Matt and I made the drive over to the West coast from Newtonmore again today. We drove past Meggy, The Ben and finally parked in Glencoe opposite Stob Coire Nan Lochain, quite a early start and a long drive.
It is defiantly one of my favourite cliffs, where I have many fond memories of my first ever winter lead (Y Gully right hand with my dad, it was terrifying) and working through the grades with different climbing partners in the last few years.
Unfortunately our intended mixed line was too black for our winter ethics today. We were a bit gutted and it was tricky to find something in condition that we wanted to climb. I started up Chimney route, a steep grade VI, 6 but it was running with water which had thawed out the snow and turf on the route, and I ended up retreating after six foot or so.
We then headed over to Scabbard Chimney, which we had both done before but we were just keen to get climbing by this stage. I had won paper scissors stone so i got to lead the main pitch which I did in about 40m or so. A great technical pitch of V, 6 with plenty of fixed gear and pegs at the crux. Its probably a really good route to try if your looking at pushing into the grade.
After abseiling down The Tempest, (steep but cool looking climbing) we went up Original route, a first for me, a good mountaineering style route (IV, 4) and really good fun to climb. Turf and ledges and some good weaving around trying to find the easier lines up the mountain.
Lots of teams on Dorsel arete, Adam and his friends were on Unicorn which looked fantastic and some quick euro dudes on Central Grooves and Tilt (they were both a little black)
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