A little wiser

Not a great deal going on recently, the lack of car and fairly dodgy weather hasn't been a great combination for getting out. It was my birthday on Friday so I went down South for the weekend. A mate of mine was having a birthday in some ridiculous, wannabe, pretentious 'scottish' bar called Albannach on Trafalgar square. I'm not sure what they've modelled it on, as it doesn't really resemble any bar in Scotland I've been to and looked more like an upmarket S&M dungeon crossed with Charley from Big Brother (if that makes sense rather than sounding like a nightmarish fantasy). Having been told I was allowed to wear trainers I turned up in an (admittedly rather scruffy) pair, the bouncer took exception to them and wouldn't let me in. Normally this puts me off a place immediatley, as any bar with a dress-code is normally full of wankers. I wasn't wrong in this case, but I hadn't seen most of the people there for a while and it was my birthday so a bit of persuasion saw me inside. Luckily it was my birthday and I got bought loads of drinks, as you needed to take out a mortgage before going to the bar. Ayway it turned out to be a bit of giggle, especially as Jules (next to me below) was as wasted as usual, despite having to do a charity London-Brighton cycle ride (if you knew him you'd laugh) on Sunday. At least it was for the heart foundation, which I hope wasn't too appropriate...






Played golf with my dad on saturday down at Sandwich with a force 6 hangover (Large waves with foam crests and some spray. Large branches in motion. Whistling heard in overhead wires. Umbrella use becomes difficult) as opposed to a force 10 one which usually follows Subway (Very high waves. The sea surface is white and there is considerable tumbling. Visibility is reduced. Trees uprooted. Considerable structural damage.). Despite this I played remarkably well as did Dad and we halved on the 18th. Clearly the best preparation for golf is a skinful the night before and then half a bottle of Burgundy at lunch before starting.


Had an awesome roast on Sunday in the sun in the garden at home, which is looking really good this year so I thought I'd put up a couple of photo's. Managed to insure the new car this morning and going to pick it up tomorrow, unfortunatley the weather doesn't look like its going to play ball this week but you never know.



By all accounts Daft Punk at the Wireless Festival in London at the weekend were immense. I got a couple of excited texts from mates there telling me it was the best thing ever and allowing for hyperbole it looks pretty crazy. I've found 'Da Funk' on youtube (from Channel 4 not a shitty phone recording), its been turned into a bigger acid bomb than it was before and coupled with the crazy lights, fuck me... (Homework is the business)
ps Just got Northern Highlands South and as Dave Macleod says its absolutely brill. I've spent most of weekend dreaming of ice drooling down Fuar Tholl, tangoing in the night and thrutching up KamiKaze. hmmmm winter... (I can't help if it if summer's got its chastity belt on)

Bludgered

Since my car died a couple of months ago I've begun to realise how useful one is to take you climbing (funny that) and without one you've got to be flagrant lift whore in order to get away. As a result I'm going to be sitting on my arse in Edinburgh this weekend whilst the West coast is bathed in sun, the mountain crags are nice and dry and my flatmates take advantage of it (last time I offer any lifts). Not that I'm bitter or anything...
Anyway, earlier on this week Konnie and I got the bus to the Kingshouse and spent 3 days climbing on the Buachaille. At least not having a car gains me to gain some green points, allowing me to assuage my conscience about trips in the volvo with only two people in it to the North West.


Despite the Geoffcast's assertion of 90% chance of cloud free munro's, Tuesday was surprisingly overcast and the previous days of rain led us to the reliably quick drying Rannoch Wall. The problem about the Buachaille is that most of the butressess face East so unless you get an early start you spend most of the day climbing in the shade which is always quite galling when Rannoch Moor is bathed in sunlight, unless you're hard enough for Tunnel Wall. I started on the VS Fracture Route before Konnie cruised up Engineer's Crack an E1 just to the left with steady gear and a couple of steeper moves near the top, judging by the number muttered fucks at that point. We finished up Grooved Arete, which takes a delicate shallow diedre up the edge of Rannoch Wall, perhaps a tad overgraded at VS but a great way to finish the day and as the guide book eulogises on the 'world's best rock'.



After spending the evening eavesdropping in on the hardcore travails of the West Highland Wayers we were back for round 2, camping at the Kingshouse rather reduces your options to the Buachaille but that's not too much of an issue with so much rock and variety on offer. The walk up was pretty sweaty and the quick bath at the waterslide welcomingly refreshing. We settled on the East face of North Buttress and a slightly earlier arrival time allowed some climbing in the sun which inevitably led to a hefty dose of sunburn. We had a bit of a faffy day especially on Mainbrace Crack (HVS 5a) and enjoyed Crows Nest Crack and the superb bridging corner of Hangmans Crack, the latter looking a bit goey at VI/7 in winter. I can also report that the midgies are now coming out in force, I got murdered having a bbq on Wednesday and I've been itching since.


