T-shirt weather for Cuillin cragging, 28th April
Dry rock and a warm breeze is too good to ignore so Paul & I dropped work plans and headed off to An Stac in search of some adventure.
What’s in that shadowy corner?
A steep curving fault line just below the summit had attracted my eye for a few years but it was hard to tell what angle the climbing would actually be. Perhaps just an exposed scramble or just plain impossible?
80m of great exposed scrambling, easy in our rock shoes, led us up to the start of the overlap and a wee struggle to find much of an anchor. Paul led up the next 20m and the theme of delicacy and carefully choosing which rock to place protection in continued. Above this slabby ledge the corner itself looked crumbling and hard, out right looked more solid but definitely avoiding the line of the challenge so I choose a faint groove heading straight up.
Scrambling approach
A cam buried deeply into hollow sounding rock was soon matched on the other rope with an RP2 – times are a bit tough when I resort to placing micro-nuts in gabbro! Time to climb…. Avoiding some obvious lose flakes I found most of the holds solid enough as I tiptoed upward on the wonderful sticky gabbro. 5m up a large offset cam fitted nicely into a hole where the basalt had separated from the face. It seemed solid to touch but you can never be too sure and I was grateful to be able to “strengthen” this by using a screamer; clever type of extender that absorbs 4kN if it’s shock-loaded. Doesn’t sound much but that’s the equivilant to removing the effect of a 400kg weight hanging from it!
Nearing the top
All good preparation for what was clearly, even for an optimist like me, going to be quite a run-out. The climbing that followed was beautiful, all in the feet but just the right number of positive and solid holds and the loose sections weren’t too hard to avoid. I discovered I was now climbing the surface of a basalt layer and surmounting this gave a good footstep rest.
I got tempted into the corner next in an attempt to find protection, regretted it pretty instantly and escaped up and back right to the basalt ladder. Pulling hard on your arms on this stuff always begs the question of how good the glue is, 60 million years after these layers were stuck together. Fortunately I’ve always (touch wood) found it to be good enough for my bodyweight.
Another reasonable large cam kept things under control before flowing moves led to the top and a predictably difficult search for a solid belay. Paul romped up stylishly then ran the ropes out to the sunny summit of An Stac itself. Good endorphine rush! Quite a serious proposition but technically not too hard The Hanging Slab is about E1 5a.
The In Pinn stood gleaming in the evening sunshine and it would have been rude not to climb it. Paul led the 4 star Hard V Diff South Crack on delightful warm rock.
Sunlit South Crack
Francis popped up behind us with brothers Steve & Piers on their Traverse; hot work but all of them were “steadying away”.
After an overnight bivvy near An Dorus the guys finished on Sgurr nan Gillean at about 2pm today; congratulations are deserved all around!
The Hanging Slab-
South Crack & Pinn-
Coir’ a’ Ghreadaidh, 23rd April.
Just to prove I don’t just climb down at elgol here are some shots from a great day out with Simon in the company of Mr Fort Bill guiding himself Alan Kimber. Alan’s own blog can be read here- Skye Ridge
Overcast & moody but the rocks were dry and Simon got his first proper taste of some narrow Cuillin edges in preparation for a Traverse later this year.
Easterly winds are keeping us largely dry still and forecast to last right into next week 🙂 )))
We are in the very narrow flowering window for the rare Purple Saxifrage and it was great to find the Coire na Banachdaich patch more extensive thanI’ve ever seen before.
Overhang overdosing, 21st April
Francis on the crux of Veritas Splendour; it certainly is!
Had a great work out on Tuesday following Francis through the overhangs on Veritas Splendour, E3 5c and then the even huger ones on Mother’s Pride, E4 5c.
The fine finishing arete of Veritas Splendour
For my lead I choose Ogmorian, one of the few routes here I hadn’t climbed before. Being pretty dirty I didn’t feel it really deserved the 1 star recommendation when there are so many other quality routes on the crag, but others may think differently.
