Gutbuster video

As promised, here is some video of me climbing Gutbuster 8B+ at Dumbarton Rock back at the end of the winter. I’ve been so busy going out climbing I’ve never got round to putting this together. Enjoy.

Thanks to Paul Diffley at Hot Aches Productions for the old footage of my initial attempts, back in the day.

Ten years after

Highpoint on Gutbuster 8B+ in sunnier times in May 2017 - very very close but needed some more cold days! Thanks to Chris Prescott/Dark Sky Media for the pic.

Oh man, thinking about it, it’s actually eleven years. In 2007 I was 29 and was climbing really well. In that period I did my first E11, my first 9a and was doing a lot of high standard climbing across the disciplines. I was living in Dumbarton and doing a ton of climbing there, but in May 2007 we made a plan to move to the highlands and so I did a bit of a mad rush for a few weeks to finish various remaining projects on the boulders.

I climbed all of them except the hardest one - the link across the roof into the start of Sanction (Font 8B). I got really close at the time but it didn’t happen before I left. It seemed like madness to drive back from my new home in the highlands to finish it off so I was happy enough to forget about it. Although I did have kind of a niggle that it would have been nice to open an 8B+ boulder at Dumby.

Thankfully Malcolm Smith sorted that out in 2008 and made the first ascent, calling it Gutbuster 8B+. The strenuous kneebar rest between the two halves of the climb certainly is a Gutbuster, but it’s pretty important to get as long as possible on it, to be fresh for the tricky jump move right at the end of Sanction. 8 years after its first ascent it is still unrepeated to my knowledge.

Last spring I was going climbing in Arrochar but got rained off and since I’d driven down, I bailed to Dumby instead. I stood looking at Gutbuster again and decided to get on it and see if the moves felt harder for my ten years older body. I did actually feel a tiny bit stronger on it although obviously memory is not perfect! The curiosity switch was instantly flicked and I decided to see if I really could burn off my 30 year-old self ten years later.

I had some sessions, but with it being May it was getting kind of late and although I got ridiculously close, I ran out of conditions. I also noted that I’d been doing lots of redpoints and lots of rest days and had lost fitness. I really needed to get some training in, but there wasn’t time with just a couple of weeks left of the hard bouldering season. So I left it and aimed to come back in September.

But in September I had a separated shoulder and was battling just to raise my arm above my head, never mind climb anything. I managed to get back on Gutbuster by November while I was down studying at Glasgow Uni for a month. I was climbing but still not nearly on 8B+ form and my right arm was still extremely weak. Sometimes it can be good to work out the moves while weak and find the best method. My plan was to build up my strength with a few sessions on it, get it wired and then go to Spain in Jan and try and get back towards 8B+ form. On top of that I had my usual experiments with various aspects of diet and recovery protocol. It worked really well.

I had one session on it the other week in poor conditions and felt noticeably stronger, then another hard week of training on the board. I really wore myself down in that training stint and was exhausted every night, but hoped after a rest day I’d feel very strong right on time for a busy work period finishing and the good conditions starting. Then I went back down on Tuesday just before the worst of the recent snow arrived.

It was snowing at the crag but seemed okay for climbing. I warmed up and tried a few moves and instantly knew I had a chance to send it that day, feeling by far the strongest I’ve ever felt on it. But on my first two tries my foot slipped at the same move halfway up Sanction. I tweaked the beta and it was much better. I also realised I wasn’t able to fully relax in the kneebar rest and spend a fair bit of time faffing with the kneepads to get them in the right spot on my thighs. That also made a huge difference and I could relax and get my breathing down at the rest.

On the third try a full on blizzard started while I was on the shakeout. My hands went numb and I fell off Sanction, but even if I hadn’t, the top holds were full of snow and I’d never have made it through. I retreated to the cafe for a brew while the snow raged and then returned and brushed the snow off the holds. But it was getting dark and getting silly.

Snowstorm started mid attempt. It wasn't going to happen.

