Ruthven Additions

On some pretty small and slopey crimps, a new problem finds a way through. Mike Lee gets the loose flake project in the bag after about 3 years of attempts on and off. QED is a varied, non-eliminate bit of climbing, first on a roof flake then on to some non-existent crimps and a bit of heel hooking.

Rich Betts made a bid at directly tackling the Barry Manilow nose. The meat of the original problem is a tasty mantle move to a quartz lump resembling cauliflower. This direct version looks to add a slice of steep bouldering action into the mantle making for a technical delight. It's called Barry Manilower.

Highball at Pinnicle

Mike Lee climbed an old ian taylor route, Sare, at pinnicle in highball bouldering style. Previously E4, word is a good hold and a couple of pegs have fallen off/been stolen leaving a line of crimps on the overhanging wall up to a good jug, then one spacey move to the top. It was top roped then soloed above a couple of mats.... It's like font 7a+ and to ground up would be bad ass!


First move of Sare

Nic Duboust bouldered a tricky low ball sit start at the Voodoo Working bloc, The Bum, Font 6C, takes the crack and slopers on the left end of the bloc.



Nic on Voodoo Working

Strong Luke Tears it Up

In an all too nonchalant style, Luke Fairweather has demolished just about every Inverness hard problem. He's ticked all the stuff at Brin, (except Put your new shoes on which he hasn't been able to find...), The Jamie Boulder, breezing up the "fun" testpiece, The Farr Side Facet (commenting that it's about 7B - I still think 7C, maybe hard 7B+ is more like it) And ticking everything on Knifewound wall, barring the Settler where it sounds like sore skin got the better of him. He also completed a desperate one move direct sit start to knifewound, at around 7B+/C. The question on everyones lips is "will we see an 8th grade problem before too long?".

In other news, Richie Betts has ripped the crucial flake off The Untrained Ear, a "proper bouldering" classic below 70ft wall at Duntelchaig. No prizes for guessing who will be seeking to re-climb the line, now thought to be around 7B+....??

Inverness Top Fives - Walk-ins....

Got this from Rich Betts...

5. Tom Riach. Fallen trees and logs to negotiate, tracks leading off in random directions to sandbag you. No one finds it first time. A bit spooky too.

4. Ruthven Boulder. Always further than it looks but not far enough to be bothered with walking boots or wellies, which is usually a mistake. One or two technical muddy sections to cross. A real tester.

3. Brin. You just know theres going to be a bull in that field one day and due to the curvature of the earth you wont see it until you are right in the middle.

2. Anything up the hill at Brin. Bottomless crevasses, weird animals, no paths, everytime you go there the boulders have been moved around.

1. Duntelchaig backside. (knife wound / the dagger) A classic stamina test. This one has everything, no path, deep heather, bracken, boggy, an underground stream. No view of the crag until you get there, so you cant check if its wet until its too late. Just as bad in reverse too. Epic.

How to get to knifewound wall/the dagger area

Park at the usual spot for climbing at duntelchaig. Probably the simplest thing to do is as soon as you cross the overflow of the loch, over the fence on the left and head for a big pine tree that's standing by itself around 200m away, straight a head. If you're not following the loch or the river, you've got a chance of going in the right direction! Once here drop down to a bog/stream and follow it up hill to the action (around 100m).

There's a steep wall with a terrible landing that looks maybe ok for short sport routes if the rock is solid underneath a load of flakey rubbish, a good steep boulder identified by a stream running underground, home of the Dagger and a couple of other things... Behind this is a good bouldering wall with grassy flat landing though it can be very boggy.