Going Nowhere in Glen Nevis

A flying visit to Glen Nevis, testing out my single day trip theory. It worked fine time-wise: I had a reasonable and non-Alpine start (although the weather had some Alpine potential....snow storms at Crianlarich, but glorious from Glen Coe onwards....and then exactly the reverse on the way back), climbed on 3 different buttresses across the Spectrum of Polldubh (Road > Scimitar > Nameless), recced a few other buttresses, was back in the car at 7 and back to Glasgow in daylight. Thus one can easily fit in plenty of climbing....or plenty of dicking around being a punter, if one is so inclined.

I am NOT that way inclined but it is the situation I find myself in. I have strong and genuine desires to push myself on some challenging and exciting routes, and once again I feel a world away from the physical and mental state to do so. This time, despite a winter building up finger strength, a reasonable transition into stamina training, plenty of trad mileage recently, a good top-up session purely for finger stamina this week, and a relaxing active rest Friday, I failed utterly on having enough finger stamina to do an easy but bold route. I lowered off (skyhooks!) and was disappointed not with failing to do the route, but just being so physically weak and pumped.

On the plus side, I did one pleasant warm-up route, and one very good steady route on Nameless (Diode, a brilliant hidden classic), usefully recced some other routes, and now have the opportunity to ponder on why I am climbing so mediocrely and what I can do about it. What springs to mind is:

1. Relative lack of climbing specific training: Although I have been gymming and walling okay, I have been taking it a bit easy due to my elbow, and think I have lost some pure climbing strength/endurance/stamina.
...Last week's TCA finger circuit session felt okay on my elbow and seemed to be a good training balance, so I will do more of that, more regularly, to keep my fingers strong whilst hopefully avoiding overtaxing my elbow.

2. Reduction of Citalopram dose and possible increase in anxiety: Not sure if this is a factor but it could well be affecting my confidence overall.
...I will keep up with the falling practise down the wall, and also maybe outside IF I fail on a safe route I can practise jumping off onto gear (not skyhooks!). Regular climbing mileage might help too.

3. Other distractions: Maybe!
...Am working on sorting those out, and in the meantime, easing the pressure on myself to progress and keeping my hand it should set up a good basis for pushing myself later on.

I think in general getting some mileage in should be pretty useful and pleasurable at the moment, and luckily there are still plenty of places for me to explore and enjoy - Reiff, Skye, Sheigra area, even back to Glen Nevis and Ardnamurchan - without restricting myself to major challenge inspirations. So that might be the best plan for now, while keeping aware of when I feel ready to push a bit harder.

Misanthrope Mission #2

Well it will save me thinking of yet more alliterative bloody titles. This time I went to T'Lakes and T'County in a round trip via the Once Brewed Youth Hostel (and the adjacent Once Brewed Pub which only served Twice Brewed Beer, WTF). Several hundred miles and several hours of driving and I got up.....one problem. Huh.

Gouther: Glorious weather on the day. Gouther was in the shade and rather dank, which precluded topping out on most problems. Not a problem for me as being shite and weak precluded getting anywhere near the top on most problems. I warmed up doing Trev's Traverse in a few goes, this is a weird problem which feels very trad. I then spent so long failing on other stuff I didn't get the chance to fail on the rad-looking J Mascis. But I've had a good recce and will be back. Team Buys were at the crag with Gav and Mike Hutton. They're a nice pair, very affable.

Queen's Crag: Dry and fresh on the walk-in, via lots of cows who were doing some very fine mooing. I like cows. Got to the crag. It started pissing down. I had a good recce. Eventually the rain abated enough for me to....walk out as there was no bloody chance of it drying. Still it looks cool. Lots of aretes and a few good faces. Syked to get back.

Hepburn: Dry and fresh on the walk-in. Wanted to check out the lesser-known problems and after some of the worst boulder/heather bashing ever, ended up at Queen Bee Buttress. Oooh there's a cool looking wall/rib above a good landing, starting from a nice mono....And the mono is FULL OF FUCKING BEES. Stomped over to Titanic Arete. I tried this before and couldn't do it. I tried it again and couldn't do it. I've fallen out with this problem. There was a team working hard stuff and a cool-looking project. I went over to watch and their cute wee terrier thing jumped on my lap and wouldn't leave. This was more fun than Titanic Arete so I sacked off that problem. And pretty soon sacked off the day entirely before I risked actually getting up a problem (not that big a risk really).