I had my ‘one last go’ and fell near the end of the first half when I couldn’t see a foothold in the gloom and slipped of it. Och well. Just to finish myself off, I went back to the start without even taking my rock shoes off and started again. This time I scrapped through the first roof but with the kneepads properly positioned and jumper on this time, I was warmer and much more relaxed and able to ‘shake off’ the stress of the first part. I took an extra moment to compose before taking the little spike crimp, for no particular reason, and started up Sanction. This time I just happened to make all the moves really error free and got to the jump. I was just that much stronger on it than previous sessions and next thing I’d done the crux and my eye level creeped over onto the top slab. I did feel powered out while setting up for the last tricky stab to a crimp, but held it nonetheless. At that point there only a real mess up would send me off and I found myself stood on the slab, wide eyed.

Gutbuster finishes up Imposter arete, a straightforward 5a but really a solo with a horrendous fall if you did decide to come off it. Normally I’d just walk up it, but now most of the footholds were wet and holds were full of snow. It felt more like E4 5c, crimping the hell out of the damp snowy crimps. Getting off the boulder was even more of a gripper! The descent climb faced directly into the snow and was snow covered slippery death.

So I guess I showed to myself that its possible to burn off your 30 year old self ten years later. Clearly I need to be cautious in how I interpret this. But I have to admit that I find it hard to doubt that the changes I’ve made in my approach to training have made a difference. Actually the training hasn’t changed that much, its more the lifestyle and especially nutrition practice. I do feel generally better, but specifically a bit stronger and more resilient to training stress, illness, injury. In other words, I feel like I bounce back a little better than I did before. I’ll keep testing, trying to falsify. If it keeps working in this direction, I’ll take it!

I’ve read a ton of recent research in various corners of physiology over the past two and a half years. The details of this are rather complex and thee’s no doubt it’s like looking at a half-finished jigsaw puzzle of evidence. But I increasingly form a hunch that at least a decent proportion of the age-related decline in performance and/or increase in brokenness seen across sport could be prevented by deviating from some of the standard advice in sports science discourse. Doing this involves a bit of curiosity to use the evidence base as just that, a base, a starting place, from which to take some educated guesses and head off in search of new places for organised research to follow on behind. To me this has always been what sport science has been about.

I'll post up some video of climbing it shortly.

Surgery's eve

Alan Cassidy on the big Dumbarton project

I was lucky enough to be able to climb recently despite my pending ankle surgery yesterday. For my last day before the appointment with the knife collection, I decided to team up with Alan Cassidy to go on a very inspiring project.

The wall right of Rhapsody at Dumbarton was bolted in the early nineties by the ever optimistic Andy Gallagher. Various very strong people had tried it and noone had made much impression on it. That’s a shame since it’s one of the best lines at an amazing crag, with superb rock and moves. I had a brief play one cold day around 8 years ago. I felt it was just possible but might be upwards of 9a+ minimum. I was getting kind of ‘full’ of climbing at Dumbarton at the time and left it for a life in the highlands.

Just as well Alan took an interest and looked at it again, giving it a proper clean for the first time. A couple of tiny, but useful holds appeared from under the lichen, that maybe tip it in the direction of possible, although the grade might still start with 9… 

I had a play and was most heartened to be able to do most of the individual moves. It’s clear that it goes and it’s pretty inspiring. I found it kind of ridiculous to be back there after several years, working on the line I’d left behind, thinking that some youth will come along and do it. That will probably still happen, but it’s surprising to me that it hasn't already. There are plenty of folk with the finger strength. All it would take is the attitude. Anyway, it left me with a nice feeling of inspiration with which to enter surgery rehab mode the next day.

I didn’t have to be in hospital until 2.30pm, so at the last minute I jumped out the door first thing and was at Lennoxtown for 8am to look at the other arete project Alex had told me about. I found it (at least I presume it’s the same line?) and it looked amazing! I settled into figuring out it’s exquisite moves for around 30 minutes and realised I was quite close to getting it. Unfortunately it was raining heavily and the sloping topout was running water. I linked it from the start to the topout three times but wasn’t able to pull over on the soggy slopers. Unfortunate, but I’ll still enjoy it when I next get the chance to get on it.

