Petestack Blog

Today I was up at Polldubh assisting Outward Bound Loch Eil with climbing and abseiling sessions for our own first year pupils from Kinlochleven High School. So the May weather still wasn’t great (alternating sunny spells and heavy showers), but I set up this morning’s abseil and ran the bottom rope for our climbers on SW Buttress, then set up another abseil at the same venue and ran that this afternoon. I was working with Alex and Hannah this morning, and Alan and John this afternoon (hope I’ve spelled everyone’s names right!). All very useful practice with the SPA Assessment now just days away, and a nice chance for the pupils and me to work together outside our normal classroom environment.

Not long after I got home from work this afternoon (and was just starting to think about making use of a fine evening to mow the grass), Daniel rang to ask if I fancied going climbing. So I quickly realised that the grass didn’t really need doing after all and ten minutes later was heading up the road to Polldubh, where we climbed Pandora and Bullet (both Severe).

Now Pandora might be one of the classic Polldubh Severes but, having previously only done the first two pitches as an approach to Phantom Slab, I don’t think I’d ever done the top pitch before and was keen to remedy that omission. So I’m pleased to say that I enjoyed the climb as a whole, shouldn’t have neglected it for so long and also thought Bullet a great little route, being more sustained and maybe even better than the regular start to Three Pines, which it joins at the eponymous trees. Might add that the midges (the first I’ve really been conscious of this year) were out in force and threatening to send us scurrying home by the time we got onto Bullet, so it’s not really Pandora who was doing the biting at all (just a silly title for this post!), but happily we managed to complete the route, find a pleasant breeze on top, pack up below and escape to the van relatively unscathed in the end.

It was only when I was halfway home that I remembered tonight was the night for Heatwave in the ’50th Anniversary Game’, but must say I found myself strangely unbothered by that because I didn’t get many of the Anniversary climbs on the right days in the end and ultimately wanted Pandora more tonight!

So perhaps I regard myself as a solid VS leader these days, but occasionally (currently just twice in eighteen years!) one bites back and last night it was Crybaby…

While getting out for our midweek Polldubh Club meet seemed improbable for much of another uncharacteristically miserable May day, we managed to snatch a reasonably dry evening from the rain and Geoff, Wesley, Random Jon and I found ourselves splitting into two pairs and gearing up for Knucklebuster (Severe) and Crybaby (VS) respectively up at Black’s Buttress. But the Knucklebuster team retreated on failing to find sufficient protection for the still slightly greasy conditions, and I have to admit that the start of Crybaby also rather got the better of me as I struggled to match my damp soles to the demands of the delicate footwork required. So I’m afraid I dogged it by taking one small fall as I tried to reverse a sequence back to a low runner and two more tiny slips from just below the triangular niche, but completed most of the route clean and would say that it’s spot on at VS 4c (feeling a grade easier than Shergar on the same buttress) and should be very pleasant when completely dry.

Meanwhile Geoff and Wesley had set up a top-rope on Shergar, and Jon might have joined them but wanted to lead something. So we set off (at nearly 9:00pm!) towards High Crag with Enigma in mind, but ended up skirting its base to Secretaries’ Buttress for a quick ascent of the Direct (Severe) in fading light. And Jon led the first two pitches comfortably in good time before I led through to romp up the easy ridge above, and we were done by about 10:20pm and back to the road (just as the rain came on) about twenty minutes later.

And it’s been chucking it down again for much of today!

Having posted a pre-SPA Assessment appeal on the UKC Forums for work experience opportunities within reasonable travelling distance (quote ‘would certainly consider anywhere in Scotland and possibly northern England’), I was fortunate to get the offer of an interesting day working a charity abseil from Carlisle’s 41 metre Civic Centre with well-known MIA David Hooper. So yesterday, after a small mishap to my van (of which more anon), I borrowed my mother’s car to get down there, and have to say that the experience was thoroughly worthwhile. As I’d expect of a good MIA, David proved to be friendly, knowledgeable and full of enthusiasm for climbing… and, as an approved provider of SPA Training and Assessments himself, very helpful with much good advice on things to look out for. Since we also had 43 people abseiling from the Civic Centre roof over the course of the day and David let me run the rope for most of it, it really was a priceless opportunity. For which I’m thankful, because it’s going to cost me a fair amount of money…

