I'm back

Well, long time no write. I've connected to the wireless network in the new house at last!
I’m now safely stationed in the Fort, with genuine Lochaber rain dribbling down my window and genuine Lochaber midge bites on my arms.
I started my job last Monday, and all is going well. Nothing too taxing yet, but I’m learning a fair bit and think I’m being of use to Gary. His wife has just had a bairn so I
can imagine he’s grateful for all the help he can get, what with shifting circadian rhythms and all that.
On the climbing side I’ve been up to a wee bit recently. On the Saturday before moving up here Chris and I had a day on Buachaille Etive Mor. We went for Bludgers Revelation on Slime Wall. I was good and ready for it, having not been on a decent sized route for a while and wasn’t too bothered about the very cold hands and general wetness of the first 5a pitch. Chris however had real issues getting off the belay at the start and after a long time I ended up abbing back down and cleaning all the gear. Bummer! It’s weired really, cos Chris is strong, and in isolation could do 5a moves forever. But on this day it just illustrated that there’s much more to mountain routes than just the moves – it’s the early start, the walk in, the cold, the wet rock, the imposing and exposed situations. It rapidly adds up and can easily sap the psyche. It did that for Chris and he clearly wasn’t up for it.
I was keen to do something so as not to waste the day so we walked round to the East Face of North Buttress and climbed Crows Nest Crack, a VS brilliant with two full 40m pitches and a scramble in between them. The first pitch is sustained 4c and number 2 is sustained 4a, what ever that means. Either way, both pitches are easy, with great gear and great holds, fairly steep rock (for the grade) and their length means you get really absorbed. Another bonus was that the psyche fairy wasn’t with Chris so I got to lead both pitches. Definitely three stars, and I’m surprised it doesn’t have more of a reputation as a class route.

Moving to Fort William is definitely a good thing for my climbing. Glen Nevis is just a 10 minute drive away, with its hundreds of amazing routes and boulder problems. I’ve been down after work four times in the last 7 days up here and am getting close to doing Maisie Gunn on the Heather Hat (V4). I’v never really done much roofy stuff so its cool to get on this. I think I’m gonna have to get stronger though before it slips in the bag.

I had one of those awesome “this is why I climb” moments last Tuesday. It was a glorious evening, wall to wall sunshine with no midges, and just a few clouds over the Ben and Stob Ban. I walked up to Pine Tree Wall and soloed The Gutter, a classic easy Diff. It’s a wide crack that splits an easy angled slab for 45m, then a flake in the slab for 20m, the two pitches being separated by a big ledge with a huge Scots Pine on it – a perfect place to sit down and chill out. It felt like a nice welcome to the Fort.

Now all I have to do is make some belay buddies (and normal buddies!) and it’ll start feeling like home. A couple of my house-mates are outdoor instructors/climbers/polar explorers so I’m thinking there’s a good start there – just got to wait til they’re back from work in Svalbard and the East Coast! The other flatmate is a Nevis Radio DJ, a local celeb! Oh yes.
Sweet, I’ll catch up soon. Apologies for the lack of photos, but the camera is in the car. I'll sort it soon.....

Back North

Just a few lines to catch up. I'm back up in Edinburgh. Drove up today via the Lakes. I fancied a wee boulder and wanted to go to the Roaches but it was pissing in Staffordshire so I cracked on up the M6. I scanned my memory for alternatives and remembered the Langdale boulders.
Its a nice wee spot and I met some nice guys down there. Climbed shite, but got up enough to make the detour worthwhile.
A week of climbing and chilling in the city is ahead, then its on up to Fort William on the weekend to start the placement. Cool.
Jones, Chris and I are planning on going somewhere tomorrow but the weather aint looking great. The best bet is the County in the arvo. Psyche. Jones is off work on Tuesday too so we should get another day away.
Cannie wait to see Jones in an hour or so.

#11: SLMM, Bravo!

The Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon this weekend was actually very pleasant. Certainly not a word usually associated with such events. This year's event was in the Eastern Lakes, starting in Patterdale, over High Street to Haweswater, then back again via Martindale. Jones and I managed a respectable 24th in our course, out of 121 starting teams. Pretty good going since it was Jones' first event and she had a stinking cold. We were in the Harter Fell course, which is one of the easiest with about 35km and 1500m of climbing over two days. The weather was pretty good - a bit cloudy and wet on Saturday morning, but otherwise clear, blue and hot, making for fast movement and very little navigation. I have to admit that I was a bastard to Jones. The red mist came down and I wanted to get going fast, so there were a few times when poor Jones was suffering, but I think she has just about forgiven me.

