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Showing posts from 2009

New Applecross Classic

Richie Betts wandered further up Coire nan Arr in the recent fine high pressure weather and discovered another fantastic bloc by the lochshore with a stunning central wall line to give us what looks like Scotland's version of Rubis sur l'Ongles . The boulder is at NG 807 418 in Coire nan Arr. The problem is: The Universal Font 7b.

Glen Lednock Bloc Guide

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Kevin Howett has updated his Glen Lednock guide and we've done a new PDF 16 page booklet at Stone Country. The guide includes around 100 problems at this picturesque venue in Perthshire. Stacks of good circuit problems, perfect for the kids, plus some testpieces up to 7b for the strong. A superb little venue, it's perfect on a fine winter's day. The rock is an excellent rough schist and the problems are enjoyably technical. You can download the guide for a nominal £3.50 via Paypal below.

New Dumbarton Website

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The most excellent new Dumbarton website has gone live, featuring the bouldering at Dumby. Created by Jonathan Bean, it has some terrific images and very clear topo photos. The site can be accessed here , see what you think... I think it's a long overdue addition to the climbing scene in Scotland.

Shetland Bouldering

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Paul Whitworth has started up a new blog following his exploration of Shetland Bouldering . New bouldering has been found just south of Lerwick on the Ness of Sound and it looks impressive. Paul informs me that they are currently working to compete a full climbing guide for Shetland by the end of 2010. The blog will be regularly updated to showcase Shetland's hidden gems.

Indian Johnny Dawes

Johhny Dawes' Indian clone... static stickmen will be appalled. Guy Robertson sent me this, saying he has given it all up to go hillwalking. I think I will do the same, with my flask of soup and red socks.

Dumbarton Rock A History

As a lot of climbers have been kept away from the Rock by these incessant westerly rain fronts, I thought some might be interested in reading a little about the History of Dumbarton Rock while it wallows in drippy green misery. I've been working on a climbing history to the Rock but this will be included in the new Clyde & Argyll guide soon. This is what happened at Dumby before we slipped our rock boots on...

Four Fontainebleau Problems

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What is it about the magic 'a' grade at Font (6a, 7a and the even more magical 8a!). I guess these arbitrary grades are 'designed' by accident a bit like evolution's blind wathcmaker. They seem to be natural benchmarks of physical and conceptual progression in the forest, where restriction and history are finally broken, where something truly remarkable emerges. They always seem to have an 'edge' on problems beside them on the same scale and the true 'a' problems have an independent feel about them, as though jealous to retain their reputation from the others. Climbing them you feel they possess a hidden inbuilt code like the golden ratio, or at least a few extra digits of Pi! This could all be said about any grade, especially the new 'highest' grade, but in Fontainebleau, the feel of the 'a' problems is unique. They are a step above anything before and are worth seeking out if you are operating in the grade range. La Marie Rose 6a -

Fontainebleau and Rain Wisdom

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Le Parisien newspaper is not worth the 95 centimes to a poor French speaker. I can do the Sudoku and check the footie scores, but the rest is obscure political blabber, car accidents and endless TV sur-reality. Apart from Le Meteo ... to the visiting boulderer the weather page is the fount of all frustration or elation. Sitting in Bar Bacchus in Milly la Foret, as the rain runs off the Halles and bounces on the cobbled streets, squeezing the life out of a 3 Euro glass of Heineken, the Meteo page is studied forensically. The symbols are crucial to the case as the cryptic French style of weather reporting is more like a red-top Horoscope: 'your umbrellas will be at Granny's, a courageous cloud will follow you' Spot the squirrel... The next three days are checked for the best conditions and great debates ensue as to the surest strategy. The heavy cloud and rain symbol means a rest day or exploration, or recovering from a beer and wine tasting. A sun symbol means get out

