Feature
Climb Scotland - Summer /05
By Dave MacLeod
Last year saw some notable ascents in the higher grades and an increase in Sea Cliff exploration at all grades across the country
In my report for Scottish summer rock 2004 I made several predictions for 2005, none of which have come true. That shows how much I know. The summer, although not exceptional was good, so there were no weather excuses to be had really. The usual hefty pile of new routes were climbed in the trad and bouldering disciplines, with just a trickle of new sport climbs. Scotland's hardcore climbers seemed to be content to repeat others routes or pour energy into longer term projects, although one or two important firsts were made. I'll start with these.
Bouldering
Dumbarton Rock has long been the forcing ground for technical standards in Scottish rock climbing. If you want to find the hardest moves, this is the place to go. The smooth, frictionless basalt makes for complex and highly intricate sequences, yet the moves are often brutally powerful too. Add to this the generally unfriendly vibe of the place and you have a true test of body and mind for any climber looking to prove themselves. The hardest problems have been superseded by new additions several times in the past decade; Consolidated Font 7b+ in '93 by Andy Gallagher, The Shield Font 7b+ in '94, Pongo Sit Start Font 8a in '98 both by Malcolm Smith and Sabotage Font 8a+ in '03 and then Smokescreen Font 8a+ in early 2005 both by myself.
The first Font 8b was an obvious prize and with several excellent but improbable lines to be done, it was only a matter of time before someone took up the challenge. I was inspired as a young climber to one day climb across the roof running under the BNI boulder and finish up Sabotage by a comment by one of the 'top boys' in the 90's "One day people will be traversing that roof". It took me many, many days of sitting under the roof with neck ache trying to figure out how a series of awkwardly positioned undercuts and slots could be made into a sequence of moves. Finally this February the solution; a 360 degree spin move, became clear and I climbed the roof in a single push to give Perfect Crime Font 8b. It's just as well I did, because Malcolm Smith took up a renewed interest in Dumby shortly afterwards and linked another project I'd been working on. His problem Super Size Me Font 8b starts round the corner from Pongo Sit start, traversing into the start of this then climbing it to gain In Bloom which is followed to a finish up Slap Happy. This links together a Font 7a, 8a, 7c and 7a without any respite to give a 30 move lactic trip. Two excellent lines remain on the boulders for the future, well maybe this winter?
The major development of the year for the bouldering scene was the release of John Watson's book Stone Country which seems to have had a major impact, concentrating a lot of information (and inspiration) into one source and opening a lot of peoples eyes to just how much is out there, both established and still to be explored. The Watson himself has been exploring relentlessly during 2005 adding many new problems to Stronachlachar early in the year. The hardest of these are Nameless Pimp Toy Font 7a+, a fingery traverse of the Long Boulder (an extended start is still to be done) and Sycorax Font 7a+ on the Caliban Boulder further up into the woods, which involved "tiptoeing backwards horizontally" across a roof. These were done in early January, a privilege allowed by Stronachlachar's sunny outlook, worth bearing in mind when you're getting cabin fever in the climbing wall this winter. Another keen activist this year has been Craig Henderson who has worked away steadily adding numerous lines in Dumfries and Galloway. It sounds like Sandyhills, Criffel, Screel, Garheugh and Clifton have a healthy circuit of low to mid grade problems to go at courtesy of Craig, John Watson, Pete Murray, Allan Wallace and others. The best place to keep up with this development is the Scottish Climbs site database and Craig's site (www.dandgbloc.blogspot.com).
Dave Cuthbertson's arms have begun to work again this year, so he's been tentatively starting to boulder again, developing some small but good granite boulders in Glen Etive. The two boulders lie a short walk along the loch side from the road end and have a good circuit up to Font 7b so far. Details should be posted on Dave's site by the time you read this (www.cubbyimages.co.uk). Also in the highlands, a major new venue below Brin Rock has been developed with over 50 problems on Gneiss. Dave Wheeler and Iain McDonald provided the main input although the hardest addition was Dave Redpath's Put Bull Font 7b+. There's a full topo on Scottish Climbs. Chris Graham has also been one of the few boulderers putting up hard problems in the highlands this year, finishing two of his projects with The Sword Font 7c+ at Creag Brinicoire Mor in Morar and Out of The Blue Font 7c on the east side of Loch Lomond.
