The 24/8

Enjoying the summit of Ben Nevis on a climbing day I will remember for a long time. Photo: Kevin Woods

I moved to Lochaber ten years ago and one thing you cannot escape as a local is that in spring, conditions are amazing for every type of climbing. If you are an all-round climber in the area, spring equates to doing very little work, having no rest days at all, being exhausted for three months straight but having a huge number of fantastic memorable days out climbing. You find yourself trying to recover from winter climbing fast enough to take advantage of great conditions for your rock projects, almost wishing for a rainy day to make an excuse to rest. This is why it is the best all-rounder climbing area I know of, anywhere.

Soon after I moved up, I had the spark of an idea to link up routes of all the climbing disciplines in one day. There are so many different types of climbing crammed into the Nevis area. I wondered if it would be possible and if so, at what level of difficulty? I don’t normally do link-ups or that sort of thing (not because I don’t like them, I just tend to focus on my climbing projects), so if I was going to do one, it would need to be a special one, that would be hard to complete and require a high general standard of climbing ability.

Kevin Shields at Steall just before we left him at 9am, the refrozen Steall Falls behind

I settled on doing ‘all the eights’ as a good target:

- An 8A boulder

- An 8a sport route

- An E8 trad route

- A VIII,8 winter route

- And 8 Munros

In 24 hours.

I started calling it ‘the twenty four eight’ in my head and mentioned it to various people. I put a recce day or two into preparing for it in various winters over the past 8 years or so. I even lined up to have a proper go at it once, about 4 or 5 years ago. It was the usual problem. If the mixed routes on the Ben were white, the rock routes in the glen were either also snowed up, or soaking wet. Or if the rock routes were dry then so was the mixed on the Ben. So although I said above that spring in Lochaber allows you to do everything, thats rarely true on the same day, at least if you are talking about EVERY discipline, and going for hard routes. If it was grade Vs it would be no bother. The problem with picking hard routes is it narrows the choice considerably.

The idea drifted in and out of my mind each winter, but it was always such a long shot to catch it in condition at short notice, yet be fit enough to actually do it, it hardly seemed worth bothering with. But at the same time, I’d been going on about it to friends for years and years.

This year, with the ‘Beast from the East’ easterlies we had in early March, I was stuck in Glasgow in the snow and hearing that at home in Lochaber there was no snow in the glens but it was really sunny. The 24/8 suddenly popped into my head again. That period of weather didn’t yield a suitable day. But when a second bout of easterlies came into the forecast models, I started to take a closer interest, and leapt out to Glen Nevis to look at the rock routes I might try.

I spent a couple of utterly grim days trying to re-familiarise myself with Misadventure (E8 6c) and Leopold (8a) while getting pummelled by 60mph easterlies with snow stinging my eyes, on a low level crag! It seemed ridiculous. Previously, I’d thought the boulder of choice would be my own ‘Bear Trap Prow’ 8A+, but that is also often wet in winter. When I walked up to recce it, it was completely soaked. So my mind jumped to the Cameron Stone Arete, climbed only recently by Dan Varian at 8A+ and I’d repeated it a couple of years ago. It is very sharp and can cut your fingers, but does dry quickly. Thankfully I could repeat it in a session and felt like there was a good chance I could do it early in the morning if conditions were good.

Monday 19th emerged as a weather window from nearly 6 days out. As the high pressure approached Scotland, the cold eastern would drop and leave a still cold, but fine day with light winds. It seemed possible that it wouldn’t be too cold to lead Misadventure, but the mixed on the Ben would stay white.

Topping out on Frosty's Vigil VIII,8 around 5pm. Photo: Kevin Woods

Choosing a winter route for the challenge was rather more tricky. Winter routes on the Ben at grade VIII do have a habit of taking a good chunk out of a 24 hour period, not leaving much time for 39km of walking and all the other rock routes. It needed to be something I could do quite quickly, and ideally as reliably in condition as possible. I had two days out last week with Helen Rennard, trying to figure it out. Both were complete failures. On the first day we headed for the routes above Echo Wall but had to turn back with avalanche danger. On the second, I climbed most of The Secret, but the crack was so completely choked with hard ice and reversed from a good bit up the crux pitch without any runners worth speaking about. Frosty’s Vigil was another idea, being high up and often in condition. But it was still an unknown whether the top pitch needed specific conditions of useable ice, or ice free cracks?

On Sunday I was in Glasgow, watching Freida do Judo. The forecast looked pretty good, if cold, and I’d arranged to climb with Kevin Shields for the rock routes, Iain Small for the winter route, and Kevin Woods to film the whole thing and join me for the Grey Corries traverse.  A strong team!I was grateful to Claire for getting us home early and I thankfully got to bed at 8pm which set me up to feel rested and ready to climb hard at 6.30am. In case I did get a day to try it, I’d deliberately had nearly two weeks on climbing every day to really wear myself down, winter climbing, training and rock days back to back, followed by one rest day.