Craigmore Bouldering

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Having been beavering away at autumn projects at Craigmore, we thought we'd produce a guide to the bouldering here which will be available soon, but I was shocked at the amount of problems which have vanished under the moss. Have a look at the two pictures below, the first is of Cammy Bell on Leech Direct, a photo which famously graced the 90's edition of the SMC's Lowland Outcrops, while the second is the same wall today... Cammy Bell on Leech Direct in cleaner days... Leech Direct wall today... I've started a mini campaign to clean up some classics here, starting with Wide Eyed Wall. Hopefully by next spring we'll have rersurrected some neglected classics at this magical little venue. Possibly the growth of trees is shading more of the crag and global warming wetness has maybe encouraged the moss. The blocs in the forest are being left well alone as it's environmentally more important than climbing, but some of the classic crag walls could do with some attent

Stone Country New Site

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We are developing the main Stone Country site into a book, film and topo resource centre for outdoor activities in Scotland & Europe, with new Topos, DVD's and Books for sale in the shop. We are also keen for articles or topos on climbing or bouldering in Europe, so please send anything you'd like published to the edtior John Watson . We can design, price and host your pdf guidebooks, ebooks or articles on our site, so don't hesitate to send us any of those old topos you worked on years ago and we'll give them a facelift. Recent new features are: Glen Lednock, Cowal & Arrochar Blocsport, Monkey See Monkey Do DVD and lots more...

Ben Nevis by Ken Crocket and Simon Richardson

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The new edition of the SMT publication 'Ben Nevis' has been published and it's a real treasure trove for the Scottish climber! Ken Crocket has done a great job of updating his sections from the older edition and Simon Richardson has added an inspiring and knowledgeable section on modern winter development. The production levels of the book are tremendous, with full colour photography and illustrations on every page. It's the absolute bible on our biggest mountain and weighs in at a hefty but soild hardback of 416 pages. The book delves deep into the details of misty history and introduces us to an almost-lost character list of rum characters who have climbed on this mountain over the years. Early travellers and mappers are given due introduction and the early Raeburn years are given due credit for their technique and boldness. The book is divided into chapters just like the 'eras' of devlopment on the mountain: the Ben seems to go through fashions and modes li

Review of Monkey See Monkey Do

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Each autumn brings two seasonal imperatives: Autumnwatch and the new Hotaches film. Unlike Autumnwatch, Hotaches give us adventures without wings. The art of a good climbing film, especially in this saturated media age, is to tell a good story. Any film-maker should keep this truism close to heart and Hotaches don't disappoint: the 2009 film 'Monkey See Monkey Do' is a collection of fantastic climbing tales, focusing closely on character and motivation. Every shot is saturated with the emotion of the climber, committed to telling the inner story as much as the wobbling, sickening 'real' world of the climbing. Some sequences in this film had me frozen in disbelief, particularly in the highlight of the four films: Single Handed . The first film is entitled Slate Monkeys and follows three very different climbers to the slate quarries of Wales. Matt Segal, Hazel Findlay and Johnny Dawes attack a classic slate route with a heady mixture of youth, canniness, experience

Glen Lednock Blocs

A fine collection of rough boulders under the dam at the top of Glen Lednock, this bouldering venue was developed by Kev Howett and friends in 2003. We'll be updating theStone Country site soon with a collection of topos, Kev has kindly donated a guide to the bouldering here. Here are some of the best problems Lednock, and a wee vid of what you can expect. Ambience: picnic with the family Rock: compact schist – rough as gabbro Season: spring and autumn, exposed Gear: mats, wire brushes, skin cream Grades: good easy blocs for kids, testpieces 6a to 7b GR: NN 727 286 Approach: From the A9 Perth-Stirling road, take the exit signed to Braco along the A822. Just after Braco, take a left onto the B827 signed to Comrie. Once in Comrie turn left at a T-Junction after the river. Drive round a sharp bend and at the next bend turn right uphill into the forest. Continue to open country and into Glen Lednock proper. Drive to the Invergeldie farm steadings and head uphill

