Since last weekend, I have been working in the boiling sun, chilling in the boiling sun and best of all CLIMBING loads in the boiling sun!
Last Sunday I headed to Pass Of Ballater with a bunch of mates for some sunny granite cragging. It was the start of the awesome weather that we have been having recently, and it was a good day of sendage and psyche.
Everyone got a bunch of routes sent, the highlights for me included “Smiths Arête”, “Demon Drink” and “Stoned Immaculate”. It was a brilliant day of people pushing their limits and getting each other psyched, and I spied loads of other lines that I’m keen to head back for in the not too distant future.
After a day’s labouring on the farm in the smeltering heat, Adam, James and I headed off up the North West on Monday evening in preparation for another two days of crushing whilst the weather was good.
On Tuesday we headed to Seal Song area at Reiff for a morning of breath taking views and impeccable sea cliff routage. I would definitely have to say that Reiff is one of my favourite areas in Scotland for climbing. The surrounding views and the quality of the climbing are second to none and when you get the good weather it is one of the best places in the world! (in my opinion)
After doing the “Mystic” in the morning and after Adam and James had sent their lines, we headed over to Minch Wall area and got stuck into some routes there.
I did the route “Cleopatra’s Asp”, which was unbelievably sweaty and smeggy in the afternoon heat. But after some hanging around to figure out the tricky crux I made my way to the top of the crag with a big smile on my face.
James and Adam also did some funky looking routes in this area, and after that we all finished off with some easy bouldering and then chilled out in the sun at the Piglet Wall area.
On Wednesday we headed off to Ardmair for another day in the roasting Scottish sunny weather (not a sentence I write very often!). We all managed to get some good climbing done, including one 4 star route and two 3 star routes! It doesn’t get much better than that.
After a full day at the crag we drove back south with high spirits and James and I got psyched for our up and coming trip to Fairhead in Ireland which we leave for tomorrow. So watch my blog for updates on what we get done over there.