I got up at 4.30am and made my usual pile of eggs, but struggled to eat them. I think I was actually a little nervous. There were quite a lot of logistical things to remember, but thankfully I’d spent the Saturday afternoon packing gear into separate packs so I could just lift them out of the car without thinking.

Arriving at the Cameron Stone just as it got light at 6.30am, I realised the conditions were going to be even better than forecasted - probably the best day of the whole winter. It was zero degrees and no wind. Spot on. I had been worried that the forecasted minus two and northerly wind would just make it too cold for E8 trad.

Pulling down on Cameron Stone Arete 8A+ at 6.50am. Photo: Kevin Woods

I took maybe ten minutes warming up, doing the moves of the Cameron Stone Arete (8A+) all first try. Then I pulled on just to do the start moves but continued all the way to the last move. I pretty much knew I could do it next go. A glance at my phone - 6.50am, chalk up and go. I climbed easily to the last move again but fumbled the foothold slightly, so the jump to the good hold was a bit wild. I grabbed it and felt like I was falling but just didn’t let go for a long second. Next thing I was standing on top of the boulder. Game on.

Don't let go of that jug! Photo: Kevin Woods

Half an hour later I was starting up Misadventure (E8). The climb takes a blunt arete with a bouldery sequence of slaps. There is gear, but it’s off to the side in a corner, so a fall from the crux would smash you off the left wall of the corner. Its obviously hard to predict what would happen. But I doubt you’d get away uninjured. I suspect you couldn’t turn to take the impact feet first either. A sideways smash could be really horrible. So it’s not really a route to start up without knowing it will go. But after the boulder I knew I felt really good. However, as I set up for the crux slap out right, my foot slid a little on the foothold. I was completely committed, so the only solution was to up the power output and commit even more. I realised sometime afterwards, replaying back the sequence in my mind, that in that moment of psyching up for the move, I’d completely forgotten to move my right hand to an intermediate crimp first. Oh well, it worked out anyway, and I raced up the easier top section, carefully avoiding some holds that were covered in ice.

Dispatching Leopold 8a about 9am. Photo: Kevin Woods

At Steall car park it was still only 8.30am, half an hour ahead of schedule. Kev Shields, Kev Woods and I bounced up the gorge path into lovely morning sunshine in Steall Meadows and I felt plenty warm enough for jumping straight onto Leopold (8a). The crux all felt easy (it ought to, I’ve done it countless times while trying my 9a there in the past). But as I approached the upper part, I realised that there was a lump of ice on a key foothold for the final rest, and a sidepull on the upper crux was completely encased in an icicle! Thankfully, I’d already sussed out an alternative sequence on my recce day, so could just move through without a problem. By 9.15am, I was back at the entrance to Steall meadow, thanking Kev Shields for coming out and off we went, contouring across Meall Cumhann and up the shoulder of Ben Nevis to the Car Mor Dearg Arete by 11am.

Iain Small literally making a VII,8 pitch look like a walk. He has a habit of this.

I had arranged to meet Iain Small between 12 and 12.30 in Observatory Gully. Thankfully, Iain carried up a full rack and a single rope as well. I opted for going over the summit and down Tower Gully, being careful at the cornice, since twenty years ago this is where it collapsed on me and I ended up going the full length of Observatory Gully in the resultant avalanche, including some impressive airtime on the way down Tower Scoop. No such problems today in the bullet hard neve. I met Iain just cutting a ledge at the foot of Frosty’s Vigil VIII,8. The route was first done by Greg McInnes, Guy Robertson and Adam Russell in 2017. I led pitch 1 and had a great belay stance under a roof, to protect myself from all the rime Iain had to clear from the corner on pitch 2. While I suffered the hot aches after seconding the pitch, Iain helpfully leaned out from the belay to arrange a nut runner to protect the steep looking traverse out right across the wall.

Iain sniffing out some useful ice in the steepness.

This pitch was really the linchpin for getting the link done. Would it be in climbable condition? I knew that it sometimes gets iced, but looked fairly mixed in the pictures of Greg leading it. Somewhere in between (iced up cracks, so no rock protection, but not enough ice to climb) could be a stopper. After a couple of steep moves across the wall, I had the reassuring ‘thunk’ of my ice tool finding a nice runnel of climbable ice. Moving up under a roof, everything fell into place with two really good Spectre runners to protect a steep step out from a roof to gain an icicle dribbling down the left wall impressively. Climbing this was very exposed and amazingly satisfying. With every ice tool placement I could feel the success of the day getting closer. I think it was just before 6pm by the time we were all stood on the summit of Ben Nevis, hurriedly rearranging kit and having a brief chat before saying cheerio to Iain and jogging off down to the CMD arete, now a team of just Kevin Woods and myself.