Down Tools Old Men

Much as I was impressed by the news that Stevie Haston had creatined himself stupid to climb 9a over 50, the future belongs to kids like this... surely the limit for him is just how long and thin they can make ropes: 200m silk/carbon rope pitches of Font 8b cruxes - what would that be? Bring it on I say. An impressive piece of climbing: Enzo.Chocholoco by oddofrederic

Ben Macdui

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I'd never been to the top of Ben Macdui, shame on me, but once on the Cairngorm plateau it really doesn't look like a mountain top, more of a bowl of piled gravel so I'd never got beyond the Ben Avon basin. This remote paradise is far more spectacular and alpine in its dramatic sweep of rock and water than the plateau, so it tends to suck the climber downhill amongst the waterfalled crags into the heart of its monolithic geology. The weather was settled with high pressure stamping out any hint of summit winds, so I took the excellent path up into Sneachda by the bubbling burn and over the goat track down into Shelterstone. Adrian Crofton and Graham Tyldsley were steadily inching their way up Cupid's Bow, so I took a break to boulder around the blocs, chased by unusually potent midges. I was lured into the big gully to the left of Sheltertstone by the bubbling sound of two Ring Ouzels boulder hopping. I'd never seen these birds before, though I knew this rocky talus

Bonanza Time

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It's not often you find your dinner ready prepared while bouldering. On a perfect autumn morning I visited a local venue to catch some cool bouldering conditions and went mushroom hunting nearby. I came back to my boulder mat with a bag full of dinner: chanterelles may replace broccoli as the weapon of choice for the Glasgow boulderer. I picked the biggest and ate them all, sorry, they were just too good! Oh, and the bouldering is coming into good nick across the country. Unclipping mats, squeaking boots, chalk rubbings, brushings, attending to faded sequence memory - the rubric of bouldering begins in earnest! May this high pressure last for months, God knows we deserve it... Here's a vid of the classic Jamie's Overhang sit start called 'The Art of War' 6c+ at Craigmore. I also took the opportunity to turf in the big holes someone had dug in the belief they could move the prop boulders. You can't, and the ground is back to nice and flat - I lost a few pounds w

Achray Blocs

At last the sunshine is here and those crisp autumnal mornings are back. I drove over the Dukes Pass in a kind of hysteria, like a prison break lost by the hounds. Having been camped indoors for a month I was a little giddy with the sudden fine weather and the prospect of some dry rock. A reliable roadside venue can be found on the Achray Blocs below the overgrown crag beside Loch Achray. Though limited, the main bloc has some fine movement and always seems to be dry, hunkering as it does under giant beech trees. Red squirrels bounced around like rusty springs as I set up the paraphernalia: tarp, mat, chalk bag, rags and brushes. The holds were attended to, some moves rehearsed for warm-ups. Clapping chalk into the autumn air in this little rocky amphitheatre, I felt energised enough to climb the main arete - a superb sequence from the sitting start. Energy is vital to bouldering and I always feel the atmosphere, the 'spirit' of the landscape and your inner buzz (without being

New Guide to Arrochar and Cowal

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The new Blocsport Guide to Arrochar and Cowal is now available as a 16 page full colour PDF download for only 3.50. It is a guide to the best bouldering and sport climbing between Arrochar and the Cowal peninsula. It is a precursor chapter to the new area guides from Stone Country, so if you purchase a copy of the PDF please let us know if there are additions or inaccuracies and we'll correct for the print issues. Also, we are seeking photographs for the new print guides, so if you have any good sample jpegs send them through and we'll consider for inclusion (free guide if you are included). The contents list goes as follows: 1. Ardvorlich Sports Crags including Hidden Walls & Quarterdome 2. Loch Sloy Blocs 3. The Narnain Boulders 4. Glen Croe Blocs 5. Kennedy Boulder 6. Coilessan Blocs and projects 7. Glen Kinglas , the Restil boulders and the Butterbridge Bloc 8. The Anvil Sport Climbs!! 9. Tighnabruaich Sport Climbs at the Viewpoint crags 10. Glen Massan House Bloc and

Ruthven Boulder News

Well done to Mike Lee for finally solving the big roof of the Ruthven boulder and its horrific slopers. Mike was filmed by Richie Betts completing the problem, at a grade of 7c, the hardest straight-up on the boulder to date. It takes the roof through the flake to the sloping top-out just left of Barry Manilow. He called it QED... and he demonstrates it so...

