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It’s been over a year since I left the UK to settle in Belgium. While I’ve managed a couple of trips to the Alps with the Belgian Alpine Club, visits back to Scotland are a rare treat these days and my munro bagging has definitely slowed down. In 2017 I didn’t set foot in Scotland. In February 2018 I made it up to the north west for some fantastic winter days on An Teallach and Liathach though and was lucky enough to get another week in the Scottish hills in August. My wife and I had been invited to a family wedding at Luss and we decided to spend a week’s holiday on Arran afterwards where I would enjoy my first experience of leading a rock climb without the presence of a guide or more experienced climber.
Ben Vorlich & Stuc a’Chroin // 3 August 2018 // 16.2km // 1228m ascent // 5hr 25minThe day before the wedding at Luss I’d promised to climb the Cobbler with Mrs Riverman. However, our plans changed at the last minute after learning of the new rip-off parking charges at Arrochar and we drove over to Loch Earn to climb Ben Vorlich instead. This was Mrs Riverman’s first ever munro and while she enjoyed the walk up she had no interest in joining me on the easy scramble over to Stuc a’ Chroin so headed back downhill while I went over to the second munro. Stuc a’ Chroin definitely adds some interest to the day and I was pleased to paint this little corner of Perthshire blue.
Stuc a' ChroinGlenashdale Falls Arran // 6 August 2018 // 4.75km // 152m ascent // 2hrAfter the wedding of my wife’s cousin at Luss we headed over to Arran where we had booked a cottage for a week with my sister in law and her partner. They planned to spend a couple of days cycling and to join me on a scramble / rock climb later in the week. But on our first day on the island all four of us took a leisurely stroll up to Glenashdale falls together. A great little walk.
Cir Mhor via Cubic Gully Spur // 7 August 2018 // 14.6km // 918m ascent // 7 hrSince setting my sights on alpine objectives and spending more and more time in the Alps I’ve begun to do a little more rock climbing. While I harbour no ambitions at all to climb at an advanced level I do want to become a sufficiently good rock climber to be able to lead the odd pitches that might be encountered on PD or AD alpine routes.
I’ve now climbed as a second up to Hard Severe (HS) but still have only very limited experience as a leader. Back in May I spent a weekend in Snowdonia practising leading with a guide and also managed to get out on some crags in Belgium in June climbing second on some slightly harder single pitch routes. By August, on Arran, I felt ready to put my leading skills to the test on a harder scramble / easier rock climb. Mrs Riverman is an (occasional) walker and certainly not a scrambler or climber but her sister and her partner have both done some scrambling and were happy for me to lead them on an easy route.
Cubic Gully Spur is the rubble strewn line to the right above the gully I had initially planned for us to do the A Chir ridge traverse together but since neither Nicola or Joe had abseiled before and knowing that the bad step on that ridge would likely need to be abseiled, I settled instead for Cubic Gully Spur on the south face of Chir Mor. An easy rock climb, graded moderate (M) and eminently escapable, we accessed the start of the route by the very beautiful walk through Glen Rosa. The climb itself was pretty straightforward and large sections would have been easy enough to solo. However, the point of today’s exercise was for me to use the rope, practice gear placement and take responsibility for leading other climbers.
Nicola and JoeThe first pitch was certainly the hardest (not so much difficult as awkward) and I fumbled about for a while at the top of the pitch looking for decent gear placements with which to build a belay. I found no decent cracks for nut placements but I was able to use a direct belay around a large rock to bring up Nicola and Joe. Indeed on nearly all the subsequent pitches I used direct belays (round rocks, or body belays from a sitting stance) rather than indirect belays due to the sparsity of decent cracks for nuts.
As I moved up the route I tried to place as much gear as possible simply for the practice. I carried a mixture of nuts and hexes. Most of the gear I placed stuck and the big hexes were certainly more useful than the nuts. I did manage to pull a couple of pieces of gear out as a climbed above them though. Obviously not ideal but if you’re going to make mistakes as a novice in trad leading then better to make them on this sort of (relatively) unserious ground than on some ridiculous vertical cliff.
Cir MhorThe sensation of climbing above the protection as the lead climber is radically different from climbing as the second. I was constantly aware of the seriousness of the undertaking and while at no point did I panic I felt a weight of responsibility that I have not felt before as the second person on the rope (invariably with a far more experienced leader ahead of me). Reaching the heathery section at the top we packed up the rope and strolled over to the summit where we encountered the first other hill-goers we had met all day. Certainly reaching this summit required more mental effort than any other I’ve stood on and I had a different sense of achievement. The climb had gone well, if rather slowly, and I had kept my seconds safe.
I am still a very, very long way from the level I want to be at in terms of my lead climbing but this was a first, small step in the right direction.
Goatfell // 8 August 2018 // 12.1km // 904m ascent // 5 hrThe day before while I was on Cir Mhor with Nic and Joe, Mrs Riverman had made a visit to Brodick castle. While climbing is definitely not her thing she was keen to do the walk up Goatfell and I was happy to join her. Setting out from our accommodation near the co-op in Brodick we crossed the beach on our way to the trailhead and I realised that this was the first time in my life that I had made a true sea level start in Scotland in that sea water actually wet my boots at the start of the walk. The weather was fair and there were plenty of walkers on the path. Views from the summit were impressive and it was great to get a different perspective on the previous day’s summit.
Goatfell
Goatfell summit panorama
Goatfell summit panorama
Goatfell summit panorama