A week on the eastern grit

Having only spent one day climbing on the famous gritstone edges of the peak district back in February and in that one day climbing one of the best routes I'd ever done at that point (right unconquerable, which is still a favourite of mine). I felt I could definitely justify many more trips to the gritstone edges both east and west. The rock quality is fantastic at all the edxges and though the climbing is short in stature the quality (and volume) of routes in such a small area is almost unparalleled. 

The famous gritstone is basically just a coarse sandstone, though i'm sure anyone from sheffield would hit me for saying "just coarse sandstone". To the local cognoscenti nothing even comes close to experience of trad climbing on grit. The rock offers a very technical style of climbing, relying heavily on faith in the friction of your boots and your body position/balance. Though while this may be true of a lot of the routes every single style of climbing can be found on the grit and I guess that's why the locals love it so much and it has become so beloved by the global climbing community.

Originally the plan was for me and Sachi to head to either North Wales (preferably) or the lakes (if the weather in Wales was poor). Though in the approach to the selected week I looked extensively at forecasts to discover that sadly a diagonal line cut across the country meaning both of these options were likely to be a rainy shambles, so I happily settled for climbing in the peak for a week. And what a week it was! It quickly proved to be my most successful ever climbing trip (though admittedly I'd only ever been on a handful of short ones before) pushing my onsight grade up one notch to E3, working heavily on my crack climbing, and also on my mental strength whilst climbing.

Due to the huge volume of climbs I did, I won't bother doing a write up of each one as this would take me an irrationally long amount of time and would also be immensely boring for the reader. I'll simply go day to day and select a few good routes I did. Unfortunately I forgot to take lots of pictures, though Sachi should post them when he gets back from his holidays on my facebook. Pretty excited to see how they turn out!

Day 1

After a 9 hour bus journey starting at 7am from Inverness to Manchester I met Sachi at the bus station and we wasted no time in escaping suburbia and entering the peak. Soon we were at the North Lees campsite setting up our tents and I could feel the stoke building! From the campsite you could glimpse Stanage edge behind the trees, I was practically shaking with anticipation. My small tent went up quickly, though Sachi's proved to be more of an obstacle, after the first two hurdles we were soon on our way up to "the queen of the eastern edges". I've flicked obsessively through the pages of the definitive guide since it was bought in 2008 for a top roping day dad took me on. As a result I could now spot the famous and most recognisable lines and buttresses despite having only spent about 10 total hours at the crag. 

Tiny grit climbs at the easy jamming buttress, our first grit hit of the trip!

The first evening was characterised simply by the release of all my pent up energy from throughout the day, and psyche to finally be spending a sunny week on the gritstone! In one evening we climbed a ridiculous volume of routes. (about 14 in 3 hours) Without stopping we worked our way from easy jamming buttress leftwards to Rugosity Crack. Few routes we climbed this evening were classics by anyone's estimation, though neither of us cared as we were happy in the simple act of moving over quality rock. Some nice routes were climbed however; a V0- boulder problem called "the high road" (more of a short solo to be honest) proved to be an interesting exercise in padding up gritstone slabs. Rugosity Crack also was a very fun (If challenging for the grade) route, requiring stiff body tension to layback up the thin flake crack. 

Rugosity Crack, Credit: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=118020

Sachi ft Eastern Grit NEW ALBUM, OUT MONDAY!

Day 2

Day two was spent once again at Stanage and we simply started where we left off, carrying on working leftwards along the crag until we'd covered most of popular. As the day wore on we found ourselves at High Neb, Secret Stanage and plantation too! A real tour of some of the crags finest delights in a day!

After warming up on solo's of some classic lower grade stuff I looked around at the lines around me for one that seemed a likely candidate to lead. The previous evening I had spotted the line of black hawk bastion and noted how cool it looked. Originally I'd planned to try the iconic "Comes the Dervish" in the llanberis slate quarries as my first E3, though with that trip having fallen apart I found myself with the desire to still climb E3 though with no climb I felt like leading.

The Crux moves of Black Hawk Bastion, Credit: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=189602

The line of black hawk bastion looked as inspiring from the ground as any and I felt a huge desire to get on it, From the ground it looked almost easy? Obviously not vdiff. Though nor did it look like a complete impossibility. I scoped out the locations of all the holds and gear in and around the crux from the ground and decided it would go.