Summer Blues

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I'd rather be here.. The west coast has bombed spectacularly into boiling humidity and endless depressive rain fronts, I think I've managed out twice in August and have done nothing but stare at climbing through the internet, maybe it's time to get a trip organised to somewhere next summer! Anyway, to get inspired I surfed around a few sites for new guidebooks produced by computer bound publishers like myself. Here are a few I thought were inspiring. Click on the links to have a look or buy the guides and support your sport... Lofoten by Rockfax - award winning guidebook to a fantastic set of islands off the coast of Norway. Ailefroide by Team Les Collets. Bouldering in one of the finest areas of the Alps. brilliant trad and sport as well. Sardinia One of the best sport islands in Europe with mountains, spires, beach sport and granite bouldering. Love the place. Sardinia Granite... and sunshine! Tenerife Climbing - great sport climbing, spires of rock and fab boulderin

Unsponsored Heroes - Craig Parnaby

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You never know who your heroes are going to be in the climbing world. They end up being people entirely different from the abstracted heroes you started with in the climbing mags - the ones photographed doing crazy solos and hand-stands against the cliff faces. If you are lucky enough, they are people you climb with for a few years. They often disappear from the climbing world into real life and don't come back, which only makes their legend stronger. For me, Craig Parnaby was one of these vanishing legends. Craig was inimitable and his ability on rock was terrifying. I first met him at the Bowderstone in the early 90's, a 'beginner' doing laps on the classic 6a crack. He was a youth from Coniston in the Lakes, with Gecko hands and lithe forearms, reminding me instantly of Ron Fawcett's build - you could just tell he had the genetics. Even as a beginner he moved on the rock like a bent bow, always tensioned, never loose and arse-out-the-window like the rest of us. H

Ardmair Classics

A flying visit to Ardmair in between the rain, forgot how much fun this roof is!

Rob's Reed

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High Voltage 6b+ I must admit, I'm impressed with this crag. I usually hate pebble pulling, I find it as secure as climbing on a stack of giant Minstrels. However, this crag has enough good sandstone flag mixed in with the pebbles, and enough varied angles from roofs to walls, to provide some of the best short sport climbs in Scotland. Around 50 routes provide all sorts of entertaining moves from butch pocket pulling to delicate balance moves. The climbing is still blind and hard to onsight, but if you dog the generous bolts, tick the holds with chalk (take a stick of blackboard chalk), the grades become understandable! Of course, full marks for any onsight... I spent most of my time on 6c's brushing around on high like Rolf Harris - 'can you tell what it is yit?' The outlook is superb, a pleasant grass runway underneath the routes, and some little stone plinth seats for lunch or contemplating your blasted forearms. The lack of midges and shading trees make it an ideal

Shelterstone Bouldering Circuit

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Some folk have asked about the bouldering around the Shelterstone blocs. This is really a fine venue if an absolute trek with a boulder mat. A few years ago I was researching this for the guidebook and walked in with a boulder mat, full trad kit, tent etc - the full kit bhoona - on the promise of some friends joining me on the weekend for some trad action. Saturday morning came and went and no sign of climbers, so I bouldered around a bit and dug out a nice circuit of problems on the blocs. By Sunday no-one had arrived so I packed up and hauled out, the way back took about 4 hours with all the kit. What was worse was that by the time of printing the guide I had accidentally left out the Shelterstone page (along with Richie's Scatwell topo). Still, I was pretty leg fit for ages after... calves like flower vases. So to redress the oversight, here's the basic topo. Lots of testpiece aretes and walls aside from this, but if you can carry a Dropzone in you'll probably just end

