June 13 Conditions

Saturday 22nd June 2013

Success for Red on the Old Man of Hoy

This week I was working on Hoy with Red. Red Szell has wanted to climb the Old Man of Hoy for 30 years but as his eyesight deteriorated with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) he thought that it was becoming an impossibility. However with some help and encouragement from many of his friends and family including especially Matthew and Andres he got to Scotland this week for an attempt with Martin and myself.

On Wednesday Martin and I took Andres and Matthew up The Old Man as Red looked on along with Keith who was to film Red's climb for The Adventure Show.

On Thursday it dawned cloudy but dry as we set out for the sea stack which is 2 and a half miles across the cliffs. With Red's very limited eyesight everything takes longer but 2 hours later we were standing at the bottom of the stack.

Over the next 5 hours Red put in an absolutely awesome effort and climbed the whole of the East Face (Original) Route. It was an incredibly inspiring climb to be involved with and an emotional Red stood on top the Old Man probably being the first blind man to do so.

Red is raising money for research into RP and if you want to donate please look at his Just Giving page. A recording of some of the action will appear on the Radio 4 programme In Touch , probably this Tuesday coming. The Adventure Show footage will be on BBC2 Scotland later in the year.

Monday 17th June 2013

Awesome week rock climbing on the Western Isles

Just back from a fantastic week of trad climbing on the sea cliffs of Pabbay and Mingulay in the Outer Hebrides. 10 of us headed out on the pilgrimage to the isles. For the first 3 days it was hot and sunny. We had a great time climbing routes on many of the different cliffs of Pabbay in the gorgeous afternoon and evening sun.

After a break in the weather and some rain mid week we had cooler and mixed weather for the second half of the week on Mingulay. We still managed many routes as with the sun and wind it all dried very quickly.

My personal highlights were Sirens and Sula on Dun Mingulay and Prophecy of Drowning next to the amazing Great Arch where Dave managed to free the long standing project across the roof last week.

Wednesday 5th June 2013

Evening cragging session at Moy

Gaz and I were out for an evening cragging session at Moy last night. We had a great 3 hours of evening light and almost too warm conditions.

We ticked all the routes on The Big Flat Wall. Rafa and Ross were also out for the evening throwing laps on The Seer!

We are both off to the Western Isles to climb next week so we are hoping that this high pressure will stick around for a while to come. I will try to keep you updated on the action via twitter.