Jones' dad Ian and brother Chris were running in the Carrock Fell course and came in 30th out of 97 starters, so good work to them. Here are the two teams before the start on day 1 (we had a long time until we were off, hence the special boots and general high fashion):

Because our days were short we ended up spending lots of time sunbathing at the overnight camp and then back at the event centre with our Wilfs meal - those of you that have done any of these events will know what that means. Hot dang, that bean stew is the shit. So overall, very pleasant and a good way to keep the mountain marathon skills ticking over for the OMM.

Anyhoo, on to other breaking news, I have a car. A T-reg Fiat Bravo with only 63000 on the clock. Just got back from taxing it. Oh yes. It be mine. That will certainly make living in Fort William easier, especially getting back down to Edinburgh to see the Jones. I think I might have to take it on a wee bouldering trip this arvo.
Well, thats about it for the noo. Keep it real y'all.

#10: Automobiles

The sun is shining. I mean it. No hint of sarcasm. Not even a cruel joke. It's actually sunny out there. Some of yesterday wasn't too bad either. Good enough to enable a trip to the Toll Road and to climb the boulder problem I was pussying about on last time. It just needed a bit of commitment. Oh, and the use of the hold that I hadn't seen on the first trip. Its actually a good little problem. Not too hard when you know where everything is - isn't that always the way. If I was a real boulderer (i.e. a good boulderer) I'd go back and put a 'sitter' on it for the start, but methinks that is a bit out of my league the noo.

The new problem

I just go back in from another trip down there (spot the guy with no climbing partners). I'm amazed how much stuff its giving up. There is actually a pretty huge amount of climbing, all be it bouldering with the odd 'micro-route' thrown in. You park on the Toll Road and climb down some metal steps to get onto beach-level. Facing out to sea you can turn left from the bottom of the steps and shortly reach a small buttress with a few nice problems, including a big, rhino horn prow that looks scarey and is yet to be climbed (by me at least). Turning right you pass, in turn, the stack, Prowd area, the Cave, then the Ceiling, then the Second Cave. All of which have a few good problems kocking about, and lots of things way too steep/hard for my weekling arms. What with all the rain we've been having there is quite a lot of seepage about, so with a good dry spell the number of possible problems would be much higher than at the moment. I can't help but feel that more people should be getting down there, what with all the climbers in the area that regularly climb at Cheddar and Avon. Maybe no-one has heard of it, though it is briefly mentioned in the Bible: CC's Avon and Cheddar guide book.
Away from my depressingly lonely climbing adventures I've been looking for a car to buy so have spent much of yesterday and today visiting garages and responding to adverts. Nothing amazing yet but enough to be getting along with.
The run on Saturday went well too, about 20km, and very little disomfort from the knee. Things are looking up for the weekend.

The Shire

In order to sort out my things for the eventual move to Fort William I've come home to Somerset for a few weeks. The train was only delayed by one and a half hours so it could have been worse. On the wednesday eve before I left the burgh Chris and I had a play at North Berwick Law Quarry. Nothing very exciting happened, except that I was very cold when I tried Fogtown (a F7a that I've tried a few times and fancy as a redpoint target) and didn't get beyond bolt 2. Ach well, serves me right for not warming up. We did some of the easier routes and generally had a pleasant time.

So now I'm back in Somerset, with grand plans for a few weeks climbing, but I fear that, as ever, I won't get much done due to a lack of belayers. The bouldering and soloing is OK, but I've done lots already. You see, I started climbing here in the Shire, with my mates Luke, Johnsey and Sarah H, four summers ago, and we used to get out quite a bit one way or another, visiting lots of obsure and esoteric crags (the major crag of the area, Cheddar Gorge, was mainly closed to climbers over the summer, which was when I was back at home, and Avon Gorge never appealed when we were surrounded by crags in the countryside). Within a half hours drive there are loads of crags: North Quarry, Sandford Quarry, Croscombe, Dinder Wood, Fairy Cave, Goblin Combe, Bourton Combe, Brean Down, Sand Point, Portishead, it goes on... But nowadays its hard to get a belay. Arse. Johnsey is in Canada, Luke is less interested in the rock, and works quite a lot, and Sarah is frequently away. So I seem to spend my time dragging a crash pad around.

