Bouldering in the County

Best weather of the year so far, so I skived uni and me and Keith headed down to Rothley, Northumberland (in our new car) for some summery bouldering on the rough grit.

We LOVE the new car. Putting the 2 boulder pads in the boot this morning after 5 years of having to put a back seat down in my old peugeot was the best feeling ever! Lots of money well spent. Could have fitted at least another 3 in there before even having to move the seats :D Keith having never ventured outdoors for bouldering before meeting me wasn't as excited, but hey ho, he's a weird bumbley trad climber.

ohh yeaaah. 

So anyways, Rothley is a weird crag. The grit is super sharp, unlike when we were down in the peak last year, but I guess we did just climb classics that were probably rather polished. We hardly had any skin left after warming up. Most of the problems we did consisted of not much but slopers, which was good as I'm crap on slopers and I suppose it needs worked on.

We stopped for lunch after the first 3 climbs (obviously as we're lazy bumbleys) and ended up lying in the sun for a good half hour :) I have tan lines, but sadly Keith is still albino.

Everything we climbed we flashed, didnt really work anything, skin wouldnt have been able to take it anyway. Did 5-6 font 6b's, a few 6a's and a 7a that felt pretty soft for the grade. The guidebook didn't mention a sit start so we initially jumped on and it felt like a 6a at a push. The sit start is definately what makes it more like the grade, but is a one move wonder - just my style at the moment as I have no endurance what so ever.

Here are some photos :)

Pocket's Wall font 6a

Keith on the mantely top out of Pocket's Wall

Cranking hard on Reclaimed font 7a, going for the jug

Hanging Arete font 6a

Hanging Arete, font 6a

Awkwardness on the low level traverse, Locomotive Breath, font 6b

Keith about to finish up on Locomotive Breath

Pretty tower ruins

 

Slopetastic!

Sloper Traverse, font 6b

Janey and Keith

A day of whiteout in the Southern Cairngorms

Today we had originally planned a hill walking day in Glenshee, consisting of 6 munros. The weather wasn't looking great, but didn't look bad either. However, when we arrived at the car park we were greeted with 15metres of visability and heavy rain.

Not long after beginning the ascent of the first munro of the day - Creag Leacach - the rain turned to sleet followed by snow, and the visability got worse. The rest of the day from here consisted of constant nav in whiteout, snow, hail and wind, with a maximum of 20metres of vis. Lovely!

scree slopes on Creag Leacach

My amazing nav skills led us straight to the summit of Creag Leacach up its north western scree slopes where it was super windy. The photo below is not blurred, that is the wind and driving snow!

A pregnant Keith at the first summit!

I then led us over to Glas Moal, over a pretty much featureless plateau which was rather interesting in todays conditions!

After sheltering as best we could at the cairn on the summit of Glas Moal and refueling with some sandwiches, we decided to ditch the next 4 hills as everything was taking much longer than anticipated and the wind was getting worse. I was also freezing as it was around minus 12 with wind chill today, and had to get my emergency mittens and hand warmers out due to my gloves being soaked right through. Keith then took over navigating and we worked our way back down to the road where a 4-5km walk awaited.

more whiteout

Once we reached the final few hundred metres of descent something magical happened....visibility! Here is a very bare looking Glenshee ski slope for this time of year:

ski slopes

The day then suddenly turned around the nearer to the road we got; we were faced with clearer skies and lovely views :)

finally some nice weather...infact it was still raining

As usual after the descent my knee was throbbing, so Keith sped off up the road whilst I limped behind with the intention of meeting him at the ski centre to avoid me walking down the steep part of the road. I made it to the ski centre and sat down on a bench, and 3minutes later Keith appeared in the car. Turns out Mr Lazy had hitched a lift from some guy who he refers to as a 'Legend'. I'm glad though as it saved sitting in the cold for 45minutes waiting for him to walk the 3k down the road.

We headed home, had a shower and sorted the gear out, then went over to pick up polar pup from her babysitters. It seems she has made herself right at home there today, and was even taken to pets at home to choose her new bed. So so spoilt. Its so comfy that she was very reluctant to get up to come home with us! She won't be looking forward to sleeping in her old bed at home tonight thats for sure.

A super comfy doggy woggy!

Janey and Keith

Munro Bagging in Glen Clova

We had originally planned to do Aonach Eagach ridge yesterday but after looking at the weather forecast we decided to head east to the southern cairngorms for some gentle hill walking.. It was much brighter and slightly less windy on the east, and since I have a really sore knee at the moment we thought an easier day was in order.

As we didnt decide what we were doing until around 0030 on wednesday morning we ended up not having as much sleep as we would have liked, but anyway, we left ratho around 7.30am and headed up to Glen Clova.

Shortly after leaving the car park Keith decided he was going to test my map reading skills asking me what hill was what. I told him and as usual there were arguments as he thought I was wrong. Taking bearings and physically showing him on the map eventually led to him realising I was right which he couldn't admit until over an hour later! Poor Debbie had to put up with a proper domestic...don't ever go walking with a couple... or climbing... or do anything with them for that matter. I must say the boy is lucky he didnt have his eye taken out with my walking pole! (it was quite literally a close call....oopsies)

Me and Debs plodding up the easy start

After the inital hour of disagreements though the day was fairly pleasant. We decided to veer off the path and take a direct approach up the side of the Scorrie and then wandered on up to the summit of Driesh (947m) - the first munro of the day. We saw heaps of mountain hares and a couple of ptarmigans, but sadly could not get close enough for any good quality photos!

Me on the way up the Scorrie

 Since me and Keithy have turned into Munro baggers for the year we each have our own 'summit pose'. It makes the day much more amusing. Debbie also has a new summit pose, but sadly hers is a little inappropriate for our blog and will be reserved for facebook!

Keith with the 'Keith Scott' pose on the Trig point at the summit of Driesh

 We continued along the ridge on a well trodden path for around 3km over to the second munro we had planned - Mayar (928m). We bumped into several of your typical munro baggers en route, as well as a collie and dalmation. Its a shame our wee westie pal doesnt have long enough legs, as im sure she would love to be out in the hills with us!

We got to the summit of Mayar at 2.30pm; it was pretty windy but the views were awesome.

My summit pose, which seems to describe my love for hill walking rather accurately

We then walked down Kilbo path back to the car. The descent was pretty sore on my knee, so I had to take my time which probably held everyone up by a good 45minutes. Shame I can't just do the uphill twice :(

Me and Debs on the descent

views with the smoke from a fire in the background

A rather unattractive photo of the 3 of us

The day was finished off by a quick shower just to get the sweat off, then straight down to the pub in time for the pub quiz, red vino which it seems I cannot go a day without at the moment, and chips with cheese for dinner. yum! And to top it all off we won the quiz, so now have a grand total in the team kitty of 84pounds. bring on more winnings to fund our summer BBQ :)

It certainly seems summer is almost here! Time for me and Keith to get training to send some hard trad projects this year instead of being our usual bumbly selves.

Oh and I have failed to mention my new boots - La Sportiva trangos. They are amazing, foot gloves, and were broken in properly yesterday. So if anybody wants to buy some scarpa mantas which I am now selling in order to help cover the cost of the new ones let me know :) They're a uk 6.

Janey