When you first see Slime Wall from across Great Gully it really knocks you for six, you don't get the sense of scale from below despite the intimidating sweep of steep, clean rock towering over you. We'd come to do Bludger's Revelation , a route that we had walked in for the previous summer only to find it occupied, which led an interesting day on Raven's Gully , fully living up to its billing as 'a route for connisseur of Scottish gully climbing'. Highly reccomended if you want a good giggle. The Wall was fairly dry, a wee wet patch at the start of Bludger's you could easily bridge around, the crux of Shibboleth looked damp, but in three visits I've only seen it dry in winter during a failed attempt on Raven's.

The climbiing on Bludger's is simply brilliant, beginning with a fairly sustained groove on the first pitch which is probably the technical crux but a stitch up, then the bold link pitch - a brilliant piece of route finding by Jimmy Marshall and finally the breathtakingly exposed flake pitch. Undercutting the flake must be one of the great positions in Scottish climbing, certainly at HVS. The hundreds of feet of feet of air lapping at your feet as you move up the flake on the most positive of foot and handholds is more than exhilarating and elicited a genuine whoop of joy from a mouth more used to muttering nervous profanties. There can't be many better at the grade in the UK and its probably gone it at number two in my personal list, edging in front of Centurion but marginally behind Moonraker at Berry Head. A cracking day out, only slightly marred by getting a soaking on the walk out.



On another positive note I'm hopefully getting a new car in the next week or so, so I can play at being the lift-fuhrer once again...

Beginnings...

I got the idea to start this blog on a Sunday afternoon after reading other climbers (inspiring) blogs about Scottish climbing. At the time I was supposed to be reading an article about 7th Century Sicilian Saints (in French), when I'd rather have been outside... My procastinatory research led me to the conclusion that most climbing blogs are written by cranking supermen capable of cruising 8b/E7/IX. As a result I'd thought I'd share my flailings with you, so that you can laugh at my ineptitude, hopefully enjoy tales of my climbing adventures (epics?) and possibly get a wee bit of inspiration. (I Hope that didn't sound too pretentious)

You may have noticed that this blog is entitled Seasonal Affected Disorder, this is because I'm primarily a winter monkey and get very excited when I see ice/rime/blobs of frozen turf, when it all melts away I get a bit sad until the frosts start again in the autumn. That isn't to say I don't enjoy rock climbing, I do, especially long mountain routes, dank gullies, bridging corners, squirmy chimneys and slabs. However, being weak and possessing the finger strength of an eight year old girl (whom I'm probably doing a disservice to), I don't really like anything steep, fingery or burly.

As well as doing a bit of climbing I also like to play records, mainly techno and the more minimal side of house so I decided to include a recent mix for download. It starts off with a Henrik Schwarz remix (who can do no wrong at the moment) and then goes a bit deep and detroity before picking up at the end with the ace Carl Craig remix of X-Press2's Kill 100 and the brutal When the Fever Breaks by Abe Duque. Enjoy...
(scroll down and the download function is at the bottom left)



At the moment I'm writng this in the library when the memories of last weekend seem pretty distant, Chad, Humble and I went on a speculative trip to Assynt (missing out on the 'best weekend of partying™' according to Viv) and came up trumps. Things looked a bit grim when we rocked up at the Stoer lighthouse and hail rocked the car as we listened to the cricket. I was rather enjoying the meliffluous tones of Blowers and the thought of settling down for the rest of the day seemed quite attractive, but it stopped raining and the sun then shone for the rest of the weekend. After the the invigorating swim to the Old Man, we climbed the E1 Diamond Face Route, which takes a crack on the South face before swinging onto the landward one and crossing a roof, finishing with some exposed face climbing and a fine corner. I didn't win many style points, backing off my pitch and then shamelessly stepping in slings to overcome the roof whilst seconding. Oh Well. The atmospheric ab completed the adventure.

After being chased out of Lochinver by a drunken, pyschotic paratrooper the night before, Sunday was spent at the Seal Song area at Reiff, warm in the sun but baltic in the wind. I kept up my recent rich vein of success by failing on Diamond Back which everyone agreed was a complete sandbag at HVS 5a. Humble bagged possibly the worlds softest E1 Street Surfer and Chad successfully tussled with the steep E4 Modern Thinking (above). Despite the sun, the weather was unseasonably cold, the hills from the Fannichs south had a reasonable dusting of new snow above 800m and the car thermometer read one degree at Drumochter on the way home, a bit parky for the end of May.