At the other end of the grading scale Allan Wallace has made a good find in the central belt in a very unusual place. Fontforth (NS 861 877) lies in the middle of the Carse plains and is a small escarpment of sandstone. There are about 30 problems between British 4b and 5c (topo on www.stonecountry.co.uk ) which give Stirling based climbers a good alternative to Wolfcrag.
Sport climbing
Several of Scotland's harder sport routes received attention this year with a few repeats going down. First among several climbers attempting the second ascent of Hurlyburly F8b at Birnam was young Tom Bolger who squeezed it in between his Highers exams, a good effort. Malcolm Smith got the second ascent of my link-up at Dumbarton, Tolerance F8b. Alan Cassidy was the most prolific however, with repeats of Voodoo Magic F8b, Tolerance F8b and Axiom F8a among others. Robin Sutton also did Voodoo and Tolerance in impressively quick time to make these two routes the most popular routes of their grade in the country.
Dave Redpath opened The Bastion, a 20m high boulder in the glen behind Carrick Castle, Cowal. His route there, Trench Warfare F7b takes an impressively big roof. The mica schist sport crags of Cowal are really defined by their impressively steep rock architecture. The most impressive of these is definitely the massive roof on The Anvil, Loch Goil. While the very futuristic projects here didn't see any sends this season, Redpath managed to salvage Heavy Metal F7a+ taking the right-hand roof from the halfway boulder start. The link into this route from the back of the 25m roof will be quite something!
Scott Muir made a characteristically thorough job of developing Dunira above Comrie with ten mica schist wall climbs between F4+ and F7a. Subsequent visitors have been impressed with the routes and particularly the spectacular outlook. Neil Shepherd and Ali Robb finished a good project at The Camel, cutting through the Final Straw to make another potato pulling pumpfest; Giza Break F7b+.
Trad climbing
A large crew headed out to Pabbay and Mingulay as usual in late spring with another significant haul of routes. Niall McNair and Ali Robb visited the Bay area on Pabbay, climbing a direct start and finish to The Herbridean. The Herbaloner E6 6b went onsight and sounds like another classic pumpy trip. Also here, the grooved wall and stepped roof right of Roaring Forties gave The Styloric Nites of Superbarra E5 6b. At Hoofers Geo, Niall and Ali climbed a bold counter diagonal to More Lads and Molasses, giving The Honey Trap E5 6a. After adding a few more routes to the NW over summer, Niall spent the rest of summer on crutches after a ground fall in Ardnamurchan due to a hold breaking. The nipper is back on his feet again now though and onsighting 7c after only a couple of weeks climbing.
Also on the outer isles team were Paul Thorburn and Rick Campbell who climbed the steep wall right of Spit in Paradise, More Steam McPhail! E6 6a is very pumpy but well protected if you can stop. Steve Crowe and Karin Magog swung leads up the right side of the huge wall left of Hebridean Overture to give Northumbrian Rhapsody E5 6b, 6a, 5b. On the Pink Wall, a fit Trevor Woods and Gary Latter climbed a direct line between The Bonxie and I Suppose a Cormorants Out of the Question. Huffin and Puffin E6 6b, 6b is another sustained but well protected addition. Over on Mingulay, Trevor and Gary climbed a four pitch monster E5 on Guarsay Mor called One Foot Over a Fulmar's Nest with a succession of sculptured roofs and "well out there" climbing.