Sometimes on these trips there just seems to be far more rain and walking and bees and cows than actual climbing. This is a cow:

Real winter sun at Red Wall seacliffs.

This weekend I visited the third in the triptych of welcoming Aberdonian climbing couples I know. This was all rather pleasant: bRad, Amelia, Atlas (above) and Dido hosted me graciously and we went out climbing. Well, the people, not the cats. Although the cats could have done a better job than I did on Sunday. But first, Saturday. Winter sun, good East Coast weather (escaping the deluge in the West), and bird-free pink granite. These are other good reasons to visit Aberdeen climbing, and why I intend to do more of it this winter season. On Saturday we visited Red Wall, and lo it is RED and a WALL. It also doesn't have any shortcuts to the base of the crag apart from abseiling, certainly not wandering through the intriguing sport climbing quarry, and wondering how appealing a swim would be if we attempted the green bulging sea-traverse to the base. Eventually we established base camp - via abseil - and rattled off a few routes. Despite the short day, false start approach, late arrival of myself from Edinburger, and climbing as a team of 3, we still managed 4 good routes albeit with the second and third following the last route in something between dusk and pitch dark. I didn't tackle anything major - I have a general syke to do so but am cautious of the conditions and Aberdonian sea-cliffs in general - but did a couple of fun routes.


Sunday initially promised sun. Then mist. Then torrential rain. Then sun again. Eventually it settled on one of the few things that wasn't forecast - light cloud and cool grey temps. We had a look at the dramatic and photogenic Round Tower but alas despite no rain and little seepage, it was damper than a squid's snatch. The infamous coastal clag in full effect. Without sun and breeze and indeed any margin for error at this time of year, options were limited to sensible retreat, but it was a good recce for the future. Thusly we ended up at Transition wall, where I transitioned from someone giving a vague impression of climbing competence, to an inept bumbling blob of punterdom. I was fat and weak in ways which are hard to describe and impossible for mere mortals to comprehend. Anything which required a modicum of arm strength rather than crimping or compression left me beaten, battered, and belligerent. Oh and my skin was utter rubbish too. All rather perturbing, but it turned out to be a good workout, I suppose. God knows I need one!

aaaAAAaaAAaArco0o0o0o0o

I'm back from a long autumn sun bolt-clipping weekend in the Italian sport climbing mecca of Arco. There were many cool things over this mini-trip... Exploring a whole new area, the gorgeous scenery around the top of Lake Garda, 3 days of warm sunshine, hooning around in my tiny Fiat Scroto hire car (dropping it down into 2nd at 70kph to overtake being quite ineffectual fun, as well as trying to slide on mountain hairpin bends), eating ace pizza and other Italian delicacies, hanging out with my old mates and their wee monkey boy (e.g. after knocking over ice cream dish in a face-pulling contest: L: "Daddy are we BOTH idiots??"... D: "Yes....yes we are.") in a tiny little cabin, endless choadly banter and a fair bit of chilling out.

Note that something is missing from that list...the climbing?? Yes, the climbing. There was some. Not as much as I would have liked, and I was rubbish at it. I did a few routes, tackled a few challenges, and most of what I did was pretty good. Most of what I failed on was pretty good too, and there was more of that than I would have liked. D wasn't on form either, and so aptly put it "punters in crime" ! There were some general issues - the consensus was the grades were stiff, some areas were fairly polished and ludicrously overchalked, with their clientele having a particular bad habit of chalking every shite undulation on the rock EXCEPT the best holds, and climbing in the warm sun didn't help. Despite this I felt I was climbing technically fine, and with a fair amount of conviction (albeit the usual fear of falling even on sport routes). But I just seemed to get very pumped and rather tired pretty quickly, and I'm not really sure why.