What can you say? Photo: Kevin Woods

Running round to CMD was stunning in the sunset, one of the best I’ve ever seen on Ben Nevis. Kevin was just laughing all the way round. No words were needed. I felt exactly the same, it was so good it was funny! The sun was just about to drop below the horizon as we legged it down to the low col between CMD and Aonach Mor. The 400m climb back up was always going to be a calf burner. So there is nothing for it but to embrace the pain and keep moving. As an aside, I guess everyone has their own mental technique for beasting themselves through a big hill climb. I’m sure it will sound ridiculous to some but I always tend to find the rhythm of my feet kicking steps in snow aligning to proper trad pipe marches in my head. An acquired taste even for Scots but its what I grew up listening to so it is in the blood, as they say. They are so ruthlessly simple, bright and cheery, they just keep you going, putting one foot in front of another and somehow actually enjoying it. It’s no accident that they were often designed for the express purpose of making men march to their death. So now that we lucky modern folk have to dream up mad challenges to push ourselves to the point we actually realise we are alive, unsurprisingly they still work. My favourite is probably Mrs John MacColl, expertly played in this clip by Stuart Liddell.

Lovely sky from Aonach Mor some time after 7pm. Ben Nevis on the left, Carn Mor Dearg centre.

We were rewarded as we reached the Aonach Mor plateau with a stunning deep red horizon and amazing colour in the sky. But I noted that it already seemed extremely cold and I was starting to shiver after a couple of minutes food stop.

Aonach Beag was straightforward as you would expect and we ploughed on down the ridge, Kevin’s good knowledge of the range helping us to locate the right spot to drop through the cornice and down to the col at the start of the Grey Corries. On the way down, we discussed our mutual state of dehydration. Gear carrying had been an issue for both of us (climbing gear for me, camera gear for Kevin) and the downside of the sunny day was more fluid requirements. We skirted around the col before Sgurr Choinnich Beag in futile search for some moving water. There was none of course, so munching on icicles and rime biscuits it was.

The Grey Corries ridge line is always a pleasure to move along. Of course we were getting tired, but just plodding on is not so bad. It is only really an injury or fuel crisis that would stop you on this terrain. Several years ago I was doing a fasted Grey Corries run and had just such a fuel crisis; acute hypoglycaemia symptoms that forced me to stop, lie down and then have a long stumble out to Leanachan Forest and Spean Bridge. No such problems now with a much improved metabolism from two years of eating a lot of fat and doing a lot of fasting. I knew I would eventually slow down a bit with fatigue, but not stop, regardless of taking on calories.

In fact, as we reached Stob Coire an Laoigh I noted a slight euphoria spreading gently across my brain, and feeling slightly stronger again in the legs. The wind picked up a fair bit and still felt colder than I expected, which I thought must just be the effect of eating ice biscuits and having damp gloves I’d sweated into for 8 hours. It was definitely chilly though. I had stuffed rime crystals into my Platypus and then put it into my base layer to melt. But even after two Munros I got barely 5ml of liquid water.

Another from Aonach Mor, since it was so nice! Photo: Kevin Woods

I remembered slogging up Stob Coire Claurigh at the east end of the Grey Corries with Andy Turner while filming ‘The Pinnacle’ eight years ago and feeling kind of knackered (we’d done Orion Face in the morning). This time it felt okay and so we wasted no time in ploughing on to the base of Stob Ban, the final Munro. I did feel tired enough on this to need to stop for five minutes and eat a tasty combo of dark chocolate and ice biscuits to help it go down. The funny thing was, once I got up and started again, the summit was only another 40 odd metres above! As expected for this type of day out, I was a bit too fatigued and cold to jump around and celebrate the success. I just noted the time (1:20am, 18.5 hours after starting) and we celebrated by taking a bearing for Larig Leacach and discussing the imminent prospect of getting down to a stream.

The first water we found was right by the bothy in the larig. Kev pointed out that it was still an 8km walk out to my house in Roy Bridge and asked if we could have a quick snooze in the bothy. Kev snoozed. I was impressed he could. I couldn’t even sit still without shivering like mad and instead had myself a mini aerobics session in the bothy to arrest the shivering (didn’t work). I’d warmed up after a few Kms and all that was left was a nice wade through the river Spean. It was partially icing over. I later found out it had been minus 8.6 at Tulloch during the night, which explains why it  felt so cold in the wind. The dawn just started to break as we walked up my street and back to my house. Claire kindly got up and made us piles of eggs and tea and I started to realise that a little climbing dream of eight years had actually been quite a big climbing dream I had never thought I’d get in condition, or myself in condition to manage it.

It was so glad of the opportunity to do it and to have a good climbing team of Kevin Shields, Iain Small and Kevin Woods, all excellent climbers and exactly who you’d want on a day like this. Having filmed Ramsay's Round last summer I was particularly impressed that Kevin was able to follow me for the whole thing and film at the same time. Not an easy thing to manage, either physically or logistically. I’m looking forward to seeing his footage!

Its been a fantastic winter where I’ve done most of my projects for the season, all of which were hard for me. Time to move onto my spring rock projects I think. But this one will definitely live long in the memory.

