Cummingston

Not much been happening recently as the weather of the highlands is a complete let down, had enough so i think its time to work southwards soon! Nick and i managed to make use of a break in the weather to get to cummingston, plenty of stuff to go at. Had a quick shot on Bird man before moving onto Massonic finger shake which nick and I both got without too much trouble which was good, first V6 i have done in a while so thats always a bonus. We both Flashed Jaws which is interestingly graded but fun all the same.

Ideas....

As i said fed up of Inverness weather so am planning on abit of a tour about ina few months. Anyone got any ideas.. If you could go anywhere in Britain(europe and america for 14months mid way through next year) where would you go?Including ay must do climbs? Trad, sport or bouldering. Im bored of this place iv been here too long!

Winter sessions and the dusty boulder

Second day in a row up at Brin(Nick and I are becoming far to regular we are even starting to make comments about brin that sound scarily like Mike and Ben!) and it had got even colder, snow topped boulders and bitter cold temperatures. Friction was however awsome when you warmed up the fingers, annoyingly a fair few lines we were keen to get on were icey wet from snow melt so completely useless!

Headed up to the happy boulder with the intention of starting the day there again untill we decided to have a quick look round the corner, the quick look turned into a snowy jungle bash in all direstions, over boulders under boulders falling down holes untill Nick dissapared into a hole and climbed up a tunnel and found something worth while! After nearly an hour of brushing it was fittingly named the Dusty Boulder. We spent all this time with hats over our noses and mouths whilst we franticly brushed and then stood back whilst massive dust clouds tried to choke us. It was well worth it, under the 3 inches of crap that coated the whole boulder there were 2 obvious lines with a possible third direct up the face which would require serious work. As we started to uncover possible holds we thaught they may be reasonably easy routes but still of good quality, the more we unearthed the less we found!

Picture on the right is what we dicovered! The right line makes a hard move off of a crimp and sideways sharp flake up the obvious line of holds to the top, Nick nipped in to make the first ascent, i flashed it after him Mushroom Cloud V4 is a cool route with a dubious flake at the top, pull on it at your own risk, neither of us used it as it craked and flexed under pressure!

Bottom moves of Mushroom Cloud V4

Mushroom Cloud has a lower start out of a pit that would be possible although it would be a serious fall if it occoured. The fall may happen when you were only a metre or so off the bottom of the pit but you would land on a spikey boulder and then you would bounce down a tunnel on your head until you stoped 4 or so metres later. But if any1 wants to try it il come watch and spot and provide a mat any day of the week.

Nick on the starting holds of Mushroom Cloud

Next line is on the left edge of the face which initially looked to be of the same sort of standard however after more cleaning it was clear that it was going to be alot harder. A sloping ledge leads(via a powerful move) to a line of thin razor sharp flakes half a pad deep so require painful crimps. Up from this the holds improve slightly to gain the lip and pull over direct. Nick made good progress and managed to keep skin on the pads all the way to the finishing holds to unluckily fail just short of pulling over due to the wet(the top out had been under a thick carpet of moss). After we both spent an hour cleaning it, it also claimed nicks trusty toothbrush, he wasnt going to leave without getting up it, after a good rest it went!, with it looking painful all the way. Gold Dust earns every part of its V7 grade.

Nick composed reaching the final holds on the FA Gold Dust V7

The Dusty Boulder is quite hard to find as it is hidden from view if you are above it and only the top can be seen from below. To find it from above walk up to the right hand side of the prow and walk directly right for 50 to 60m the Dusty boulder is down on your right hand side, most easily spotted by its newly cleaned top. Best method to get to the base of it is fall off the top, or walk round to the far edge and descend carefuly down a chute to the base but be warned!!! at the bottom of the chute there is a big hole i described earlier that if you fall down you wil come out the other end broken. Or from the bottom pass the big roof project and walk pass what i believe to be the boulder with skredriver on it, from here the boulder is up on your left hand side and you have to climb up to get to it. Brin is getting bigger and bigger and there are still plenty more lines, I have a few that are yet to be cleaned So get out there! Jamie

The Mini Mecca

Project 1moving out onto the face

Clear blue skys, freezing cold temperatures, there was only one place to head today and that was to brin boulders. I say this as Mike and Ben refer to it as "The Mecca" of scottish bouldering and i must admit i am coming round to their way of thinking i like it more and more every time i go and there is still loads of potential (most of the big lines if you fall off you will end up in a hole but thats part of the challenge i supose).