Sachi Flaking ropes at the bottom of the route

I ascended the corner to the roof quickly and efficiently placing some bomber nuts and cams in the corner crack before questing out onto the left wall to find the real difficulties of the route. I hung around with a good sidepull for my left hand and bridging the corner for a little while as I hunted for more holds and confidence. I found a good crimp inside a thin flake in the roof, after messing around with my feet and shaking out a couple of times more I swung into action. I found myself hanging off the roof crimp with my right hand chalking up and savouring the exposure from that position. I felt like a rockstar hanging horizontally in space whilst casually chalking up. A powerful swing with my left hand lead me to the sloper on the arete. I moved my feet up and left forcing me into a constricted squat under the roof. My left leg scrabbled around the arete also join my hand in a heel hook on the sloper. Heel hooking on a trad route? that might be a first? Though this is when all my composure went out of the window. The confidence had sufficiently ebbed and I was now fluttering like a leaf whilst slapping my right hand higher trying to find something that wasn't another sloper (It's Grit, I don't know what I really expected?). I realised that If I progressed as such I was quickly going to find myself falling. I stopped, slowed down, reminded myself 3 of my points of contact were on good holds and I wasn't particularly pumped I totally had this in the bag, I breathed out, let thoughts of the high grade leave my mind and yarded to glory! I'd only gone and done it! 

Ropes Trailing off of the crux!

Very public displays of emotion aren't really my forte, they make me feel a little awkward (The autistic mathematician within me I suppose). Though I yelped and hollered with pure un-adulterated Joy for the many stiff upper lipped northerners climbing at stanage popular to hear. The top was dispatched with comparative ease, and me and my humongous cheeser were soon atop stanage hollering once more! Before too long I was swaggering back down to the base of the crag where I was stopped by a friendly american couple who commended me on my lead. I preceded to regale them with a move by move account of how it went down trembling with joy every now and then. Genuine praise from climbers I find is often hard won and so feels even better when it comes. So this american couple really were the icing on the cake for how psyched I felt!. First E3 bagged! 

The day then continued and we were still climbing loads. Sachi also later went on to bag his first E3 with his onsight of the bold and ridiculously technical Impossible slab. He did well to get up it clean.

The Final Great route of the day was my tranquil solo of Fairy steps at the close of the day after I got spanked by the wide start to Goliaths Groove. It was very peaceful watching the sun get lower and lower behind the castleton cement works whilst I teetered delicately across the exposed slab. 

Fairy Steps, Credit: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=47796

Day 3

The third day of our already very successful trip was spent at Froggatt edge, famed for its bold and highly technical slab climbs. Sachi who had already spent a day or two at this particular edge climbing the classics continued to establish himself at the E3 grade with an onsight solo of Long Johns slab and then an onsight lead of 4 pebble slab. Good effort to him on them both.

The day for me focussed on doing the lower grade crag classics. The day began with an interesting ascent of Valkyrie on the Froggatt tower. I'll be honest I'm not very good at wider cracks and the first pitch was a bit of a grovel.

The best routes of the day for me were the ultra classics: Tody's wall and 3 pebble slab.

3 pebble slab was for me probably more adventurous than most, I had progressed past the crux of the route and was about to embark upon the blank slab above which requires total faith in the friction generated between your boots and the rock as your gear recedes further and further behind you. This was sadly the point when the heavens decided to open. I stood on an edge for maybe half an hour waiting for the rain to stop and the rock to dry sufficiently for me to carry on. as the minutes ticked away my calves kept getting more and more pumped, my decision to move was more motivated by the ever nearing cramps in my calves than by the condition of the rock. The teetering began and was all over very quickly, A fantastic line!

Hope you stick!! credit: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=56572

Tody's wall proved to be another fantastic climb, The route Is one of the most varied on grit, requiring you to grovel up into a standing position on a large block in the face, Once atop the block you then continue up and onto the slab above by a really nice rockover. The climb finishes up a good jamming crack. 

The flexibility required for the rockover move, watch and weep!
Credit: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=210088

The plan after this was for me to have a go at sunset slab, unfortunately once again the heavens opened and looked very reluctant to close. So we bailed on Froggatt and went back to the campsite.

Day 4

This was supposed to be our rest day, and admittedly I didn't push the boat out very far for the majority of the day, taking it easy on a few low grade solos and boulders, though the last route of the day was my second E3: Wall end slab direct. 

The style of this second E3 was very different to that of black hawk bastion, The route takes a direct line up through the blank slab that was first climbed in the dark ages (good effort ye olde grit climbers) and goes at E2 5b. and then cuts left up the steep scoop at the top for a "Harrowing finish". Despite the start supposedly being the easier part of the route, for me It was definitely the crux. The hardest moves were crossing over a scoop in the rock using a rockover with only slopey sidepull blobs for the hands. The next move was a very tenuous high step on the blank slab with gear far behind. I remember telling Sachi to be quiet because I needed to concentrate hard on the moves so as not to fall. A fall from either of these two moves would probably result in a groundfall. My chosen finish went just to the left of the imposing nose at the top of the slabs up a vertical groove. In typical grit style the top is the worst rounded sloper in existence. Thankfully at this point I had a bomber red cam in a pocket out left and knew I would no longer hit the ground the event of a fall.

