Lack Of Velociraptors at the Lost Valley

I have put up with many....difficulties....using Bouldering In Scotland. Approach times and maps have been taken with a pinch of salt, grades, lines and descriptions with a shovelful (although surprisingly the descriptions for the Lost Valley are spot on....and the grades are only 2 grades out). Although it's got me to some great locations, it's often taken trial and error and imagination to get on some great problems, and I've put up with that (mostly by whining about it on this blog). But this time my patience has run out...

"When you finally step down into the Lost Valley after a hike through the gorge of Allt Coire Gabhail, you might expect to see Velociratpors running around in packs, such is the hidden mystery of the place."

Well it might be full of hidden mystery, but I didn't see ANY Velociraptors. Not a single one. Nor Brontasaurii, Diplodocii, Stegadons, Triceratops, Tyranosaurs, not even a fucking Pterdaton.

WHERE ARE THE FUCKING VELOCIRAPTORS??

I WANT MY VELOCIRAPTORS!!

HMPH. 

Shivering at Sheigra.

...well at least it gave time for the sunburn to settle down! This time the temperature halved in a few days, but once again the weather stayed dry enough to have a great trip away. I'm not going to be complaining about Scottish spring and early summer this year - I've had 18 days away in the North West so far!! This trip was more North than West, taking advantage of the 4 day weekend (enough to turn anyone into a royalist) to tackle a Sheigra mission.

And it was some mission to start: We left from Perth in Simon's van, the A9 was closed so we had a grindingly slow detour via Fort William, getting to Inverness so late that we had to crash out in the dogging spot (plenty of COCK FUN on offer apparently - but I didn't see any....who knows what happened in the back of the van though...) just past Garve. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the van's clutch started going at Inchbae. Simon managed to limp it to Ullapool, where of course it turns out the clutch/gearbox work would be hideously expensive and maybe could be started the next Wednesday. Gulp.  Tried to find a hire car in Ullapool - none available. Get a bus back to Inverness - the only buses are timed to coinicide with the Stornoway ferry and arrive just after all the hire companies close. Taxi (!) - £80. Double gulp. But....as we were enquiring in the tourist information office, the lady's partner casually said "Oh yes I'm going to Inverness soon, I'll give you a lift just after I've had me breakfast". What a GENT. We got a nippy little Astra from the airport, cained the fuck out of it back to Ullapool, packed it to the brim with all our kit, and resumed the journey, 5 hours later and one van down. Got to Rhiconich, got to Rhiconich Crag, a nice wee sheet of undulating gneiss, and...

...

...CALM. Calm and syke and the simplicity of good climbing after all that debacle. Did a few routes, went to the Rhiconich Bloodstone, did a few boulder problems, went to the Scourie campsite (very nice, good value, good vibe), ate a few meatballs (okay a lot of meatballs), had a few hours sleep (okay several, but not enough!). The days then followed a similar pattern: wake in the morning to 4am sunrise and rain showers, grumpily go back to sleep, wake again a few hours later and realise everything was dry, brave the bracing breeze and go climbing on great gneiss, inland or sea-side. Second Geo was as good as usual, The Balcony was a great hidden gem slab, the Akita Boulder was surprisingly where the guide said it was and a great bit of rock somewhat marred by atrocious climber-crushing landings and amusing "Dave Macleod tries to grade V4s" grades, our fingertips couldn't cope anyway, and the First Geo was as fucking STEEP as usual but I managed to scrape up Monkey Man by the skin of my teeth - or more like the skin of my hands....I lost a lot of it in the undercling jam "rest". Having backed off the start of MM on my previous Sheigra trip in 2008 (then with a fucked left elbow rather than a fucked right one), this had been a main goal for the trip (despite not being a very big number, it is clearly adjectivally harder than steady slabs like Unleash The Beast at Ardmair and Big Country Dreams at Cambusbarron!), and I'd been worrying about having enough fitness, determination, and the right rock conditions to get it done. A fitting end to the trip.

Not sure what the weather is doing next....but at least I'm narrowing down my aims for the next 4 months: Week in Lewis (tricky), long weekend on Orkney/Yesnaby (tricky), 3 days on Skye (doable by weekends), 3 days around Reiff (doable by weekends), and the usual Gairloch / Glen Nevis / Creag Dubh / Aberdeen bollox (all weekend or even day trip friendly). So only two logistically difficult trips. Just need to keep organised and keep fit (my climbing is still fairly balls but getting a bit better with the mileage I think).

P.S. No photos as the blogspot photo inclusion thing is so bloody awful, I can't be arsed fighting with it, go here instead: http://www.ukclimbing.com/photos/author.html?id=4478

Scorching on Skye

Second weekend in a row, racking up about 1200 miles total. But it's a miraculous slice of spring / summer / searing sunshine, so it's worth it. This time I assumed that the North East facing sea-cliffs of Trotternish would be a great escape from the sun. This was partly right, apart from Staffin being a great escape from any form of breeze and thus a haven for midges as well as sweaty shade-seekers. So we went swimming off the slipway and for an excellent cafe lunch in the Granary Restaurant in Portree instead and I had a nap and slogged up to the Old Man Of Storr which is the most bizarre and Alien landscape in the UK and Staffin stays on the wishlist along with further days at Neist and Elgol.

