Return to the Scottish fray

I've been away for a couple of weeks visiting Claire's bro, which was ace! I've been going full tilt since last October with many long days and nights of working and trying to fit everything in. Normally the thought of two weeks chillin would fill my restless heart with dread, but this time I was looking forward to it - and enjoyed it. It’s been really great to have so much work coming my way, but at times I’ve been buried by it. While I was away I thought a lot about how to manage things better in the future and what I want out of life generally. I’m lucky that nearly all my work is in what I love and that the only problem is prioritising it. I sat on the plane home with many exciting ideas for things I’d like to do and a budding idea for a book I want to write.

The other exciting thing coming up is that I’m moving to the highlands in 2 weeks time (oooh did I write that out loud?!). Claire and I are moving to Fort William. So I’ll be right in the heart of the action – with enough blank and inspiring looking bits of rock to keep me going for several years! I can’t wait to get stuck in.

While I was away some cool stuff happened that I wanted to blog about but couldn’t access my blog. The world class climber from Canada Sonnie Trotter visited and spent most of his time here trying my route Rhapsody. It’s really great that Sonnie made the effort to come over and experience a climb that I opened – I felt really honoured (I know that word sounds kind of cheesy but I can’t think of a better one!). Sonnie had 2 weeks on Rhapsody and made some good links on the top rope, but wasn’t able to link it. I hope he’ll consider coming back to spend more time and do it in the future, if anyone has the qualities to make the repeat, it’s him! While we were away we lent Sonnie, Nick and Cory our wee flat in Dumbarton to stay in. It was kind of weird to think of someone else living in the same house and trying the same route day after day, as I did last year. The Canadians did seem to share my appreciation for the Basalt and the lovely moves it offers, and for the beauty of the Requiem face.

The other inspiring news was of Dave Redpath’s completion of his big Anvil project of three years; Fire Power 8b. Click on the picture of im on it above for a bigger view. We shared the process of doggedly battling with our respective projects while I was trying Metalcore, including the long pilgrimage to the Anvil week after week. Dave was soooo close to doing the route for a while, but also right on his limit. It’s always inspiring to see people stick it through and not take no for an answer. It’s been really fun developing the Anvil and cool to see others starting to go there and try out the routes.

I have more to blog about but, this post is getting long now and I have to rehearse my lecture tomorrow to 500 sport scientists about why climbing is one of the few special adventures left in this world. Gulp.

Some speedlinks for now:

Niall McNair has entered the blogoshpere – Well done Niall! This man has likes to have some proper adventures and writes well, so make sure you click on his RSS button.

Will Gadd has put up an interesting post comparing climbing with other sports, something that isn’t often done directly.

Scottish climbs has made some significant improvements lately, now it’s front page makes it easy to see all the latest juicy stuff coming out of Scottish climbing…

On the subject of Web content, I thought I'd throw in this wee cartoon from another blog I like (Hugh MacLeod's blog) that made me LOL like most of his cartoons. No wonder Microsoft hired him! goodnight