Nice gear spacing! My crux was crossing the chalked blobs at the bottom of the shot and then the move to attain the position the climber is in. The finish, goes up the groove left of the climber. Credit: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=52500

Day 5

One of my goals for the trip was to improve my crack climbing, where better to improve my crack climbing than millstone edge? Not a single poor quality route was done this day. The first route of the day was Embankment 2, This route had been on my wishlist for ages ever since seeing this fantastic photo:

looks too good to be true! credit:http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=161389

Due to my lack of proficiency at crack climbing it proved to be a bit of struggle getting to the top. I wanted to just layback the crack, but I kept telling myself it was cheating and I should do it in true jamming style. 

The second route of the day was time for tea original which I was happy to have seconded cleanly. It would seem I'm not so awful at finger jamming. I could definitely feel myself getting better at crack climbing!

The best route of the day for me and the best route of the entire trip was without a shadow of doubt Bond Street. On the wall of Bond Street are two top 50 HVS's I let Sachi take his pick of the two. He chose Great Portland Street, which unfortunately was the climb I originally wanted to lead. I had let him choose though so I wouldn't complain. I'll be honest I was quite intimidated and not really looking forward to getting on bond street. From the ground It looked like a meat grinder that would eat climbers for breakfast lunch and dinner, I was sure I was just going to be a light snack. With my double rack of cams ready at the base of the route I reluctantly set off up flakes and edges to the left of the crack to allow me to start the crack at a slightly narrower section. I placed my first jam in the route and all the anxieties melted away. 

The jam was the stuff dreams are made of, I let out a happy cheer; "YES! The jams are bomber!". Cruise control was activated and I was soon at the sentry box 3/4 of the way up the route after a glorious section of bomber jam after bomber jam in the crack. From the ground I thought I'd be using face holds for feet but once you're in the crack it just seems insulting to even think about. The crack leaned very slightly rightwards to make it awkward enough to maintain interest, but not too awkward to make It scary. I don't think I've ever felt so comfortable on a climb in my life apart from fallout corner. Upon reaching the top I shouted that I could do the climb every day for the rest of my life and still be happy. I still stand by this assertion, the route only comes second to Jack the Ripper in my list of all time greatest climbs due to a lack of exposure (and perhaps because I don't want to admit that English climbs can be better then Scottish).

Bond Street, the second best climb I've ever done.

 Day 6

The day began with us briefly hitting up Froggatt edge so that we could do the remaining classics at the crag, I started by onsight soloing sunset slab. Sachi continued to expand his repertoire of hard bold trad leads with a solo of the great slab and a very bold lead of browns eliminate. The favourite route of this half of the day for me was chequers buttress. The route takes a nicely exposed position on an arete at the end of Froggatt edge. I remember pausing a while to savour the exposure whilst on the jug before continuing on and up the climb.

Unfortunately due to the menace of midges we opted to abandon Froggatt and after some lunch head to the leaning block on Higgar Tor. Where I got spanked by a VS (the file) and then chickened out of the Rasp, what a way to end my trip on the grit! Thankfully after my failures I soloed some short off-width cracks to the right of the leaning block which proved to be hideously fun.

Day 7

Though all of the climbing was now finished the adventure was not over. My plan had been to sit on the platform of Chester train station from 3pm on Saturday till 11am on Sunday (20 hours) as I didn't want to pay for accommodation and as a dirtbag climber I was happy to rough it like some povo (My new favourite word, and yes St Andrews has changed me into an elitist) on the train station floor. 

At about 11pm on the Saturday I was sat reading my bible when a young couple  (the recently engaged Ant(h)ony and Sarah) approached me asking what I was doing; I told them I planned to rough it on the train station floor. It soon transpired they too were christians and after hearing my tale of woe, they asked if I'd like to go with them back to their house. They lived in Wrexham (my first time in Wales, I was very surprised when I found out!). After meeting some more of their friends and getting fed a greggs sausage roll (which I'm grateful for by the way) I was shown my room where I crashed for the night, In the morning I was given a lift back to the train station to allow me to catch my train. As you can understand I'm very grateful to the couple, thanks again Ant(h)ony and Sarah! 

Some really cool older guys we met at millstone edge, I loved talking to them and hearing their experiences.

The Chasm

As we turned right onto the road into Glen Etive I wondered which of the gullies in the side of Buachaille Etive Mor was the legendary "Chasm". Before too long I realised there could be no doubt as to which particular gash was our route. The whole side of the mountain seemed to collapse into a tear in the very fabric of reality. Quite ridiculously this massive deep chasm in the side of the mountain was where I was headed.

The reputation of the chasm is almost legendary. Known as the ultimate and longest adventure climb in the UK. The route gains 450 metres vertically over the loosest wet choss I have ever encountered. The climbing borders on the ridiculous at almost every point though this is most felt when reaching inside a waterfall to find more hand and foot holds. In total including the short scrambles between the pitches the route must be around a kilometre long. the chasm is given the very unassuming grade of VS, though talk to anyone in the know and they'll tell you it's not a VS it's a "Scottish" VS. 

