Sea Cliffs, wet mountain crags and silly runouts!

A busy week. It started with a trip to the Camel with Rich and Andy, these two looking very strong on their project, which no doubt will fall pretty soon.
I'm told the new line is somewhere in the 8a+ region, and with a redpoint attempt in two clean overlaping halves, it will be no longer than a couple of more fully rested attempts before these two have it the bag. My efforts were concentrated on the Stone of Destiny, a fantastic route and perhaps the best sports route in Scotland at 6c+? A pretty poor effort on the redpoint saw me quit after the first 5clips, especially poor as I had just done the route clean with the security of the top rope.



With a reasonable mid week forecast, and the school holidays in full swing Andy and I headed over to Skye. Day 1 turned out to be sea cliff day, dodging the showers we climbed the outrageous Spantastic that takes the obvious thin pillar above the tunnel here.



The outrageous Spantastic.

How much longer it will be standing is another question and I certainly felt it shake a little when a big wave booms in. Fortunately the gear is on the rock above the Pillar!!

We then headed south to the magical Kilt Rock where Andy dispatched the classic Grey Panther in fine style. What a route, as much gear as you can carry, fantastic rock and sustained for all 45Mt's of the pitch. A true contender for best single pitch route in Scotland at E1 I reckon. With the showers set to continue the next day we cut our losses and headed back to Inverness.


Grey Panther
Yesterday the sun came out once more which allowed for a very quick raid into Binnein Shaus in and out in under 5 hours. The Keep was the objective and despite being a little scrappy, and the ridiculously runout second pitch (25Mt's without any gear? Another good lead Andy!!), we had fun and ticked another route in the sun.


The views and the run out pitch2