Even before I left I was rubbish at Ratho and at other training. It seems odd that after a reasonable summer climbing I'm *less* climbing fit than before. The only possible suggestion was that I might just need a wee break. Maybe this is right although with my fucked up body it's really hard to tell what's best for my fitness. However....I'm doing that for now and will see what happens.

Backlog Blog!!

Previous weekends as follows:
Sorry for all the number bollox but it's been a decent run and I can't be arsed to write anything more interesting.

Au revoir dreams at Aonach Dubh
The last one of my trio of old, old dreams, after Edgehog and Dracula, was of course Freak Out. Like the others, I'd seen a photo years ago and just knew I had to do it. Well, I haven't, I tried and I failed. But it was an interesting failure, perhaps more interesting than success.

The climbing session hadn't started auspiciously. First there was the 3+ hour drive from Edinburgh, then the 45 minute walk-in which was a full brutal hour and a half for me, and then the warm-up route up a rather enticing wall turned into a nightmare of bad route descriptions and ambiguous lines, culminating in having to jump off after far too long on the wall. None of which boded well for an assault on Freak Out, starting at 8pm and fully knackered...

Nevertheless, once beneath the amazing line, I went along with my inspiration and summoned all my determination. The first pitch went very smoothly, and the second started well. Up into the leg-murdering non-rest under the crux roof, fiddle, reverse, repeat and rinse. Eventually commit, blast through the crux and keep blasting up the crack. Apparent good holds turned to pointless slopers as I reached them, tactics went out the window and I kept going until arriving at some big flatties before a good undercling flake. I've heard that once you feel so pumped you can't carry on, you have two moves still left in your arms. I carried on. I didn't even have 0.2 moves left in my arms...

Hanging several metres lower on the rope, a wave of agonising exhaustion swept through me. I just managed to blurt out that I needed a minute, before shuddering through a full body debilitation until I could eventually think straight. I left a couple of wires and we escaped. So, I failed. But not through cowardice or lack of committment or psychological issues - I was beaten fair and square, I gave it my all, and pushed beyond my limits. I could have done it - a few seconds gained by better tactics low down or swifter moves to the flake, but it's hardly relevant. In this case it was as interesting to fail as to succeed, although unlike the ugly and frustrating psychological failures, there is little I can learn from this - except sometimes, you do just get beaten.
Sir Chancelot E1 5b **

Calming down at Covesea
Covesea lives in the shadow of the Moray Coast Burbage Popular End duo of Cummingston and Logie Head and is grossly underrated. Tales of "underuse" and some "dirty rock" weren't enough to put me off, and as usual I was right to give it a go. Lovely location on a secluded (if not quiet, due to regular RAF Tornados) non-tidal pebble beach, a compact crag with some strong features and good mid-grade climbing. Short, accessible, punchy routes were a good tonic to the previous day's exhertions and a few surprisingly good hours sleep in the car. A better tonic came after as my partner had to meet his lad after school, the possibility of going back out to the crag turning rapidly into the possibility of watching them swim around in the harbour. Having a few hours to kill and some muscles to relax, I joined them, mostly in the ice cream and sunbathing capacity, but after witnessing his lad gleefully pushing his harbour-wall-jumping limits, I had to do the honourable thing and join them in the water - bloody freezing but bloody good fun!
Family Affair E2 5b *
Sandinasta E2 5c *
The Growl E2 5b *


Approaching Gairloch

Lovely times at Loch Tollaidh
Back to the wonderful Gairloch which remains my favourite area in Scotland. Very gneiss crags in a very nice setting! Lovely scenery and lovely climbing and you can now add a lovely cafe to that mix - The Mountain Coffee Shop in the main village provided the fuel for a day that was both action-packed and delightful. Masses of midgies chased us away from Tollie Crag, but at the breezier and sunnier Tolldaih crag there was not a single one until they swarmed at 8pm, when it was pub o'clock anyway. The climbing was ace too, involving three very different challenges - pump, hard moves, and boldness - all very rewarding.
Peweky E1 5b *
Hollow Heart E3 5c **
Heave-Ho E4 6a *
Strip Teaser E4 5c *