Ben Nevis - Wild Times

Ben Nevis · Wild Times from Nevis Landscape Partnership on Vimeo.

I’m delighted to finally be able to share this film that I’ve been gathering footage for since last summer. The Nevis Landscape Partnership asked us to make a series of films for them related to the Ben Nevis/Glen Nevis area over a few years. Last year we focused on the huge survey of the Ben Nevis north face.

This year I wanted to focus more on Glen Nevis, and great people who are connected to it, both in the past and today. One place that I have always found one of the most special places on the earth is Steall in upper Glen Nevis. In the film I featured a little of the history of the folk who lived there, just a couple of generations ago. 

One of the things I find fascinating is the idea of the similarities and differences between the people of the past who lived and worked in these places, and those who use it today. Often, today people are using the mountains for sport, although many are also lucky enough to work in the mountains too.

I decided to do a bit of filming with local Fort William GP and British fell running champion Finlay Wild. Finlay is well known among the locals for winning the Ben Nevis Race every year and breaking various running records around the Scottish mountains, such as the Cuillin Ridge record.

I wanted to ask him about his relationship with The Ben and the Glen - whether the mountains seemed less wild or intimidating when you are fit enough run up Ben Nevis in less than an hour? What went through his mind while he was running? And for someone who could live anywhere, why he chose to stay among the mountains he grew up in. His thoughts on these issues were great, all with the backdrop of his amazing running.

I was particularly keen to capture his winter ridge runs with my drone and naturally it took a bit of time and organising to get a day when it might be possible to fly in full winter conditions. We waited in falling snow and mist until we were all freezing and finally the clouds just started to clear. At first I didn’t think the drone batteries would handle the cold, but I got one warmed up enough to fly and got some nice footage that to my mind captures something about why you would want to go to such effort to get fit and deal with all the hardships of the winter mountains and training. I was so exited to see the ‘drone’s eye view’ of Finlay charging along a snow-clad ridge, it was hard to concentrate on flying the drone.

After all the work of putting this together, I had a short break and start filming the next one tomorrow!

Gimme That Swing, 8B

Gimme That Swing 8B, Glen Nevis from Dave MacLeod on Vimeo.

Returning home from Mull I could see the incredible spell of weather was about to break. I dived out to my project on The Cameron Stone in Glen Nevis, which I was very close to completing before I left. It was starting to rain as I got there and the top rapidly got soaked.

The project is super crimpy and I’ve split my fingertips on it twice already. Basically, you only get a handful of tries at the crux match and jump before it splits. On each try, you gamble with ‘one more try’ until your finger splits and you lose two days training.

The project starts up Dan Varian’s problem up the arete, completed last spring at 8A+ and repeated by me last September. I could see there was an obvious harder link to go leftwards on the tiny crimps and jump to the good block on the neighbouring 7C+ ‘The news in Pidgin Gaelic’. I’m never too sure about the grade, especially with super crimpy lines, but if the arete is 8A+ then it’s got to be a grade harder.

As usual I didn’t think I had all that much chance of success, but though I better hang my Prohpet Jacket off the baby Scot’s Pine growing out of the top-out crack, just in case I got there and needed dry(er) holds.

About 4th try, I finally held the jump and braced myself for sliding off the soaking wet top-out and into the bog below. With a careful approach, the top was actually fine and I strolled off down the hill, delighted to have finished a great project in such unlikely conditions. Check out the video above.

Before I go to Switzerland, I have two more boulder projects I would like to try, but going by the forecast for the next week, I might be training instead. Actually that will do me good. I feel like I’m getting a bit weak from all this outdoor climbing! A good problem to have.

New E7 at Wave Buttress

Starting up what was to become Final Wave E7/8 6b. Photos: Dorota Bankowska

Yesterday, after a rather damp day, a good dry breeze picked up. So I called Kev and half an hour later we were walking in to Wave Buttress. I had my pick of either trying to repeat his E7 Cu Sith, or trying a new one that I’d cleaned last time I was there.

With the breeze strongest on the new route, I chose that and finished cleaning it. I’d forgotten to bring a top with me and I actually got rather chilled as I cleaned the route in a good strong wind. Once I lowered down for a think about leading it, I started a comedy wobbly shivering fit. Right then, two of the world’s best trad mixed climbers, Guy Robertson and Greg Boswell came past. I tried not to look freezing cold on a June evening. 

The route started up a gnarly old E5 called Frantic Across the Atlantic, put up in 1987 by Mark McGowan. Mark is a pretty bold trad climber and even with the in-situ nut and peg (long since fallen out), the route is a full value old school E5. Near the top of the big slab it runs into a vertical arrier headwall and escapes left into the famous Crackattack (E3), leaving the obvious finish direct through the headwall unclimbed. I could see why. Where the peg was, there is now a collection of appauling gear I probably wouldn’t even lower off on, followed by a very thin, teetery move right that would be very easy to fall from. I wouldn’t like to think what would happen.

