Imbalance

Back in the winter Murdo spent a wee bit of time staying with Sarah and I.  It was fun having him around, a constant source of psyche hunched over his evening teapot, as he scoured the internet for conditions and gossip and the occasional loud exclamation of  "dick" whenever he discovered someone had done a route he hadn't.  It was particularly amusing seeing Sarah realise that we had a disciplined, single-minded athlete in our midst, with his carefully considered diet and training and endless climbing banter.  Before then she thought I was a motivated climber, but with him around I pale into a lackadaisical shambles.  She, understandably, failed to comprehend how anyone could be so singularly driven.

Anyway, the winter came and went and Murdo moved on and as the summer has ticked by I've not seen that much of him.  With Sarah away on a three week work trip to Malawi we penciled in a weekend to get out.  Having kept an eye on his exploits on his Flickr page it's clear that he's in what Test Match Special's Henry Blofeld would call "absolute mid-season form", and as our weekend approached a nagging fear started to grow.  What was he wanting to do? And how the hell was I going to follow him up it?  I really didn't want to have to make him compromise on his objectives just because I'm a weekend punter.  So, I prepared to swallow my pride. And dusted off the jumars, just in case.

Luckily for me, a chilly northerly and the threat of passing showers meant that plans for scary mountain E7s were binned and instead we both got to climb great routes at our own, somewhat lopsided, standards.  I won't bore you with the gory details but to summarise: in two days we climbed 8 routes and clocked up 32 E points, of which I lead 5 routes and added 11.  So, Mr Jamieson added the remaining 21 E points in just 3 routes. Fortunately, I didn't have to second any of them, as we'd probably still be there.

Super Crag:
Murdo onsighting the run-out Heart of Beyond, his first E7 onsight.
(Photo: Murdo Jamieson)

Lochan Dubh Crag:
Me in a re-match with Call of the Wild.  I took a memorable ride off the top of this last year, but this time round the laps at the Tom Riach boulder seemed to pay off.
(Photo: Murdo Jamieson)

Lochan Dubh Crag:
You can just about make out Murdo abseil-inspecting Welcome to the Terrordome. After two abseils, during which he sussed the gear and some of the moves he did it on his first try.  E8 6c in the guide, but all Murdo said was that the route him and Iain Small did on Carnmore was harder.  All I can add is that it looked about E3 the way he climbed it...