Top routes of 2018

I know what you're thinking, another year, another annual round-up blog post! Well you'd be right, however this time around I thought i'd put a new spin on things by including WINTER routes as well as the normal list of trad climbs. I mean its still mainly summer trad, as winter climbing is deeply unpleasant and generally only any fun on the calmest of bluebird days (which basically never happen and even then you're probably still freezing your ass off)! Anyway, without further adieu here are my top 10 favorite climbs of 2018!

10) Landward Face (HVS 4c) - Am Buachaille, NW Highlands

The remote sandstone sea stack of Am Buachaille situated about 10 miles south of Cape Wrath 

Am Bucachaille must be one of the most stunning climbing venues in Britain and the most awkward to boot. As always, the easy bit is driving, all 5 hours of it (assuming you're starting from the central belt!) with most of it being on tiny single track lanes on rally style roads (great as long as you're not the passenger). Once you've arrived you then have to contend with a 5 mile walk over a boggy moorland to the edge of a crumbling sandstone cliff, which you then have to somehow scramble down with impossibly heavy bags without killing yourself or anybody silly enough to come with you. Now you're at the bottom of the cliff, hopefully you've done your homework and checked the tide times and you can walk/scramble under some massive precipices to the channel that separates the stack from the mainland.

Now the hard bit.

The channel is permanent, regardless of tide and therefore its time to don the speedos and (in our case) the mini inflatable boat. Once everyone is across the climbing can begin! The classic route (Landward Face) is unsurprisingly sandy and quite limited on gear too (maybe the bag doesn't need to be that heavy after all) but its got some fun moves and you get to top out on a pretty amazing summit.

Myself and Gregor ferrying everything across the sea channel to the base of the stack (photo credit Iain)

This place is all about the adventure, if the climbing was good it would be a lot further up the list! This stack was also the last of the classic 'Scottish trio' i'd yet to tick with the others being Stoer and Hoy which were ticked last year.

9) Tower Ridge (III,3) - Ben Nevis

Tower Ridge needs no introduction. One of the best and longest winter climbs in the UK. So good I did it twice last season! Worth the effort and the hype. We were also spoilt with an excellent ice pitch just after the climbing out of the Douglas Gap as well as a suitably buried Tower Gap.

Looking down Tower Ridge just after completing the steep ice pitch a short way above the Douglas Boulder

Some climbers just topping out on the top section of Tower Ridge on a perfect bluebird day

8) Clachaig Gully (Severe) - Glen Coe

What's not to like about vertical moss walls and freezing water running down your arms and your front? Even if you go on a dry day, you'll still go home soaked to the skin.

A 'classic rock tick' that climbs perhaps Glen Coe's most infamous watercourse over a couple of hundred meters. Although there is a lot of wading, scrambling, filth and other general discomfort, there is a surprising amount of quality climbing (Jericho Wall being especially good). The route itself is pretty hard to read and considering how linear it is, the route finding is far from simple and the guidebook description only making things more confusing. None the less, its a brilliant adventure, just make sure you put the car keys in a waterproof bag!

Although its one of the longest climbs in Glen Coe, Clachaig Gully has one of the shortest walk-ins! 

Mike negotiating the one of the main waterfall pitches and trying to avoid a soaking

7) Jezabel (E1 5b) - North Third, Stirling

Esoteric central belt crack climbing at its best. Hard to find and even harder to climb, but its still well worth making the effort to seek out. Maybe one of the purest hand jamming cracks I've climbed anywhere. The crux is moving through a bulge at about 10 meters up, but be sure to save some gas in the tank for the top!

Approaching the crux of Jezabel on an unusually warm day up at Costa del North Third

Ben giving it the 'double fist' treatment on the crux bulge of Jezabel

6) Savage Slit (V,6) - Coire an Lochain, Cairngorms

Its all in the name! Savage! A route of great character with a bit of everything. Situated high in the Cairngorms its a reliable venue for some early season antics and thankfully this reputation was upheld this year with the onset of the first winter storms.

The route climbs a humongous crack up a hanging buttress with climbing on the inside as well as out! The corner may well be the main event here but don't underestimate that start, it nearly caught me out that's for sure!

Connor enjoying the challenging nature of early season conditions on the main corner of Savage Slit

5) Fionn Buttress (VS 5a) - Carnmore, NW Highlands

I spammed the hell out of my facebook and instagram this year after my visit to Carnmore with Rafe in June so I'll keep this short. If you want to know a bit more you can check out my blog post about that trip here or you can wait a few months and you can read about it in the Climbers Club Journal.

Fionn Buttress is the classic of the crag and is perhaps one of the best big mountain VSs I've done anywhere. Although not the purest of lines, its a clever climb with lots of contrasting pitches, which gradually build in exposure and difficulty until about half way up (maybe 100 m or so) where there is an exposure explosion and all of a sudden you feel like a very small piece of this vast and empty wilderness that surrounds you.

