The Old Man of Stoer

About one month ago Ruaridh Mackenzie invited some of the Inverness Climbing Crew (ones that he has climbed outdoors with before), if we wanted to go up the old man of stoer. so this weekend 6 of the Inverness climbing crew went to the old man of stoer, along with 6 adult backup climbers. We camped Friday night so we didn't have to drive up in the morning, but it were thinking it may be a bad idea as it was chucking it down on the drive over.

On Saturday morning we got up at 8 O'clock and got ready. We walked in about an hour then I saw the old man of Stoer, It was really big and awesome.

We abseiled down to a sea level ledge and set up a Tirolean, which we needed to cross to get to the stack. Ruaridh went up first and set up all the belay anchors, We had a adult at every belay station so we could all climb to the top without hanging around too long.

After a couple of hours, all 12 of us stood on the very top of the Old man for a team photo before abseiling back down.

Ardmair

On Saturday I went to Ardmair with some friends, It was a really good day as weather was nice and warm.

I managed to get 4 routes done:

Moondance 20m Vs 4C * (led it)

Sculptress 20m HVS 5A ** (seconded it)

Primitive Dance 30m E2 ** (top roped it)

Burning Desire 25m E5 6B**** ( Seconded it)

Here are some pics:

Duntelchaig

Today I went to Duntelchaig climbing and after climbing on Friday evening there I wanted to go back and climb Sweeney's Crack 15m severe. I started climbing up Sweeney's Crack and finished up Bent peg HVS. When I got to about two meters below the top I had to do a big rock over to get to the next hold.

Next I wanted to have a go at Slings E1 5b**. I managed to get about two moves from the top

before having to come off as I could see no way of getting the last couple of moves. :(

Duntelchaig

Yesterday evening I went to 70ft wall, Duntelchaig to do some trad climbing with my new gear that I kindly received from Climbing Technology. The weather was really nice and warm. We only managed to do 2 routes as we were running out of daylight!!. I warmed up on Swastika, Severe, then I went onto Razor Flake HVS 5A, I felt really comfortable on it and most of the gear was bommer!!

Cummingston

On Sunday I went to cummingston with some friends. We went to Cummingston because the weather looked like it was going to be the best over that direction. We never managed to do a lot of routes as it was really cold,but we managed some:

Staircase Crack 12m Severe (lead it)

Diedre of double doubt 12m E2 5b **
The Prow 12m E5 6A **

I really liked climbing the Prow E5 6A because it was overhanging and steep the holds were quite good but it would be a scary route to lead because there is very little gear placements.

Here are some pics of the day: