April 12 Conditions

Monday 30th April 2012

A beautiful weekend of weather in the highlands

The weekend gave us 2 glorious days of high pressure sunshine and clear skies before a front arrived from the south today.

On Saturday I took part in the Loch Tollaidh Triathlon and Team Carter came first (out of 2 teams!) in the team event. First prize went to Paul for his second win in 4 years. It was a great fun event with less wind for the cyclists than last year and the usual banter at the crag at the end.

Yesterday I finally managed to get back to Goat Crag after my first visit of the year 2 weeks ago and I was well chuffed to get up Mactalla on my first red point of the day. There was a wee crowd at the crag and it was lovely hanging out in the sun out of the wind.

Sunday 15th April 2012

Great time at Goat Crag

Yesterday Rich, Ian, Tess and I had a great day on Goat Crag in Gruinard Bay. The air temperature was cold but with sunshine and only a slight breeze it was perfect for sport climbing.

I got on Mactalla for the first time. What an awesome route! I made it to the high crux on my first attempt but didn't get it during the day. It's such a great route I'll be heading back soon.

Sunday 1st April 2012

Trad and Sport on Deeside

Rich and I headed east today to savour the delights of the Pass of Ballater. After a couple of routes we got cold in the fresh westerly breeze so we went exploring.

Neither of us had been to the sport routes in the Cambus O'May Quarries. Here we found the routes dry (some routes suffer with seepage early season) and very sheltered. The north facing wall was quite cool but Sun City on the South facing wall was in optimum conditions!