Apple Mountaineering Blog

By busy, I really mean that we saw a couple of other teams there, which given the forecasts wasn’t that much of a surprise (the rest of the UK was wet).  However, despite the quality of climbing there, it’s usually amazingly quiet, which might have something to do with the remoteness of the area.

On Friday, Matt, Freda, Martyn, Laurie, Han and I made our way west, to the Ardnamurchan peninsula, which is the most westerly point on the UK mainland, and home to some great gabbro crags, formed by a magmatic dyke.  Han and I arrived first, and headed straight for the closest of the ring crags, Achnaha Buttress, where I warmed up on Coal Mining, a short and steep VS 5a, before we were joined by the others, and walked to Sgurr Nan Gabhar, a further 30 mins away, where the routes of Ozone Layer, a thuggy HVS 5a, High Plain’s Drifter VS 5a and Thor S 4b were all climbed that evening.

For both Saturday and Sunday, with blue skies (and at times fresh winds) dominating the expansive sky, we were joined by Max and Lena and spent the two days at Meall An Fhir-Eoin and Meall An Fhir-Eoin Beag, the main crags of Ardnamurchan.  It was great to be out as a big team, swapping beta and offering route suggestions to one another, never mind just being out with a great group of friends, which I find doesn’t happen as often when climbing as I’d like.

Over the two days, we all climbed a similar list of routes, including: Yir VS 4c, Claude HVS 5a, Not Today Dear VS 4b, Krakatoa HVS 5b, Etna E1 5b, Stromboli HVS 5b and Ring of Fire HVS 5a, however, from a personal perspective, highlights for me were without a doubt a clean on-sight ascent of Tremor Crack E3 6a (more like hard 5c) and Mirka E2 5c.

So a fantastic weekend, and possibly one of my last cragging in Scotland whilst residing here, as I’m working at Outward Bound this week, then on Skye, working for much of next, before migrating to the Lake District shortly after, where hopefully many more climbing adventures await!

Freda leading into the evening

Freda and Han enjoying van life

Han cruising the first pitch of Volcane

Max on pitch 2 of Yir

Han on the traverse of Ring of Fire

Looking out to Rhum and Eigg

Martyn cruising Krakatoa

Lena high on Ring of Fire

Matt pulling through the crux of Mirka

Me, also pulling through the crux of Mirka

Please excuse the lack of chronology, it’s been a busy few days!  Last Wednesday, I was due to head over east to work for Bigfoot Adventures in the evening, and so had pencilled in an administrative day, however, Johann popped over on Tuesday evening, and asked whether I’d be interested in climbing in Glencoe the next day.  Well, with the spell of good weather continuing but an end to it in sight, I was easily persuaded.

So, on Wednesday morning, Jo and I made our way up the steep slopes that make up the West Face of Aonach Dubh, and after an airy traverse, found ourselves at the base of the Hard Rock climb of Trapeze E1 5b.  I set off up a rather scrappy entry pitch, before Jo made short work of the technical crux pitch, a well protected and steep corner crack line.  I then led through, negotiating a fun off-width chimney, before gaining an atmospheric steep slab, surrounded by imposing walls.  A short traverse beyond this brought us to what should have been a straight forward 5a pitch.  It wasn’t!  With a steep and bold first section, and a hard to protect traverse further on, it certainly felt like the toughest pitch on the route, not what we were expecting.  Beyond that a short pitch led to the the top, so whilst it was great to tick a hard rock classic, the route felt quite serious at times, far tougher than it’s twin, Big Top, and one of those routes, that’s worth doing, but perhaps only the once!

Jo high on pitch 2

Jo on the sun drenched slab of pitch 3

Jo setting off on pitch 5

Jo high on pitch 5

Skip a couple of days, to Saturday, and Han and I awoke to find that the weather again, was looking promising, and so in order to squeeze every ounce from the unseasonably mild conditions, we decided to head to the Etive Slabs to have a go at The Hammer HVS 5a (5b?).  With the slightest of drizzle on the drive through Glencoe, we decided to push on regardless, and see how the day unfolded.  Fortunately, that was the only rain we encountered, and we found ourselves at the base of a largely dry Etive Slab.  The approach to The Hammer was rather scrappy, as was the first pitch, but soon, we had escaped the clutches of vegetation, and Han found herself cruising the unprotectable feature on pitch three, known as ‘The Scoop’.  Etive Slabs definitely lends itself to bold, steady and relaxed climbing, as protection can be rather sparse to say the least, and trusting smears for feet is crucial to progress.  Han did just that, and soon reached lay-back corner, which is quite the opposite of typical Etive slab climbing, having positive holds, good gear, and working the arms!  I then took over for the crux pitch, which was one of the few areas of the slab with a wet streak running right down the middle of the 3m traverse.  Now, I’m not sure whether it was because of the wet streak, or whether it’s just a hard crux traverse anyway, but I felt the moves to be more like 5b, and with a bit of heavy breathing (it works!), I found myself beyond the crux, and on more secure ground, making my way up cracks to the belay (with only one more wet patch to negotiate).  Han then made light work of the final traverse pitch, before we made our way through the final crux, the descent path,, which skirts around the top of the crag, in a rather precarious position. Only one other team out on Etive Slabs, on Spartan Slab (classic route at VS).

Views beyond Loch Etive, over to Ben Cruachan

Han enjoying the situation, and about to start up 'The Scoop'

Han laybacking beyond The Scoop

The crux moves on pitch 4

Han making the tentative moves on the crux

So four fantastic mountain routes climbed over the past week, most of which in sunshine and mild temperatures, which for March is a great start to the trad climbing season.  However, looking out the window now, there is fresh snow down to 200m, so it seems that winter has made a brief return, for how long, who knows!