So what happened to the van, then? Well, on Friday evening a camper van (?) with sticky-out mirrors took my driver’s side mirror and half its bracket clean off a couple of bends north of Tarbet, which basically marks the end of the worst stretch of the notorious A82 Loch Lomond road. Since I couldn’t just stop there to run northwards after another vehicle that might not have stopped either (or maybe even realised what they’d done?), I parked at Tarbet to assess the damage, phoned my mother, continued with concern for my enforced lack of awareness of the road behind me and called at Helensburgh Police Station (where I was told I’d done the right thing) to report the incident. Fortunately the excellent Andrews Garage (practically next door to the Police) was still open and I was also able to discuss the possibility of a repair tomorrow (can’t go anywhere with the van missing a mirror!), which is now on after confirmation that they can get the part. But it looks like it’s going to cost me a fair bit with the other party being unidentified and the excess on my own insurance probably ruling out a claim on that. :-/

Ask anyone familiar with Polldubh to list its VS classics and you’d expect to see Phantom Slab and The Old Wall high up alongside Damnation and Resurrection. So, having done the first pair just once each and not been on either since 1991, I was keen to revisit them and teamed up with Jim at last night’s breezily sunny Polldubh Club meet to climb them again. Approaching Phantom Slab the ‘normal’ way via the first two pitches of Pandora, I made sure to snaffle the first pitch so I got the slab, and have to say I’d forgotten just how good it is (and, oh yes, it’s good!)… Of course that meant Jim got the lead for The Old Wall (surely quite some sandbag at its original 1963 grade of Hard Severe!) but, given its very different character (a steep and slightly intimidating first half leading to a delightfully run-out jugfest), I’m not too sorry he did.

Now, we met this couple Gary and Karen (who’d just done Storm and had been hoping to do our route) at the base of the climb, but they moved onto The Anniversary (E3 5c!) when they found us gearing up for it. And Gary led this much harder route, finding it quite dirty and offering Karen the option of following before abseiling down to clean the gear. Having asked him the grade and yelled a casual ‘well done!’ (to which he said thanks, but he’d done it before) after just assuming they were part of our Club group, it was only during a later discussion at the Nevisport Bar that it dawned on me that he was Scottish climbing legend Gary Latter. Who I should have recognised because I’ve got both his Scottish Rock guidebooks (must check to see if there are any photos with that funny woolly hat in there) and had obviously done The Anniversary (not at all difficult by his standards) previously because he made the first ascent with Dave Cuthbertson in 1985! Which probably all adds up to an amusingly embarrassing (but repeatable) little tale to set alongside being watched/photographed on Secretaries’ Super Direct by Dave MacLeod last October without being aware that he was there… :-O

Back on the Onich Slabs this afternoon with Chuck, Lorenzo and seven primary school pupils, we managed a sunny and successful abseiling/top-roping session with everyone (including several of Monday’s contingent) looking more comfortable and having a great time.

It’s been an uncharacteristically miserable start to May, but things are looking better with what appears to be a drier spell starting yesterday…

Saturday was just plain wet, so our ‘outdoor’ children’s session at Polldubh (starting with an optimistic, but uncancelled, morning rendezvous up Glen Nevis) was promptly brought indoors to the Ice Factor. But Guy, Lorenzo and I still managed to cook up an ‘indoor outdoor’ session for the kids, setting up and running releasable abseils, teaching some belay building and generally providing something a bit different for them as well as more helpful to me with the SPA Assessment getting closer.

Saturday evening saw Jamie Bankhead and me heading for Ullapool in the expectation (or just hope?) of a fine north-west Sunday and, despite some lingering rain on the drive up and not quite dry roads in the morning, we were rewarded with what we sought. So we hastened to the fine sandstone sea cliffs at Reiff, skipping the popular climbs (and supposedly obligatory solo of the V Diff Moonjelly) closest to the road since there was a heavy swell breaking halfway up the crag, and fetching up at the more sheltered Seal Song area. Where we soloed up and down Guttersnipe (Diff) before climbing Overhanging Crack (Severe, and Jamie’s lead), Moody Blues (VS, my lead, and definitely worth the two stars and ‘superb’ awarded by Gary Latter over the SMC’s failure to highlight it at all!) and The Grateful Dead (Severe, and back to Jamie). After which we moved on to the Pooh Cliff, where I led Sticky Fingers (short ‘two star’ VS, but not as good as Moody Blues) and Jamie led The Ramp (Severe) before finishing at the Minch Wall. And here I got well and truly spanked (or maybe hanged?) by Judicial Hanging (HVS 5b according to SMC and VS 5a, which it’s not, in Latter), a nice-looking crack line with a baffling boulder problem start. So I managed to get into a few weird and wonderful positions including lying down (yes, I know, but it was a ‘no hands rest’!) in the slot between the undercut lower slab/wall and crack above, but failed every time to pull through into the crack. Could still be HVS 5b with some nifty trick move that I just couldn’t work out, but could equally be a rare VS 5c (have to say that because I should have been able to get it if it’s 5b!) because it’s just that sort of route.