I first heard about the route by surfing the UKC logbooks to find the longest climb in the UK I could, I stumbled on the chasm quite quickly and then preceded to read about peoples experiences of the route on the forums.

"A stonking gully route. More than 15 pitches and sparse gear (if any!) on most sections. Loose rock, slimy in places, adds to the experience as did navigating snow-bergs and the converging walls pitch (glad to be on second for that one!) Cauldron 4c pitch wet so took 4b route out but still a long chossy scramble to the summit ridge after that. Midgie hats essential once out. Walked down SE ridge scree and steep southern heather slope to make last food order at the Clachaig Inn!"

Snowbergs? In June? I had to find out for myself! I drafted the idea past the recently married Ben Gibson (congratz) and a mischievous smile crept across both our faces. We convinced ourselves it would be a good idea by saying things like "it'll be a laugh", "surely it's not that bad", "It's probably just hype". Unsurprisingly all of my assumptions about the route proved to be true, though sadly we didn't encounter any snowbergs.

The obvious rapture in reality known as the chasm

Despite their being no doubt which gully was the chasm, actually getting into it proved quite difficult. You want to get in high enough that you don't have to step over too many the bodies of slain of climbers at the bottom, but you don't want to start too high that you miss some good climbing. Even when you decide what point is a good one to enter, getting into the gully due to it's large steep walls is a challenge. Thankfully we found a less precarious section between rock walls to scramble down into the gully. Once in the chasm we approached our first obstacle, a 8 metre high waterfall blocked our path.

Our First obstacle

We solo'd up the wet rock just to the right of the falls. A definite sense of caution was needed, In the chasm one does not simply pull on a handhold. The hold must be tested repeated times by whacking it as hard as possible with your hand or foot to see if it can be trusted before it can be utilised to aid your progress. In ascending the first waterfall, I actually reached into the path of the water to find a hidden jug tucked underneath, the novelty of the situation began to sink in! You can't help but laugh.

Very tolkein-esque

From this point on, climbing through or right next to waterfalls on wet/loose rock became just another pitch on our adventure. After this nearly every single pitch was climbed roped up with (little) protection. I took the first leads and Ben took the next few after me and soon the pitches began to blur together though a few pitches we tackled definitely stood out.

The first memorable pitch was my lead, and looking at photo's of the pitch since having climbed it, it looks much tamer than it was.

It's much worse than it looks. Source: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=147865

I wasn't entirely sure which line would be best to take and ended up following a line just to the left of the man in the picture, and then traversing up and right to escape. This pitch with out a doubt is the single most dangerous pitch of climbing I have ever done, definite type 2 fun. Every single hold and I mean every single hold was covered a film of vegetation and water. Then when you went to test a hold that looked good it would simply pull out in your hands. It was like climbing a soaking wet heavily vegetated stack of books, when each book is up to the size of a microwave. On the whole pitch there is not a single piece of meaningful gear, so despite being on lead the rope offers nothing except another obstacle to trip on. Thankfully to make up for this the climbing was very easy, but the ease of the climbing didn't make me any less nervous on lead. Suffice it to say I was very glad when my pitch was over. (though I will admit it was good fun)

Another memorable pitch for me was one where the path of the gully forks, mainly because I have some nice photos of it as It was one the the sections of the climb open enough for enough light to filter down into the gully below.

It almost looks pleasant?

The next memorable pitch was the famed "100 foot waterfall pitch" which was waaaaaaay longer than 100 feet. This pitch actually provided some pretty decent climbing. If you took the pitch out of context and gave it a good clean it would probably merit a fair few stars especially at the grade, which was probably about VDiff. Ben took the lead on this fantastic and surprisingly exposed pitch, The exposure at the grade has only been matched in my experience by that of Agags Groove.

It climbs really nicely, Honest!

100 feet of waterfall

I have a couple of regrets from the day one of which was skipping the famed "converging walls pitch". This was an unfortunate error that occured because we had completely lost count of what pitch we were on and weren't quite sure if the pitch we were stood under was or was not the converging walls. Between the two of us we had a bit of a debate, and looking at it from below we thought surely that's not possible? and went around to the left skipping out the famously terrifying moves which require you to bridge up the gap between the two walls of the gully and then when sufficient height and lack of gear is attained you transfer across to the wall on your right. 

The second regret of mine is that we didn't actually finish the route. The main reason for this was we simply started too late. Perhaps we over estimated our own capabilities? more likely we underestimated how huge an undertaking the route was, our original plan was to simul climb most of the pitches, which I wouldn't recommend and the flaws in this approach soon became apparent and we resorted to pitching almost all of the vertical sections, which significantly slowed us down. We reached about pitch 12 by the time the clouds started to come over and Ben made the wise call to get out of the chasm while we still could. We escaped via another gully which cut through the chasm, though descent from out high point on the route still took us several hours and the rain that quickly came in proved to us that bailing was certainly the right choice.

