Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Super glue advice

Deep flapper in the middle of my middle finger pad from yesterday at ruthven, so after hearing that all you boys super glue split tips thaught id try... cleaned it lifted up the flap and put super glue underneath it and tried to shut it, it felt like my finger was on fire! Surely you cant do that all the time?? If you do im impressed! Do u hold the flap down then glue over the top of it or how do u do it?

The glue said irritant do not get on skin but im pretty certain all super glue says that. Anyone got any advice on how to do it let me know?

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Farr away boulder

Had a great day of sunning ourselves, eating, dishing out abuse, finger shredding and a slight bit of climbing thrown in for good messure. One new route to report which is a good one and we worked hard on the other 2(prob both about V6/Font 7a) but neither went as fingers and pads started to fall apart, Lorraines in impressive style. So the left and right sides of the hard face are still up for grabs and if your a complete beast you may manage a line up the centre(warn u though does not look very dooable unless your name is sharma or macleod). If your beastly enough to manage that there is another line to the right side of Breathless. Trudged along to check out the other boulders but nothing as good as this one, there is a smaller one that i will clean on a off day that will probably give a few dynamic looking problems.


11.Flapper? V3 (J. Murray) 14/05/08 very right edge of roadside face direct



Right side project, now shiny clean

Directions... Drive through farr traveling in the Brin direction. Half a mile or so out of Farr take a left, signposted Garbole. Drive up this road for roughly half a mile on the right hand side forrestry commision has just felled a huge area 10 minutes into this from the road is the boulder.

It now has 11 problems on it with potential for maybe 4 more hard ones, great for an evening session as it gets the sun but will definetly entertain for a few hours whatever time of the day. Jamie

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Routes Update

Spent a few more hours cleaning this afternoon then came home for a rest before getting back up there for an evening session with lorraine! Blue skys fresh air and massive clouds of bugs but perfect friction. We spent the first hour repeating a few lines before moving on to some new ones! I climbed the strenuous crack on the far side of the boulder whilst Lorraine claimed her first new route which starts on the roadside face and takes a long interesting line to top out.

Lorrain on Edge of Envy

9.Twinkle Toes V2 (L. Matheson) 13/05/08 S/S and move up to the bloc pulling over awkwardly round onto the slab above, with a balancy rising traverse to the far side, cool route.

10. Breathless V4 (J. Murray) 13/05/08 Blank slab to awkward crack. Strenuous.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

New boulder

Spent hours cleaning a newly uncovered boulder with Kirsty, superb quality rock, very sharp but very positive and is producing very good lines, 8 recorded so far with 2 I am working on, but there are alot more... I will report more in the near future.On this boulder alone there are very amenable climbs all the way up to monster power lines.

Lines so far...


Slabby face

1.Sloth V2 (J. Murray) 10/05/08 Direct up the left edge of, thugish

2.Greed V0+/1 (J. Murray) 10/05/08 Gain face and foot traverse to left of the face and assecnd, nice route

3.CharliePig V0 (K. MacPherson) 10/05/08 Take the line of jugs up the centre of the face, enjoyable.

4.Lust V2 (J. Murray) 10/05/08 Sit start to the right of the arete pull up and round onto the face and airy slab above. Standing start V1

Far Side.

5.Edge of Envy V3 (J. Murray) 10/05/08 Layback crack to ridge above

Nearest face

6. Wrath V4 (J. Murray) 10/05/08 Pull over bulge to bottom of blank face dyno time.

7.Gluttony V3 (J. Murray) Sit start then up under over hang without use of the good block on the left, through niche and direct to the highest point

8. Worm Free V2 (K. MacPherson) Left to right traverse

More to follow in the next few days....

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Pain.....

Down the road just now staying with Kirsty for a couple of weeks getting some climbing in in a different area.Went to Birnam Quarry a week ago as it is slabby which i like, its a slate quarry which iv never climber on so always good to try something abit different. The amount of broken bits of slate under the crag should have been an indication of what was to come but its another skill learnd the hard way.





Notice the size of the blocks behind me and to the left side of my head in this picture the amount of loose chunks that i would imagine used to be attached as holds....







Trying to onsight more E3's and hopefully E4's later this year so got on Counting out time which gets 2 stars??? For what!? Lower crack was filled with crap and beasties looks like it hasnt been climbed in a while but reasonable balancy moves on rubbish friction, the guide book says the rock had nearly frictionless qualitys and it is spot on yet again. A few flakey slices were occasionaly coming off but nothing too unsetteling. Got past the peg which is still solid and would be an insane route without, up to the overlap where a couple of bold hard moves leads to the exit crack. Got a cam in below the overlap using pauls theory of better than a kick in the t*ts, and then moved over to point where you pass the overlap.



Tried one way and pulled on a very large VERY loose block and thaught i was going with it, luckily i got off it in time and tried a metre further to the side, found one good hold that i was matched on, right on the lip of the overhang so i was flat back and next thing i knew all four limbs pointing at the sky as the holds and a block about the size of my head were headed southwards along with me. Fell between 6 and 7m before i hit a slabby ledge with full force of my hip/bum. The cam gave way and whipped down the rope at me cutting a nice lump out of one of my knuckles,that was abit of a back fire!!!





Fresh holds from the overlap, now decorate the ground

A scary moment all round as Kirsty who was belaying was pulled forward into the slab and dragged up over a metre off the floor, thankfully managing to hold the rope the whole time she was obviously fine as she started laughing, not sure if it was at me or what....

Not sure if the grade will be any different for whoever gets on it next but there are still plenty loose parts and one very big loose block ready to come off make sure the belayer stands well to the side, dont think a helmet would do much if one of them hit you, either way you would end up with a bent head! Enjoy!

I dont really bruise and cant ever really remember having a bruise! Its a week since it happened and having spent most of the week with a dead leg and a limp I still have 1 bum cheek that is notisably larger than the other, it is also completely yellowy purple green to boot! Thankfully the cuts have stopped seaping so i dont have to stick to everything i wear.Rekon im up to some trad again with a further 2 days planned this week Kirsty and then back up North or maybe west for the weekend. Not sure how my head will be, iv never considered trad to be dangerous but that one shook me abit...