I knew I could do it if I was feeling confident. So my strategy was just to climb up the E5 part and see if everything was good inside my mind on arrival at the headwall and make a decision from there. At the last gear, I sort of laughed to myself. I didn’t feel any less apprehensive about committing to the crux. So the usual process took over - I just don’t like passing the opportunity to get the climb climbed. So without saying anything, I just swallowed hard and did it. What else can you do?

Cu Sith video

Kev came round to my place so I could help him capture the footage from his tape of his recent new E7 at Wave Buttress, Cù Sìth (pronounced Ku Shee, it’s Gaelic). I ended up cutting it into a wee clip which you can see below. Well done to Dot for filming with one hand and taking pictures with the other!

As you can see from the film, the climb has a lot of personal meaning for Kev. You can’t help but feel cheered by his obvious genuine ecstasy on topping out. It’s quite a big moment to realise you can still make good things happen after so much trouble with injury, and several years regaining fitness and confidence. Apart from that, simply completing a hard and dangerous route you’ve put a lot of work into is a fantastic and highly addictive feeling. 

If you’ve never tried projecting something really hard, this is a great advert for it. It has to be properly hard though - if you know it will go, eventually, it probably isn’t hard enough to take you on a real adventure of doubt. This film is about a guy with one hand and a fused ankle taking on an E7 first ascent. What would you have to take on to give an equivalent challenge? That would be quite something!

Foot training

Climbing Romancing The Stone E5 6a today at Wave Buttress, Glen Nevis. Photo: Steve Holmes

May is often a month of sore feet for me. After a winter of climbing short and very steep things, when I start trad climbing my weak and unfit feet get kind of sore. I remember having this problem particularly badly a few years ago on my first visit to Cloggy one june after a month of climbing upside down in the Anvil.

Kev Shields making good progress on his project.

So today I joined Kev, Steve, Joe, Dot and Ewan at Wave Buttress for some slabby wall climbing and toe endurance training. Kev has been working away on a project up there which will be a nice E7 6c. He toproped it with apparent ease today and was looking strong on it. I had some laps on it too and enjoyed myself in the May sunshine. It has a very thin thumb press move with just enough gear to entice you on, followed by a sustained E6 6a to the top.

 

Joe and his shadow leading Edgehog E3 6a. 

Afterwards I went round and did Romancing The Stone E5 6a with Joe. It was a little dirty in places and I took my wire brush with me to clean the odd hold as I went. As predicted, my feet felt worked. I enjoyed the route finding, although another decent runner on the lower part would’ve been nice. The other guys were giving On The Beach (E5) some traffic.

Natalie on a thin groove problem on Harris on our pre-ferry boulder session the other day.

It was a little hot for crimping this hard. That's my excuse anyway.

Black Diamond video of Fight the Feeling

The video of my 8c+/9a from last autumn ‘Fight the Feeling at Steall is now up on the Black Diamond digital catalogue here. It’s on page 9. While you are there you should check out some of the other videos and articles from fellow BD climbers. There are pretty damn good. My favourite has to be The Wheel of Life footage of James Kassay. Would LOVE to go there sometime soon.

Nevis Landscape

Nevis Landscape Partnership film with Dave MacLeod from Dave MacLeod on Vimeo.

Who looks after and somewhere as special as Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis? It’s not something that we’re always constantly aware of. Whatever special mountain areas you visit, you might only see the mountains and not all the work that keeps them as they are.

But you’d soon notice if all the tons of litter dropped on Ben Nevis every year was allowed to accumulate, or if the paths were allowed to disintegrate into sprawling scarred muddy bogs. Or if poor planning allowed some rather ill advised developments to permanently change the shape and look of the area. And then there's all the things you might not immediately notice, but are just as important, such as the changes in which plant and animal species thrive as the environment changes. Although the untrained eye might not see that sort of thing, it's obvious to everyone that the place is full of life and that is what makes it great. If that was threatened it would be pretty important.

For many years, the Nevis Partnership took on the role of looking after the Nevis area. For various reasons, the organisation has evolved into the Nevis Landscape Partnership who will be doing lots of good projects in the coming years to help us all enjoy the place and keep it as good as it is.

We made a short film for them through the lens of my involvement with the place. It’s just meant to let you know that the NLP are there and that there are many fields of interest which you might want to get involved in, if you like. Their Facebok page is here.

Gorge boulder video

As promised, here is a wee video to show you the problems I did on the Gorge Boulder in Glen Nevis the other day. These were just filmed by myself with the camera on tripod, but hopefully they serve to show you what’s on offer up the glen that’s off the beaten track from the established boulders.

To get to the boulder, park at the Steall car park at the road end. Walk up the Steall path for a few hundred metres to where it starts to steepen a bit. If you look directly across the river, you’ll see the boulder in the trees at the same level on the other side. The river is best crossed quite high up, not far below where it bends round into the gorge where it widens with plenty of boulders to hop. If the river is really high after rain, you might have to walk from Paddy's Bridge (the wooden bridge a km short of the car park). Approach takes 10-15 mins. Get there before the midges do. 