Lennox Castle arete project

After that it was back to reality and a sober drive to hospital to get cut up. The surgeon and staff did a great job and everything went well for me. I was quite terrified of what the surgeon would find in my ankle joint. But it ended up not being as bad as I feared. He pulled several large osteophytes (i.e. Loose chunks of bone) out of the joint and gave a couple of them to me afterwards. I’m not totally sure if they all broke off when I fell off Hold True the other week, or some time before that. Either way, I’m glad to see them out.

No wonder my ankle hurt

Right now, on day one of recovery, I’m totally psyched to get started on a return to fitness. It’s always refreshing to start with a clean slate and reassess all aspects of your game - What climbs do I want to do? What physical weaknesses should I take time to address? There’s plenty to be getting on with.

Home in the winter wonderland

The highlands have given me a nice welcome home with much snow covering everything in sight. Hopefully I can go out and play in it later this week after the great catch up from my travels. Thanks to everyone who came out to see my talk in Dundee the other night.

Tonight I am kind of relieved after having my second training session since I’ve been back - I was kind of worried that a nasty elbow tweak I picked up in Spain was getting worse. But instead it seems to be getting better. I must not take my eye off the ball for a month or so, but fingers crossed it will calm down and allow full training to resume. I am very very psyched to train right now. I want to do 9a+!

This week I’m also going to be doing some marketing work on Claire’s Velvet Antlers site, buying some ads and helping her sort out all the last minute stuff with the hampers. In my shop we’ve got Committed 2 in as Claire said before - I was really excited to see it for the first time and get a look at the latest crop of nails hard trad routes from this year. It was brilliant. Got me well keen for a visit to the Peak to try Peter Whittaker’s E9. The most eye popping moment for me though was seeing Steve McClure on Rhapsody - going left to the jugs on the left arête two moves before the redpoint crux, a link I did in August 2005 and considered finishing the route this way and making an E10. It was contrived to carry on direct following the crack right to the top, probably daft on my part, but that’s what all the fuss was about, and for me what made it scrape into E11. I thought hard about it and eventually felt it would a shame to take the escape just before the culmination of the route, and also saw when I tried to link it going direct that this route had the opportunity to make a really tough route – that’s what I was after. I paid for that decision with several more falls from the final move, a winter of worry and many nights of training, all the time knowing I could just traverse left from the sidepull for an easy option and still get an E10 tick.

Only two last moves; but those are the moves that make you fall, as is obvious if you watch the film E11. It’s a shame that arête is there, and so the route I took has to have an eliminate rule. But at least the rule is super simple - don’t go to the left arête. I was glad Sonnie saw the significance of that. I got past that escape point on my second redpoint, same as Steve. I could have gone left, only had one small fall from the same place as Steve, and finished the project in 2005. But I wanted to make a hard route, so I went direct. All this is no problem in my mind, folk can and should climb whatever way they want on a cliff.

Dumbarton video - Chahala FA

A wee clip I've been meaning to upload for ages of Chahala Sit Start V11 at Dumbarton Rock. The clip shows the first ascent. It's a cool problem that folk looked at for a long time. There is also some playing about afterwards doing Hap Slappy V9 and In Bloom V9. Thanks to Imelda Neale who shot the footage.

Work hard

Blair spies the foot sequence at Sky Pilot last week

Last week I found it hard not to get impatient with the poor weather – too cold or wet for Echo Wall sessions and trying to remind myself that a couple of weeks of hard endurance training is exactly what the doctor ordered anyway.

Nice rainbow from my window, but when will those clouds clear off the Ben again??

I’ve sussed out the sequence for the mammoth 30 metre traverse of Sky Pilot and feeling close to doing it in overlapping halves right now. It could hardly be more perfect endurance training for the big one – steep, powerful and totally sustained for 60 moves to a kneebar rest (I need to train knee endurance in the same knee for the kneebar on Echo wall too!) and then another 20 or so the end. The big link will probably be F8c+ or V13ish.

