End of the Affair?

Perhaps not quite yet, but there’s a whiff of closure in the air.  It’s been a tremendous few weeks of weather for getting out onto mountain rock, and several keen teams have been quick to exploit this.  It has to be said over the past few summer seasons such opportunities have been rare!

Tony and Blair had a great trip to Skye, ticking off my own Rainman on Sgurr Mhich Choinnich, and Fowler’s Stairway to Heaven on Bla Bheinn.  And I managed to rope The Diggler into joining The Monday Club for a couple of adventurous days out on Ben loyal and Carnmore.  The latter isn’t normally considered as day-trippable, but with the new path and a decent mountain bike it’s now a feasible, if challenging day out.  And our man on Skye, Colin Threlfall, has made a tremendous effort to capture the action on camera for posterity.  I have to say, though I’m arguably a bit biased, Colin takes some of the most beautiful climbing photographs I’ve ever seen – he’s a real natural talent, with a real knack of integrating climber, crag and the wider landscape.  Bear in mind also that his wife Lucy suffers from MS, so any trip away from home and into the mountains really is a substantial commitment for all concerned.  His enthusiasm for this project is legendary.

Our list of “remaining gaps” is now very short indeed, with only really Quinag, Foinaven, Creag Dubh dibidale and Slime Wall outstanding.  we do have pictures of these places, but they each deserve something more special.  If the summer continues anything like how it has started, we’ll look forward to ‘suffering’ a few more adventures just yet!

Without wishing to put the horse before the cart, here’s a couple of sample images from our recent escapades…

The approach to Sgorr Chleirich on the west side of Ben Loyal – Britain’s most adventurous mountain cliff?

The mighty Orange Bow, one of the best E5 pitches on earth, on Carnmore, arguably Scotland’s finest mountain rock..