Collie’s Route to the Basteir Tooth, 24th July
On a showery day Lucy, Alan, Ben & I had a great time following in the footsteps of Norman Collie and John Mackenzie (1889). Also known as the Lota Corrie route the line took the famous duo 5 hours of searching before they breached the steep walls and the route is still a bit of an unknown quantity for many modern climbers.
You have to descend close to the steep southern wall of Am Basteir for 150m until access can be gained. After an initial 10m slab a gully is followed right back up to the Basteir Nick between the Tooth and Am Basteir.
Caution is needed with some loose debris in the bed of the gully but there is superb scrambling all the way up.
Above the Tooth another heavy shower hit us and made the steep moves through The Mouth very challenging.
We chucked Lucy at it with a promise of some traditional Victorian assistance. She placed a couple of pieces of gear to pull on while Ben & I shoved on feet from below. Once up Lucy dropped a long sling for the rest of us to pull up on.
On top the rain stopped once and for all and we whooped our way back to the pub.