But some aches and pains coming from a tricep tendon have called for two much needed days off. I’ll be back up for there in the morning to get to work again after some TLC for my tricep in the gym and sauna. By night I have been working on this website to add more of the content I am frequently asked for in the articles pages. Right now I’m writing on everything to elbows to how to find good climbing in Scotland when it’s raining or when the mighty midge reigns proud. I should have all of this ready this week.

Dave Brown told me Steve McClure returned to complete the second repeat of Rhapsody at Dumbarton Rock today. Great to see the place getting some attention from the world’s best! I’m glad to see that Steve, like Sonnie, managed to avoid taking the bad fall (from the last couple of moves), only taking their falls from lower down which is more of a ‘bungy jump’ than wall slammer. I don’t like to dwell too much on routes from the past, but it has been a pleasure to watch two of my climbing heroes travel to and climb a route that I made. That’s cool.

Great news!

Last night Sonnie Trotter managed to climb Rhapsody at Dumbarton Rock. If you have been following his trip in Scotland you’ll see that the route held out Sonnie’s siege through 23 falls, 2 changed flights and many weeks of effort. But I knew as long as he was still here trying it, it would go down.

This is the difference between good athletes and world class athletes. Good athletes have talent, maybe training too and do impressive things. But when it comes to the big one – whatever it may be, they either quietly fold in the face of the obstacles, or keep on going right through them.

It’s obvious if you read Sonnie’s blog that he could go anywhere and repeat this performance on some other totally different hard route. It’s nothing to do with whether he did enough campusing, or whether a route suits his build or other such details. It’s because he was inspired to give himself a good challenge and because he can make himself fight harder than an armoured tank.

Not many people can do that. Good effort!

Flying visits all round

Dumbarton Rock this evening

Following on from my thinking in my last blog post, I decided to take a day to go back south and visit my parents. The old boy racer was still blowing up his pipes at 83, a fine sight! After wrestling with my mums overgrown hedges for an afternoon with much carnage with the trimmers I decided to stop off at Dumbarton Rock on the way home for a stint on my old black wall circuits for the daily pump.

Norman MacLeod terrorises the neighbours again

What a strange experience it was being back again. I was hoping I might catch up with the Canadians Sonnie Trotter (almost at the end of his month there working on my climb Rhapsody) and Cory. But as it was pouring with rain and thunder clouds rumbled, there was noone there but me. That was kind of nice in a way because it was exactly the same as when I lived there and hung out among the boulders in the morning, really late in the evening, or in the depth of winter when folks headed for the warmth of the climbing wall.

I’d deliberately forgotten the sequences for my old endurance circuits on the everdry wall, so I didn’t try to rescue them from my memory – my body remembered them instinctively and I just climbed. That was nice, it must be like that often for people who are naturally good at climbing. What a thought. It was also nice to feel the reference against old markers of fitness. I have improved. The improvement is down to lots of things to do with my training, but cannot be completely attributed to this. The other part is due to the flatter smoother walls of Lochaber rock and less opportunity to apply technique. After many years studying in the movement technique laboratory of the Dumbarton walls, I felt this is what my climbing needed to move to the next level. At Dumbarton, the routes do not tend to yield to raw power, even in some abundance. But they do yield (after serious application) to devious, subtle and high quality movement technique.

After this apprenticeship of 13 years, I can find as good a sequence as any man on a climb, but I’m still ‘weak as’. The rather more ‘basic’ and powerful moves I’ve been doing since then, on limestone and on the slaty flat walls of Glen Nevis have made a marked difference to my strength level. Happy days. So I have good energy to return to my project with.

I hope Sonnie and Cory have a good final day in Scotland. It’s been great to see them over here again enjoying the basalt. People get a little too hung up about the fact that Dumbarton is not visually representative of what Scotland has to offer. Sure, it’s setting is not the finest in a country of beauty. But they forget that the beauty of the place is in the moves on the basalt, it’s not a visual thing.

