North-West Send-Fest

Whilst thinking of things for me to do over my spring break, I only ever had one thing on my mind. That was to squeeze as much climbing in as possible, I talked to a few of my climbing buddies to discover that the Ice tooling world series was over so Scott G was free for as long as the weather was good. So we put together a few ideas and came up with this:

The plan was to go up north west and then come back south east for a few days when the weather got bad until I couldn't justify climbing any longer and really needed to get some work done. So on Wednesday of last week I headed over to Scott's in preparation for an early start for the drive the next morning. I awoke to Diane's ever fantastic cooking and exemplary care for guests, and got on the road soon after.

Day 1: Reiff and Stac Pollaidh 

We arrived at Reiff in the morning and walked to Roinn a'Mhill (the nearest of the crags) and quickly got to warming up on a few low grade solo's. All the routes barring xyles were on very low angled slabs, and in the glorious sunshine they made for a relaxing adventure.

1) Moonjelly (VD)

2) Xyles (S)

3) Octopus' Garden (VD)

4) Bedbug (D)

5) Scurvey (VD)

Moonjelly (VD)

Now feeling sufficiently warmed up we decided to go for some leads, Scott went first and went for the pumpy (at least for me) channering worm (E3 5c). The route is fairly bold and falling off the latter half of the route would result in ground fall. Thankfully despite being very pumped Scott made it up without too much difficulty, I followed but fell on my way to the top (not really my style of climbing). I really need to get more endurance! Unfortunately I didn't get any snaps of Scott on this one, though with good reason as attentive belaying was necessitated, It got a bit worrying at points!

Me Leading on Immaculate Deception (E1 5b)

Next It was my turn to step up to the plate, and after looking at a few of the routes in the area, the one that looked best was Immaculate deception. The route follows the path of a thin diagonal crack which doesn't take gear as well as it looks from the ground. After a couple of little difficulties lower down I was soon at the top.

Having visited this particular part of Reiff twice now, I feel like I've pretty much done all of the decent routes (that are within my ability) after a quick foray around into the less appealing bouldering cliff, we made the decision to leave Reiff at about 2 pm and make a quick ascent of Jack the Ripper on Stac Pollaidh before the sun went down.

Sunshine on Reiff

After getting a tad lost on all the winding roads we eventually made it to the Stac Pollaidh car park a little later than planned, We packed very light and blasted up to the base of No. 1 Buttress in half the time predicted by the guidebook. For those of you who regularly read my blog, you will know that Jack the Ripper was one of the 5 routes I wanted to get done most this year and so this route was my primary reason for coming up north. Take it from me it certainly lived up to the hype.

Stac Pollaidh - I Love this mountain!

Looking up the route

The first and easiest pitch (4b) follows the same line as November Groove (a route I did last year). After climbing through a nice curving crack the climbing becomes pretty blocky and uninteresting, but thankfully this was just the first pitch. Scott then stepped up to lead the second pitch (5a). By following the description in the Gary Latter guidebook we ended up in a bit of a mess with route finding and rope drag, which unfortunately slowed our pace down. After all was sorted out we had only gained about 10 feet. 

The view from the first (or maybe second) belay ledge

After working out where the route was supposed to go I took the rest of the pitch, which was fine technical slab climbing on rock as rough as gritstone. Some high steps and technical moves later I had made it to the belay ledge and made my anchor with as few cams as possible as I knew I'd need them for the next section.

Scott coming up the second Pitch

The 3rd and last pitch of Jack the Ripper is the hardest of the route, and potentially the finest individual pitch of climbing I've ever done, The climbing is very sustained with successive 5b moves for about 20 metres. It's also a lot steeper than it first appears, thankfully though very well protected and not too strenuous as at most points it is possible to bridge out to rest and place gear. As a whole I might go as far as saying that the climb was better than the Needle. This may only be down to that I didn't lead any of the spectacular pitches on the Needle, regardless Jack the Ripper is well worth the trip!

simply the best

We descended just as the sun was going down and made it back to the car just as darkness fell. All in all an amazing day of climbing capped with one of the best routes I've done

Day 2: Ardmair

we awoke the next morning with greyer skies and less positive looking weather, while the skies may not have been so optimistic it still didn't look like it would rain, so we decided to head to Ardmair as it was the nearest crag to where we'd camped. In Scott's words Ardmair is "the best crag I've never visited" It certainly lived up to this, with many compelling and steep lines and of course the famous roof crack of Burning Desire (E5 6b).