The bowels of the earth.

Despite the fact that through my blog post the route might come across quite badly I actually loved the climb. I think the whole point and joy of the route is that it's a total horror show (I don't even want to think about doing it in winter). From start to finish you really feel you've entered some weird pre-historic world, we joked about finding a colony of woolly mammoths residing on one of the flat sections between pitches and in all honesty I wouldn't be surprised if there was something unusual tucked away somewhere. I'm sure any decent botanist would have a field (pun intended) day on the route. 

I'll offer some advice for any would be climbers of the chasm. Take full on waterproof gear and a pair of approach shoes/boots as well as your climbing shoes. Be prepared to climb up to around HS/VS in your approach shoes as swapping your shoes around regularly wastes valuable time which the climb seems to eat more of than even climbers. I wouldn't recommend doing this route if you're only leading VS and nothing harder due to the hazards posed you need to be a strong, confident and experienced climber.

The chasm truly is "Mind-altering" unlike anything I've ever done before and probably unlike anything I'll do since. It definitely gets 4 stars for a reason, while the quality of the climbing and rock is often sub optimal the quality of adventure is greater than that of anything your ever likely to do, I certainly recommend!

Good thing we bailed!

Shambles on the Shelterstone

Just more than a year ago a finished what was one of the most fantastic experiences of my climbing life, I finished the Cairngorm mega classic route "the Needle". The whole day from car to car took me and Sam Wainwright about 10-11 hours, it was was near perfect! I was tested emotionally and physically and experienced a wide range of emotions on the route. All in all it was incredibly rewarding for me, as a result I was desperate to get back to Shelterstone crag and climb on it again.

The more than impressive Shelterstone Crag

My first thought was to do "Steeple", supposedly the best line on the cliff and one of the best climbs in the country and in fact I still plan on climbing it later this year, In the mean time I thought I'd settle for doing the less classic "Citadel" (VS 4c). The climbing that resulted from this decision was frankly awful, It turned out to be the worst climb I've ever done! Hooray!

Over the preceding couple of days I regularly scanned the MWIS forecast in the hope that the weather would be good enough to tackle such a lengthy and committing route. The weather looked clear, the chance of any precipitation was very unlikely. The only negative was it looked a little cold for the day. I figured if I packed a few extra layers I'd be totally fine (don't worry I didn't get caught in a blizzard that isn't where the day went wrong). 

My partner for this particular adventure was the one and only Stevie Rutledge, Who is my longest standing friend as he was practically waiting for me when I entered the world. It was just like old times, running off and having quality adventures!

Mr Rutledge

We had a pretty relaxed start, rolling out of bed at half 8, having no timetable to fit to other than to be out of the Cairngorms before it got dark (about 10 o'clock at night) we felt the slight lie in was justified. 

The skies looked good all around, admittedly it was fairly cloudy but they were all the white, fluffy and friendly kind. Temperature wise it was pretty warm too. all in all a perfect day to hit up the Shelterstone!

We approached over 1141 and onto the plateau and then down into the loch Avon basin between stag rocks and hells lum.

First glimpses of Shelterstone crag, still a little lingering snow

We arrived at the routes base in good time and looked up at the route we were to take. I immediately decided that route finding would not be a problem. All the features mentioned in the guide were present and easily visible. That was exactly the problem though, the "grassy cracks" were definitely there and were certainly grassy. At the time I didn't think too much about how it resembled mossy weetabix. 

I headed up the mossy cracks and unsurprisingly absolutely everything was loose. I tottered up and up trying not to move the loose rocks in case they tumbled onto Stevie. Not only was the climbing loose and Grassy It was also quite badly protected. In the first 50 metre pitch I placed a grand total of 3 pieces of protection, on top of this I'm not sure how many of them would've taken a fall. 

Thankfully despite the awful quality of the rock the climbing was fairly easy for the most part and I soon made it to the top of the first pitch and was bringing Stevie up behind me. At this point I wasn't too bothered by the bad rock as supposedly the climbing improved with height. I soon set off on pitch 2 and It was much the same, except this time I could find nowhere to build a belay, so I meandered off left to find somewhere to call and end to the pitch, Once again I had only placed 3 pieces in about 50 metres of climbing. Naturally due to the poor nature of the rock and protection I was a little scared and had pretty much stopped having fun. It wasn't really climbing, more like extreme botany. I could see by looking at Stevie that he wasn't having a great time climbing vertical grass either.

Looking down the route

As a result of meandering off the route to find a belay I was now having great difficulty trying to get back onto the route and instead opted to climb the more appealing looking rock above. For once the rock was solid, however the run-outs were still large and the difficulty of the climbing drastically increased. At this point I decided that the climb wasn't really worth it anymore, despite the fact we were making good time neither of us was having fun and I think we were both a little scared by how loose everything was I decided we should probably bail instead of continuing up. Despite the guidebooks assertions the climbing didn't look to improve much above us so I figured bailing was probably the best idea.

