Saturday 31st May 2008
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Just back from 3 awesome days on Skye. Ian and Al were keen to do some classic Skye scrambles and an attempt on the full Skye Ridge Traverse in 1 day.
The first 2 days were spent grabbing the best of the weather for a Clach Glas - Blaven traverse in the South of the island and an ascent of Pinnacle Ridge on Sgurr Nan Gillean.
Yesterday Al and I completed a full traverse of the Skye Ridge in excellent conditions. It was clear, dry and although sunny not too hot. A full traverse of the 10 km ridge includes 11 munros, over 3000m of ascent with complex route finding and tricky exposed scrambling. If, like us, you do the 'full monty' there are also several rock climbs up to severe. This really is big day out. |
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Monday 26th May 2008
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Willie and I headed across to the North of Glencoe today. We climbed the Aonach Eagach ridge in glorious sunshine.
This classic grade 2 scramble follows the ridge between Am Bodach and Sgorr nam Fiannaidh on the North Glencoe skyline. |
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Sunday 25th May 2008
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I was out with Willie today on Curved Ridge on Buchaille Etive Mor. It was Willie's first scramble.
There was a cool Easterly wind but plenty of sunshine for our walk across to the more Southerly Munro. |
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Saturday 24th May 2008
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Today I took Amy up Tower Ridge. It was a beautiful clear spring day with a few other parties enjoying Tower Ridge and North East Buttress on the North Face.
On the summit we met hundreds more folk who had made the long walk up the Tourist Path. |
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Wednesday 21st May 2008
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Es and I went climbing up on the Eastern Buttress of Sron na Ciche in the Black Cuillin. The Vulcan wall area has some fantastic climbs on very rough gabbro.
Es and I did Dilemma and Enigma. It was cold out of the sun but it looked like there were plenty of folk enjoying the Skye Ridge in the sunshine. |
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Tuesday 20th May 2008
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Blue sky and sunshine greeted me as I drove west to Skye this morning.
Es and I went climbing on Neist Point in the NW of Skye. This dolerite sea cliff rises to 100m at it's highest point.
We climbed Supercharger which runs up the prow of the highest buttress seen in the photo. Excellent adventure climbing 10 minutes from the car. |
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Sunday 18th May 2008
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Graham, Colin and I headed into the Northern Corries today. We had a great day out climbing Fingers Ridge. There is still snow at the bottom to cross to reach the rock.
It was a cold dry mountain day with snow flurries at times. It was 4°C at the top of the route. |
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Saturday 17th May 2008
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I went climbing at Duntelchaig with Graham and Colin today. We looked at single and multi-pitch climbing.
We also spent some time learning some rope work and stance management. We finished with a retrievable abseil.
There was a cool NE wind but it stayed dry and was sunny all day. |
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Out West Amy, Rebekka, Jamie and Lorraine enjoyed a warm blue sky day on the Aztec Tower near Gairloch.
Thanks to Amy for this photo of Lorraine leading her first VS. |
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Thursday 15th May 2008
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Yet another glorious spring day here in the Highlands. I was climbing with Rich near Gairloch today.
We enjoyed The Bug on Creag Mhor Tollaidh, and Ariel and Spirit Air on the awesome 50m wall of Loch Maree Crag. |
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Tuesday 13th May 2008
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Chris and I had a beautiful day out on Schiehallion. We spent lots of time looking at navigation and climbed to the summit of Chris's first Munro.
It was sunny and dry with a cool Easterly breeze and good views as far as Ben Alder, Ben Nevis, Glencoe and the Cairngorms. |
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Monday 12th May 2008
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Skye has had some hot humid weather the last couple of days. Many folk were out enjoying the Skye Ridge over the weekend.
I still have some availability in May and June if you are interested in booking last minute for a Skye scrambling, Skye Ridge or Skye Munros courses. |
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Saturday 10th May 2008
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A hot sticky day at Creag Dubh today ended in a spectacular thunder storm.
It was busy on the popular routes on the Main Wall while Rich and I discovered less popular but just as exciting routes on Waterfall Wall and Sprawl Wall. |
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Thursday 8th May 2008
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Another hot day here in the highlands.
Ryan and I headed to Duntelchaig where it was pleasant climbing in the shade before it got too hot. Still no midges and loads of dry rock. Awesome! |
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Wednesday 7th May 2008
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Rich and I had a great evening at Duntelchaig. Even an hour before sunset is was really warm in the evening sunshine.
Rich managed to complete a fantastic new route up the arete left of Cyclops. This arete has some awesome hard climbing with just enough protection. The grade is still to be decided. |
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Monday 5th May 2008
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Great weather here in Scotland.
Returning from a hot rock climbing holiday in Sardinia I was greeted by blue skies, sunshine and a forecast of 22 degrees.
It looks like the high pressure over Scandinavia will maintain good weather over Scotland for the rest of the week.
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