On the lookout

The stunning and tranquil lost valley, Glen Coe

Since getting home from my travels I’ve been doing all the necessary tasks of settling in and getting out to climb in some new places. With Alicia I checked out the Lost Valley boulders in Glen Coe. There’s definitely some new stuff that I’d come back for another look at here. In fact I cant believe more problems haven’t been recorded in this beautiful but very accessible location. 

Nice Font 4, first ascent, Glen Elg

We also looked at some untouched boulders in Glen Elg. There’s room for 50 or 60 porblems here. We did three fantastic ones from Font 4 to 6b+ on excellent crimpy gneiss in about 15 minutes but we got the wind forecast wrong and the midges called an immediate halt to proceedings before they got started. This is primarily a venue for 6s and 7s, although there are a few harder things to do. It was too midgy to brush our problems first so if you go, take a wiry with you. After driving past the famous brochs, park at the road end and walk up the farm track for 10 minutes and you’ll see the boulders over the river.

Boulders, Glen Elg. Yes, that’s a high deer fence and big trees (and big boulders!)

Instead we drive round to Applecross and I ticked Mike’s Problem 7C+ which is a beautiful problem. I’d been to the boulder once before about 6 years ago and had a ten minutes on it while it was still unclimbed. I never quite got round to going back. We rounded off the day with a jog to the top of the Bealach na Ba and back, which after 2400 miles in the car the previous week felt more uphill than it should have.

Lovely Font 5, Glen Elg, first ascent.

Applecross slabs of the best rock on earth

Mike’s Problem 7C+

As well as enjoying the almost endless new venues (never mind new routes) and repeating other peoples climbs which is a novelty for me sometimes, I'm on the lookout. I know that at some point, in one of the new places, I'll find really amazing lines which are worth getting really obsessed about.