"Too much choss!!"

I dithered around on some hard moves far above my last gear wondering what to do, despite having made the decision to bail there was at that moment nowhere for me to bail from, I was going to have to make it to the next belay ledge before I could bail. Stevie began to second but had serious difficulties trying to get past the hard moves on the diversion I had made, Unfortunately he couldn't get past them.

In the end I had to lower Stevie back down, I then set up an abseil using the tat I had bought only the day before to get back down to Stevie. Thankfully I encountered no problems with ropes getting stuck and continued to abseil down to the crags base which was reached in just short of 3 full abseils, meaning we'd climbed about 160 metres of the 270 metre route before bailing.

Follow the grass to the top

Despite having failed to climb the route and the climbing probably being the worst I've ever done I actually had a great day! I always knew it was going to be an adventure after all and It was great to get back out. This coupled with the fact that I actually got to use the bailing techniques which I'd learned many moons ago meant for me at least it was a highly educational day, and as a result of getting us both safely back down to the bottom I feel even more competent in the mountains. It's reasons like these that mean It's sometimes good to get completely shut down by a climb. If everything always went swimmingly I guess you'd never learn anything.

The single biggest thing I learnt however is that just because something Is a winter classic does not automatically mean it will be spectacular in summer too. I'll definitely have to go back and do this some time (though maybe after a longer dry spell and after I've climbed everything else). 

If nothing else It was great to spend quality time with an old friend in some of the most spectacular scenery in the country. So I guess this also was a very rewarding day, just perhaps in a slightly different way

Shelterstone Panorama

Relaxing in Ratho

As this year has ticked by the one place that I've always been keen to revisit for a bit of relaxed cragging is the outdoor quarry next to EICA Ratho. The rock quality is very good and provides a style of climbing I enjoy very much, in addition to this the routes are all a good length and fairly well protected. For me it's a great place to push my trad grade with multiple quality lines in the low to mid "E" grades. It was here I chose to lead my first E2 (Shear Fear) and on this weekend I was in the quarry to tick another central belt testpiece; wally 1 (E2 5c).

Shear Fear, My first E2

Originally I had planned to climb Wally 1 on the same day as shear fear, however the aspect of the route means it sees very little of the sun and unfortunately was soaking wet. I would have to be patient.

The opportunity arose for another attempt 2 days ago, Joe was feeling a little better after having been afflicted by "the plague" so after church and full of Mercy Macfarlanes fine cooking I made the now familiar journey down to Ratho quarry.

The afternoon began with Joe sending Rock a boogie (VS 4c) to warm us both up. The route is fairly straightforward apart from an awkward layback into a mantle.

Rock a boogie under blue skies

After seconding the route I went over to the "east bay", the blackest and most foreboding wall in the quarry. It sees very little of the sun and has a film of lichen over a lot of the rock. This less than appealing wall is the site of some of the most classic lines in the quarry including my nemesis of choice; Wally 1.

After a short psyche-up session at the bottom of the route I racked all the gear onto my harness and set off up a thin flake crack only to be stopped at literally the first hurdle. 

The way the rock had formed meant that the only available foothold was one at an awkward angle that seemed to force my foot off the wall and my body away from a small sidepull crimp up and to my left that I was fairly sure was my next hold. The gear at this point was fairly poor as the crack was too parallel to easily arrange my nuts (please don't take that out of context) and too thin to put my smallest cam in. after backing off the route once and having a think from the ground I twisted my ankle around to sit it on the foothold as best as possible and committed to the move. As is always the case you immediately wonder what you were worrying about and think that the move was fairly easy, sadly retrospect isn't something we're gifted before an event. 

The line follows the flake splitting the middle of the buttress
then straight up the cracked wall above

Another few technical moves above questionable nuts led to a great rest on a slot where I arranged a bomb shelter with some of the best looking cams I've ever placed. After this the route steepened and the line became less obvious, I bridged far out right (the disco leg made a brief appearance) onto another break in the rock where I rested once again, no gear was placed because of rope drag concerns. 

Bridging back up and left brought me to a good pocket where I placed another piece in a flaring peapod shaped crack. I pulled up  again and stuffed my hand into the "peapod" crack experimenting with various jams until I finally settled on a fist jam with my right hand. I yanked on my right hand a few times to get it properly stuck in the flaring crack. This unfortunately was my only decent(ish) hold, my feet were on nothing and my left hand was crimping hard on a small quartz vein. I won't lie I've felt more confident as to my chances of succeeding on a move as I did then, I re-assured myself that even if my last two pieces popped out I'd still fall onto my nest at mid height which would almost certainly hold.

Wally 1 looking dank and foreboding, ignore first appearances,
It's a fantastic route!

