Since the Fairhead meet, every single days climbing I've had has been spent in the Cairngorms. I've visited a lot of new mountain crags and explored my most familiar mountain range to a much greater extent. The volume of days I've had due to work commitments has been much less than last year but the quality of each individual day has been far greater. Since the beginning of the year I can only think of 5 days I've spent cragging, every single other day has been spent climbing multi pitch mountain routes on glorious Cairngorm granite.
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| 1141: Gateway to the Northern Cairngorms |
The Big tick I've wanted to complete this year has been Haystack on the Shelterstone. I've been climbing a large amount with Ben Gibson recently, his convenient location, regular days off and great banter meant He was the perfect partner to tackle the climb with me. For myself it will be 4th route on the mighty main bastion of the Shelterstone crag and third of the 3 four star classics. For Ben it was his first time climbing anything on the crag despite having lived in the Aviemore area for years now (to his shame).
I'd made the journey north to Aviemore from St Andrews on three separate occasions with the intention of ticking the route only to find the crags wet on the first attempt and then to get rained off at the top of pitch 4 on attempt number 2. Though having quit my summer job on the 14th of August just when a heatwave swept through the country I found myself with more good weather days than I could shake a stick at.
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| Looking back up the crag having just bailed because of rain |
My adventures began with a couple of days by myself staying in the hutchison memorial hut and climbing on some of the more remote corries in the northern Cairngorms. This included my first time climbing in Coire Sputan Dearg and on Creag a Coire Etchachan. The sun Blazed non stop for both days and I managed to tick 6 routes on the first day (Crystal ridge, Hanging Dyke, Grey Slab, Snake Ridge, Flakes Buttress and Terminal Buttress) followed by a quick dip in Lochain Uaine (Baltic) and a quick Jaunt up to the summit of Ben Macdui.
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| Cloud inversion from the top of Crystal Ridge |
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| Unknown climbers on Zircon |
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| Living the dream |
The next day whilst on my walk back to the Cairngorm ski resort I sampled some more climbing on a variety of crags including my first time on Creag a coire etchachan where I bumped into Andy Nisbet taking photos for an upcoming scottish rock guidebook. A brief detour took me to the summit of Ben Mheadhoin and then down for a nap in the sun on the banks of Loch Avon, something I've always longed to do though I've always been too embroiled in a climb to take the time to stop for some R&R when in the valley.
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| The summit tors of Beinn Mheadhoin; like Slieve Binnian in miniature |
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| Hells Lum, Still dripping wet despite days of sunshine. Does it ever dry out? |
The next day myself and Ben headed back over to the Loch Avon basin to have another attempt on Haystack. We quickly reached our previous high point on pitch 4 without too much difficulties, though finding the wide crack on pitch 3 to be somewhat awkward.
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| Making the first few moves on Haystack |
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| Ben wrestling with the awkward crack on pitch 3 |
Ben spent a minute or two collecting himself before the lead of one of 2 crux pitches of the route. The pitch looks a lot easier from down below with a wide variety of cracks and edges seeming to criss cross across the steep wall. All are positive though most are quite small and this coupled with the difficulty of spotting the good footholds means the climber becomes quite pumped whilst figuring out a sequence through the steepest section.
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| Cruising |
From down below Mr Gibson seemed to have none of these difficulties as he absolutely crushed the pitch. I'd got myself excited for some gripping belaying, instead Ben hardly put a foot wrong in one of the most impressive climbing displays I've seen him produce. My Job of seconding however didn't live up to the golden standard Ben had set before me, though I'm going to gloss over that to save face. After one Final lead by Ben the last two pitches of the route were left to me, in particular the overhanging groove, the second crux of the route remained.
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| "It flares like there's no tomorrow" |
I'd spent a couple of months psyching myself up for this route, and as a result was pretty confident I could onsight this pitch. Though Ben's crux pitch had really tired my forearms and I was definitely feeling a little worse for wear. At first I wriggled my way up the corner formed by a prominent flake and lodged myself in the first peapod. I stood there for about 10 minutes psyching myself up for the overhanging awkwardness to come. After deciding stagnating in the initial peapod was going to get me nowhere I made a huge high step and it was on.
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| Contemplating what was to come |
I soon discovered that the pitch was actually way more mellow than I was expecting, and for the two thirds of the flaring groove I was able to find some pretty good rests to shake out and place good gear from. I took a step back to admire my surroundings from an outstanding position of exposure leaning out of the most prominent part of the crag 200 metres off the deck.
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| My turn to send |
The final third of the pitch was slightly more conventional climbing which required the use of my tired fingers. I climbed up to what must be the sharpest jug in the Cairngorms now a few metres above my last piece of protection. I wanted to place my giant white cam in this perfect horizontal crack to my right, though I was concerned I didn't have the strength to hold onto the razor jug with only one hand for long enough to place the cam and clip in. At this point the fear started to creep in. I forced myself to concentrate hard on my breathing; in my nose and then back out of my mouth. Soon I was feeling mellow again and I realised I totally had enough gas to place that cam and hold on (as a little side note this pitch really reminded me the extent that your mental state plays in whether or not you get to the top of a pitch or not).
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| Finishing the job |
Because this pitch overhangs the whole way I couldn't actually see where the pitch itself finished and so it came as a bit of a surprise to me when I pulled over the lip of the overhang onto a massive ledge. Psyched doesn't really cover how happy I was to get to the top of the pitch with as little bother as I'd had. I'd really built it up in my head and had been dying to climb the route for months and all of a sudden the difficulties were over, without too much bother to boot!
The final pitch of the climb is a short but sharp vertical crack followed by some much easier scrambling above. At this stage my forearms were so milked that every time I put my hand into my chalk bag I couldn't immediately take it out as it cramped into an immovable claw. Time was of the essence and I needed to stop faffing and finish up with this pitch. Before too long I was sat on top of Shelterstone crag having completed another incredible climb for the third time in my life, what a privilege.
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| we made it! |
Beyond this my other adventures in the Cairngorms have been a little less dramatic, though good fun all the same. I spent a day with Aaron Johnstone on Stac an Faraidh, climbing some easy slab classics, having a much more chilled but just as enjoyable time.
In addition I visited Ballater for the first time on a scorchio day, did my first ever outdoor bouldering at ruthven and ticked off a few more classics in Coire an Lochain. I'm starting to feel like I've really got to know this section of the Cairngorms quite well. The last place for me to visit is Braeriach and hopefully I'll make the long trip over there before the summer ends.
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| Gurning at Ruthven |
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| Ventriloquist in summer |