There’s more to be done on the boulder. Feel free to bring a rope and wire brush and put in a few hours. Oh, and take the grades as very rough guides - I've been out of the loop of repeating boulder for a long time so I have no clue if they are even close. BTW after being closed for ages, Cafe Beag in the glen is open every day this year from 8-6. Pretty good place for fuelling up or waiting for rain to stop etc.

Perfect bouldering day

Mega new boulder in Glen Nevis which I’ve given a good clean and opened 6 new problems in the easy to mid grades so far. ten minutes walk from the road, yet in complete solitude. I filmed some of them too and will make a wee video and topo shortly. Now the easy ones are done, time to work on the harder ones. This really was a perfect climbing day, great temperatures, great sights and sounds of nature all around, and great climbing. Bouldering above uneven landings was still feeling more like soloing for me right now though. But I am getting slightly more confident.

Recent adventures on rock

During the past three weeks, life has been progressively more manic, as is normal in Lochaber at this time of year. Usually in February, the weather gets amazing for almost all types of climbing, and this season has been especially good. Trying to get anything else done apart from new routes is quite a challenge and usually involves late nights and early starts. Maybe the rain will return by March and I’ll take a rest day?!

When I got home from Spain, I was pretty keen to get into the hills. I started off with a day on the Ben with Kev and could hardly walk the next morning. However, my ankle seemed to continue to adapt and I went back up a couple more times. Since both of us were only really able to walk short distances with big packs, we opted for the CIC hut cascades. Kev cruised the icefall.

Next up I went to a ridiculous boulder roof in the glen. It’s quite low to the ground and fully horizontal. An acquired taste maybe - a bit like a darker version of the darkness cave in Magic Wood. There’s 25 feet of horizontal climbing on brutal crimps in there, with three logical starts. The shortest link will be Font 8aish and the full trip looks like solid Font 8b+. I couldn’t imagine doing it at the moment, but I did do about half the moves on my first session.

I’ve also been trying a bit of running with mixed results. I did some trail and hill runs up to 12 miles and was getting on fine. Then one evening I did some short fast sections since it was already getting dark after the climbing. I misjudged the angle of a boulder on the trail and hit the ‘no go zone’ in my ankle hard and let out a yelp. It’s been worse ever since, which is rather depressing. I can’t really do much except hope I’ve not done more damage. Not good.

Ardverikie deer forest. Here be boulders...

 The next day I was getting pain even walking which put a downer on an otherwise great day out in Ardverikie Forest returning to a boulder I’d found on a run two years ago. I went to look at a roof that I’d estimated about Font 8b. But to actually try, it felt way harder. I pretty much gave up, although to be fair I wasn't in the most positive frame of mind, and the easterly was biting cold. It was a series of savage first joint undercuts in a roof with microscopic granite crystals level with your head for feet. A bit like doing harder versions of the Hubble undercuts crux about 5 times in a row. Maybe I’ll make a model on my board and try it once more in the spring.

The solid river Nevis today, near Steall.

Dan cleaning new problems, new boulder in Glen Nevis today.

Today saw some great new problems get done after a monster cleaning. I'll take some pictures of them next time. I did the problems almost in the dark since we were brushing for a lot of the afternoon. The boulder has probably 15 problems to do from Font 5 to 8A+ on the usual lovely honeycomb Glen Nevis schist. I hope my arms aren't too tired for tomorrows session back on the Ben. Off to sleep!

End of the line, for a short while

 Oops! Time for a little phase of finger strength training

In my last blog post I mentioned that I had a few wee routes to finish off before I was completely done with Steall. I do like finishing things before moving on, so I was eager to get them done. I’d bolted 5 new routes on the left side of the crag, two on the left arete of the main crag and three on either side of the big slab to it’s left. All needed a good brush since they are a bit slow to dry compared to the other lines, but the rock is great with lovely little pockets and every so often these weird letterbox jugs that are just the most satisfying holds ever!

End of the Line 6b+, first ascent, Steall.

I’d bolted the routes and partially done the hard work of cleaning them on previous visits. With three dry days gone, three of us went up to try and get them cleaned and climbed before they got wet again. All was going well, a new 7b, 6c and 6b+ were in the bag. But then it went a bit pear shaped.

Kev took these pics and had a fine view of my tumble down the bottom bit of the slab into the birch trees

It turned out, the 6b+ slab was quite long and the rope I was using which wasn’t mine was a little short. As I got lowered off, the rope ran out about 6-8 feet above the small ledge at the start of the route proper. Neither of us noticed in time and so I plummeted, clipping the ledge with my foot and somersaulting down the turfy scrambling ground below, eventually coming to a violent stop wrapped around a birch tree on the slope below.

