Today I headed up to Stob Coire an Lochain with Steve Lynch. I only had one route left that I really wanted to do before I headed out the France. This route was The Duel!
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| Steve Leading the first pitch |
We headed up early this morning to the foot of Summit buttress, and got stuck in just as the sun was coming up over the surrounding mountains.
Steve led off up the first pitch which crossed Scabbard Chimney and followed the stepped turfy ground to the base of the crux pitch of The Duel.
After I had seconded the first pitch, I got ready and psyched for the second. I climbed up and clipped the in-situ gear, as the guide book describes. Then I reversed back down to the base of the wall and headed up the thin technical ground towards the niche in the overlapping roofs. There where some pretty sketchy hooks and thin axe torques to gain the hanging slab that loomed above the imposing roofs. The route was pretty white under hoar and snow and involved a fair bit of clearing/hoovering to find the tiny hooks. Then came some big rock-overs on calf burning small edges, but thankfully the hooks where a bit better here.
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| Me clearing the pitch trying to find the thin hooks |
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| More clearing required Photo credited to Ken Applegate |
I eventually reached the belay and brought up Steve, who thoroughly enjoyed the pitch, but was pretty drained from the technical climbing. So we decided that I would lead the last hard pitch to get things moving quickly again.
Once we had reached the top of the route we traversed right and rapped down the line of Scabbard Chimney and back to the snow covered bags at the base of the Coire.
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| Making progress on the Duel Photo Credited to Ken Applegate |
The Duel was an awesome line and I was psyched to climb this technical and teetery route on-sight. It has been a good start to the season for me, and I just hope that it continues when I’m out in Chamonix.
More info on Steve’s blog
http://steve-lynch.blogspot.com/
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| Me clearing the way high on the top slab of the crux pitch. Photo credited to Ken Applegate |
Good work Greg, I was on Scabbard Chimney whilst you were climbing The Duel, and was able to take a few photos. Let me know your email address, and I'll get them to you.Ken