Talking of which, I read that folk have been disappointed that Rhapsody has an escape line at a couple of points. I was disappointed with this also when I was working on it, but hey sometimes you can’t have everything. It’s got good moves, good rock, good difficulty and good situation even if the line is not 100% perfect. What it really is, is a wee gem for locals with nice moves. It’s not important anyway – if it appeals to the climber, they will climb it or otherwise…

I guess my hope is that if people end up climbing the other lines, they see that they are different routes, not the climb I made; Rhapsody. The redpoint crux on my route is the last move. It’s possible even at the very end to traverse off to the left arête and avoid this. What a shame! I decided to climb the crack all the way to the end which for me was logical, and the most difficult option on the wall. But at least Rhapsody’s documentation in the film E11 makes it obvious where the route goes and that the very last moves are what provides the difficulty in ultimately getting to the top on the lead.

Falling from the redpoint crux of Rhapsody (going for the top of the crag). Unfortunately it’s possible to use the chalked holds to traverse left towards the photographer and some good holds on an arête. But where would be the fun in that!?

Leaving Dumbarton

Warm spring evenings on the boulders – something I shall miss

Here is a blog post I started while sitting in a van on the way up the A82 a couple of weeks ago as Claire drove me, the cat and all our stuff to our new house…

It seems we’ve done not bad in trying to live a minimalised lifestyle – All me and Claire’s possessions fitted into a LWB Transit van. Were on the journey north right now, leaving behind our flat in Dumbarton and heading for a new life in Lochaber. Oh my god.

It did of course seem a bit more real when we saw our flat empty and sat for the last time in the Denny Tank caf before heading north, and brought thoughts of the last 3 and half years living in Dumbarton. For me, there are two Dumbartons really – the town and the Rock.

Dumbarton the town

It’s certainly a place changing fast, the distillery and waste ground rapidly being replaced by those carbon copy soulless new-build flats that slowly turns real places into another ‘anytown’. It really needs the inflow of money though. Take a walk down the high street and it’s not hard to see why this area of Scotland has the worst health stats in western Europe. Maybe it’s not PC to talk about it but its depressing to see, especially when it is essentially needless. Unless the society collectively faces its bad habits, there can be nothing but tinkering at the edges of progress. Apparently we Scots are world leaders in developing strategy to encourage people to exercise. But perhaps not in actioning that strategy – there are plenty of unnecessary barriers put in one’s way to accessing sport and it’s facilities. For instance why can you buy two pints of beer and a bag of chips for the same amount of money as a session in the leisure centre gym in one of Scotland’s unhealthiest towns? These things take time I guess.

Dumbarton Rock

I have taken much of what I can from the wealth of excellent moves on offer on the Basalt plug. I feel I’ve have given much back too with new routes. Who knows whether my enthusing has encouraged other climbers to get to grips with the place or even climb things they otherwise might not have? I hope so though. There are still places to go on those rocks – Pressure into Silverback (V15?), More direct through the Sosho roof (V16?) and the walls right and left of the Requiem crack (maybe one of them is as easy as 9a+ or 9b??). Good luck to the inspired soul who can fight these battles and win – they will be fine athletes indeed!

I am jealous of the future teenage Glaswegian climbers who discover the rock and get hooked – they have a good challenge these days to repeat the progression in grades that all the previous generations did. When I started, Consolidated was the hardest problem and now we do laps for the warm-up. They will have to do the same on Sanction! cool. Most young climbers set their sights on or within the present limit of the day. But some look higher from the outset, and decide to make it happen. Andy Gallagher, Cubby and Malcolm Smith all did that. I’ll be well psyched to see the next person who takes it on…

Sometime I’d also love to see everyone who lives in Dumbarton (if not Scotland) know about the value of the cliff and boulders there. The castle on top of the volcano is Dumbarton’s wee claim tae fame. But that will always be something that was only important in the past – the climbing is important in the past, present and future, which is much more valuable.

Three years living in Dumbarton was really fun, had it’s ups and downs to say the least, and me and Claire learnt a lot during the time.

Its down to the last one now!!!!