As I was flying head over heels I was wondering what the hell was going on! Normally I always take a long rope to the crag so rope length issues don’t arise and it hit me that the borrowed rope I was using must’ve been too short and the end had gone through the belay device. For a minute or two I thought I might have got away with it but very quickly my right foot started to get bigger and severely object to being weighted.

A rather nauseous hop/clamber/crawl down to the wire bridge followed. The bridge was fine thanks to my practice on the Stac of Handa. After that, the machine that is Kev Shields carried me most of the way back through Steall gorge to the car and a trip to the Belford. A good man to have around when things go wrong! It appears my ankle is not broken but it looks likely I have a grade II tear of my plantar fascia (foot arch) and will be on crutches for a few weeks. It’s still early days to get a close idea of exactly what’s been mashed and bashed inside my foot.

On the bright side, I was about to start the yearly retreat to the fingerboard to avoid the autumn deluge and begin my foundation of strength training for the season anyway. So now I’ll have a even more focused start to that. I might even finish writing my book too. A few weeks out of immediate performance goals to really build a base of finger strength is something I should have been doing much more of in previous years. It will be really interesting to see if it yields a positive effect. I know where I’d place my bets!

I took day 1 post-injury off since I felt pretty damn sore all over and sorry for myself. But yesterday (day 2) I started gently with an hour and a half session of deadhangs, pull ups, antagonist work and flexibility training. My neck still felt a bit sore from the somersaulting down a crag, so I felt pretty weak and tentative. But that will give me good motivation to climb out from the hole.

I feel awful I’ve had to cancel a coaching trip I was due to go on next week, and a trip right afterwards to the trad area of Bohuslan in Sweden that I was greatly looking forward to. But both can be done when I’m stronger, healthier and have the book finished. 

So no there is no time to waste! I’ll be back on the cliffs in 4-6 weeks and have a lot of deadhangs and writing to fit in before then. Best get stuck in!

[UPDATE] I wrote the above on day 3 post accident. It’s now day 6 and I’ve already made a bit of progress. I started early mobilisation on day 4 and have got 80% ankle range of movement back from about 20% on day 1. I can rest the weight of my leg on the ground now and even get 10kgs of force through my forefoot pain free. Looking good!

Dam That River 7b, first ascent, Steall

Higher highpoint, out of time

After the frustrations of not feeling good enough to get through the crux of my Steall project, I took a small break from it which consisted of some diligent training, family time and writing some more of my book. I could probably have taken more time doing those things, but the prospect of some better conditions and a trip away getting imminent demanded going back up for another couple of sessions.

On one session, when it was still feeling a bit hot and windless, I couldn’t even do one of the moves in isolation. I lowered off and felt pretty dejected. I was practically ready to leave it until next season. When it was my turn to climb again, I went for another go as a formality. A small breeze started up at the same time as I did. The holds instantly felt stickier and next thing I knew I landed the last of the crux moves.

I soldiered on in extremis for a few more moves before falling, completely pumped, from the last really difficult move at the last bolt. That was a real eye opener. For one, I learned that conditions matter even more than I would ever have given credit. To go from unable to do single moves, to almost succeeding on linking the whole thing in the same session, because of a few gusts of wind is a massive effect.

Second, I learned for the first time that the route is definitely possible for me. I think If I could replicate that effort a few more times, I’d struggle through to the belay one time. After that session, I must admit that a wave of utter determination to try my best to finish it came over me.

However, maybe that was my best effort, and I’ll not be able to match it before the autumn monsoon? I’ll find out. It doesn’t matter really. I’m just pleased to know I’m not wasting my time trying the project. Next session, I held the last crux move again but sadly my foot slipped straight afterwards. A good sign of consistency. 

I battled on for a couple more sessions in crap conditions, hot, humid, still and midgy. I still got really close even in those conditions. I had a sick feeling in my stomach that the temperature would drop and and wind would arrive just after I ran out of time before leaving, and that’s exactly what happened. So I am a coiled spring, and will somehow have to try and keep my powder dry for a while. I must admit I'm struggling with that more than I ever have right now. I suppose that's inevitable since it's biggest project I've ever tried. The likelihood is that I’ll be back again next spring for another scrap, unless I’m lucky and late September is dry enough to keep the seeps at bay.

Of course I’m well pleased to have got as high on it as I have. I’ve certainly put in a lot of work, both at the crag and in training and really feel stronger for it. On my last attempt of one session, I climbed the lower section in full knowledge I was too tired to have a serious shot at the upper crux. As I climbed through the first crux (Ring of Steall 8c+) I took my hand off to reach for the hold, felt tired and hesitantly went to grab the quickdraw and end the attempt and then changed my mind and carried on reaching, statically. When I did the first ascent of Ring of Steall in 2007 getting through that move was the hardest link I’d ever done and now I can do it nearly every attempt in decent conditions. At that time I couldn’t have imagined doing the move statically. I’ve really realised that I have so much room to step up my training and effort level yet.

