When will I learn not to follow John Watson's random guides to the middle of nowhere. Its a fair slog up the hill to the boulders but through a really pretty forest. It reminded me a lot of the woods I used to mountain bike in, when I was at school. The boulders arrive after half an hour or so. There is one main boulder above some boggy ground. Thankfully, the recent warm, dry weather has really set the midges back. However, looking down at my legs while getting my boots on I saw I was crawling with ticks. Not happy! I was pretty pissed off to have slogged up the hill, to find myself straddling a bog and killing ticks.
Started on Comedy Arete - 6a+ which I was making hard work of until I sussed some better beta. Quartzy crimps to Quartzy sloper to top with no footholds. I moved on to the stream boulders and found The Block - 6a, a nice overhanging wall through monster slopers. I then tried Hibernian Arete - 6b but failed miserably to suss the sit start. A bit of a wierd problem.
The real reason I went up there is that I'm looking for a nice hard project and thought that Hocus Pocus - 7a could be it. I don't mind longer walk ins, especially when the walk is so nice. However, the midges will be terrible all summer and there isn't much more to go at. I gave it a few half-hearted attempts and went home. Two new 6as is all I left with but a sunny evening in the Trossachs is the kind of thing I wait all winter for! Pete gave me a harsh roasting for being shit but I'm not sure what I could do about it tonight.. We will just see how we get on tomorow....
1 comment:
Good effort getting out to new venues. Always good to have a look or you'll never will know. You should get stuck into a 7a project. You'd get it in two sessions the amount of training you've been doing. Train strong eat nothing but brocoli and climb smart when outside! Lot's of rests and cling on for dear life!
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