Sunday, April 20, 2008

Bolt Clipping in the Sun.

Just look at that smile, despite what she says Becs finds herself having fun on the top end of the rope!
Whilst locking off to clip the last bolt on sun-kissed rock on Saturday I was thinking why we need to bother heading out to the Mediterranean on Wednesday. Bolt clipping in the sun is not solely the reserve of Mediterranean Limestone!
Saturday was a glorious day with not a cloud in the sky as forecast! Becky and I were out on a little sports crag just North of Gairloch, Kuhjo Crag. A great crag with routes from 6a to 8a, well bolted and with the sun from about 3pm. Just next door is a little slab bolted with some easier stuff to warm up on. The rock is a Lewisan gneiss, rough with pockets, and many features that lend themselves well to climbing.
An attempt to onsight 6c was, well, not too successful. A hard route, with a very hard sequence by the first clip, failing to not unlock this was really frustrating, as the rest of the climb went, with effort, but went.
Oh well, the other routes here, that I did manage to complete, were lovely.
The day finished with fish and chips in Gairloch, whilst enjoying these we were blessed with a view of Beinn Eighe covered in snow, and bathed in evening sunlight. A truly magical view. A really good day out, and glad to see progress from the training, pulling on plastic.
Flying out to Mallorca on Wednesday, and right on queue I am sat here with a heavy dose of cold and enough energy to sip my tea. Typical!
Still at least I can browse the guide book for some suitable targets!
The view over to Beinn Eighe at tea time.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Cairngorm: In search of the "perfect" conditions!

The weather is certainly playing games at the minute, today has seen two aborted attempts to get on “real” rock at Brin and Tom Riach. In contrast Friday was pretty good with sunshine from start to finish at Cairngorm.
It was a fun day and the mountain was just about skiable anywhere which added to the fun, though despite what has been said on the official web site and few over excited reviews on the Web, the snow was heavy with a bit of crust, and not quite “perfect”, but still good enough.
The corries looked very white and indeed to be honest it was pretty difficult to spot any features from the car park. Still stuff to be done no doubt. If the snow on Friday was anything to go by though it very much needs a little thaw and a big freeze. Possibly next weekend?
Though with only a week to go until my Spain climbing trip I am keen to get some time in on rock. The wall is wearing a little thin at the minute, but still at least it’s dry.
Still messing around with the camera and video package and this little offering for some reason refused to upload the soundtrack. So hum the Birdie Song if you watch it and you might get the full effect.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Logie Head

Today was a bit of a washout really, the sun and warm weather were in short supply this morning and when we arrived around ten, Logie head was shrouded in a sea mist. This ensured the rock was dripping wet, so we took our packs for a walk upto the castle just beyond the crag. The silly idea to continue the walk to Redhyite point was aborted an hour in! By the time we arrived back to the crag the rock was a little drier so a few routes were done, three in total. A new, for me, and still wet VS concluded a bit of dissapointing day all in all.
Cold weather to come!