Rough rock at Road Crag, Beastliness at Beach Crag, Jolly good fun at Jetty Buttress
Keeping the breezy and open theme to beat the midgies, we honed that theme to "touring the most imaginatively named Gruinard Bay crags". Post in the comments what you think the above crags are named after and you probably won't win a prize... Grey weather and the odd light semi-shower called for a more moseying around day, nevertheless on most routes I got more of a challenge than I expected - but as much good outcrop quality too.
Radical Jewish E2 5c **
Armburger E2 5b **
Right Charlie E2 5c **

Crush failure at Clashfarquar
5th day on and a flying visit past the roaring Lyons.
Fiend: "What ever you want to do lass, I've had some good days out so I'll happily go along with your plans..."
Lyons: "Well I fancy looking at Clashfarquar, there's this classic 7a arete there."
Fiend: (thinks "mmmm 7a arete") "Cool, sounds good."
- after the soaking wet walk-in -
Fiend: "Fuck Amanda Lyons, fuck this walk-in, fuck Aberdeen bouldering!"
- 30 seconds later having chilled out on the boulder platform -
Fiend: "Actually this is a cool spot and a great line"
- 2 hours later after a lot of faffing and very little progress -
The Guidebook: "Clash Arete F7a+ ***"
Fiend: "Fucking 7a PLUS???? You told me it was 7a!! No wonder it's bloody hard!!"
Lyons: "Whatever, you can do 7a+..."
Fiend: "Not that bloody quickly I can't!!"
In fact not at all in that session. It is a cool spot tho...

Cool days at Creag Dubh
Day 1 was cool because it was cool i.e. bloody cold. Middle of summer so cold grey skies, ominous hazy horizons and a howling wind seem de rigeur. I even kept my t-shirt on when climbing - yes it sometimes does happen! Not very enticing conditions but I got a nice taster of the attractive (in places the grain of the rock strata is very like wood....it's nice) but challenging (in place it's steep thin and pumpy....most places!) Barrier Wall. One to come back to.
Day 2 was cool because it was cool i.e. rad and awesome dude. In keeping with consistent weather it was bloody glorious and frostbite was swapped for sunburn. 2 big routes in the sun (OTH proving rather stiff) and then one in the fresh and pleasant shade (TF proving to be pretty easy but absolutely brilliant, one of the most enjoyable climbs this year). A pretty good opening of the important Creag Dubh account.
Muph Dive E2 5c **
Jump For Joy E2 5b **
Ruff Licks E3 5c ***
Over The Hill E3 5c ***
The Fuhrer E4 5c ***

Raped skin at Ruthven
Another attempted bouldering session after a few days on, another arse-kicking. The Ruthven boulder is a mighty fine boulder in a mighty good setting. A big bold bulging monster on a flat grassy base a few minutes from the road. It is also rough as FUCK, the gneiss having that particular granitic grain that manages to combine skin-shredding coarseness with a soft-tissue-crushing crystallinity in one hardcore rock texture. Climbing-wise it is rather good, but one to go to with plenty of time and plenty of freshness. I had neither this time, but I will be back...

Leaving Ruthven

Stronnng Fiend STRONNNG!

LOL
Not really strong, just overuse of my right hand hmmmm...

Also, have a picture of pussy:

Minor beasting at Myopics Buttress, plus Arse At Aberdeen.

Not a great exploratory weekend just passed, but not a bad training on either. Haven't really pushed myself much physically recently, but ended up going back to Dunkeld to play on Myopics Buttress, where I got roped into a good dogging session. Had a good play on the steep and powerful "classic of the buttress" and a good rotpunkt attempt which I very nearly got but had missed crucial foot beta and then when I got the beta I ran out of strength. Still that felt like it gave me a good workout which is nice.

The next day at Aberdeen was not so nice, possibly due to that minor beasting. Despite good fresh conditions (sunshine and breeze), another good partner (Canadian b-Rad), and an inspiring cliff (Craig Stirling), I failed on one of my desired routes there, due to utter pump and fiddling in shoddy gear and missing better gear slots. Uggggh. Oh and I lost a shoe in the sea and got hit by a wave when I abseiled too low and nearly went off the road and nearly got done by two speed cameras on the way home. Thankfully a scheduled early return precluded any further climbing / sea-related debacles, but it was quite disappointing given I've been doing okay recently. Once again mastery or even competence at Aberdeen sea-cliff climbing eludes me... Hopefully the weather will allow me to head west and avoid it for a while!

