The Whole is Less than the Sum of the Parts

Just back from a week holiday at the lovely Greek island of Kalymnos — excellent climbing, food and company. Uploaded some pictures to flicker, also my pals have some more here.

I would much recommend Kalymnos as a climbing destination for anyone leading a French 5 and above; the rock is excellent, as is the bolting standard (only came across one poorly bolted route during the week, called Hibiscus Market), and the routes are plentiful. We stayed at the Melina’s (also to be recommended) in Myrties, which is a bit further away from the cliffs than Massouri, but the main climbing area is pretty compact and it turned out to be of no real consequence (and for the further away places scooter / car can be rented in any case). Plenty of places to eat, and eat well; the Agean was probably the best place we ate at, but none of the other places we tried was anything but excellent. The locals are very friendly, helpful, and everyone seems to speak English.

The Friday forecast suggested that Saturday would be breezy; not a great day for the Ben. But it had been cold for a few days before, and Bob agreed there might something to climb on Beinn Udlaidh (which also has the advantage of a later start than last week’s 4.30).

The day does not begin well; my car does not start and it is raining — by the time I meet Bob and Guy in Stirling, I am half an hour late and not in a mood to go anywhere, but there is not much else to do on a wet day like this … Read the rest »

Had a great day yesterday on the Western Rib on the west face of Aonach Mor. We intended to have a go at the Ordinary Route in Coire nan Lochan at Glen Coe, but seeing that the lower car park was almost full when we go there before 8am, and knowing that due to the conditions pretty much everyone would be either on the Ordinary Route or Dorsal Arete, we decided to head to the Aonach.

It turned out to be excellent choice, as the west face was quiet, and there were no other parties on our climb. The conditions on the face are not bad; not huge amounts of snow, and not much ice, but excellent for the type of a climb we were on. We soloed the first 150 or so meters, then Bob led one pitch over some trickier ground, the rest we moved on together. Took as around 3.5 hours, which is not bad for a party of three.

The visibility on the top was very poor, so we did the prudent thing and took a bearing; however, thinking that the bearing took us too close to the edge of the north face, we made a small adjustment (the cornices on the top of the north face are presently massive) — you can imagine our surprise when after half an hour walking we arrived at what looked suspiciously like the Aonach Mor summit cairn from which we departed. Goes without saying that we stuck uncompromisingly to the bearing on the second attempt, reaching the top of the ski runs shortly. We were in luck, the gondola was still running, and shortly we were enjoying venison sausages in the Ben Nevis Inn.

After eyeing up the Spartan Slab for a while now, I have finally got have a go at it this past weekend. Read the rest »

Had a great, but rather long day on the Buchaille yesterday. Graeme and I set from the Laggangarbh at 9.15, for the North Buttres (IV,4). The climb turned out to be busy; we could see three other parties as we approached - we lost about an hour waiting at the bottom.

The climb turned out to be hard, and the interest was sustained the whole way. The crux turned out to be the start of the second pitch, where Graeme had a few tense moments, as did I directly below him. Over all the climbing was superb, with breathtaking situations, and impeccable protection.

We took longer than anticipated, emerging at the top of the third pitch at 5.30 pm, as the light was fading. We were in for a surprise. Read the rest »

Had another great day on the Ben on Saturday. Leaving John and Judith behind to enjoy the Ledge Route, Bob and I set out with the intention of having a look at the Goodeve’s Climb (III). Arriving at the foot of the north face, we were dismayed by how badly conditions deteriorated since the weekend before. The already high snow line seemed to have receded even further, and the snow was suggary for much the day, and so we arrived at the bottom pitch of Glover’s Chimney (shared with Goodeve’s Climb) slightly aprehensive, not sure what we were going to find higher up. Read the rest »