People talk about 'bucket lists' of things to do before you die. This route is absolutely one of those things for anybody that loves climbing mountains in the UK.

The long road to Carnmore. Rafe walking across the causeway the military constructed and trained on during the early 20th Century. The battle scars and rusting Czech hedgehogs still evident and are a humbling remainder of the freedom we have today.  

A photo of Rafe and myself on pitch 7 of Fionn Buttress taken by Barry, who was down at the bothy watching our antics

Rafe following the sensational pitch 6 traverse on Fionn Buttress deep in the wilds of the Fisherfield Forest

4) The Indy 500 (E1 5b) - Lundy Island

Perhaps one of the most sustained routes I've led on one of the UK's most remote climbing venues. Yes, Lundy may well be closer to London than all of the north of England, however if the ferry isn't running that day you may as well be in Shetland. As with most climbers that have been there, Lundy will forever hold a special place in my heart so perhaps I'm looking at the routes there through rose tinted glasses when I say this, but there literally is nowhere better in the world to climb than Lundy.

The Indy 500 is a steep wall and crack climb with some very smart and technical moves and quite sustained at 5b. One of the best routes I've done on the island and one of the best single pitches I've done anywhere. If you like steep sustained crack and face climbing, get this route on your bucket list!  

Ed on the steep upper wall of The Indy 500

Another route from the same trip. Ed following the exposed fin of Shark (E1 5a)

3) The South Ridge Direct (VS 5a) - Rosa Pinnacle, Isle of Arran

Another Scottish big mountain classic! Over 300 meters of beautifully grey speckled granite ridge situated on one of Scotland's most stunning Hebridean islands. The South Ridge has been high on my hit list ever since I first read about this route in Dan Bailey's Scottish Mountain Ridges but in the past have had attempts thwarted by bad weather or other circumstance. This summer Caelan and I finally managed a weekend warrior mission up into Glen Rosa to tick the ridge and a few other classics while we were there. 

You can read more about our trip here.

All good Scottish adventures start with a ferry ride! 

Looking up The South Ridge Direct from the first pitch. The technical and thrutchy 'S' and 'Y' cracks clearly visible higher up the route (photo credit Caelan)

2) North East Buttress (IV,5/6) - Ben Nevis

Climbing this route felt like the culmination of a lot of things. Until this year winter climbing was a big taboo for me as previously I had favored walking and mountaineering whilst I was doing my winter mountain leader qualification. This was because I knew if I got a taste for winter climbing, I'd not have the mental resilience to log QMDs when there were prime climbing conditions abound! With the qualification done and a fabulously well endowed winter season between 2017 and 2018 providing ample opportunity, I made the most of every chance I could working my way through IIIs, IVs and even the odd V. North East Buttress felt like one of the biggest undertakings of the season, and was a testing ground for all of the skills and techniques I'd learned and absorbed over the previous few months. The route took Connor and I all day to climb, with the final and most testing sections saved for the last bit of the 500 meter high buttress of the Ben we scaled.

I enjoyed writing the post about this adventure almost as much as climbing it! You can read more about that day here.   

The north face of Ben Nevis in all its Glory. North East Buttress climbs the left hand skyline all the way to the summit

The well iced '40 foot corner'

1) Dragon (E1 5b) - Carnmore, NW Highlands

Contrasting, committing, brutal but ever so slightly stylish climbing through what feels like some of the biggest roofs in Scotland! Dragon climbs the plumb line of Carnmore, surmounting the talon of the beast, stealing both your breath and your biceps! Its another odd route like Gob, in that it actually starts half way up the face from the central terrace, with the approach across a sea of partially detached vertical heather from the base of Carnmore Corner being awkward and harrowing in equal measure. Once you're on the route though all is forgiven, with a steep wall and bold slab on the first pitch giving way to even steeper (and similarly bold) wall climbing on the upper pitches.

After a bit of a stint away from harder adventurous trad in recent years, this pitch for me felt like a significant turning point both mentally and physically and I'll never forgot being wedged under the lip of the overhang after the crux and looking down with all of Fisherfield far beneath my feet.  

The first belay of Dragon with the third pitch roof looming dauntingly overhead (photo credit Rafe)

Rafe moving towards to the belay on the delicate traverse after the roof

Well that's your lot. Other routes that were amazing but didn't quite make the shortlist include; 

• Elgins Crack (E2) and Dead Ringer (E1) at Limekilns;
• The Cuilin Ridge Traverse with Laura and Sol;
• Agags Groove (VDiff) with Emma;
• Last Exit to Torquay (HVS) and almost Gargantua (E1) with Adam; and
• Basically everything else at Carnmore (Gob [HVS], Carnmore Corner [E2], Balaton [HVS], Abomination [HVS] etc).

Thanks again and see you in 2019!