With plenty skin and psyche levels way up, Nick and I headed up the hill(after i fell over the fence) to the Happy boulder which has a good variety of superb problems, after a quick warm up on Rhuaridh's Crack and Carpet Slab, we moved attention to The Dreaded Dreadlock V4 which was promtly flashed thankfully, although the top out feels decidedly dodgy and a long way for the misplaced boulder mats below. Next was Spirited V5 which didnt fall so easily, Nick flashed it with ease the other day yet neither of us could work out how, but after 10 minutes it was done! We then tried Mikes new problem from last week, the un-named direct start (v7)to the dyno, a powerful move at the bottom leads to a short sequence then finishing with a Big dyno over an okish landing. Nic did all the moves up to the start of the dyno but couldnt commit to the dyno (understandably as he is going a way in 2months so needs both ankles), i can however stick the dyno but failed on the move to it, i had the hold well, held it for a second and then peeled off, felt so close to latching it as once i had it the route was over as iv done the rest.But it wasnt to be, so if the rain stops il be up there tommorow to finish it off!!!

Nick on the desperate finish to project 1

Over on the porcupine boulder i spotted a new line that with a good clean looked to be a good problem. Porcupine takes a rightward and upward slanting traverse to the obvious weakness however "Sting in the tail" starts down in the very back left of the boulder(possible same starting holds??) and takes a line of very sharp sloping holds along the lip of the overhang until a crystal sharp arete is reached that helps you make a powerful move to gain the top of the scorpian crack and pull over direct. Its a good pumpy problem that took abit of work and plenty of heel hooks. Painfully sharp slopers that lead to 7 taped fingers a painful loss of skin. Looked like Nic was going to beat me to it but failed just short of the finish due to being to tired from the second project. We agreed on V5 it does however appear to be slightly harder than Scorpian also graded V5 but either way its a cool line on an excellent boulder. We also looked at a harder variation that may seem slightly eliminate but when it goes will be a truly awsome line! After taking the slopers along the lip the line continues onto the blank face(without the use of the arete) where desperate tiny slopers lead to the top, Nic came agonisingly close and it will be sent within another session or 2 i am certain.Looks to be about v6/7. Project 2 is a direct start to this coming out under the buldge onto tiny crimps to reach the slopers to gain the top. Looks very hard.... We will be back on it soon. Just before leaving i set about cleaning another line that looks to be good but was soaking wet as it was under inches of moss! There are more projects to be had, get out there!! Jamie

Sting in the Tail

Am fasgdh and Moy

Bit slow on the update but there were more important things to do, like climb! Woke up the morning after ruthven and rather than letting skin regrow decided to tape over the top of the sore bits and head to the west coast to Gruinard Bay. With a group of 6 of us it made for a good days climbing, headed to Am fasgdh which is hard to say the least and made even harder by the fact fingers and toes were numb by the time you reached the first bolt due to the cold.

I set about work on the encouaragingly named "warm up route (7b)" which didnt do much for the self esteam. After the third attempt i could see that it would go in two sections yet i was too cold to get any closer, gives me something to go back to though as i was annoyed it didnt go. Am fasgdh lived up to its hard reputation and only 2 routes were repeated in the whole day, with andy sending curving crack (7b+) and Mike repeating Bogtalla (7c). The rest of the time was spent falling off things repeatedly untill we were too tired to fall anymore.

Nick working hard on Bogtalla (7c)

Warm up route(7b)

So after 4 days in a row a rest was needed due to lack of skin and 1 split tip, wrong, the weather was too good come morning so back in the car to get Mike and off to the newly bolted Moy Rock which it is clear to see Andy has put alot of time and effort into developing. Neither of us felt up to much but mike set off up the dark side with ease, i followed and gave up half way, no motivation at all! That set the tone for the rest of the day, Mike had a quick session on the seer looking for the third ascent but was unlucky due to the cold and some popping pebbles. So with that we gave up and headed home. An impressive intimidating crag which needs some stamina!! something i seem to lack...

Now had two days rest and there is a reasonably setteled forcast of -2' for most of the week so hoping to get a few days out climbing. Its been a week of falling off things so hopefully this week that will change, although i ran over my foot with the camper van today(long story) so have a fat right foot but should still fit in my shoe! Fingers crossed!

Winter Sessions

Met nick and Donald up at Ruthven boulder today,conditions wernt exactly ideal so we didnt expect to get much done, and we were right...

Every line was soaking wet with water dripping off of most holds it was near impossible to climb anything, the only route that was worth an attempt was razors edge(V6) so after 15 mins of drying out holds repeatedly and Nick colouring in the rock with chalk we were off, all worked the route well and it will definetly go when its dry but it wasnt to be today Everytime you felt confident in a move you would reach the next hold and it was wet again and you were spat off minus a finger print or two. All three of us managed to cut an identicle whole in the right little finger so it was time to call it a day. Good sequence though so we will be back to finish it in the next few weeks! Instead we packed up and headed for the garage and did a killer session of 35' Overhang on only slopers. Not many photos as i only took a couple, i will add more if i get copys. Maybe a day off now to allow for some new skin....