Burning Desire, on of the coolest rock features out there

We began the day with sends of Siesta and Terrace crack (Both VS 4c). I lead siesta which follows up a nice well protected ramp to a bold and slightly overhanging finish on large holds. The climb was a tad wet in places. 

Scott on Terrace Crack

After these sends we decided to split off and solo a few lines to get some more mileage in. Scott decided to free solo microlight (HS 4b) while I went off and sent both small is possible (VD) and The way it is (D). Scott soon found himself high up on Microlight and a little stuck, without a rope he didn't want to commit to the next moves (which after I lead the route were significantly harder than 4b) perhaps this was due to our lack of tape and not wanting to yard up on skin shredding jams. Regardless I had to swing into action and rescue Scott off the route. After this I decided not to solo the route as I had originally planned and instead to lead it. Admittedly I'm not the best jammer in the world but it still felt very sandbagged, I guess you live and learn.

Stuck on Microlight

The next line that appealed to me was that of Parapente (E1 5b), which could be thought of in two sections. The bottom half follows a thin finger crack with some cool mantling to get onto the mid way ledge. Then it follows a corner with a really high step being the crux.

Just before the crux on Parapente

Now we headed further back downhill to sample some of the other routes. I had spotted a really nice E2 that I liked the look of, but it was now Scott's turn to lead so he decided to go for what we thought was HVS, we however ended up new routing up a really mossy corner which was a funny experience in itself as I ended up emptying handfuls of moss and plant life onto Scott on his hanging belay below, with him all the while shouting complaints and insults back at me. 

After topping out and seeing that the sun was slowly descending beneath the horizon I decided I wasn't really feeling the E2 and thought I'd leave it till next time. Hopefully I'll also send Burning Desire too!

That night we headed back to Kingussie as the weather was forecast to get really bad for a few days so there was no reason to stay in the area.

Day 3: Dunkeld Cave Crag and Newtyle Quarry

We awoke the next morning to see that the weather wasn't very good anywhere in Scotland, and it looked least like raining over in the east. Using this information we decided to head for Dunkeld. After spending about 40 minutes walking around in glorious sunshine trying to find the crag, rain started to fall. Predictably this dampened our spirits (I find my climbing psyche scales with weather). While waiting for the rain to stop and the rock to dry we spent our time placing cams and nuts in trees and joking about how bombproof the gear was.

The first line we got on was purely climbed for its name. Fuck Face is a 2 pitch HVS first climbed by the legendary Dougal Haston. Having seen the length of the pitches I decided I wouldn't bother with the hassle of a multi-pitch venture and instead just do it in a oner. After pulling through the crux of the lower half I discovered the upper section was soaking wet. I soon discovered that chalking my hands was a drop in the ocean compared to the volume of water on route and that it would be scary no matter how much chalk I used. Eventually I manned up and powered through. This unfortunately is supposed to be one of the drier routes at the crag and that it was wet meant almost everything else would be too. So the decision was made to swap venues to somewhere we could climb regardless of the weather conditions: Newtyle Quarry.

The climb that I'll only name once

Newtyle is a very unique place to climb. The climbing itself is on slate which is almost unheard of outside of the welsh quarries, and in one single area is sport, trad and dry tooling. All at a very high level. Scott had told me about this E2 at Newtyle which I was pretty keen to go and have a look at.

The climb was called Spandau Ballet it follows a very thin crack line up a slate slab. The climbing is very technical and thin on small positive edges. As long as you have plenty of small gear it is also very well protected. This is the description of the climb from UKC:

"A fine but desperate sandbag up the obvious and enticing thin crack. A hard 5c move off the ground leads to varied climbing up the crack with a hard 6a move at it's top. Above this step left then trend right to finish."

For me the crux was the very first moved which involved a huge high step onto a sloping edge and then pulling myself onto the ledge before the prominent crack using almost nothing with my hands. In addition to the technical difficulty of this move it was completely unprotected and directly above a thorn bush, so naturally I felt motivated not to fall off!

This doesn't really do the line Justice. It's so much cooler in real life!

The rest of the climbing was technical but steady, a short shower half way up the route meant I had to wait a little while on a grassy ledge for it to pass, the slate becomes even more difficult to climb in the wet! Thankfully due to it being a slab I didn't have to worry too much about getting pumped, definitely my style of climbing. Soon I was past the difficulties and I'd onsighted my second E2! Stoked, but seeing as this was supposedly sandbagged, now I really feel I have to get on E3 soon.

