Posts

Showing posts from 2011

Boulder Britain - a bolder guide

You know those people who push peanuts up a hill with their nose? Or Sisyphus rolling his rock? Such is the magnitude of the task and the strain on sanity which Niall Grimes was prepared to shoulder millenia ago, it seems, when the idea of a 'British Bouldering Guide' was a cute little puppy of a concept. Of course, it grew into a slavering beast of a project. And this colourful beast - the first and only bouldering guide to Britain (all 488 pages) - is now amongst us, like a bright new boulder that just materialised at your favourite venue. The book is, to quote a word Grimer likes, 'stunning'. Stunning rocks, stunning photos, landscapes to drool over, evening sunlight hitting rock... I could meander amongst its pages for hours, which is precisely what I did, throwing mental shapes and moves over all those lovely boulders. Scotland is given a page or two per major venue, and this whistle-stop approach is general throughout the book. It is a mammoth t

Angus Glens bouldering

I think the Angus Glens (Doll and Clova etc) have got some terrific potential beyond the Red Craigs if you get a good breezy summer day and fancy a walk with the mat... which is obviously what these adventurous lads at  Collective Productions have done. The teaser trailer has some terrific looking rock. I especially like 'Vanguard'. Bring on the full film!

Stone Country 'Bouldering in Scotland' news

Image
I've been meaning to build a website of Scottish bouldering for ages, but it's a hell of a job and Scottish Climbs has a lot of stuff anyway and many people have their own blogs and sites which prove useful for the wandering boulderer in Scotland. Nevertheless, I've opened a Google Bouldering in Scotland site where I'm putting draft topos and updates for the forthcoming updated editions of the Bouldering in Scotland printed guides. As time goes by, I'll add more videos, topos, maps and photos to complement the print guides. We're looking for area authors for the three new guides: Central & South/Central Highlands/Northwest Highlands, so please get in touch if you want to feature your hard-earned expertise on the blocs - there are a lot of folk who have put so much time and effort into their bouldering and Stone Country is a community publishing press! Each area will be based on an accessible 'day-run' radius, including the islands closest to

Mapping the forest, or mapping the mind?

Image
In that Empire, the craft of cartography attained such perfection that the map of a single province covered the space of an entire city, and the map of the empire itself an entire province. In the course of time, these extensive maps were found somehow wanting, and so the College of Cartographers evolved a map of the empire that was of the same scale as the empire and that coincided with it point for point. Less attentive to the study of cartography, succeeding generations came to judge a map of such magnitude cumbersome, and, not without irreverence, they abandoned it to the rigours of sun and rain. In the western deserts, tattered fragments of the map are still to be found, sheltering an occasional beast or beggar; in the whole nation, no other relic is left of the discipline of Geography. Jorge Luis Borges, "Of Exactitude in Science" from A Universal History of Infamy (Penguin 1984 p.131) All maps are illusions, tricks of the mind, elaborate tapestrie

Italian Lakes interlude

Image
A week of late autumn sunshine and soft alpine breezes made for a perfect walking trip, plus some stunning rock architecture curtain-walling the many well-marked paths of the Italian trail network. Lierna is a superb base for exploring Lake Como and the foothills of the Sondrio alps, underneath the high ridges of the Grigna and the Legnone. The high treeline allows shaded walks to about 1500m, I tripped over myself several times as 300m faces of rock reared through the gaps in the oak and beech. It was also a trip to unwind, watch sunsets with a beer or two and swan about the jigsaw harbour villages of Varenna, Bellagio, Menaggio. I even thought I might catch a glimpse of George Clooney on his Vespa - 'Ciao, George!' - but his name was banned on the holiday, just referred to as Voldemort...   Lake Como is a leggy lake with two branches reaching down to old Etruscan/Roman towns of Lecco and Como, the hidden bays more accessible by boat than land, usually punctuated

Chasing the right weather . . .

Image
Not as odd a concept as you may think . . . with the amount of forecasting sites available on the web, 'chasing the weather' has become a black art. All of us who love the outdoors have different priorities when it comes to weather: rock climbers, winter mountaineers, canoeists, surfers, walkers, paragliders. However, we all have one thing in common: the perfect forecast! For a surfer, this may be a settled period after a storm, with huge swells and little wind. For walkers and climbers, it is the eternal hunt for the 'blue day', usually a high pressure forecast with light winds and dry conditions underfoot. For canoeists, rain-swollen, low pressure systems whet the appetite, as the rivers boil into bursting arteries of peaty water. For paragliders, only the stillest, 'thermal' days will do. Many old-timers will smell it in the wind, or have developed an instinct for it, such as 'mixed' winter mountaineers. This rare breed of snow-scrapers seek o

Craigmore Crag

Image
A few dedicated Craigmore 'believers' have been busy tidying up the bouldering for this crag (as well as the litter and the last of the chanterelles!). Stone Country is working on the new guide for Southern Scotland (Stone Country Bouldering in Scotland Volume 1), which will mean a lot of problem checking, grade arguments and very sore skin if my tendons and back hold out long enough - otherwise I'll need an army of guinea pigs. Craigmore comes into magical conditions only occasionally, autumn dry spells being my favourite. Before the rain swept in today, I had a fresh, leaf-whispering morning on Jamie's Overhang repeating all the variations (apart from 'Surprise Attack', which I've done once and doubt I'll get done again for a while!). Look at the disdain here as I kick away my own boulder mat on the excellent wee Font 6c dyno 'The Art of War':

The Climbing Academy -new bouldering centre for Glasgow

Image
It was kind of Rob Sutton, operations manager, to show me round the nearly complete 'Climbing Academy' bouldering centre at the old News International warehouses in Portman Street , Glasgow (just below the M8 flyovers on the south exit of the Kingston bridge, off Paisley Road West). These premises are huge - thousands upon thousands of square feet of wood-panelled walls, at all angles, stretching down long corridors, circling into hidden spaces and tunnels. It is destined to become Scotland's largest and most ambitious bouldering centre and will bring bouldering to the masses as much as to the dedicated but jaded Scottish boulderer! Based on the popular 'TCA' (' T he C limbing A cademy') in Bristol , I was impressed as much with the holistic and rounded philosophy for development of bouldering as a mainstream health and fitness activity (both mental and physical!), as with the plans for a dedicated, world-class training centre and internationa

Powmill Blocs

Image
Powmill Blocs , a set on Flickr. I'd appreciate any topos, grades, problems, names etc of the bouldering at Powmill that hasn't appeared on UKC for the A-Z of Scottish bouldering. Fine little venue for a dry sunny day in Autumn. I almost felt I was in a small corner of Font...

Reiff & Cnoc Breac

Image
Reiff & Cnoc Breac , a set on Flickr. The last of the summer? What a scorcher at Reiff. Cnoc Breac was pretty good as well as a bouldering venue.