Douglas Bouldering

As naming things goes the Douglas "Boulder" is about the biggest misnomer within the scottish winter climbing scene. This supposed "Boulder" is as large as most of the rest of the big mountain crags in the country, but given its surroundings it pales into comparison to the gargantuan Orion face, Carn Dearg Buttress and some of the longest mountain ridges in the country.

The Douglas Boulder in its natural habitat almost always passes under (or over) the noses of most climbers on the Ben who prefer to keep on slogging to one of the classic ridges or any one of the routes up observatory gully. The only time people seem to climb on it is if they're pretty strong and want to test their skills against hard mixed classics like cutlass, or if the weather is more akin to the inside of a jet engine than any weather one might experience on the commute to work.

The atrocious weather in Scotland is something I'm surprisingly rather fond of. More surprising still is that I don't appear to be the only one. Over the course of a winter in Scotland, hundreds of international climbers will make the trip to our little island to test their mettle against our comparatively small mountains. On both occasions I've stayed in the CIC hut I've encountered European climbers who've exchanged the Alps with their stable weather and shiny bolts for some of the worst weather in the world people will actually climb in and a noticeable lack of any decent protection. Whilst I may question their (and my own sanity) for making this decision it definitely instils Scottish pride in myself! 

The classic bad winter weather shot; Credit to Nick Carter http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=87093

This past weekend the weather was up their with some of the worst I've had whilst in Scotland in winter, and fell firmly in the second category of people who climb on the Douglas Boulder. Though it was still a fantastic weekend  for many reasons; first we got to skip the first (and worst) section of the walk in to the CIC as a friend of Erik's had a key for the gate second my confidence was boosted a lot in my ability to stay safe in the hills in winter and my abilities when it actually comes to mixed climbing.

Apparently myself and Joe are early birds for climbing, we were more than happy to wake up nearly an hour before what people deemed to be reasonable. An early start soon found us out of the doors of the CIC and into the marginally nicer weather in the morning. The winds were lashing the snow and ice around biting away at any exposed skin. Myself and Joe forced our way up into observatory gully to go and have a peek at the Indicator Wall area. After entering observatory gully and realising the snow was waist deep in many patches we soon lost our motivation to head all the way to its top and instead opted to check out point 5. From far below point 5 actually looked alright, there was definitely some good ice, the sight of this coaxed us ever higher. as we got nearer and nearer I grew less and less sure point 5 was a good idea, every 2 minutes gargantuan quantities of spindrift would pile down the narrow gully from above. To climb it like this would not only be a horrifically unpleasant experience but would likely be downright dangerous, not being able to see the snowy bowl above the gully we had no idea whether the spindrift would get any more serious or whether anything else was likely to come down with the snow. After a brief discussion we decided that point 5 could wait and left the gully in the company of a group of climbers from London. I'd certainly rather them than me in the state it was in.

Joe suggested trying a mixed route on the Douglas Boulder as none of the lower down Ice routes were in good nick. This seemed a good idea and we began the plod back down observatory gully. We met many climbers on the way down who asked why we were walking in the opposite direction, we told them about the depth of snow and lack of good ice and most of them turned around and followed us too. After a quick traverse of the Douglas Gap we found our way at the bottom of the south west ridge of the douglas boulder; our climb for the day.

Joe at the bottom of west gully

We alt lead the route, with Joe taking the first lead, the hooks were great and the gear was even better! It turned out to be a really fun climb. You could really pick and mix your line to squeeze the most fun out of the ridge, at various stages I was torqueing both my axes in thin cracks just to make things harder (and funner) for myself. 

On my pitch I lead through a corner with sinker hooks and then wanting to make things fun for myself opted to lead through the steep cracked wall directly above. Some powerful moves lead me to a good rest on fantastic hooks behind a chockstone. Upon attacking the blocky wall above this I discovered most of the microwave sized blocks weren't stuck in place and instead moved a substantial amount, after a bit of sketching around to find safer placements I was above the choss and at the belay. The weather was starting to worsen and the winds were definitely picking up as I brought Joe up

Joe seconding the south west ridge

Above this was the top of the Douglas Boulder and from here we abseiled down into the Douglas gap beneath which was more akin to a wind tunnel than anything else. The short abseil down into the gap was one of the most tortuous I've had the pleasure of doing, once in the gap itself I didn't want to stay in the wind any longer than I had to and pretty quickly was down-climbing the gully to the comparative shelter of the west side of the Douglas Boulder. From here a short plod lead us back to the CIC hut. We arrived at some time between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. A rather short day, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. We sat in the hut for the rest of the day waiting patiently for the other 3 parties to return. One on CMD arete, another on Tower Ridge and the third on Tower Face of the Comb. 

abseiling into the Douglas gap

The weather forecast was to be about the same if not worse on the Sunday, as a result we felt another short day was in order and opted to climb Jacknife on the Douglas Boulder on the Sunday. This would be a step up in difficulty for both of us, both in terms of objective and technical grades. Though having become frustrated with the lack of thought required to climb most grade IV's I was really looking forward to the challenge.

The next morning we woke slightly later and watched a pair of seasoned climbers begin their progress towards leaving the hut. The first of the pair soon left and within seconds was back in hut again telling his partner to stay put as "it's a maelstrom out there". A maelstrom was certainly the right word, after a bit of dilly dallying they were on their way into the storm and we soon followed behind them with Merlin and Peter in tow. We soon reached the base of the Douglas Boulder and another 10 minutes of walking lead us to the base of the climb. A little indecisiveness cost us some time before we decided on what would be the best way to approach the climb. Our final decision transpired to be the wrong one, and soon Joe was leading his way up a horrible choss pile, the turf hadn't frozen making it even more unpleasant. Once at the top Joe spent more time trying to construct a sound belay amongst the choss than he had actually leading the lower pitch.

The next and crux pitch was all mine! despite the grade of the route being harder than anything I'd previously done I didn't feel so intimidated, The climbing didn't look so hard and I fel quietly confident. Soon I was at the base of the crux, I placed some gear before I headed up and shortly was getting myself involved with the corner. The corner itself had some slushy snow in its back which wasn't particularly useful as it didn't hold in place. The climbing was a tad awkward as there wasn't much for my right food, though the left feet were great and the hooks were too. Also in the bargain was a tonne of gear! Soon I was past the short sharp lower corner and romping up to the finish of the pitch. It had been exactly as I'd expected, a bit awkward but completely manageable, both myself and Joe's confidence was bolstered for when it comes to tackling harder climbs in winter. Next on the list Gargoyle Wall!