Yesterday was no different. I started at Croscombe, a sweet, short limestone crag in woodland the other side of Wells from me. It's steep and pocketed and there are some good wee routes and boulder problems, except that yesterday it was pissing. Just about every bit of the crag was wet, dirty or a combination of the two. I played around for a bit, and am getting closer on a problem of old that Luke and I discovered a while back, which is nice, because the first move used to be a bitch, now its pretty easy. Jumping for wet holds isn't great though so I'll go back when its dry.

The Cave at the Toll Road Crags: The roof is often wet. Bum.

Later I went to an under-rated wee bouldering spot known as the Toll Road Crags. They are a section of wave-washed limestone cliffs under Weston-Super-Mare's Toll Road. There are a surprising collection of walls, slabs, caves and roofs, which generaly dry quickly and catch the sun all afternoon. Just check that the tide is out. Yesterday it was and I got deep down and dirty in the cave area. The Cave roof has a line of jugs that finish half way to the lip, so a long-standing project of mine is to link them and carry on out, but its very hard, and the jugs are a drainage line, so you need a long dry spell for them to dry. They were wet yesterday, but it was worth a go. I also found a wee problem I hadn't spotted before and got close to sending it (as they say), except the crux move requires a long pull round a roof from a heel hook, and if you don't latch the hold and fall off backwards you're gonna be hitting your head on the rock platform below, pad or no. A spotter is required. Maybe I can get my Dad to come along....

Yesterdays new project: mmmm, nice.

Over the last few years I've done quite a lot of nice wee problems at the Toll Road, all of which I'm sure have been done before by someone better, but I've never seen another climber there (except friends of mine), so I always get a feeling of it being my own little spot.

I went on a wee run up Crook Peak yesterday eve and felt no knee agro so things are looking up for next weekend's Saunders. I'm gonna go on a bigger run today (its wet, no climbing) and see how it holds out. Fingers crossed....

#8: Rain, Ravensheugh and dissapointment.

Well, the rain abated long enough on Saturday to allow a brief session at Agaziz Rock in Blackford Glen. It was nice to get out and I felt that my stamina/power endurance/whatever was vaguely improving because the R-L traverse felt pretty easy both times I did it, and the L-R traverse is getting easier, until the last few moves, which are very much the crux. Its probably just familiarity allowing more efficient movement, but it felt good what ever it was.

Konrad Rawlik cranking at Agaziz Rock

So, from one day of positivity I sunk to depths of climbing despondancy yesterday. Edinburgh was, once more, awash with heavy rain so with trepidation Chris, Steev and I drove south in search of dry rock in Northumberland. Somehow it's normally dry somewhere in the County, and if it was really crap we could just go to Kyloe-In where the steepness and trees keep much of the crag dry. By the time we got to Berwick there were blue skies and no sign of recent rain, so we decided to be adventurous and head to pastures new.

If you look up Ravensheugh in the NMC guide, UKC and Rockfax you get told of the Counties best crag with the best routes and best outlook. Well, I'll grant it the latter point, but it was a very dirty, wet, hard place yesterday. No-doubt recent weather has taken its toll because there was lots of seepage, but many of the dry routes were filthy with moss and lichen. Bummer. Many of the routes are undercut at the base, giving a sporting start and quite a few I looked at looked sparcely protected. Oh well.

In the end we spent all our time on the Parallell Cracks wall, getting a severe bruising from the short, powerful and very dubiously graded face climbs. I tried to work Little Idi (E1 5b, my arse!) to no avail. In the end my total was a Diff and a VDiff. Hmmm. It easy to blame the route, the gradeor the crag, but maybe I should stop the excuses and admit I was just climbing badly. I guess some you win, some you lose, but I'm not going to be racing back to Ravensheugh. Not until I'm solid on E4, and then I might be able to climb some of the E2s. I'm not bitter, honest.

Chris Edwards attempting Little Idi (E1 5b, 6a in real money!)

