The long awaited arrival in Scotland of Bouldering Hebson was greeted without the media frenzy of Sonnie Trotter's recent visit; Hebson preferring to make his impact quietly, letting the rest of the community discover his achievements through word of mouth or the elusive V7 blog. The Hebsonic Boom had travelled up to test himself against the hard, black heart of Scottish Bouldering, the mighty volcanic plug of Dumbarton Rock. There was much speculation amongst the locals about what projects were going to get sent; Mugsy, Pongo, Gorilla were all muted in hushed tones. Simply contemplating such ascents was unimaginable falling as they do in the V4-V6 range, top end grades at the playground of Scotland's finest.
After the usual warm up of 10 laps of Friars Mantle (Classic V0), Team Woodwell made swift work of both Home Rule (V3) and Mestizio (V3). Things were looking good, feeling at home at such an imposing classic venue. Form is an elusive master, at times present with a hand on your shoulder, others negligently absent. Almost as fast as these test-pieces were crushed, disaster struck.
Mugsy, at "only" V5/6, wouldn't budge. Young Gaskins threw himself at it but to no avail. Local sender Peter "10 V5s" Phillips looked strong on the opening moves, the only man to move statically to the sloper. However, with a spliff in his mouth and a can of red bull in his hand, Rosco held the swing and came really close. Although gutted it was time to move on to another national classic.
Toto (Font 6b) went first go today. I used some better beta on the top of this probelm and cruised it for the watching masses. I was psyched! everyone had a go at the sit-start, Rosco making it look like a path and duly completing Totality (Font 7b+). A friction free masterclass if ever there was one. Again, Peter "3 V5s" Phillips looked really strong and it was sensed that this problem would fall soon.
Next up on the menu was Pongo. It spanked us!
We moved on to Gorilla. It spanked us!
We went to the pub. It spanked us!
160 miles for a split tip and three V3s. Not bad but as we all knew, there are no giveaways at Dumbarton.
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