Mother’s Pride, by contrast, is an uber-classic pitch that follows a crack splitting 2 massive overhangs. If you lower off the 25m route from the top you land 15m away from the foot of the climb!
It’s also really hard to grade with absolutely enormous holds all the way. Although generally considered low in the E4 grade the position is uttelry wild. Samurai Groove is another wildly overhanging route on big holds in North Wales and graded E3 5c. I’d climbed it probably only 3 years before my first time on Mother’s Pride and remember clocking the Elgol route as distinctly more outrageous. If you are feeling very strong and are good at placing your gear you should certainly give it a whirl!
Francis is very strong just now; not only did he pose for a pic at the top but he also climbed back down the final few metres for an in situ wire once I’d sweated my own way up pumped out of my mind.
Dolphin display at Elgol on 19th April
Mother & calf passing by
Abi, Ivan, myself & Ally were treated to an incredible dolphin display as we finished our climbing last Saturday. For more than half an hour a huge pod of bottle-nose dolphins headed around the bay, right under the cliffs and around into the jetty at Elgol. Sharp boat operators were rapidly reopening & filling up with tourists to head out & look as we got back there.
Dolphins (bottom left) headign towards the jetty
Estimating numbers was hard, we had to leave before all of them had passed, but I’d guess at over 40 including mothers with calves all breaking the surface every 10 or 20 seconds. They appeared to be hugging the kelp beds feeding happily and our lofty position meant we could see them rolling around and playing even while they were underwater :-)))
Underwater action
This is the first time I’ve seen them close up to the cliffs in many years and a real privilege. I expect we’ll just have to cope with the normal otters, basking sharks and occasional minke whales for the rest of the season but you never know.
Abi way up there on Jamie Jampot, VS
Ivan & Abi had only done a small amount of outdoor climbing before but progressed rapidly with a grand finale on Jamie Jampot.
Ivan in post-match analysis
The weather has been treating us all fantastically right through Easter and looks set to continue.
Fairy Pools and family fun on Fheadain from April 8th
Many thanks to young Henry Jackson for some beautiful photographs of his day out with me back at the start of Easter. Everyone did extremely well and kept on smiling even when the stinging hail hit us on top. Nobody had a dip but Henry’s long exposure pics are a credit to the Fairy Pools and his skills!
Blog Backlog & Bla Bheinn footpath funding success.
Sorry about the radio silence but blogging is the lowest priority when life gets hectic I’m afraid. Last week the weather improved drastically and I enjoyed getting out 7 days out of 8.
Back to hot rock fun at Elgol; ye ha!
They were all great outings but highlights included finally placing an icescrew (1st time in the Cuillin this winter), meeting a couple of Italian guides at the Pinn who were up as guests of Al Todd (who skied the Great Stone Shoot this year) and a couple of hot days on the wonderful cliffs at Elgol (see videos on the Skye Guides Mountaineering Face Book page- I’ve put a selection of galleries below from most days.
Italian joy on the Pinn
Conditions have warmed up considerably but you’ll see great quantities of snow on the northern Cuillin (Pinnacle Ridge gallery below) which I would guess will be with us until about late May. Elsewhere the only serious quantities are leading up to An Dorus and a small amount left in the Great Stone Shoot (pic in Italian invasion gallery).
Biggest news of the week was the successful campaign to win £24k of funding to help with the much needed improvements to the Bla Bheinn (Blaven) footpath. Considerd by many as having the finest views in Scotland Bla Bheinn probably attracts more visitors than any other peak in the Black Cuillin.
Skye’s Bla Bheinn path repair project has won EOCA’s Alpine category – securing us £24k funding for path repairs! Huge thanks to all who voted.
In the office enquiries and bookings flooded in as folk realised that Easter and Spring holidays are fast approaching.
Elgol Day 1-
The annual Belgian student outing around Coire na Creiche & Glen Brittle beach-
4/5 Gully approach to Pinnacle Ridge- spot the ice screw pic!-
Italian invasion at the Pinn-
Even hotter day at Elgol-