This rest day was sandwiched between some highly rewarding crack climbing at: Kilt Rock, which contains one of the 3 so-called "essential" bits of climbing I was belligerently determined to avoid in Scotland, Grey Panther (along with the over-hyped Reiff, which I have been to and enjoyed despite it being obviously inferior to Caithness, Sheigra, Ardmair, Gairloch, Gruinard etc, and Etive Slabs which still have no appeal). In it's defence Grey Panther did look very good when I abseiled down (apart from the shocking amount of crack-avoidance going on, looking at the chalk), so I did Edge Of Beyond and Skyeman instead. Rubha Hunish, the most Northerly point in Skye (Neist is the most Westerly, the Easterly and Southerly don't have any promoted climbing), where I did the intimidating but utterly excellent Whispering Crack, which took some determination to get on but a lot of pleasure once on it, and finally:



An Sgudan (sp!) boulders beneath the Cuillin, where after an epic slog in in my underpants (I now have burnt thighs with a pantline), I flashed the 10m 8m tape-up tapeless hard-as-nails pretty easy 7a V4+ mega-classic Pump Up The Jam. In the end there was very little climbing per day but it was great enough to be worthwhile. I'm feeling a bit less punterly, my elbow feels good in the heat, and I'm taking advantage of the weather.

Getting Nuked in Glen Nevis.

Fuck me it was hot out there. The temperatures must have doubled in a few days, from huddling in vest+t-shirt+hoodie+beanie+downie on Skye, to melting in just shorts (+ compression stockings) in Glen Nevis. Ridiculous....obviously this is glorious height of summer weather which is all rather nice, but it does take some adjusting when spring lasts 2 days! All of which might explain why we ended up sitting in the Clachaig at 6pm drinking lime and soda and Grozet gooseberry wheat beer instead of crushing les crags. This was after a day of slogging up to Wave for the second time in a row, realising that On The Beach would be particularly unwise in my current state and the weather's current climate, doing Crackattack the easy way instead, and having a generally good time climbing, so we could justify some relaxation.

Although I'm shying away from the harder climbs on the wonderous Wave, exploring around the Gorge itself has cemented other inspirations: Aquarian Rebels and Quality Street in particular, with the Gorge Crag for warming up en-route. The best rock in the Glen and the best scenery...

Nice Neist.

Finally got back to Skye this weekend, after only a year and half of trying to get back since September 2010. Finally got back to Neist, which is still awesome. I love many things about Neist....it's the furthest Westerly point you can drive to in Scotland, it has a proper end-of-the-earth feel, the backdrop of imposing choss cliffs is dramatic.....but the highlight is the view out to sea, a simply stunning panorama of the Outer Hebrides as far as the eye can behold...30 miles away and stretching for over 100 miles. And then beneath all of this you've got a ring of dolerite crags and sea-cliffs, tapering around the headland to the Neist lighthouse, only interrupted by the prominent pinnacle of An T'Aigeach...

http://hqworld.net/gallery/data/media/137/neist_point_lighthouse__isle_of_skye__inner_hebrides__scotland.jpg

(copy and paste to address bar)

...on which I finally got to climb Supercharger - this happens to be the route up the front of the pinnacle, but in a rarity for me, the actual route is secondary to the summit tick. Many tourists gain the tick by a casual stroll, we did that, abseiled straight down, and regained it via a variety of good climbing, bad climbing, imposing sections, easy rambling, grassy grappling, and occasional perched blocks. A satisfying adventure that went pleasingly smoothly.

On the second day we stuck to the strictly "good climbing" style and went down to the classic-cluttered Financial Sector, full of sheer single pitches that always give....good value ;). Having done some of the harder climbs there, I mostly bimbled through the day, aided and abetted by now being a team of 3, and a shoddy night's sleep in the cold tent. The one remaining challenge had bad rock at the top, so I left that alone and stuck with some steadier but good climbs - all enjoyable though.

So another weekend of pottering and treading water, but a more satisfying one than some due to the excellent and long-desired location. Glasgow to Neist makes a mightily long weekend of driving, but being familiar with the areas did allow us to get climbing pretty swiftly. It's tiring overall but if that's what it takes to make use of these distant areas, sobeit.

I still need to work on pushing and progressing my climbing. The current mileage will no doubt help....and hopefully the inspiration of exciting venues can summon the determination to be truer to my climbing desires.

B0rked Bouldering.

Apparently my bouldering hitlist for this winter was:

Pump Up The Jam, various - Skye - never got there

Razorback, Romancing The Stone, various - Reiff - nope, had a look, was cold and windy and Razorback looked horribly reachy dyno bollox.

Various - Reiff In The Woods - nope, had a look, failed on everything but got close to the cool roadside wall, never got back though.

The Ship Boulder - Torridon  - never got there

Blankety Blank - Torridon - never got there

Various - Cammachmore - never got there

Big Lebowski, The Dude - Ruthven Boulder - never got there

Brin Done Before - Brin Rock - never got there

Deep Breath Arete, Hamish, various - Glen Nevis - nope, DBA was uninspiring lip traverse with bad landing, Hamish looked stupidly sandbaggy, did lots on the other side of river.

Pyramid Lip - Glen Ogle - never got there

??? - Loch Sloy - never got there

Swap Meet, Ace Of Spades, various - Glen Croe - nope, had a brief look but only did easy stuff.

The Bottler - Loch Lomond - never got there

Nameless Pimp Toy - Stronlachlar - never got there

The Chop - Weem - never got there

Various Corrie Boulders - Arran - never got there

Suck My Woolie, Snow White - Garheugh - never got there

Wow! 0% success... Epic mega-fail. Or mega epic-fail. I have even impressed myself this time, with my ability to not only avoid getting up any of these problems, but to avoid getting on them and even getting anywhere near the location. I did have good days at Shaftoe, Queens, Carrock Fell, and Glen Nevis Southside though. Just strange how I managed to avoid all the things I intended to do!

Given the weather - hardly the tropical trad weather window May mostly brings - it is still quite possible that there will be good conditions for some of these. But of course I'm too injured for most if not all of them, although a select few might be attemptable with care....I shall see...

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.