Emergence

This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,

Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,

Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between

Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.

I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration

Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze

Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,

Faces of people streaming across my gaze.

And I, what fountain of fire am I among

This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed

About like a shadow buffeted in the throng

Of flames, a shadow that’s gone astray, and is lost.

The Enkindled Spring, by D.H. Lawrence

Yawning and stretching we blink into the bright light of a new season. As the glens slowly transform from winter’s brown to summer’s green and the icy whiteness recedes to the highest hill-tops, our thoughts start to turn. Eyes begin to look away from the snow, big boots and down jackets are put away, crampons and axes hung up. Winter is over, and with it the cold, the suffering, the early mornings. The spindrift and wetness, the heavy packs and hot-aches. The constant, endless, non-stop weather and conditions checking. Spring is here, and with it the excitement and expectation born of months spent pulling on plastic holds at the indoor wall. The rock-climbing season begins.

Steev beneath cotton-wool clouds on Handrail, Bowden Doors (All photos: S. Crawford)

In celebration I traveled south to old haunts. Fife’s Limekilns was the scene of the first routes of 2009, and they didn’t disappoint. Joining my old housemate and long-time climbing partner in crime Steev on Friday evening, we played on the sun-dappled limestone cubes beneath the closing canopy. Steev’s hardest onsight (all be it very soft-touch by his own admission) was a good start on Kiln Dance with Me (E1 5a*). I then flexed my muscles on Elgin's Crack (E2 5c***), one of the classics of the crag, and a pleasing first route of the year since it's as hard as anything I did last year. As the evening drew in Steev waltzed up DTs (VS 4c**) and I gave up before commiting to the bold (but supposedly soft) Grasp the Nettle (E3 5b*). Maybe when there's more light....

Seduced by Saturday's blue sky we hopped into the beast (my Skoda, which is still holding on) and made the pilgrimage to Bowden Doors in Northumberland. I was pretty chuffed to climb Stretcher Wall (E1 5c*), as it's not exactly my forte, and decided to carry my positive momentum forward and have a go at the classic sandbag The Overhanging Crack (E2 5c***). My lack of jamming expertise meant my attempt was short lived, but as Steve put it, I've made the first steps on the journey, so can take it from there.

Me on the easier top section of Stretcher Wall, Bowden Doors

Steve climbed the good little Handrail (VS 4c*) and had a good look at Canada Crack (HVS 5a***) before deciding to come back later in the season. Good mountaineering, as Mr 'Crazy' Chris Edwards might have it. In a similar theme to many previous Bowden trips, the 'next step' for me, i.e. the routes in the grades I'm approaching, are mainly soloes, and I'm still not going well enough to commit to them. I had a good look at both Klondyke Wall (E2 5c) and The Trial (E3 5c), but couldn't bring myself to make the long moves high above pads. But hey, it is only April...

Enjoying Childs Play in the evening sunshine.

The day wound down with a cheeky bit of bouldering. I managed Cave Left Hand (Font 6a+), which I've tried sporadically for about five years, so was pretty pleased, and then got all highball and fluttery on the superb Childs Play (Font 6b+/E1). So, lets hope the rock season builds from this positive start.

Playing Away

I've not been up in the mountains since a few weekends ago so no wintery fun to report, except that the sky is currently spewing a huge amount of snow in Lochaber. Check out this photo that I took earlier:

I'm hoping to get out on the hill tomorrow. I suspect it will be a pretty full on winters day - lots of digging for gear and placements and a fair old wind, but I'm game for a laugh.

At last, I have a car once more, a Skoda Felicia from 1997, and despite the odd grumble and rattle on it's first journey it seems to work well enough. It's quite nice to have a slow car, there's no pressure to speed or overtake, or skid, or crash.

I was down in Edinburgh most of last week, hanging with the Jones and catching up with Yummick types. I even managed to squeeze onto a yummick trip to Bowden, home of the Northumberland strong man. As I've mentioned previously, I've been to Bowden so many times that I've pretty much exhausted the routes and highballs I can do, so I was there for fun and games, rather than serious gurning and fear. It was what a days bouldering should be: a bunch of good friends having fun, taking the piss because we're all crap and falling off lots. There was an air of 'the boys at the crag', as Viv, Duncan, Chris, Konnie and I ran about, giggled and fell off repeatedly. Suffice it to say I didn't get up anything I hadn't done before (mind you, I didn't exactly try), but still got a good working and had my share of fluttery top-outs. Childs Play, The Light Bulb, Russet Groove (twice), Sue, Castle Crack, the two groove problems, you get the idea. Transformer is still a bit too much without warming up, Flying Fish is still a bitch, The Trial is still too big, Overhanging Crack is still too, well, overhanging. However, we did do lots of lieing about on bouldering mats and eating Morrisons fine doughnuts, which is certainly the most important thing to do on a day at Bowden.

A typical Bowden day: Konnie, Duncan, Chris and Viv bearing down.

Viv clearly flouting the 'mats are only for sitting on' rule on Transformer

Chris on Russet Groove: the day finished with a mass ascent and the communal use of a hip-flask as we watched the sun set. Aww. How cute.

Soft Rock #2

A very late start got us to Bowden with about three hours of climbing before it was too dark. Had a good time anyway. Managed to do Pitcher Wall (HVS 5a), which I'd backed-off the start of before. This time I found a fiddly but good wire to inspire enough confidence to crack on. Its a good route, if a little short-lived (what isn't at Bowden?).

I've now been to Bowden so much that I'm beggining to run out of routes to do. I've done pretty much all the VS, HVS and E1s and am trying to get into E2, with last weeks ascent of Yellow Peril (E2 5c). Most of the things left are either complete sandbags at the grade or are just plain hard. I tried Little Red Rooster (E1 5c) but was totally pumped by the time I had the crux (huge) move to do at the top, so I came down again. Ended up doing Black Crack (VDiff) after realising Red Crack (HS 4c) requires huge gear and evil climbing (graunchy/laybacking). Anyhoo, Chris did a good job on Wall Crack (MVS 4c) but is still falling off the top of Y-Front (V3 6a). It gets HVS in the guide but there is nothing about this route that translates to HVS climbing - its just a boulder problem. He's pretty strong so should get it soon. It was very dark when he was trying too. Here he is looking faceless:

I'm stoked. Today I'm getting the train to Mallaig, from where I'm going out to Rhum and Canna to help with tagging this years Sea Eagle chicks. I'm on the team as the 'climber' so I think I might have to set up some abs, but I'm not exactly sure. It should be awesome. I did some voluntary work on Canna last year for 6 weeks. It was for the Seabird Enhancemant Project (rat eradication) and it was such a great place to be. Every day we were out checking the lines of 'bait stations' to check on the rodent activity on the island. By the time I joined the team all the rats were long gone and the project was just in the monitoring stage. It was through this that I met Martin Carthy, who does some work with the raptors, and he contacted me about the work with the eagle chicks. I'll be back on sunday so will update then, hopefully having not been attacked by mummy eagle. Here's a bad shot of Sea Eagles above the Tarbert Road Cliffs on Canna:

Word.