The weekend was a washout, especially for the Great Climb on the BBC, shame they had no flexibility built in as High Pressure is just round the corner... as a climber in Scotland you always need a wet weather alternative... so on a wet afternoon in Inverurie, I raced up to the Cullen Caves and bouldered away merrily on the dry steep quartzite caves, doing a few lines on St Duane's Den, with a particularly good traverse and a desperate straight-up (Duane's World, Font 7a+). Topos will appear in the forthcoming Stone Country new edition, but suffice to say some hard projects remain... the caves stay dry in torrential rain, but take plenty of chalk as the quartzite can be damp.
Guy Robertson completed his 8a+ (French grade) traverse at Boltsheugh. This is a low-level traverse of the right-hand sports crag and is a real pumper, though you'll need a local to point out the rules...some holds are plain no-no. Good effort, this is no mean feat to link... a bit like Consolidated...nowhere desperate but very long.
Lee Robinson sent me some pics of a fruitful trip to Applecross, Skye and Torridon, with many new problems and venues discovered. The pick of his achievements seem to be a new testpiece at Torridon called Captain Ahab just along from the Ship boulder, as well as a striking arete at Carn Liath he called Cetorhinus Maximus.
If anyone else has some bouldering news, let me know at boulderscotland@googlemail.com