Really quite good fun at Ratho Quarry.

As good as the indoor climbing is at the Ratho mega-wall, it's important not to forget that it's actually built within a proper traditional crag and thus there is proper traditional climbing on the outdoor walls outside the indoor walls. Although, hmmm, the Ratho lead walls are pretty amazing....so long....so pumpy... Ah fuck it what am I say, of course the quarry is miles better!! Yay for Easy Trad (tm) in Grotty Quarries!!

So, another afternoon, another couple of decent trad leads, in fact two that I'd been wanting to do since I recced it years ago, when Ratho wall was just a twinkle in the receivers' eyes... Shear Fear, the apparently fearsome flake crack that actually turned out to be full of big holds, good gear, and good rests on jugs and jams. Not the battle I expected and nice interesting climbing. And Gruel Brittania, an odd semi-fridge-hugging combination of an arete and thin crack, which turned out to be the hardest trad lead I've done since before my DVTs. Hard technical crux low down, harder psychological crux high up, and great climbing using all the available features.

Two routes, both classics, both photo-ticks in the old guide. Both apparently stern challenges, one wasn't and went smoothly, one was and made me try hard, both good experiences, both good training for the greater ranges of Gairloch etc :).