Spotted At Moy

Spotted some activity today at Moy, don't know who it was but well done.



The corner route being bolted looks really nice.

Lost My Camera

I know it's in the house somewhere, but where ?

Latest news:

Sol climbs his first Munro, Ben Wyvis.

 We were lucky with the weather and Sol really enjoyed it, as did Cooky.

Well done Sol, only a few more to go :)

The local Academy gets a traversing wall, paid for by Skretting and built by Scott Muir of Extreme Dream .
It's open to the local community so the kids and I checked it out.

Good fun and those big yellow ones can be tricky without shoes and chalk.

We Went Further !

Yes ! At Last ! The weather picked up and we got our days climbing with Go Further Scotland. This trip was originally planned for 30th July but bad weather and other commitments postponed it until 14th Aug.

We met up with Paul Tattersall in Gairloch and drove a few miles along the road to Clown Slab.  This crag has been bolted for sport climbing, rather than having to place protection like in traditional climbing, you simply have to clip in your quickdraw and then put your rope through the quickdraw. Sport climbs are graded for their difficulty from 1 up to 9b+ the last time I looked the number is usually preceded with the letter F.

We climbed the routes graded F4 for starters I led them and then Paul met me at the top to go through threading the lower off. After that the kids could top rope the climbs.

When the troops went to get lunch from the car Paul and I practised another situation. I climbed up and then secured myself to the top anchor, then hanging from this I belayed Paul up to me.

After a quick bite and more anchor and gear placement practice Paul reckoned we would do an F5 route and Molly would lead it. She managed to get to the top clipping 'draws all the way up !

After that we had to move round to Kuhjo Crag and the kids were put straight onto an F6a+ route Called 'The River Gods'.

It was a huge ask of the kids and they managed to get about half way up clipping a couple of bolts, I tried it and couldn't get as far ! I also had a go leading an F6a but fell before clipping the penultimate bolt :(

I had a rest and then managed to climb to the top. Molly then came along and also climbed to the top after finding a great rest place !

Oh and we all abseiled off the crag, even Karen !

 I can thoroughly recommend a day out with Go Further Scotland and if you want to know more about the crags in the area then have a look at these great wee Topos. 

Reiffer Madness

After many weeks almost going, when the weather has been very nice thank you very much, we were organised enough to head for Reiff for a bit of climbing.

We had picked a a few climbs suitable for me and the kids. The forecast wasn't too good, 25mph winds and  heavy rain showers, but we decided to chance it. I didn't bother checking the tide as the guidebook Scottish Rock Volume 2 North describes it as non tidal. We drove through a few showers on the way but they really weren't too bad. I thought the fresh wind would help to keep the cliffs dry. When we parked up the wee man saw huge breaker rising up against the cliffs across the field !

Not a great photo, tha camera is fairly basic but waterproof :) The waves were breaking as high as the cliff face as seen from our parking spot.
We crossed the fence and headed across the field, leaving the troops in the wee stone structure I went down to investigate.
The way around to the pinnacle from the north was being regularly swept with swell.

I checked around the other side.

It wasn't good, the Pinnacle and some of our bloody climbs was being soaked with spray.

The base of the slab with our other climbs was being lapped by the swell, it just wasn't safe for the kids to descend and stand about in close proximity to the angry sea.

The females in the party were not up to abseil in down "Descent route" we shrugged and made our way home.
Later... I checked the tides and found that high tide was 1211 BST, we were there at 1130, although it appears to have been a neap tide !
Maybe we'll get another day in the upcoming holidays although the wife isn't keen on the drive.

Forcan About In South Glen Shiel

First of all let me say how pissed of I am with all the manky skanks using the great Scottish outdoors. Sharp eyed blog readers may have noticed Molly holding a plastic drinks bottle in the photo with the dog. That had been left at the crag by a previous visitor along with cigarette butts and chocolate bar wrappers. It's the same story on the hills, on our last walk one we discovered more butts, tissues and cling-film.
Rant over, on with the recent activity.

First of all I climbed my first Severe route, the cheeky wee Left Bay Groove at Pinnacle Crag, where Sol and I were savaged by Midges. We really will have to try some other climbs at different venues now.

I went walking again. Two routes in South Glen Shiel.

Todd and I did The Saddle and Sgurr na Sgine which includes the Forcan Ridge. Mostly fag butts. A really good, enjoyable approach path which winds its way up from the road along Meallan Odhar.

Followed by some very interesting 'put those poles safely away now' scrambling.

We descended the Saddle just after the trig point

and then climbed Sgurr na Sgine where we looked back at our achievement.

We then headed back to the road along the knee breaking Faochag north ridge.

After nacking his knee, Todd was unable to join Saunders and I as we tackled the other seven Munroes on the South Glen Shiel Ridge. You really need to drop a car at the end of this one or chance thumbing it back up the hill, it's a fair distance to walk on a busy road.
Saunders had never climbed a Munro before, although he told me a story about a fairly hefty lassie he knew when he was in third year who was called Munro, I told him that this didn't count.

Another excellent if lengthy path led us right to the top of the first Munro in just under two hours ( need to check timings with Saunders who may have logged walk on GPS ).

His wife, not the Munro lassie, had promised him a new pair of strides if he completed all seven so we hastened on.

We took photos at the all the summits but you know how one can start to look like all the others so here's one with a nice view from Munro number 4 Maol Chinn-dearg down to the bridge and Loch Quoich.

By this time I was missing Basher and Norma's veggy wraps and Saunders had to give me one of his rolls.

For number 5 Sgurr an Doire Leathan you bear right for the summit so then have to double back to continue along the ridge. Beware, as in the mist it's very easy to follow a path onto Maoile an t-Searraich.

And so... After a brief detour in the thickening mist and a re checking of the map and our fitness we tackled what I thought was the best part. A very interesting walk and scramble through the mist up to Sgurr an Lochain with an equally impressive ridge walk and scramble up to Creag nan Damh, number seven on the day.

It wasn't quite over yet, heading for the bealach theres a cracking wee crag you climb over just to end the ridge with smile on your face.
A thoroughly enjoyable walk with a wee bit of everything, you have to do it. I guesstimated that we were back at the car in 8 1/2 hours. No cigar but Saunders gets a new pair of trousers.

Hills and Crags

Well we did the next Munro on the list, a fairly direct assault on Ben Klibreck. A lot of trudging through grass and heather following the route from the SMC guidebook.

Not trail until you gain the ridge where you get a bit of a breather and nice views.

Then come the boulders and the mad dutchman.

No views at the top where the cloud was refusing to blow off.

This week we had another nice evening at Pinnacle Crag where I led some V Diffs and Sol and Molly took turns seconding.

We also did the chimney which Sol really enjoyed especially when he found a good way of climbing it. Molly went for a different technique.

We then re-visited Tapered Groove and did a better job leading-seconding than we did top roping.

The sun just kept shining as Sol seconded.

And Molly found a wee friend.

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 !!

Decent Weekend

Just shook off the cold I got on holiday for a week and then got another one which I passed on to my workmates, sorry Paul and Albert :(

Friday: managed a wee run for the first time in a few weeks.

Saturday: Met up with Basher and Norma on Saturday and had a nice wee walk up Ben Hope.

Looking towards Durness and Cape Wrath

Which had a cheeky wee bit of snow up top.

Hey your not at the top until you are at the highest point.

Nice walk, good company and decent weather.

Sunday: We went back to Pinnacle Crag and climbed another two routes.

We were just setting up for the climb in the chimney when we got drenched in a heavy rain / hail stone shower and so retreated back down to the car.
Need another day to do the severe graded routes and then we will try longer routes.