Just one of those days I guess. Maybe I should have just grown some balls and gone for the lead on something, rather than wanting to solo shorter routes. As compensation, it was a beautiful place, perched on a hillside on the Simonside Hills, near Rothbury, overlooking a huge, flat-bottomed valley with very little sign of human habitation.

Some you win, some you lose.

#7: Success and rain

Yes! At long last. Its been over a year of looking for jobs or PhDs, and finally I have one! I've managed to wangle may way to getting the graduate placement at Lochaber Native Woodlands.

I got the train up to the Fort (again) on thursday night and yesterday (friday) went out with Gary Servant to visit a timber extraction demo by the Northern Sunart Woodland Owners Group. The Sunart oakwoods are a large area of very interesting (and now relatively rare) Atlantic oak woodland. This type of habitat is only found on the Atlantic coast and is very rich in rare 'lower' plants (mosses, lichens etc.). During the 1950's much of the woodland was underplanted with conifers, namely Sitka Spruce, creating plantations for timber production. However, now there is much interest and activity attempting to reverse the changes and revert the woods back to their semi-natural state. This has been done by engaging and involving local communities in practical woodland management and local use of the woodland products (not just physical products, but other services like recreation and education). The demo we visited showed the low-impact equipment the communities have bought for the small scale clearing and thinning they will do.

Gary also drove me round parts of Ardnamurchan, Ardgour, Glen Uig and Moidart, to illustrate some of the projects and local area that he has been involved in. I had never been round these bits of the West coast before and it was beautiful, and dutifully accompanied with sporadic rain followed by blue skies and sun. "Such fair and foul weather I have not seen", or something like that.

I also spied a few sweet looking boulders and a crag that you would have to canoe across a wee loch to reach. Hmm, projects me thinks....


Anyway, on to climbing. Chris and I had planned to do something today (Saturday), but since it hasn't stopped raining all morning we are going to get out tomorrow. We hope..... I'm definately super-psyched after checking out the Hot Aches Productions blog. http://hotaches.blogspot.com/2007/06/pabbay-hard-xs.html


They are just back from Pabbay with lots of tales of cranking. Its good to see young Dan McManus getting coverage. He's a super strong lad from North Wales who's at uni in Edinburgh. I was president of the uni Mountaineering Club when he turned up as a fresher and got to know him that way. Infact, on day one of freshers week (before any of the freshers events had taken place) he found my number and contacted me about meeting up for some activity. I was busy so ended up just meeting him at the Crags. At that stage he was solid at E4 and said he was breaking into E5, now he seems to be solid at E6, with a number of badass E7s under his belt. He's only 20 and has climbed the Eiger Nordwand (with Tony Stone, another name to look out for), and his second winter route was Intruder in Stob Coire nan Lochan (VI 7)! He now stays in Lutton Place, my old home for three years,which is now a hardcore climbers flat. Good to hear.

Dan Mcmanus: Concentration itself. Slack lining over the cold Atlanic on Pabbay, June 2006.

About this time last year I went out to Pabbay and Mingulay with a team from Edinburgh plus some other veterans. It was an amazing week of what I think is called 'adventure climbing'. Big abseils, big seas, big cliffs. I climbed with Rik Higham and we had a great week, doing The Preist (E1/2) and Spring Squill (E1), among others, on Pabbay, and a suspected new route and an attempt at the subterranean traverse of Ghursey Beag on Mingulay.

The Priest (E1/2): Me starting the crux with the roof of the Great Arch to the right.

Looking pleased after the crux pitch of The Preist

We managed to do what we think is a new route on Mingulay, having abbed into what appeared to be the wrong bit of the crag, we followed a line of corners to the top at around HVS. Whether a first ascent or otherwise it was climbed in classic "where the fuck are we and how do we escape?" style and we felt justifiably proud. We called it Fulmars for Effort in honour of all the punning that had occured all week, and the fact that my shoe vomited on by said beast.

Fulmars For Effort: Looking down pitch 2 of our (new?) route.

And so, with psyche high I guess I'd better stop writing and hang from the bar for a bit. What else is there to do in such shite weather? Fingers crossed for lots of sun tommorrow.

All photos by Rik Higham. http://www.wintersun.me.uk/index.php