Several teams were active on Lewis, although as usual details are not freely available! I had a couple of visits getting one day of dry weather per trip. I made them count though, adding two E8s to the sea cliffs. First off was Whirlwind E8 6c, the 'YY unclimbed crack' at Screaming Geo mentioned in the guidebook. I had previously attempted it onsight and then on a top rope but failed. This time the psyche was on and with an Atlantic squall fast approaching I raced up the F8a crack to be soaked within seconds of topping out. Over at Dalbeg, on the awesome Neptune wall, Flock Talk E8 6c was the harder proposition with a hard (again F8a standard) crux throw for an undercut a long way above gear, with potential for a brush with the wave cut platform if you blow it.
Activity in the mountains was rather limited, despite two extended dry spells. Simon Richardson and Iain Small climbed a very good E2 (as yet un-named) taking the true right crest of Mitre Ridge on Ben a' Bhuird. Andy Nisbet and Ross Jones visited Sgurr a' Chaorachain, climbing a new three pitch E2 5c, Orcrist, taking a crack in the sidewall of Sword of Gideon Buttress. They also found a pleasant variation to pitch 5 of Anduril taking a pillar at 4b. I paid a couple of visits to Ben Nevis to scope out the unclimbed font face of Comb Buttress. This huge overhanging expanse of rock had interested me for some time but was clearly going to be very hard. The line of the buttress is an awesome prow with a thin crack running up it, undercut at its base with a blank looking roof. After cleaning it I was game for an attempt but had trouble working out the bouldery crux on the roof and wasn't keen to take a potentially bad fall onto dubious protection. Eventually I got a bit slappy and made it through the flash to give The Ben its first E8, Anubis.
The Shetland Isles had a bumper season with many new routes from locals including Simon Calvin from Papa Stour and two separate visiting teams, Ross Jones and John Sanders, and a Sheffield team consisting of Adam Long, Adam Wainright, Andy Cave, Ben Bransby and Peter Robins. The routes are too numerous to list in detail but activity centred on several established and some new crags. Jones and Sanders climbed many routes at Esha Ness, Pict's Ness, Red Head and Ronas Voe including several lines on the Faither Stack. On Papa Stour, formerly known as 'The Hippy Isle' by the Shetlanders because of the southern settlers on the island who responded to adverts in the national press encouraging settlers to escape the rat race to this tranquil and fertile island. Bransby and Robins reported that they explored many climbing possibilities on the impressive volcanic sea cliffs. While they found some very impressive rock architecture, much of it was too loose and dirty to make worthwhile routes. However they did find some adventurous excursions in its spectacular sea caves such as Deeper Darker E5 6a which follows a 20 metre roof chimney, exiting through a small hole. At Kirstan's Hole, Jones, Sanders and Calvin climbed the appealing twin stacks guarding the entrance to the cave and Calvin climbed many easier new lines in the nearby Geos, mostly using a shunt as belayers are fairly hard to come by when the island population is only 27.
I'll not make any predictions for next year this time, at least not for the living end of Scottish rock climbing, as always the elusive nature of trying to get conditions, and form to coincide isn't easy in Scotland. However, I do predict that the new Scottish Rock Climbs guide by Andy Nisbet will spark a renewed interest in traditional climbing from both locals and visitors, the photo topos are particularly good and it would be hard not to get psyched by the idea of next summer's mountain cragging. Well done Andy.
STOP PRESS
Just before Christmas Dave MacLeod finished a 4 year project on the Dumbarton boulders. The big cave left of Gorilla was a last great problem at the rock and Dave spent nearly 100 days attempting the line climbing through the horizontal roof and headwall above. After 12 redpoints to the last move during December, Dave completed the project to give Scotland's third Font 8b and hardest problem to date. The line is called 'Pressure'.
Scottish Rock Climbs
Published by the SMC (2005)
Edited by Andy Nisbet
Price £20 ISBN 0-907521-86-X
In the same format as the current SMC Series with a plastic cover, this is a selected guide to the whole of Scotland within 480 pages. This is a first for the SMC in that it is produced in full colour throughout, includes many more photos than possible in the past and uses photo diagrams extensively instead of drawings. A review will be forthcoming in the May issue of the magazine.