over the Devil’s Staircase to Altnafeadh and back as my own little personal tribute to Dario. (more…)
15 July 2009
Dario Melaragni
While there have been many tributes to Dario published over the past few days and there’s only so much more I can add to them now, perhaps there’s still room here for a few thoughts of my own… (more…)
10 July 2009
Ben Nevis ridge day
Finding myself on my own and wanting to make use of a glorious summer Friday with poorer weather forecast for the weekend, today’s original objective was to solo Castle Ridge (Mod), after which a descent by Ledge Route (Easy) should follow naturally. But somehow (thinking ‘why stop there when it won’t take that long and there’s plenty more to do on the Ben?’) my wishlist for a perfectly-formed day soon grew to take in the ascent of Tower Ridge (Diff) and traverse of the Carn Mor Dearg Arete. So that’s what I did… (more…)
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9 July 2009
Not all overgraded at Ardnamurchan!
On Tuesday I was back at the Ardnamurchan Ring Crags with Lorenzo and Chuck, but this time on Achnaha Buttress and Sron nan Gabhar rather than the honeypot Meall an Fhir-eoin Beag. (more…)
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4 July 2009
Not ‘over protected’ in Glen Gour
Today (with the forecast suggesting potentially showery weather everywhere with the possible exception of the east) Chuck and I decided to skip the long drive and take our chances with somewhere relatively local. So we headed for the intriguing sounding Indian Slab Crag up Glen Gour on the far side of the Corran Ferry, which promised good multipitch VS slab climbing on clean, rough gneiss with poor protection (‘not over protected’, to quote the usual guidebook euphemism!) and ‘dubious belays’. And that’s exactly what we got… (more…)
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