I yarded up hard on my fist jam to put my right foot into a good pocket which I stood up on to grab the good holds at the end of the climb. The closing sections of the route were soon dispatched and I was lying atop the buttress overcome with joy. If Ratho had still been open I'm sure my joy would've been heard in the offices adjacent the route. The sense of fulfilment when you've really battled hard for something is just incredible, I never at any point doubted my chances of getting to the top, this doesn't mean I wasn't scared it just means I didn't doubt myself and that is really the key to having a great time. When you are confident you don't suddenly stop being scared but the fear becomes great fun in a masochistic sort of way. You have to try it to understand!

Back in blue skies!

I abbed off of the route to clean the gear and was soon firmly stood on terra firma. The next and final route of the day was Joe's send of Blue Rinse (E1 5c) extra points go to Joe for climbing E1 whilst still recovering from the plague! The difficulties of the route were just above a ledge at mid height so Joe was reluctant to commit in case of an ankle breaking fall. After re-arranging his head space he was pulling up on the slopey holds onto the friendlier ground above. A solid lead!

Pre crux psyche up session

A nice sunny shot to counter all the muggy ones!

After three routes we decided we'd spent enough time in the quarry (especially as my lead had taken 50 minutes) and it was time to leave. Unsurprisingly the adventure was not over, first The climbing arena was closed and our easiest route out of the quarry was locked, so we had to navigate a new path out. Secondly and perhaps more seriously was that the car park and the climbing arena close at the same time and the only route out of the car park was now blocked by a large iron gate. After making a few phone calls to the security company we managed to successfully escape without losing too much time. I guess it wouldn't be as fun if everything went to plan!

Eagle Ridge - Lochanagar

As exams (finally) came to a close I found myself desperate to get into the mountains and kick the mountain trad season off once again. Unfortunately if you've payed any attention to the weather of late you would've seen that we had a second winter in April. Meaning all of the mountains I wanted to climb were now under snow. I searched around for an awesome looking route in a snow free that was both fast drying and long. The one that fit those criterion best was the ultra classic Eagle ridge (S) (reputed to be the best ridge climb in Scotland).

Now another problem arose, originally Joe was supposed to be my partner in crime for this little escapade but unfortunately his face had swollen up like a balloon because of the plague and naturally was unable to come along. After posting on the STAUMC facebook page another partner in the form of a burly German named Ron appeared. Plans were solidified and after an early start we were on our way to Ballater to begin the "2 and a half hour" walk in.

Lochnagar just visible over the saddle

A pleasant surprise!

The supposed 2 and a half hour walk in was demolished in one and a half, and we were at the routes base by half 10. To reach the routes base we needed to traverse across a fairly large patch of snow which seemed reluctant to leave the corrie.

Lochanagar; fairly free of snow. Eagle ridge is the second from the left

Eagle Ridge

Lochanagar Panorama

Due to the snow patch we didn't actually begin climbing at the routes official start, instead started way right and traversed through choss and heather to reach the initial sections of the route. Ron took the first lead through the loose rock and I was quickly at the belay with him. The first proper pitch of climbing followed a right trending v-groove upwards which lead into a chock stone filled chimney directly above. I happily discovered that the belay was a large thread around a block so I was able to very quickly begin bringing Ron up.

Ron attacking pitch one

Royal Deeside from the belay

We quickly changed around gear and Ron was off up the third pitch which trended back rightwards over easy ground. The route was easy to follow as crampon scratches were visible all over the rock so getting lost would require a huge lack of attention. For my second pitch we decided it would be more fun to ignore the crampon scratches and head up a shallow groove the climbing wasn't difficult, but bold and exposed with no gear. I chose to belay just at the start of the most exposed section of the route with steep drops on either side. Ron took the 5th and probably the most spectacular pitch of the route (though the climbing was awesome at all times). It involved seriously exposed climbing on a very thin ridge line, the intimidation factor was ramped up significantly by the sounds of cornice collapses in the gullies around us.

A bit washed out, but oh well.

After Ron's smooth lead of the penultimate pitch it was down to me to finish off the route. A second exposed pitch lead interestingly up blocky terrain to the Lochnagar plateau above. Upon topping out we decided we may as well go to the top of Lochnagar to bag the Munro seeing as it was only 2 minutes walk around the corrie.

The final slab of Eagle Ridge

Summit panorama, Royal Deeside lain out before me

Proof!

Once again we quickly descended off the top of Lochnagar, finding it easier to run than walk back downhill as this hurt our knees less (I'm getting old). The walk back out took us roughly an hour and a half again. From car to car the day took us 6 hours. 1.5 hours for the walk each way, 2 hours on the route and then an hour of standing around.

Climbing Eagle ridge came at an interesting time in my life, Many things have recently come to an end including my first year at university, which I have greatly enjoyed thanks to the climbing, the maths and especially the company I've spent it with. The time spent at belays allowed me to reflect fully on my year in the tranquil beauty of the mountain environment. I realised all good thing come to an end so that even better things can be found around the next corner of life. 

