To the trees

Not much in the way of excitement of late I'm afraid. Most of the snow is gone, so I'm not too worried about getting into the hills for now.

However, its been an absolutely beautiful week up here. In fact, I'm beginning to forget what clouds look like. A hard frost has coated everything white since the weekend, complemented by watery blue skies and incredable sunsets.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be doing some woodland surveys over on Loch Sunart, near Strontian, crunching through frosted leaves and brushing ice crystals from skeletal heather stems. Not only was it another peach of a day, but its part of an area of incredably old, biologically rich oakwoods and for little old me, fresh out of school, to be the one that gets to stroll round them for a living is quite the privelage. Here are some snaps of yesterdays trees:

South to Loch Sunart and Morvern beyond

December light filters through the naked trees

Last week I ventured across the Fort William end of Loch Lihnne and was surveying in Stronchreggan, a glen I look into from my bathroom window. The view back towards my bathroom window is a stonker:

Benjamin Nevis and my house.

Last night I decided to play with some video I had lying around on my computer and came up with the wee clip below. In the past I have mentioned working on the Isle of Canna last Autumn. I was volunteering on a rat eradication project for 6 weeks, and on my days off (when the weather smiled) I went out and scoured the island for rock that wasn't falling down. The only success I had was on Coroghan beach, where the waves have got rid of the worst of the choss. Over a few weeks I did quite a few wee boulder problems, but the best was this one, Pied Piper (rat catching, see?). It's on this weired boulder shaped like a christmas tree, which looks out to Skye and the Cuillin. Happy days.

Soft Rock #3

As promised I made my way out to Mallaig on Thursday, ready to catch the CalMac ferry to Rum on Friday. I was helping Justin Grant with the Sea Eagle 'chick' tagging, both on Rum and then on Canna on Saturday. I use inverted commas because even at 6 weeks old these beasts are bloody enormous. Bigger than a fully grown Buzzard. I was there as the rope-access safety guy, helping to set up the abseils and give a hand with admin in the nest if needs be. Check out this photo of Justin getting a DNA swab on Canna: I'm really indebted to both Justin and Martin Carthy for inviting me along to help, and for supplying me with food, drink and a bed.

It was so nice to be back on Canna, seeing some of the old faces and places and getting to see what its like at a different time of year. I'd like to go back with some more time and see if the bouldering on Coroghan beach is still rocking it up. The basalt is mainly crap but I managed to find some wave-scoured blocks that were worthwhile. Ive even got a wee project out there and all, but I think its a bit too far to travel for one boulder problem!

After the Sea Eagle on Canna we walked over to ab in to the Golden Eagle nest. If there was more than one chick we were to take one for the Irish re-introduction programme. Lets just say it was a beast of an ab. Now - climbers, I know what you're thinking - an ab is an ab, how exciting can it be? What we weren't aware of was the fact that this crag was overhung at the top by a good 5-6 metres, and the vast majority of it's 90m length was spent free hanging. Thank fuck there was no jumaring to be done! As we abbed past the nest we could see there was only one chick, which was great because there was no way we were going to get near it - not without a lot of swinging, some dodgy gear in crap rock and missing the ferry. Justin took this picture of me on the way down:

I got back to the burgh last night after sitting on my arse for the 7 hours back from Mallaig.


This morning Jones and I went out for a run in the hot, hot, heat in the Pentlands. Its a nice wee round that I do lots when I'm training for the Original Mountain Marathon. Thats in November. We were training for the Saunders, which is in the perishing heat of July. Oh shit. Infact I'm quite worried because something is up with my left knee. It started out fine but towards the end of the run it was killing me and I've been hobbling ever since. I've got the frozen peas involved at the moment so fingers crossed it'll go away. A very similar thing happed when Jones and I were up on the Cobbler the other week. I hope it doesn't spell a big rest because that would mean the end of the Saunders and maybe screw up mine and Duncans chances in the A Class of the OMM. Ha!


Oh well. I think Chris and I are gonna get some cragging action tomorrow eve. Dunno where but I doubt the County, what with how long it took last week. We'll see though. Psyche.

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.