Chahala sit start, Font 8a. first ascent, Dumbarton Rock. (photos: Claire MacLeod)

Last week's project; Set in Motion, Font 7c+

Another couple of Dumbarton bouldering projects have gone down this week, so its just the 'big yin' left to go. Latest to go was the very steep arete SS to Chahala, a well known project that a good few of us had played on over the years. I never really tried it until last week, but it surprised me by being much easier than expected and went in a couple of days. So Dumby has another classic Font 8a which is sure to get a lot of attention. Much foot clamping, as with so many of the rock's hard problems is the order of the day. The other wee one was a SS to Tam's route. A wee font 7a slap off a small undercut.

My new lighter frame is now too weak to climb the finishing moves of my one remaining project, so a couple of sessions have yielded a gangly skinny malink sequence with less burly jumping across the roof and more inching and horizontal shuffling instead. It adds an extra 4 moves where I used to just jump in one, so god knows how it'll feel on the link??

A small hurdle in my way has occurred after I split my finger open climbing over a fence yesterday. It's unbelievable how a tiny cut in your fingertip can interfere so much with a full on climbing schedule. It's hanging in there just now and hopefully ready for the Anvil weekend raid. I'm off for some beauty sleep to grow a nice strip of new skin cells on my index finger tip that might just be the key to a new F8c????

Set in Motion

I sneaked out to the boulders after work tonight and straight away felt the benefit of the Anvil day. For sure the Anvil is an excellent place to get in shape. It probably matches Dumbarton in this respect actually! I completed a new problem I’d looked at last week and tried a few days ago. It starts in the Mugsy roof, left of ‘Spam’ on an obvious three finger incut. If you know the roof it’s the one you use for your foot on Mugsy traverse. Anyway, you do three desperate moves on crimpers to get the Mugsy Traverse rail and finish up this. I’ve not idea what grade it is as its ages since I’ve done a boulder problem that only took two sessions to complete! Let’s say 7c for now and I’ll point Malcolm in its direction if I see him down there. There’s nothing like a boost of confidence and next up I repeated Malc’s new problem ‘The Serum of Sisyphus’. As with most things it felt OK in the end but reckon its still Font 8a+.

The rest of the night was spent dodging neds and trying moves on some other things. It’s unbelievable that these boulders keep yielding new lines to climb, but they do! Now I have another burly line to keep me busy for the rest of the good spring conds, maybe 8a+ again but we’ll see? This one has six or seven British 6c moves one after the other. Better get some good nights sleep over the next two weeks…

The new prob:

Set in Motion Font 7c

Sit Start at the incut three finger crimp in the roof under Mugsy Traverse, in the middle of the passageway underneath the boulder. Crimp desperately upwards to grab the Mugsy Traverse slopers (hard to hold the swing). Finish up Mugsy.

Sosho - one project down!

Warm spring sunshine at Dumbarton Rock last night (all photos Claire MacLeod)

Friday night was perfect. I was in reticent mood at home, working away to meet my deadlines and making plans and resolutions for the future. I made time in the afternoon for a quick visit to the Dumbarton boulders for more work on the roof link running into Hokku, my problem from a couple of weeks back. Conditions were perfect at the rock but no one was around. I warmed up on the easier sections of the roof and immediately realised that my week in Spain and absent half stone of body mass had made a serious difference to my climbing standard. I had one nervous attempt and slipped from lack of concentration on the last of the crux moves. I had the sixth sense feeling it would ‘go’ next try, so I sat in the warm evening sun and relaxed for the first time in a long time. In hindsight maybe it was only about third sense or so – it was obvious I would do it next go! 20 minutes later I chalked up again and set off across the roof. Sure enough, a minute later I was hanging upside down, breathing hard on the shake out below the exit problem, Mugsy. I had prepared myself for many failed attempts here from failing strength after 18 metres of hard roof climbing. But with every breath the pump disappeared and my strength returned. I was sure I would finish the problem, and I did. A good feeling.

