Navigation
I was out today in the Dalmeny Estate delivering the second day of a navigation course for The City of Edinburgh Council Adult Education. This course runs for one session a week for four weeks, which works well giving plenty of time for consolidation of skills.
The group navigating on one of the good tracks within the Dalmeny Estate.
Edinburgh and the Cairngorms
This week I’ve been working with Peter and Tommy delivering a Gold DofE training for The City of Edinburgh Council based out of their outdoor centres at Bangholm and Lagganlia.
One of the groups walking towards Meall a’Buachaille.
Tuesday to Thursday was a practice expedition in the Cairngorms, where we changed the planned route to a lower one to avoid the very high winds forecast for Wednesday & Thursday. This worked well and we missed the worst of the wind and rain.
Agassiz Rock
Ivor and I had a short bouldering session this morning at Edinburgh’s Agassiz Rock. It’s a small venue, but with lots of scope for a good work out and with plenty of possible problems. The crag was dry, but there were showers around.
Ivor on one of the traverses.
Blackford Quarry
Mai and Suresh were up in Edinburgh for the weekend and fancied an half day introduction to rock climbing today. To maximise climbing time we headed for Blackford Quarry in Edinburgh.
Mai climbing Komik Kuts with Suresh below.
They took to climbing on rock well and we managed a number of bottom ropes on the main west facing wall, whilst learning to tie-in and belay, before they seconded me on Komik Kuts and the Quarry Pinnacle. We finished the day with a stacked abseil on the main wall and headed back to the car just as the rain began to fall in earnest.
Suresh climbing the Quarry Pinnacle.
Ravelston Dry Tooling
This afternoon I managed to persuade Pamela to have a look at a dry tooling venue in Edinburgh I’d been meaning to check out for a while. We did some of the easier lines there (between D3 and D5/6) and generally had a pleasant couple of hours.
Pamela on one of the corner routes
It’s not bolted, so it’s all bottom roping and a rigging rope is a definitely useful. A search on the internet under Ravelston and Dry Tooling should get you details and a topo if you’re interested.