Armchair Sheigra

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One of my favourite places on the planet for climbing, boulder hunting and being... the gneiss territory around the road from Rhiconich to Sheigra and the territory beyond. I noticed recently that Google maps have upped their resolution for this area amongst others and it's great fun exploring steep shadows with an eagle's-eye view... I've put a Google map together of the best places to boulder here I know of so far, plerase email me if you know of any others nearby. Thanks to Chris Fryer for the prompt and photo... a visit is called for soon! Just click the pin on the map and 'Zoom Here' command... View Sheigra Area Bouldering in a larger map

Clochodrick Traverse Video

Stewart Brown demonstrating the moves and method of this traverse. Using the sloper eliminate problem at the end will make it a good Font 7b+ (F8a in sport money)... Clochodrick Traverse from Stewart Brown on Vimeo .

New Bouldering Film 'Crux' at Dundee

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News from Simon Fildes on their new film 'Crux' - go see it at the Beautiful Game exhibition if you're passing through Dundee - in the Hannah McClure Centre. The Beautiful Game Hannah Maclure Centre 3 August – 30 October 2009 Opening reception 31 July 6pm – 9pm Simon Fildes and Katrina McPherson The exhibition The Beautiful Game will seek to explore the relational aesthetics of sport, athletics, art and game play, along with its theory and psychology, mark making and movement, modes of athletic performance, temporal and spatial dissonance. By employing a wide variety of artistic practice The Beautiful Game brings sports into a visual arts context exposing the active aesthetic. Hannah Maclure Centre University of Abertay Dundee Top Floor Student Centre 1 - 3 Bell Street Dundee, DD1 1HP

Clochodrick Traverse

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The mystery that is the Clochodrick Stone has always been actually finding it! Driving around the fields of Renfrewshire aimlessly is a prerequisite frustration. Eventually you stumble on this occasionally-glimpsed stone, nestling in the corner of a field much like a sad burst football. I still get lost, despite having visited every year for the last decade! View Clochodrick Stone in a larger map There is not too much to get excited about, but the straight-up problems are all fun from sit starts and perhaps the greatest mystery is the nature of the mythical 'Traverse'. I had heard Paul Laughlan used this stone for training before doing the Tunnel Wall routes, so I'm sure he worked out this traverse and used it as training. It goes about F7c, though nothing more technical than Font 7a. Stewart Brown repeated the traverse for the camera, which we'll upload soon and will illustrate the best method. Basically sit start the south arete and turn the bulge and continue as lo

Dumbarton Bloc Sport Guide

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The new edition of the Dumbarton Bloc/Sport guide is now available for download through www.boulderscotland.com >>> It's an updated edition which is now 16 pages and includes Sport Climbing routes as well as complete bouldering and recent new problems. I've corrected some mistakes and rejigged the look and feel of the guide so it is more information- rich with lots more photo-topos to help unlock the problems and routes! This will form part of the Clyde Valley Blocsport guide but it is a useful document to have on its own with over 200 problems and routes described. To buy a copy, click on the Buy Now button through Paypal and follow the simple download instructions. If you recently bought the first edition of the guide, I'm happy to issue a 2.50 refund (so you get the new guide for only £1) - just include an email stating your name in the Paypal process and I can check through my records and make a refund! Open publication - Free publishing - More sport climb

Clyde Bloc Sport

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Cammy Bell enjoying the summer evenings at Dunglass Currently we are developing the Stone Country Bloc Sport website to include a new series of area guides in pdf format, reworking Dumby and other Glasgow-radius crags with sport climbing included (so we'll have the new sports crags at Lomond and elsewhere...details to come!). These topos will also be available from the exciting new Betaguides website (due to launch in the next month or so - a complete database of bouldering in Britain). For the new Bloc Sport webiste I've been embroiled in all things Joomla, which is frying my head, so can't promise anything too soon, so I'll put the topos up on the blog as soon as we get them. Here's an example topo from the guides, which we will be producing in guidebook format next year - it's the Dunglass sport wall: Dunglass has been a saviour for me over the early summer, acting as a good training ground to get some basic fitness back. We have fully bolted the West W