Corny huh? this is what happens when I'm left alone with my thoughts at a juncture in my life.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28"

One of "those" days

Sometimes you have "one of those days", when the everything conspires against you. You simply might not be as good at something as you were the day before, you might try something and an unlikely but frustrating outcome occurs. Basically nothing goes to plan. This Saturday at Glen Clova I had one of those days. The day begins with me squatting in a ditch:

Me: Joe, I feel rough. I think I've got car sick for the first time in years
Joe: Just take deep breaths
Rosie: Yeah, just walk around a little
Me: Yeah, good idea I'll probably be fi-*BLUUUUURGH*-ne, ugh maybe I won't be fine...
Joe: Are you sure you're alright? You haven't eaten anything funny?
Me: Well, I had waffles and maple syrup for break-*BLUUUUURGH*-fast, probably wasn't the easiest thing to digest -*BLUUUUURGH*
Rosie: Caelan, your vomit is pink... That's not healthy!
Me: Hmmmm, that's a good point Don't worry I'm just shedding weight for the hard climbs, I'll be fine in a min-*BLUUUUURGH*-ute
Joe: I think you should take it easy today Caelan, The road here is very windy 
Me: Well, I seem to have emptied my bowels, shall we head up and climb? We'll see if i'm up to zig zag double direct (I wasn't)

Auspicious beginnings I hear you jeer, rather unsurprisingly the day continued with as much success as it began (with a lot less vomit).

Glen Clova in the sunshine, The weather was one of the few things that went to plan

First on the agenda was Cauldron Crack a steep HVS 5a, probably not the best selection for a warm up, especially for me. Thankfully this was Joe's lead. Joe climbed up to the roof, filled the crack in the roof with cams and then blasted through the steepest section to the safety of a tree on a ledge above. The climb then finishes up cracked slabs. A physical start to the day!

Pushing through the Crux

After the wild ride

After Joe's lead Rosie and I quickly seconded up to the top of the climb, whilst sorting the ropes out I figured the fastest way to get the rope I was coiling to the bottom would be to just throw it off the route, completely forgetting about the tree at mid height. An "abseil of shame" soon followed as I went down to retrieve the ropes from the tree, my hubris got the better of me.

The next route on the agenda was in my opinion the best of the day: Proud Corner (VS 4c, though it felt quite soft) The name is a bit of a misnomer, it is more of a face climb than anything else. I can't really put my finger on what made it so fun, It was relatively bold with some nice techy moves on easy angled ground, the polar opposite to cauldron crack.

Getting run out on proud corner, the crag classic

After completing this climb, We headed to the upper crag to try the other crag classic, Red Wall (E1 5b). The climb is split onto two pitches to remove rope drag, I got the bouldery and steep first pitch, First it begins up a very thin crack, which you gaston until you can reach the good hold at the top. Then you climb up and right on good holds to the crux of the pitch. Following with the pattern of bad decisions and luck I immediately (and unwittingly) filled all of the good holds with protection which lead to my first fall on E1, a bit sad to lose the streak. After dogging the route a little I made it to the top where you belay in an awkward quartz chimney.

The traitorous cams just in view

Joe then lead through to conquer the top pitch with relative ease, though he did say "watch me" more in one minute than I'm used to as he was doing the last moves. Despite his worries, the last moves were dispatched and soon we were being brought up the cracks and grooves of the top pitch.

Looking down Red Wall.

After having hogged all of the morning leading, we felt it was time for Rosie to lead a route she went for a climb that I'm fairly sure was Monsters Crack (the VS 4c variation) The difficulties stemmed (pun intended) primarily because of an awkwardly positioned tree growing out of a huge crack in the rock, making progress very inelegant and uncomfortable. In other news I used my first ever stacked hand and fist jam. I think I need more practise as it didn't feel very secure but I'm improving at finger and hand jams and regularly use them on crack routes.

Climbing as a three had slowed us down meaning we only had time for one more route that day, Joe decided to go for Wandered (HVS 5a). The climb is easy until an overhanging hand crack is reached, which you pull through with difficulty to reach a large ledge. The climb then traverses out onto the arête, which you finish up on with good holds. Joe began up the route but couldn't finish the overhanging crack section and came down to let me finish.

Rosie slacking off and Joe out of focus on the climb.

For me the crux of the route wasn't the hand crack It was the route finding from the ledge after it, If you traversed Immediately out right you ended up on a large blank section of rock which definitely wasn't HVS 5a. So I opted to climb up a little and then traverse out right to find what I think was the proper finish, a very exposed but enjoyable finale. After having spent a lot of time faffing around with swapping climbers and route finding. It was now time to head back to St Andrews.

If we ignore that a lot of things didn't really go as expected (and the car sickness) It was actually a great day of mountain cragging in glorious sunshine! I can't wait to get on longer mountain routes though. It looks like Centurion on the Ben could be in the pipeline.

Glen Clova