2CVS.

Two Climbing Venues...

Craigmore is a okay wee crag for gritstone-style mid-grade trad puntering (if you subtract a star from everything), and an okay wee crag for bouldering. It has a lot of rock but that which isn't tall enough for routes often isn't distinct enough for bouldering, giving lean but sometimes refined pickings. The rock is okay, the landings are okay, and the dank wooded shelter of the crag is a good boon in westerly gales. One such day the other week I snuck out for a couple of hours. The Pine Cone is a pleasant situation as promised, feeling both open to the creeping sunshine and tucked away from the rest of Glasgow. Jamie's Overhang looks quite minor until you actually pull on and realise that it's as burly wee cunt of a problem that is close to it's star rating and highly distant from it's supposed grade:



Other areas I recced:

The Wizard - great line, looks quite easy, proper highball finish, pretty classic.
Wizard SS - lowball start into the above but actually looks alright.
Wide Eyed - odd eliminate, not sure where it goes and what it uses, not super inspiring.
Terror SS - good line, SS is a bit of a non-move wonder but could be fun, good name.
Andy's Arete - another lowball sitter but another decent-looking problem - looks especially interesting as it's covered in useless holds above a good landing.

So that's somewhere to keep in mind next time the Atlantic winds are howling through the city.

~¤§¤~

Clifton is a nice wee crag for gritstone-style mid-grade trad puntering, but a strange crag for bouldering. And by "strange" I mean "bollox". I get the distinct impression that it was only included in the guide because it really really should have some decent bouldering even if it actually doesn't. Beneath the crag is an toppled jumble of extensive granite blocks, whose landings and surroundings rarely make extensive granite blocs. If these otherwise promising stones were airlifted out of the boulderfield and dropped on flat ground at appealingly jaunty angles, there could be some truly delightful problems. As it is all the problems are conceptually good but invariably flawed to the point of irrelevance...

Knife Party - grubby arseball, is the crux keeping off the ground or keeping off the crowding prop boulder?
Study Break - non-move wonder with the tiniest floor-space to start off.
Trauma - at least has a line (or a few), and some length, in fact all it is missing is any form of landing....unless you think Porth Ysgo landings are a bit too toddler friendly.
Wall Problem - again an acceptable bit of rock that is cramped by a prop boulder that must be negotiated more than the actual line.
Paul's Dyno - nasty sandbag above brambles and blocks, with the bewildering recommendation of ignoring the clean direct finish and tackling a lip traverse added on for the sole purpose of maximising moss above a degenerating landing zone.
Zillion Dollar Sadist - a ludicrous "problem" which is pretty much a slanting chimney eliminating the sensible choice of lying down on the boulder beneath you.

So balls to that. I put my shoes on, touched the starting holds of Paul's Dyno, took them off, and went to have a look at Sandyhills. I walked onto the beach, got to the shore, and the tide raced in almost as quick as I escaped. I left...