One more project to go on the boulders, and then pastures new await once again…

Dissapearing into the roof, a few moves into the new problem, Sosho Font 8a+

The mid way shake out

The last tricky move

Moving into the exit problem

A gentle top out after so much climbing!

Sosho, Font 8a+
Sit start at the lowest point of the suspended roof of the home rule boulder. Climb the lip problem rightwards and then follow line of good but spaced holds into the cave, on the side of a hanging prow (its difficult to avoid brushing the adjacent boulder for a move at one point). From a bat hang rest at the spiky jug, follow a line of small holds back right across the roof to gain the Mugsy cave start.

First part of my 'other' project complete

Hokku, Font 8a



From the spiky jug

Cross the big dark roof rightwards

Finish strenuously with Mugsy

Photos by Hot Aches Productions. Click on them for a bigger view.

First part of my project complete

Working on the crux section of Sanction yesterday while trying the big linkup. Photo thanks to Stone Country

Yesterday was a good day at Dumbarton Rock. I turned up to find Malcolm Smith had just repeated my problem from last winter Pressure, confirming the Font 8b grade and looking like he enjoyed it. I came to continue working on a line coming out of the left side of the Sabotage roof. I've been trying it for two years or more. It's classic Dumby technical and although I spent a stupid amount of time trying countless different methods, I knew just from looking at the rock, that there was a sequence there, I just needed to find it. Finally I worked it out and yesterday I linked it to give a new Font 8b - 'Sanction'. It climbs from a sit start following the line of holds across the left side of the roof through a sloping ramp feature, pulling onto the left side of the BNI slab.

This is a really logical line, but my real goal is to climb the roof traverse (taken by Perfect Crime) and link this into Sanction. This way you'd be climbing the whole roof in it's entirety. After I'd done the sitter I got further than I expected on the link up. So now I feel that I should drop some other plans and concentrate on this until its done. It would be a worthy hardest problem at the rock. The psyche is on.

It was a major relief that the PIP joint of my little finger seems to be reasonably stable again and is giving me few problems once warmed up. Heres hoping it can take the punishment coming up over the next couple of weeks.

Rising sea?

Maybe it's just me, but I've been on this boulder a LOT in the past 13 years and I've never seen the tide so high around it. Rising sea level?

Michael Lee throws for an edge at Dumbarton today.

Golden Piton Award

Every year the American magazine 'Climbing' make an award for what they feel is the best performance of the year in each climbing discipline. This year's 'Golden Piton' awards were just announced and they awarded me with the title for best traditional rock ascent in 2006 for Rhapsody.

It's great that Climbing appreciated the effort I put in on my new route. It's always nice when someone acknowledges your hard work. You can see the list of other winners this year here.

There's been a fair bit of debate in the past few years about setting up more award schemes of this type as a way to encourage good performance and effort in climbing, and also allow the acheivements of climbers to be compared more easiliy outside the climbing world. Lots of people within climbing have understandable issues with this. The two main ones are that climbing is not about competition for many climbers and they fear that a climate of competition and such awards might end up promoting the darker side of sport - cheating and disrespect for others and the mountain environment. However, the benefits are potentially very good too, and may affect all climbers. When budget holders in government dish out the many millions of pounds to UK sport they are looking for prizes. The money goes to where the prizes are already coming from, as they have the biggest likelyhood of producing a return. Cynical I know, but there it is. Climbing and mountaineering in the UK is perpetually cash strapped because we have no concrete 'medals' of some kind to point at, despite still being the best in the world at trad climbing. HOW IRONIC IS THAT!!! Especially when you see filthy rich footballers trashing their form with binge drinking and getting banned for fighting, or sprinters getting banned for cheating after we have all supported them with our taxes for years. Since the olympics 2012 appeared on the horizon, climbing dropped completely off the radar for this type of support in the UK.

