Sunday, March 27, 2005
The Tarbet Stanes are up for a better description. Heres the reasons for the names. I've got John & Sandra to thank for this. We had a great a conversation over a few beers in Glasgow about why we dress our boulders or newly climbed lines in the names we do. So many of the Scottish players have moved through Tarbet, journeying to Traigh na Berigh or The Butt, & sat in Tarbet bars waiting to travel. These stanes are an old local secret. Things change, it's time to let them run free. Enjoy.
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Holly-Would, V4: My pals daughter was in Tarbet one afternoon & decided she could do this arete. Aye ok, who am I to argue, she's 9 with a 90yr old head. We yomped up the field together while her father took a fishermans discussion [he's a man for all seasons]. I'd never really looked at the line but since she'd climbed the field with me & decided it was her route, I spotted her. She cranked hardcore, her enthusiasm, second to nothing. 20 minutes passed &, with her permission, I dutifully pulled on & climbed it. She was shrieking when it went, & dancing in circles. We danced together back into the village [& kicked a sheep]. She is Little Miss Hollywood, she loves her brightly coloured plastic bling & is convinced she will be a film star & a shepherd at the same time. How she will do both is beyond me, but that's a childs right, to dream beyond the confines of time & practical equations. For all her girly free island glamour, her flowered dress, leggings & boots, could she do the arete? Not quite...but Holly-Would...& needless to say, Holly will one day.
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God Loves a Heathen, V10-11. The twin cracks of Finore, V9 foreground.
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Finore, V9: It's an Irish thing. Look up Moving Hearts, The Storm on Google. Although, there's a colourful depth to it, such is Gaelic waffle. An féidir leat Béarla a labhairt?
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God Loves A Heathen, V10-11: Politics & Religion. When we boulder in free movement right next to an old institution of faith there is a question. Does god love me cause I'm on the hillside climbing, or dislike me cause I walked passed a place of worship to my own alter. Do I care? I have many reasons for this name, being somewhat agnostic & unable to suffer the wars that religion believes it heals. Paranoiac, self-indulgent religious beliefs have seperated humanity in the bigger picture more than it has brought races together. I think if God was the white bearded man we all grew up imagining, he'd be sitting on top of the boulder in the sunlight, laughing while we climb, not hiding in the dimly lit dust of an aging decadent pebble-dashed worship hall. Climbing is a seperate issue - breath out. The haven of God isn't judged in pebble-dash or glamour. These stones are my church, my Nirvana & sometimes, my Sunyata. This is where I kneel, like you. If this makes me a heathen, or any man beside me, so be it.
'What you making there God?' [he's on top of the boulder like.]
'Ummm..just a couple of stars, pretty ain't they..'
'Aye, not bad God, not bad at all.........wierdo.'
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Make Hay While The Sun Shines.
Make Hay While The Sun Shines, V11: When you stand on these boulders & scan your surroundings the phrase & it's wisdom, becomes self explanitory. The deep mountain grass, the sunlight, the gray thunderous fractured mountains reminiscent of Connemara, the loch stretching out to the Uists & Skye, there's a slight wind, a scent of life within the wheel, Herring Gulls gliding on mistral updrafts, occasional laughter echoing out of the village, fishing boats groaning back across The Minch to harbour, Listers on full thump & throttle. Why wouldn't you make hay while the sun shines..This life isn't a rehersal. Forget bills, numbers, petrol costs & just climb, let your head spin, kick the soul, be kind to those around you, fart in the faces of those who are not kind to you, & pull down hard as you can, until the planet starts to bend.
Friend what is it that you seek. What is it that you try to find. Someday I hope you realize, It shined in you all the time. Hills to climb, sights to see, seas to cross, friends to make, hands to shake, the world is yours. Foods to taste, sounds to hear, love to feel, Seeds to sew, things to know, fish to reel, space to quiz, stones to lift, life's a gift. What d'ya mean, I want more...
- Maxi Jazz 2004-
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Kingdom Come, V4: It's a most bodacious lick by World Party & Karl Wallinger on the Bang! album. When you hear it you should be dancing like a loony in the field. If you're not...you should possibly seek help. Or maybe I should..
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Innse Gall, V2: Here's the full name: Fàilte gu Feis Cheilteach Innse Gall
The island sea-taxi - The Innse Gall arete
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The 'Dark Heart - Within A Mile Of Home' project: Climb the Heathen then the lower edges of Finore & strike at the black heart beyond & it's surrounding blankness. This is the cold water climb of the stanes. The dog that bites you without provocation, the icy burn & the improbable momement. Thanks to Chubby for driving the Crofters lorry so furiously through Harris & Lewis & for being a star, day to day. How the feck did we get back to Dell that night from Cros? I sat in the ditch like a man with learning difficulties. I sit at the bottom of this line with the same head on. Everytime the sea-taxi pulls in I look onto the hill at these boulders just like the first year they were found. Everytime I leave for Skye on the sunny deck, they wave me off, knowing the Dark Heart remains undefeated. We're always Within A Mile Of Home, a living narrative, slave to our own visions - Feckin qaurtzite..crowns can be knocked off you know..
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And that's the Tarbet Ferry Boulders.
In the immortal words of Holly to some fella crossing back to Skye on the sea-taxi: 'Yeah he's climbed V15 in both countries, he's the best climber in the world'
Eh?