BASECAMP GLASGOW.

After a lot of dicking around, I have finally got basecamp established approximately here (approximately, I don't actually live in the train station, and yes there is a reason for the strange name, but I've forgotten it). It seems a pretty pleasant area of Glasgow with decent immediate surrounds and good access to stuff. However it's fair to say the city of Glasgow has no specific appeal to me (although it's interesting trying somewhere new), it's all about location, location, location. Specifically a location that allows quite a few Scottish outcrops in a day trip, most of the Highlands in a weekend trip, and the mighty north west of Scotland in a long weekend trip.

Naturally in this context it is pissing down and forecast to do so for the next 90 trillion days, however this is to be expected, I am fat and weak and could do with training in the meantime (more on that later).

Rogered at Ratho.

I was planning to do a whole series of the new "Fiend with fucked fitness in Scotland" blog theme, but I doubt I'll be arsed to do it retrospectively, so in summary they would have been:

Analised at Aberdeen - Nice sea-cliffs but got utterly thrashed on the easiest of routes.

Weak at Weem - Managed to get so pumped I was dizzy and nauseous....on an easy slab.

Relief at Rockdust - Despite the 10 minute walk-in feeling Alpine, I managed to climb okay, climbing as a team of 3 gave me longer rests and I had better route tactics.

So, back to Ratho. Normally of course indoor walls wouldn't be worthy of mention, but Ratho is Alpine in a whole different way - it's MASSIVE in both scope and wall height - bottled oxygen would be welcome. I was very impressed, it doesn't feel like a UK wall, but rather something of the next generation. And for me, at the moment, it's very good training. The routes go on for ages and I got pumped and pulse-racingly tired on every single one which is partly demoralising but partly inspiring that it's a good facility to get my fitness back. The next stage of course is to go with the pump and start falling instead of resting...

Things are (very) gradually settling down in Glasgow so I can focus more on training (all with the hallowed goal of exploring as much Easy Trad as possible ;)), and I suspect Ratho will play a large role in that.

You can't have fun when you're weak...

...and bloody hell I didn't know it was possible to get THIS weak!! I should have paid more attention to The Path Of Weakness when I was hanging around with Duncan Disorderly... I've been out climbing a couple of times in Scotland and it feels any progress I'd previously made has been swamped by the logistical mess I'm trying to sort out moving to Glasgow, and the subsequent distressing lack of climbing and training.

The mind is willing, the desire is strong, but the flesh is oh so weak - or more like, oh so unfit. I'm getting unfeasibly pumped on routes I would have considered beneath my dignity as gentle warm-ups a few months ago, and have ended up slumped on a rope or collapsed at the top of a route, hyperventilating with exhaustion on a few occasions. When I'm nauseous with the pump and my vision goes funny on a slabby F6a+ (do grades really go that low??), there is definitely something wrong. And this wrongness is definitely down to my legs and the aftermath of the DVT clots (steep walk-ins are still a multipitch affair), and it is becoming clear that I am hanging on to what little fitness I've regained by a thin thread. I obviously need to keep up with exercise and realise what a long and uphill journey (although I'll stick to flatter walk-ins) lies ahead.

However, there is some hope. This situation is fairly reminiscent of when I broke my foot in summer 2005 and was hobbling back to fitness in the autumn - about the same time as now I was struggling just as hard on routes just as easy... And over winter, I trained, got my strength back, climbed well in early spring and then started my best climbing years ever in that next spring. This time, regaining CV fitness might be a lot harder, but my summer climbing experiences have been a bit more consistent, I've got several years more climbing "wisdom" (yes, really!) and I'm in an area with a better choice of mileage routes (in 2005 I ended up going to Clwyd limestone for a long weekend's mileage....Glen Nevis or Gairloch are somewhat more appealing choices!).

And of course, there's a follow on motto to this blog title:

You can't have fun when you're weak...

...But the great thing about being weak is you can get STRONG!