The distant chattering of a ring ouzel blends with the bubbling froth of the nearby burn. The air is full with the sweet sun-warmed scent peculiar to the plants at this sub-montane habitat - matt grass, crowberry and blaeberry all dominating over the lower altitude heaths. I'm here at last. I've thought about this place a lot in the last year. Ever since I first came here it's been nibbling away in the back of my mind as a place to return to, to explore.
Despite being a Cairngorms-based climber with a preference for slabs, I'd not been in the Cairngorms once yet in 2012, summer or winter, and not climbed any routes that I would describe as proper slabs. So after a few good days in the North West over the last weekends, including some steep crack grovelling at Ardmair and a redpoint of the mega-steep Snowflake at Goat Crag, it felt like time to change up and do something completely different.
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| Not a slab: Abbing for a stuck wire on Space Monkeys, Ardmair. |
While working on the RSPB's Montane Bird Survey last summer I had the good fortune to work on Beinn a' Bhuird, one of the more remote Cairngorm hills. The size of the area we were surveying meant an overnight stay, but I couldn't be bothered to lug a tent up with me. After a bit of research I found out about the Smith-Winram bivuac under Dividing Buttress in Coire an Dubh Lochan, and after a day's work dropped down into the coire to find it. On approaching the crag I couldn't help but notice the smooth granite slabs set below the buttress itself and comparisons to the Lower Slab at Hell's Lum started to spring to mind. Closer inspection provided all I needed to know - gently angled, compact, perfect Cairngorm granite, an obvious line of blankness between two cracks. Later I quizzed Julian Lines, the master of remote Cairngorm slabs, and he didn't know of any routes there. I vowed to return with rock shoes.
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| Dividing Buttress, Coire an Dubh Lochan.
The slab is bottom centre, left of the dark wet patch and above the boulders. |
On my own, I wasn't really sure what I was going to acheive. I didn't want to top-rope the route without a good try from the ground first, but could't really justify going for it without at least the vague knowledge that it might be climbable. In the end I abbed the line, giving it a wee clean as I went. Then I pulled up the rope (no jumping to safety!) and after up-downing the start a few times to remind myself how slabs work, took a deep breath and committed.
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| A dodgy video still of the action. |
I got it first try, which was great, but it did leave me feeling a bit puzzled. It was definitely easier than I'd hoped it might be - I'd secretly been hoping for a new Firestone - and I couldn't work out if I had just pulled an amazing climbing performance out of the bag (I'll admit, frictiony slabs are probably my strongest climbing area) or if the route just wasn't very hard. I think the slab is a degree or two shallower than Firestone, and allied with slightly courser granite, there were more tiny edges and rugosities to play with. Regardless, however, it was still a 17m solo flash of a beautiful piece of granite, which is more than I'd expected when I got out of bed yesterday. I'm calling it Kissy Klub after everyone's favourite electro producer Kissy Sell Out, who's mixes have been keeping psyche levels high for the last few years (he was on the ipod on the way in and out yesterday), and, based on other routes I've done that are a bit like this, tentatively giving it E3 5b, but I'll be honest, I don't really know. You could place a runner in one of the cracks right at the top, but am not sure if it would be worth it.
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| The Smith-Winram Slab. Kissy Klub goes between the obvious cracks in the centre |
1 comment:
Kool :)
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