Climbing seems to have taken a bit of a back seat this summer. A combination of work, studying for my masters and a continued obsession with triathlon has dominated pretty much all of my spare time. My desire to get out on the rock has also been thwarted by a series of rainy weekends dwindling ambition and refocusing what I want to do with my time.

The last few weeks however I've had a few good outings, so thought I'd share some thoughts and photos of the back of those. The first outing was a long overdue weekend with Rafe, where we were hoping to find some dry mountain rock. Alas it was not to be. We did however find some serious adventure!   

Overnight rain and a more than leisurely start time was not enough to deter the ambition of getting on Steeple, perhaps one of the most celebrated routes in the Cairngorms. A simple case of mega mountain psyche clouding all sound and reasonable judgement. We should have known after fighting our way up the totally dripping and slime covered first pitch that it wasn't meant to be. None the less bravado prevailed and the battle continued well into the evening until we admitted defeat below the upper 5b corner. Cap-in-hand we climbed the top two pitches of the Needle (which were also wet) in the dark and topped out around midnight. Turns out wet E2 is hard!

Rafe on the second pitch of Steeple (E2 5c). At over 250 meters this route is one of the biggest mountain trad climbs in the UK. Perhaps we should have thought about that a little when we started up it at 14:00ish after a lot of rain overnight. Either way it was a brilliant experience, especially topping out around midnight in the middle of the plateau.  We made it back to the car by the early hours, utterly exhausted! 

Another beautiful day spent on a cold north face. I bet that sunshine was really warm too! 

The next day we took it easy and headed to Creag Dhu near Newtonmore. We had ambitions for some cool stuff but with the onset of some rain all we managed was King Bee Direct (HVS 5a) before having to bail.

I was also recently visited by Ed again on another biblically wet Scottish summer weekend. Somehow we managed a day in the sunshine in Glen Nevis followed by a few hours pre-storm the on the Sunday in the quarrys around Stirling.

Ed making the exposed step out on the first 4c pitch of Secretaries Super Direct (E1 5a) in Glen Nevis. We arrived in the Glen to showers breaking and the sun shinning. What amazing luck. The only issue was the head height ferns everywhere which were covered in water from the rain of the last few days. Needless to say we were soaked by the time we'd bush wacked our way up the hillside but it was totally worth it. The rock dried so quickly and the friction of the microschist is superb! 

Higher up on the superb arete. The next pitch which constitutes the crux climbs through a small overlap and up onto a hanging slab and other than a cam placement at the base, is totally gearless and very committing. The climbing is scary but brilliant! 

Ed on the central crack on the second pitch of Storm (HVS 5a). Whilst it looked a bit wet from below, it wasn't that bad in the end with the holds being huge and the jams being bomber. The pitch is really steep and sustained and contrasts significantly with the last pitch, with the 5a crux being a right stiffler! Thankfully it doesn't last long and whilst the crux was definitely wet, it was on jams which were sinkers so it wasn't an issue. The tree below at the top of the second pitch has to be one of the most uncomfortable places I've ever been on a multi-pitch route. As I was leading through I didn't have to stay there that long. Poor Ed!  

Warming up on Secretaries Direct (S). The rock had great friction, it just needed to be dry first! 

The next day the forecast was not so good so we stayed local and went for a session in Camby quarry. In the end we had quite a productive morning and ticked Not Easy Contract (E1 5b), Doobie Brothers (E1 5b), Malky the Alky (E1 5b) and finished off on Gobi Roof (E2 5c). All in all not a bad haul for a mornings work! An absolutely fantastic effort from Ed too considering his break from UK trad out clipping bolts and cranking on boulders. The only photo I have is from Emma who stopped by to say hi whilst out running. 

Alas summer is nearly over.

However this means only one thing.

Scottish winter is coming.