A saunter on the Souter

For the last two seasons winter climbing in Scotland has kicked off as early as October. A conveyor  of bombarding icy blasts from the North Atlantic heralded the arrival of conditions perfect for snowed-up-rock and super high mixed routes. Unlike 2018, dreams of such a promising start were quickly quashed this year by a blocking high pressure bringing a continued spell of unseasonably warm air across our mountains, striping many of the peaks right back to their summer attire. I've no doubt that the old hands of Scottish winter climbing contingent will be laughing at such an optimistic outlook, as for them winter doesn't usually kick off until mid February! Anyway, to avoid upsetting them or myself by lingering on "the January that could have been", I'll instead share with you the adventure of last weekend where instead of a hopeless walk in to a soggy mountain crag, we headed for the coast in search of sun and dry rock.

Sitting eating my breakfast watching the first wisps of dawn appear through the beads of rainwater trickling down the kitchen window, the idea of a successful days rock climbing started to feel like an overoptimistic objective. Thankfully as we piled down the M80, then the Edinburgh by-pass, then the A1, the skies cleared and the ground grew drier and we started to think we might just be that lucky. Which it turns out we were!  

The Souter is a sea stack situated 30 miles east of Edinburgh on the chaotic and rugged coast around St Abbs Head. The slender sandstone stack has several routes up it with the most popular being "Ordinary Route" which climbs the seaward edge at HVS 5a. As far as routes on sea stacks go, Ordinary Route is an absorbing and entertaining line with some great (albeit a little bold) moves on mostly solid rock. The route is split by a small ledge about half height, with crux being the short corner just below, which is probably somewhere between tech 5a and 5b. Although the tricky move is protected by an old peg (which can also be backed-up by a reasonable nut) there isn't much scope for any other gear in the corner (BETA ALERT! - you can actually get reasonable yellow [size 4] BD cam in a flared slot just right of the base of the crack). Above the ledge there is another technical move past a peg but the difficulties there are short lived and its more like tech 5a. We abseiled down the seaward side because of the wind, but you'd be fine lowering off either side.

Overall its a great adventure and well worth the effort of seeking out.

The Souter sea stack near St Abbs Head

Moving up below the short corner on Ordinary Route (HVS 5a) on the seaward arete of The Souter (photo Rob Steer)

Rob pulling on the hanging slab just below the top

What goes up must come down (photo Rob Steer)

 

A panoramic view up the line of the seaward side of the Souter stack. Ordinary Route climbs the obvious corner to half height before moving up and left and pulling through a small overlap onto the final hanging slab.