Steall path appeal

A while ago on Twitter I mentioned that the Steall Gorge path in Glen Nevis had been entered into a vote based competition to win £25,000 of funding for restoration and upgrading. I asked you guys to make a couple of mouse clicks and vote. Thanks for that - it won and was awarded the money!

However, making a proper upgrade to a path like that (cutting through a very steep rocky gorge) does take a fair bit of money to undertake the full scale of work the John Muir Trust (the landowner) wants to make. So they are trying to raise a further £60,000 to do the job properly and fully upgrade the path. I’m sure many of you guys have been through the Steall Gorge and know that it deserves a well constructed path (it gets a lot of use!) and that folk do have bad accidents there from time to time. The good news is £42K of the shortfall has already been raised.

If you want to help them secure the remaining £18K, donate here. It’s an easy process. I completed it in about two minutes. If everyone of you who regularly reads my blog over a a few days donated £1, it would be in the bag.

Getting out of a hole

So, I’m close to my project, but close is nowhere. If I had a run of cold windy days, I could see it happening. But It’s August, the wind is set in coming from the humid south, and so it’s not happening. The Steall midges are very well fed on my blood and I’m only getting the same highpoint and more and more frustrated and restless.

What to do? Sure I could just keep at it. Motivation is not a problem. Call me a mad man, but I don’t really care how many midge bites I get or how long it takes. My will is much stronger than a few thousand tiny midges. Another day of overheated redpoints in long sleeve top and midge hood might wont send me over the edge, but there are other issues. I don’t want to get too used to having bad sessions and forget to try really hard when good conditions come along. Also, climbing on the same route too much isn’t so good for the body. I’m waking up stiff and sore when I ought to be fine.

So the coaches prescription is to go and do something else for a bit. Keeping going in the current crap weather might be too risky for injury and the negative mental aspects might overtake physical strength gains.

Tomorrow I’ll see where the mood takes me and try something new.

More progress on my project

Conditions have been dry enough for another 2 sessions on my Steall project albeit in the heat and more than a few midges. Objectively, they were pretty good and still showing progress. Diminishing progress, but still progress and as good as I could expect. On the first session overlapping halves more consistently than before, and then overlapping halves for my warm-up once. I ought to be happy with the progress but it’s hard not to balance this against restlessness that such good links and feeling strong on the moves doesn’t translate to getting any higher from the ground yet. 

All of this renews my respect for the route. On some attempts I did notice a ‘head problem’ creeping in that I was feeling the inevitability of how I was likely to get on in the attempt. That usually means it’s time to take another tack. I’m 95% there. I can see I don’t have much to do, but not much more to give either. My endurance training has worked well and I’m not really feeling pumped when I fall, just ‘powered out’. It seems maybe my strength to weight ratio is just not quite there. 

So I’m stepping up the attack on both sides of the ratio with a beefed up fingerboarding routine, using a 10kg weight belt to up the intensity and decrease volume on my circuits and a very organised diet which isn’t something I do often. I tend to ‘train heavy’ most of the time since my somatotype is heavy, and only get slim when It’s totally clear it will be worth it. The main reason is that it’s logistically difficult to balance a routine of hard climbing and training without running into various problems of underfuelled training, injuries, illness etc. But in the short term it works really well.

Fingers crossed for the route be dry enough to get a try or two next week. I definitely feel that working on it and feeling strong in bad conditions might still set me up to be in a really great position if we get some cold and windy weather sometime.

Failing higher

A big jump on my project today. New highpoint three moves higher!!! (yes that does deserve an exclamation for each move). The move I fell from is probably the hardest on the route, but after that one, the climbing eases off to a 12 move sprint of maybe 7c+ to the belay. I’m still just getting fitter on the route and stronger on the moves, increment by increment.

This was the last big link to do before it’s time to get serious. And so that’s what I better do. What does that involve? Well, it partly depends on the weather gods, who seem in a grumpy mood. I’ve been blessed with a dry crag and cool conditions for over 2 weeks. Now it’s looking wet.

Worst case scenario is I have to take a few weeks of dedicated training on the boards while the route drips. It might be no bad thing. Best case scenario is the the unsettled weather keeps bringing cool winds but not enough rain to start the bogs oozing from above Steall crag. In that case, I could just keep trying and see if the pattern of getting higher continues?

I’m not so sure it would. Some circuit time would surely give me an edge, as will more runs, good sleep and rest. So not much has changed except now I know I’m not wasting my time. In good conditions at least, I can now start up the route knowing there is a slim chance I could get through all of those tiny holds and actually get to the top.

This is what hard projects are all about. Although I’m partly in the hands of the weather, making that final hurdle from ‘close’ to ‘complete’ is the really difficult and really important step. Anyone can make progress on a project just by showing up with no pressure. But when you know there is a chance it could happen, can you keep making the right moves without feeling the strain and the moment fizzling out.

Send me those gale force easterlies please!