The photos show John Bull from Macclesfield and Martin Silcock from Northampton (our only company all day!) on Moody Blues (the corner crack taking two steep steps and more airy ramp above), with the parallel line of Overhanging Crack obvious to the left and below.

And so to another scheduled outdoor children’s session at the Onich Slabs this afternoon, when Chuck, Ben and I took a group of eight younger kids abseiling and top-roping after school. The weather was fine and the venue right (apart from a desperately muddy descent/ascent path brought into the equation by some overawed children backing out of abseil or lowered descents), so it’s nice to be able to report that even the most nervous enjoyed some climbing in the end. Now hoping the weather plays ball for another session scheduled for a slightly older age group on Thursday because they’re not likely to need quite so much coaxing (if any!) to get them going. :-)

Yesterday was historically ‘Polldubh Day’ in more ways than one with the arrival of my first edition Klaus Schwartz/Blyth Wright guide, the first regular outdoor meet of the Polldubh Club and some 50th anniversary ascents of Ian Clough’s Wanderlust.

Now, I already had several Polldubh guides including the 1978 revised Schwartz and 1985 Grindley versions (both of which I’ve been using since times when no later guides were available!), but a chance stumble over a clean-sounding copy of the 1970 Schwartz/Wright original (first published guide to the Crags) at Cotswold Internet Books while Googling some related string or other was simply too good to miss. So I ordered it on the spot, received it in absolutely pristine condition yesterday (surely a propitious omen with the Polldubh Club meet and anniversary ascents in mind?) and have to say it’s fascinating. Might add that it’s not the first time I’ve seen a copy (Noel Williams has one), but I’d forgotten how different it was to its superficially similar successor with nothing listed at above VS (ah, the famous ‘Scottish VS’!), numerous choice historical observations and tidbits lurking in the descriptions, and a charm all of its own.

And so to the meet, where we were lucky enough to get a fine evening’s climbing after two days of less settled weather than we’ve been enjoying recently. So it’s pleasing to report that we got a substantial contingent up to Scimitar Buttress and Wanderlust (V Diff) got several ascents including solos (presumably in keeping with Clough’s FA since only his name is listed?) from Chuck and me and a roped one from Graham and Andy. Don’t know if anyone else did it after that because Rich, Chuck, Jamie and I headed over to Styx Buttress, but a potentially interesting situation appeared to be developing with Ed on Razor (VS), Mark on Diagonal (VS) and Graham on Wanderlust all converging on the same few square feet of crag…

As for the Styx team, it was also VS night on this great VS crag, with Rich and Chuck doing Resurrection (leaving Broos because it was wet) and Fidelity, and me doing Curse (surprisingly good route with some interesting moves taking a kind of hanging gangway/slab thing through the overhangs) with Jamie. And we’d certainly both give that the star it doesn’t get, but that’s all I’ve got time to say right now because the calf‘s feeling a little better and it’s running time tonight!

It’s been quite a week for both personal climbing and the future of the sport in Lochaber…

On Wednesday I attended the inaugural meeting of the new Polldubh Club and came away with a place on the interim Committee, a website to design (not much there yet!) and partners arranged for Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday Geoff Hewitt and I took advantage of the glorious spring sunshine to pay a long-anticipated visit to the superb gabbro ring crags (basically the rim of an ancient volcano crater) of Ardnamurchan, where we fortuitously bumped into fellow Polldubh Club founders Dean and Gary. Following a recommendation to head for the nicest-looking buttress at Meall an Fhir-eoin Beag and jumping straight on the crag classic Yir (VS), I also led Geoff up something the SMC guide thinks is one of two Krakatoas and Gary Latter’s book gives as An Deireadh (sort of Diff with a Hard Severe finish either way), the beautiful concave slab of Greta Gabbro (VS) on the neighbouring Creag an Fhir-eoin (aka Dome Buttress) and the venerable-but-not-so-classic Cuil Iolaire (VS, with a first pitch described by Gary as a ‘gardening route’ that I doubt I’ll ever do again). Dean and Gary also had a good day, ticking Greta Gabbro (which they were on when we arrived), Claude and some other routes in the VS/HVS bracket, but perhaps the real hero of the day was Geoff, whose efforts to tape his disintegrating rock shoes back together finally resulted in him losing his soul (yes, I know, sole…) to the much nicer second pitch of Cuil Iolaire! The day ended with the four of us howling with laughter as we drove straight onto the 8:00pm Corran Ferry to hear the ramp going up (nice timing or what?) the moment Dean’s wheels had crossed it. :-D

