₪ Si M'Cøngaile' ₪

Monday, September 12, 2005

Skyes next Coire Lagan is in the making. The basalt blocs of Carn Liath are superb clean cut & solid megalithic jumbles, currently recieving a lot of attention. There's little doubt this place, although kept low key for a long time, is in the running for Skye's second most important bouldering venue. The arena for rock gladiators lays a few miles directly North of Portree & using a grid ref for Carn Liath itself of NG 495 559 as a directional pointer, the main boulders are piled around the soaring crag base.

With the hopefully imminent arrival of a Watson & a few other cohorts next week, I may even have a spotter or two on my yet to be graded, Unholy Union project. The name kinda stuck becuase of the steep & unforgiving presses that need to be performed as you fight the highball basalt tip slopers skyward from the gloom of an awesome cave line. This union between man & rock is sometimes on the edge of trust, almost as if the line will call you friend but intentionally pull a knife as you look away. There is a great selection of boulder lines going up, in all grades from some top lads & a frenzied mappo being made. As a wee footnote, when you drive towards Rigg, if you reach the pine plantation you've gone to far. Before the long sweep down hill & racey -rh- dip, there is parking on the straight, & that's where you need to leave the tin box & embark on a tab NNW, which gives less entanglement with squelchy burns. It's all very exciting once you take the trudge up there. Carn Liath is also home to one of the best preserved small chambered burial cairns of Skye laying near bye in the wetland sprawl. As you wonder amongst it all, you almost become aware that this, like Coire Lagan, is a land from which the giants have but recently gone, a great litter of boulders, where some, without a hint of exaggeration, are the size of houses, thrown across a tumble of rock strewn waste, threatening to crush mortals passing through a mile long spine of an ancient imposing volcanic sill. I've never been one to readily kneel at an alter of basalt, it's to close in it's formation to that wretched stuff called sandstone, but the shere stature of Carn Liath, has forced me to get to grips with it head-on, & you know what...the water isn't that cold once you're in. It's one of these places, no matter how many years you trudge the bogs to get to it, it never dissapoints, you never grow tired of the big hole. The trad here, though little talked about has some big lead numbers. I'm sure it will come up one day soon. Still, shame Watson never made it up last week...bloody slacker.

Paulo Savage - Riff raff of the oldskool spit, blood & grit class,

Another new problem is Square One, about v9 or 10 ...which takes a staggering tour-de-force on the huge house sized boulder at the Scamadal cluster [Ive only graded v9/10 becuase I cant grade 7a, b or c, as everyone knows. It is in fact more like V11 but this way I cant make a mistake...Si O' logic at work aye & besides, every good crag deserves a sand-bag]. Starting low in the roof, it ends slightly highball up the natural arcing belly & wall to which, a repeat ascenscionist must bring an impressive reach & a healthy sprinkling of oomph for the finishing sequence. Square One is what its about. Climbing qiuetly, still pushing hard, still grabbing peachy lines, back at square one, unscaithed, getting stronger than ever. The Unholy Union project is looking like v13 but it's an academic grade since the line remains undefeated becuase it climbs hideous slopes on a left lead using some bemusing sequences which I can't get my head round. It feels like you're falling left & out all the way from the first move to the top...To give you an idea of what I mean, it's like multiple Trace Element -rh- v14 cruxs [pic below of the crux sequence that frustratingly, nobody but myself seems to be able to hold or do!] on smaller holds that are all wildly spaced sidepulls, equally as steep & 3 times as highball... Wether that's news or not, now the weekend rain driven gales have eased to clear sunlight, it's time to head back up to the mammoth stones of Liath. After disturbingly fierce sessions at Coire Lagan on the gabbro, climbing at Carn Liath is like going from Izal toilet paper to Andrex super quilted. Hell you can climb here with fresh gabbro cuts & rashes, at a fair standard & your hands heal rather than split further. Anyways, don't forget to drop in on John Watsons =Stone Country= site for all the Scottish bouldering news, area updates, new lines & repeats from all over our proud & staggering country.

Unholy Union - v13?
Problem Child -v8
Square One - v10**
Riff Raff - v11**