Making progress up the slabs

We ended the day by heading into "the tube" a dank and wet hole in the earth which extends for about 30 to 40 metres, hanging from the roof at regular intervals are in situ quickdraws. In this cave are some of the hardest dry tooling routes in Scotland, probably the hardest. So I was happy to just watch Scott do his thing and power up the huge steep roof.

Scott pumped after having climbed "Fast and Furious" M10

Day 4: Glen Nevis

Originally our plan for this day was to head out towards Ballater, but thankfully we decided against this as the forecast was significantly more favourable towards the west. Instead we decided Poll dubh would be a great shout. 

Upon arrival the sun was shining, climbable rock surrounded me on all sides and the largest (and coolest) mountain in the UK was only a (giants) stones throw away. I couldn't be happier! The day as a whole was really cool, especially when you considered that down in the valley we were all climbing in shorts and t-shirts and then up on Ben Nevis the ice was still in condition and people were freezing away whilst climbing. A very alpine day indeed!

We began the day with sends of Tear (HS 4b) and the Gutter (D), both spectacular climbs in a wonderful situation.

Scott Soloing Tear

The gutter, maybe the best diff I've done

After sending these two we decided we may as well send the most classic route at Polldubh: Storm (HVS 5a) as well as being one of the finest it's also one of the longest here. The guidebook describes 4 pitches of climbing, to speed up the process we however decided to do it in just two. The whole climb is very well protected and follows a fantastic line with interesting situations and is in the sun a lot of the day. Scott linked the first two pitches, pitch one (4b) follows a slabby corner up to a ledge, then pitch 2 (4c) follows a diagonally trending crack up to a precariously perched pine tree which you make a hanging belay off of.

Scott moving up the first pitch of Storm

The third pitch is the crux which trends right into a shallow groove and then you have to pull over a bulge (the crux) after this the climbing eases dramatically as you romp up the upper slabs to a final belay.

After sending the route Scott realised he'd left his phone on the ledge at mid height, so we had to wait for another party to climb the route and collect his phone to return it to us. Not wanting to Idle I decided to walk off and solo a few easier routes, Namely Repton Right Wall (VD) and tykes climb (VD). After soloing these I returned to the bottom of storm and napped in the sunshine for an hour while I waited for the other party to finish the climb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co6WMzDOh1o

Next up was a foray further into glen Nevis, we both had a look at some of the lines on the river cliffs which looked really cool but also looked like they had a lot of consequences if you got it wrong. Definitely next time though, instead we headed up to wave buttress and did Bewsey Crack (HVS 5a), a fairly sandbagged HVS though still great climbing in a good situation. Having visited this crag I've decided that I'd like my first E3 sends to be here. The two lines that really appeal to me are Edgehog and Crackattack E3 6a and 5c respectively. Both look absolutely stunning but unfortunately the sun was going down by the time I'd had a serious look at either of them.

Bewsey Crack

While the end to a great if unproductive day was signalled by the sun going down it also signalled the valley going a glorious orange colour and some nice photographs.

Finally worked out how to use panorama!

Day 5: Farletter

There's not really much to say about our last day, we woke late to compensate for all the early starts the days before and met up with Mark Councill to mess around and top rope some hard steep climbing. Nothing much interesting happened apart from me tearing my finger open on a sharp quartz edge and Reef/Reiff (Marks dog) buried my wallet which now seems funny but at the time I was understandably worried.

Me top roping Too farr for the bear (E4 5c)

Having travelled around a lot of Scotland I was very tired and my body was pretty beaten so I was fairly happy to return home to my bed and get a few days of doing nothing much, but already I want to get back out climbing again and bag some more hard routes!

A map showing where we got to on our journey!

Sending Smith's Route

This particular adventure begins on the day before, with me and Joe beginning the long drive to the North Face car park beneath Ben Nevis. We arrived at the car park and converted Joe's Golf into a surprisingly comfortable sleeping area.Who needs a travel lodge? We headed to bed at 10:30 pm in preparation for our 4:30 am wake up time the following morning.

I woke up feeling fine and was able to roll out of the car and immediately start stuffing my face with a syrup sponge for breakfast. We began the walk in at 5:10 am, making quick progress up the track, this was the first time either of us had done it when it wasn't covered in deep snow. The sun began to rise at about 6 am and we were soon able to turn our head torches off. Ben Nevis came into view soon after leaving the forest.

I need to invest in a camera, a bit grainy in the low light. First glimpses of the sun.