Sunday’s planned day out with Rich Parker started unpromisingly with his callout on a rescue (paraglider missing overnight east of Glen Coe), so I took my camera down to Caolasnacon to explore some vaguely promising small crags I’ve occasionally heard of folk visiting before. But, with Rich back from a successful rescue (a remarkable tale of crashing, a night on the mountain with no phone signal and starting to walk out in pain this morning) by midday, our visit to Polldubh to savour the still perfect conditions was back on. So we did Promises (Hard Severe, my lead) and Dundee Weaver (HVS, Rich’s lead) on Dundee Buttress before heading upwards via Rubberface (E1, and definitely Rich’s lead!) on After Crag to Secretaries’ Buttress for me to contemplate the possibility of leading Twitch (E1 and shunted clean last Sunday, but I left it today…) and crossing the Sky Pilot terrace on High Crag to finish up the brilliant Shergar (HVS, my lead and I’m still smiling!) on Black’s Buttress. :-)

So here I was, on my last day of Easter holiday, leaving a *sunny* Lochaber early yesterday morning to go cragging a good three hours’ drive away up Glen Clova and wondering who to blame… Sonya Drummond from Angus, for telling us all that Proud Corner has got to be the BEST single pitch VS EVER? Simon Davidson from Edinburgh, for hijacking my Polldubh Anniversary thread on Sunday evening to suggest climbing together? Me, for listening to Sonya and suggesting Clova to Simon when he was happy to meet me at a more convenient Weem, Dunkeld or even my home patch of (sunny) Glen Nevis? Or maybe even all three? :-P

Whatever, it got greyer and greyer (which it’s not supposed to do!) as I drove east, with little bar a late re-emerging sun as I turned north at Kirriemuir to convince me that I hadn’t just made a *big* mistake. But it was actually quite nice up Glen Clova in the end, with plenty of sunshine and blue sky slightly tempered by a sometimes chilly breeze. And the climbing’s very good, if somewhat (nay, considerably) steeper than my slabby comfort zone. So we did Wandered, Proud Corner and Centipod, and Simon led all three. Thought I was going to lead Proud Corner myself, but offered it to him after finding Wandered (steep, fairly physical HVS which he led very nicely and I really couldn’t have led right now) quite exciting! Think I’d have been OK if we’d just jumped straight on it because it’s all there and never strenuous like Wandered, but it’s steep enough and could give some VS leaders a stiff test. Also took a look at the Upper North-West Crag (still a bit wet in places and definitely on the steep side for me!) before being seduced by the guidebook photo of Centipod into trogging up to High Crag (nothing like as far as the text makes out) to do that. And it’s a nice wee route (probably only just HVS) at something more like my angle, but wanting some traffic to clean it up a bit.

So, like last week’s trip to Cummingston, it was another long day for a few pitches of climbing, but another good one. I got to climb somewhere new, with someone new, and look forward to climbing with Simon again on some proper slabs where I’m up for sharing the lead at 5a and 5b. Because I might never get off the blunt end if we stick to the steep stuff! ;-)

Have to say that the Polldubh 50th Anniversary Game took a bit of a nosedive yesterday with a nice morning developing into a wet afternoon just when I was about to go out (meaning that I had to go running instead!), but I still took myself up there today and did two of the four Sullivan/Clough routes ‘scheduled’ for yesterday. Started by shunting Iche (I swear that overlap’s easier than Damnation’s!) and soloing Pine Wall before heading up to Secretaries’ Buttress to shunt Twitch (John Cunningham’s brilliant little pitch of Etive-style padding) and finishing by soloing Enigma on High Crag.

So Iche and Enigma might strictly have been a day too late for the ‘game’, but it was a nice, sunny day (odd spits of rain just as I finished rigging Twitch, then some more as I drove past Corran Ferry on the way home) and I got my first 5a and 5b pitches of the season, so it was definitely worth the trip. And it’s still game on AFAIC, because at least I made the effort! :-)