July 12 Conditions

Friday 20th July 2012

Good work out at Goat

Today Deziree and I headed to Goat Crag for a work out. Dez was working the moves on Mactalla, the uber classic 7a+ and I was making failed red point attempts on Snowflake. This super steep 7a+ is a fantastic 3 star route.

The day started dull and still so we were ready armed with midge nets and fully expecting the possibility of being 'midged off'. However, it cleared up right on cue and by mid afternoon we were relaxing in the warm sun and light breeze, perfect.

Tuesday 17th July 2012

New Super Crag

Ian and Tess have finally released details of their latest 'Crag X'. For the last year or so they have been working/climbing hard up in the far north west highlands and now we can see the fruits of their labours.

This 'Super Crag' is described as "Gogarth meets Sheigra" and consists of a very steep west facing 40m wall and a couple of south facing stepped walls. There are 2 dozen routes at present and most are in the low to mid extremes and all are of extremely good quality. You can find the mini guide here: Super Crag Topo

Monday 2nd July 2012

Scrambling in Lochaber

Over the weekend I was in Lochaber with Andy, Kerri and Brian. They are keen hill walkers and wanted to learn more about scrambling.

On Saturday we headed to Ben Nevis where we climbed Ledge Route. There is still a large patch of snow in Number 5 Gully which we avoided by climbing the rock on the right of the gully. We had a relatively dry day of climbing until the descent on the busy tourist path.

On Sunday we headed to the scrambling route, The Zig Zags on Gearr Aonach in Glencoe. We ascended this grade 1 scramble with the Andy, Kerri and Brian doing all the leading and rope work. We then descended the route with several retrievable abseils. All good training for their own scrambling adventures in the future.