First look at the Ben

The route we had in mind was "Smith's Route" (V,5) on Gardyloo Buttress. This route is probably the highest starting climb on Ben Nevis, starting at about 1200 metres, also one of the furthest from the car park. It involves 4 pitches, the first 2 of which are steep ice with a section of fully vertical ice on pitch 2. The rest of the climb is an exposed romp up a grade 2 arete, sounds fantastic? It was!

As we crept closer the sun inched higher into the sky, casting ever more light onto the towering ramparts of the North Face. The views became more incredible and I was reminded why some people decide to dedicate themselves fully to hill walking.

North East Buttress, looking resplendent

North East Buttress tucked behind Tower Ridge, with the CIC hut in the foreground.

Hot (or should I say cold?) Dang

Ben Nevis had changed a lot since my last visit. The snow surrounded the mountain like a lace dress as opposed to blanket of snow covering everything down to sea level in January. The snow pack had changed too, it was very hard and well compacted making the risk of (another) avalanche very unlikely, this was backed up by the forecast. green and yellow all round! Joe had recently (and wisely) invested in avalanche transceivers which were safely pressed to our chests in case of the unlikely event of anything happening. More black rock poked out from between the white, sadly not much rime was left. Thankfully though there was more than enough present for some of the classic lines on the higher elevations.

Many had realised that conditions were still more than adequate and there was a tented village clustered around the CIC hut. we were glad to have woken up so early and as such we beat a lot of the crowds.

I hate sharing

We put on our crampons just after the CIC hut and began our slow and steady progress up Observatory Gully. Ahead of us were a few parties, fortunately most of the peeled off onto different routes along the flanks of Tower Ridge and North East Buttress. 

First Glimpses of Gardyloo Buttress at the top of Observatory Gully

The ground soon began to steepen up and our pace slowed down a ways, before long we had to get our axes out. By this point we had only 2 parties ahead of us both looking like they were heading for Smith's. Behind us was another (fitter) party who were advancing on us quickly. It later transpired that they were both guides one of whom was Tim Neil and so naturally moved a lot faster than either of us. I must say it's pretty cool to be able to rub shoulders with some of the worlds best winter climbers on a trip to Ben Nevis.

The ice smear of Smith's now clearly visible

We arrived at the bottom of the route at about 8:30 am with only two parties ahead of us, one of which had practically already started. The other was two students from Dundee Uni, one of whom was team GB member Anna Wells, More good Climbers! Whilst waiting in the queue a block of ice flew off the route and glanced my head and shoulder leading to a considerable ache for the rest of the day (practically the only downer, the rest I assure you is positive!). We were able to start climbing roughly an hour and a half later. Joe made quick work of the first section up to the cave belay.

Smith's looking absolutely amazing! Steeeeeeep!!

I soon followed and stood on a tiny ledge which had been kicked out of the ice by previous occupants of the belay, The last pitch had been steep but it was nothing compared to the second pitch. Naturally Joe was quite nervous as he stepped out to begin leading the steep section. Before committing to the crux Joe made a bomb shelter and preceded to tell me to watch him a near infinite number of times. I dutifully told him that I definitely was and encouraged him as he psyched himself for the pump fest that was to come. Soon he began to bust shapes up the steep ice, puffing and panting like a man on the run. Frankly Joe made the section look easy and was soon on a ledge just above the difficulties where he placed some more gear and took a well earned rest. The rest of the route was comparatively easy going and more on the legs than the arms, the ice began to deteriorate with height adding a worrying aspect to the last few metres of the pitch.

Now it was my turn, I'd rather not go into the details but it was a lot more inelegant than Joe's smooth ascent, but I made it over the crux sections without falling so regardless of how it looked it was still a clean ascent.

Then it was my lead, I romped up the easier upper sections of the route. Soon I found myself on an exposed arete which gave me spectacular views in all directions.

I can see the top!

The Beautiful arete

I could now see the top and quickly progressed up to the top unfortunately just as I poked my head over the top of the Ben I felt my ropes go taught, I had climbed a full 60 metres and had frustratingly run out of rope just short of the end so I descended a few metres and built a few snow anchors ready to bring Joe up. This meant that Joe (deservedly) topped out first and I quickly followed. At first I was blinded by the glaring sunshine which I was not used to, having climbed in the shadows all day. When my eyes re-adjusted I was met with this:

There's nowhere I'd rather be!

Victory Shot!

Summit cairn selfie, one of the highest people in Scotland

Unfortunately we couldn't linger very long on the summit and had to quickly begin the descent. As with the walk in the walk out was a joy and really finished off the day perfectly.

