Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Another Nice Day

Hope we are going to get some payback after suffering a nasty winter. Yesterday was really nice. Despite a local road closure preventing me from doing a 50 mile cycle it still turned out great.

I was caught out last week on my 50 miler when I arrived at the bottom of thee climb up Struie Hill only to see a sign stating that the road was closed for roadworks. I has to go back the way I had come into a nasty headwind.

I went on a much shorter route instead.


I call it the Kildary Loop. It's 36 Km and took me 76 minutes.
The weather was nice, NO WIND.

Later I decided I would pick the kids up from school and go straight up to Pinnacle Crag. We were not alone at the crag, whilst rigging up a top rope I was surprised to see a head bob up as someone topped out beside me soloing !

Here's a pic of some others doing Pinnacle Chimney.




The kids climbed a couple of routes and then Sol had a go at belaying me.


Happy with Sol's belaying ability and having found a suitable ground anchor, I decided to lead my first climb, Broken Groove graded Moderate :) Ach well you've got to start somewhere.




And Sol seconded as Molly took the photos.


What a great day. Oh the wife eventually turned up in a dress and sandals !!

4 comments:

Iain Ross said...

Nice job on the topo style picture of Pinnacle Crag. Me and my girlfriend have been climbing for just over a year now and really like that crag.

As for other stuff in the area Reiff is a must. Got routes to suit all abilities.

Once you get going the sport climbing at the Mound is good craic although it is steep! Also just noticed on Dave MacLeod's blog that there is a good bouldering spot just south of the Mound on the road to Loch Buidhe.

Cheers,
Iain Ross

Unknown said...

Cheers Iain, just did a reccy of Moy Rock. Access path is steep and the whole crag looks very unstable !
May return for a go at the two easier routes.

Iain said...

Was at Moy on Sat and did the pair of easy routes on the right but it is high and steep there. I need to go back as it has lots of hard stuff to work on.

Funnily enough the rock is quite good just takes a bit of getting used to. My biggest problem with conglomerate is trying to read it but I guess more practice is what is required.

The Mound (Creag Bheag) just south of Golspie is made of the same stuff but is not so high and a bit more friendly i.e. more easy routes, plus has nice view and level open ground to sit and have a cuppa.

Iain

Unknown said...

Iain would you mind posting your email address, it won't appear here because I have to moderate every post. I've got lots more questions which would be better suited to email correspondence.