Blackford Quarry, The Hawkcraig and Rosyth Quarry
Grace and Travis are new to Edinburgh, so today we went on a tour of crags they could reach relatively easily on public transport. The first stop was Blackford Quarry, which is a short bus journey on the South side of the city. It’s probably best as a bottom roping venue as the harder lines are bold and the rock a little friable, but it dries quickly and lots of variations are available.
Next up was The Hawkcraig at Aberdour just as low tide was arriving. This tidal cliff can be reached by train from Edinburgh and has lots of good routes in a pleasant setting. We did a number of starred routes here with the pick of the bunch being Pain Pillar.
Finally on the way back to Edinburgh we called in at Rosyth Quarry, which can be reached by bus from Edinburgh. We climbed a few lines here with Travis and Grace doing a great job of climbing The Waullie, just as the rain arrived.
With twelve routes climbed at three venues the day felt like a good introduction to cragging in the area. All of the crags we visited dry quickly after rain and were only suffering from very minor seepage even after the wet weather of Friday.
Perthshire, East Lothian and The Pentlands
After a couple of weeks away due to family reasons it was good to be back out in Scotland over the last three days. On Friday I was out near Perth with Jen from Lattitude events on a recce for a charity walk next year.
Saturday was a very pleasant walk in East Lothian with friends along a section of the river Tyne and Sunday was a run in the Pentlands with Nettle taking in Black Hill and Bell’s hill. Nothing too exciting, but all good to help blow the cobwebs away. There’ve been some periods of heavy rain and sections of path are fairly wet. Some of the grassier paths in the Pentlands are currently pretty slippy with the surface layer holding a lot of water.
Costa Duarada
Rosie and I have just been out in the Costa Duarada in Spain. This excellent region has a number of great crags such as Margalef, Siurana and Montsant. There is now a very easy to use guidebook for the area; Tarragona Climbs.
Good deals can be found to resorts in the area such as Salou making it a very affordable climbing trip.
The Cuillin of Skye
After spending Monday and Tuesday last week rock climbing in the Lake District, I then spent Wednesday and Thursday delivering coaching courses on behalf of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS). These courses are aimed at Instructors who wish to improve their coaching skills. For more details visit the MCofS website.
On Friday I travelled to Skye with the Falkirk High Tops Team for our annual September Cuillin trip.
We began the trip on Saturday by traversing the ridge from Sgurr na Banachdich to Sgurr a’Mhaidiadh taking in Sgurr a’Ghreadaidh on the way. This is an excellent section of the ridge involving grade 3 scrambling that is best when dry.
On Sunday we took a boat trip for Elgol to the Coruisk Hut from where we climbed the ultra classic Dubh Ridge. This route is thought to be the best rock climb of its grade in the United Kingdom and did not disappoint. We continued over Sgurr Dubh Mor and the Sgumain Stone Shoot to Glen Brittle campsite where we had previously left vehicles.
The excellent weather of the previous two days continued on Monday. To finish our trip we made an ascent of The Cioch. This brilliant summit has many routes of all grades catering for all abilities of climber and provided an excellent finale to our trip.