We descended via the tourist route and glissaded the majority of the way down, frustratingly however on our way down we were met with multiple of people heading either up or down lacking the necessary equipment to be properly safe on Scotland's highest mountain. Seeing these people always puts me a little on edge and worried for their safety. Next time just watch another box set!

The only other downer on the day was that I'd stored my crampons on the outside of my rucksack and unfortunately they fell out somewhere between the tourist route and the path up from the North Face car park, so if you happen to find them. Let me know! Thankfully they were free but it's still frustrating to have lost such an important piece of equipment.

One last look

In summary one of the best days climbing I've ever had (I seem to be saying this a lot, I guess any day spent climbing is a good day!). The weather was spectacular so was the route and the condition the Ice was in. Really I can't have wished for any more. 

Sadly this could be the end of the winter season for me with most mountainous areas steadily beginning to melt. If this were the case I hope next year is just as incredible as this year has been!

E2's outside Edinburgh

Just a quick blogpost to document a little of a milestone on my climbing journey, my first E2 on sight! I feel once you can on sight a grade you can safely say you can lead that grade, so I guess that makes me an E2 leader. E3 here I come!

I first spotted the line of Shear Fear (E2 5c) on my first trip to Ratho quarry, however after having only led one route that day the rain came in and made the rock (Dolerite for you geologists) which is frictionless enough as it is even more frictionless. Sadly me and Joe had to call it a day as the rain didn't look like it would stop very soon. 

Since this slightly disappointing experience I've wanted to go back and have a decent length of days cragging in the quarry. When the opportunity finally arose I was super keen to test how strong I still was having barely done any trad over the winter.

I met Joe after lectures on probably the nicest day of the year so far (a good omen) after lectures for the trip to Edinburgh. We arrived at the quarry at roughly 2 pm and quickly got to work on the warm up.

Making our way into the quarry

The day began with Joe giving a hilarious send of Ouroborus (HVS 5b) a technical line following a left inclined diagonal ramp from the bottom of shear fear all the way to the left corner of the east wall. After taking the wrong start and having to down climb through a tree, Joe made his way through the difficulties of the route. The crux is an off balance mantle with nothing to hold onto. Both of us opted for the beached whale technique, which while requiring next to no technique always makes the climb more memorable

Elegant as always

After topping out I psyched myself up for my first serious attempt at an E2 lead.

Shear fear follows the line of 2 steep flakes, at first you follow the larger flake on the right until about mid-height at which point you transition across to the smaller left flake, and finish either by making a huge step out left onto another route (Joe's finish of choice) or straight up the left flake (which is more of a finger crack by this point) both options are the crux of the route and are roughly the same in difficulty.

The twin flakes of "shear fear" (E2 5c)

I carefully selected my rack to cut down on weight. I opted to take mainly cams and doubled up on the green and pink sizes. Nuts never seem to go very well into dolerite. The route begins easily by scrambling up a couple of ledges to the bottom of the right flake. I Placed my first piece of gear deep behind this flake at about 5m. At this point you must commit to the climb or bail off. I wasn't about to disappoint myself so I swung into action and began quick progress up the slightly overhanging wall.

Making Progress up the first flake

I placed my second piece (green) in the left flake now being about 4 metres above my last piece. After placing this I pulled up onto a break in the right flake at about half height, by jamming my right arm behind it I could get a good rest and an opportunity to place another cam (green) in relative comfort.

Moving away from the rest

Moving away from the rest requires you to transition from the flake on the right across to the left hand one requiring good body tension. I now began to progress up the left flake, by jamming my hands and feet in the crack (credit to wild country crack school). The crux of my chosen finish required me to jam both feet in the flake and then mantle up over onto a ledge. After passing the difficulties I celebrated. I knew the rest of the route was comparatively easy. I soon dispatched the last 6 metres of climbing and made it to the top! My first E2 on sight, and what a climb!!

Finishing up on easier ground

Success!!

I quickly lowered off the route and stripped all of the gear so that Joe could go for his ascent of the route. Joe quickly and easily made his progress up the twin flakes and topped out on his first ever E2 as well, a successful day all round!

After having achieved the main goal of our day, we messed around on some easier routes before I finished up on Shoskred (HVS 5a) a blocky and exposed route on the opposite side of the quarry to shear fear.

I think I was most pleased with that Shear Fear didn't actually feel too hard, I got a little tired on the route but nothing a short break couldn't solve (and nothing like how pumped I was on Right Unconquerable), all in all it makes me confident for my first E3 onsight happening sooner rather than later, I just need to spy a worthwhile line first!

The top out on Shoskred at the end of a great day