In other sports, sometimes the performances of a few great athletes have lifted it's spirit and profile (and funding) enough to generate support (from government and media sponsorship) that trickles right through to all levels and corners. Winning a Golden Piton award in nice, but doesn't change my life one bit (the experience of climbing Rhapsody certainly did though!). However, if young British climbers in the future get more Golden Pitons, or whatever other awards are out there, that could eventually translate to things like climbing taught in the school PE curicculum, Funds to develop, protect and maintain crags, more and better climbing walls, more expedition grants, coaching schools to help young climbers get better, bigger and better climbing events, and the chance for any climber who is determined enough to become the best in the world, limited only by effort, not oppurtunity.

That would be cool.

Dumbarton Rock timeline

Pete Ogden sent in this picture of an attempt on BNI direct start in the 1970s. This little number survived an attack by Cubby in the 80s as well and was finally done by Malcolm Smith in the 90s, finally going at Font 7b+. It's really amazing how many new problems have been done in this time here. What good lines are left? Well unbeleivably there are a couple. The line through the roof in the picture is awesome and possible, but the moves still haven't been done. I've done the moves going across the suspended roof into Mugsy via a circuitous route - That should go for someone, although you've already done a fair bit of horizontal climbing to get to the 7a moves. I wonder if someone could climb this roof via a direct line straight into Mugsy? hmmm...

One thing that will never change about climbing here is the characters you meet climbing there.

Dumbarton rock looking spooky

Why is it the moon appears much smaller than it was at the time?

End of the affair (well almost!)

Resting on Pressure (V13). Now the pressure is gone it's time for a change of scenery (Photo: Hotaches Images)

Dumbarton Rock - it still inspires and humbles me, but I am nearly done with my battles here (at last).

I was round at Dumby just training on my enduro circuit tonight and got casually involved in doing a couple of other problems I hadn't done in years with other folks. It was funny revisiting another 'old classic' I did when I was 17. It really brought it home a bit of choking cabin fever I've been feeling lately. In need of pastures new big time. Well not surprising I suppose after 12 years of Dumbarton Rock climbing. I could (and do at the moment) still use the place for training no problem, but I really have to make an effort to switch off my brain before a session to stop me getting bored. I've come to realise that my core motivation for climbing is new routes and places. However, once I focus on a climb I won't give up until it's done, sooner or later. There's never been a time when that's not happened. I don't care if (like for Rhapsody and Pressure) it means spending an infinite amount of time on it. So it's not so much the new places and routes themselves that are important to me, but just that there are new challenges to complete.

That excitement in the back of my head of a project has to be there. Even last year at Dumbarton I was inspired, because that Pressure cave was still there winking at me every time I walked past to the boulders, and Rhapsody staring down. I wanted to win! Now they are behind me, I need that feeling from somewhere else. Thankfully pastures new are starting to appear on the horizon, more of that later.

There are still two lines on the Dumbarton boulders I want to climb. They are 'optional' i.e. if I move away before doing them I won't fret, but I'm sure they will give me a good scrap in the coming cold months.

I'm sure it won't be long before someone else walks round and is fired up by Rhapsody as I was when I saw Requiem at 15 (if it hasn't happened already?). It's a good feeling to flick that utterly committed switch in your head that you ARE going to do something, no matter what. Anyway, for that guy/girl, after they have got Rhapsody out of the way they can make their own mark with the wall to the right (bolted). I've done all but one of the moves. It's an F9 something. If it was a smidgen easier I'd get psyched, so I'm sure it will happen. Then there's the wall to the left. I would be honoured to shake the hand of the person who climbs that. Again, fully possible but...

Going round in circles

Dumby circuits wall - somewhere I know too well

Life is simple at the moment. Get up, work, do many pullups, walk to Dumby, get very pumped, many times, go home and refill my forearms with glycogen... ad infinitum. It shouldn't be long until I have the resources and fitness to venture out onto some crags again and climb. It's very reasssuring how fast the endurance returns. I didn't get pumped for 6 weeks after Rhapsody and it's only taken 2 weeks to go from lactic acid agony to beating my circuit PBs. My hard circuit is about 7c+/8a (French) one way and 6b to go back to the start. I got round it 6 times the other day. 40 minutes continuously on the rock either recovering or grunting through hard moves is good for the composure. Might even carry the weightbelt round it tomorrow morning.