The previously mentioned Lewis raid was back on but washed out with poor weather & wet roofs. John Watson, my favourite bouldering cohort, was over his flu & our plan was to hit the rocks armed with drills, ropes, mats, chains, tape, enthusiasm, but maybe that enthusiasm was to full force. The total psych for getting on the An-t Súil sport project is here again & I now have his drill on loan to get everything wrapped up. We managed nothing on the sport drilling front simply becuase it would have been overly dangerous in the weather raging around the eye. The filmograhy hitlist as I see it over time, is large, not all the lines will make it in - John also has more ideas on the scenario, the weather, had even more radical ideas this trip. Seeping holds on Trace Element & the Distintegration roof ruined any chance of climbing either, & a few other steep lines, which is just how it is sometimes. We still had a great time as ever, high tides kept us away from some fine lines until late light. Stubbies of Stella for John, some blues guitar into the early hours to finish each howling day. Yet you strive on, & 2006 will hopefully see a good few of the V12 & higher problems featured in the forthcoming dvd about Scottish Bouldering sometime this summer. My job on this end is simply find some equipment capable of donating the Hebridean raw uncut footage to John & Pete - it should be a great atmospheric movie, having seen Johns previous work, & with lines from all over the land from all players at all grades. Investing in a £300 lump of digital film equipment is my target, when I can find the funds that is...& it also eases John having to travel such an exhausting distance to stare out the window at wet rock. I think some people niavly beleive you just turn up, film & go home, but if it was only that simple, if it didn't rain, if nerves didnt get the better of you, if you were always on form, if the rock was as well, if batteries lasted longer, if motivation was undrainable...it goes on. Ask Dave MacLeod about filming things & it's the same. Some days everyone is there, everything is perfect & it just doesnt happen. You touch the rock &....nah... It happens to all of us. This time it was damp & grease, not me. Although I think he'd argue that Helen keeping us in mountains of chicken dinners was worth it's wieght in gneiss, wet rock or dry. Thanks to H for putting up 2 smelly climbers for twice as many days. Her living room resembled a sock infested gite after a while.
Over on the Atlantic Bridge cave John managed a new sequence which thoroughly changed the way I had climbed it originally. New holds were discovered by both of us - a huge jug midway & a good finishing edge included. Wet holds I had avoided in my rush to climb the line came into play in dryness. John even agreed, saying without prompt that what I had originally climbed was way harder than his sequence. The problem is still destined to be 3 star classic either way, but the sequence John used allowed him to get both feet on the back wall, a move far to compressed & illogical for my frame, hard to perform at that time, & thus give him an instant & stable, 180° twist, cutting out the 360° later. From here he could get directly onto a big jug midway in the roof, whereas I would have to strike out desperately for a sloper system in a footless lay down start, still holding an almost Iron Cross position while climbing.. look in your Code of Points - artistic gymnastics section. Becuase of the new body position John was then able to utilize a large positive rail out below my direct variation, a rail for bivvying on, beyond the new jug which alters the line into ape like swinging & healthy slaps rather than crimper gnarling. The 5 extra holds & sinker ledge have a radical effect, giving an almost new sequence & line from the same start. It's funny how a problem can be altered, by height & wingspan factors, weather & a new pair of eyes & logics, but not entirely controversial. Or else we say Pinch2 isnt that hard becuase you can use the good holds nearby....There are probably even 2 or 3 further sequences at least for this line - becuase that's just the nature of it. In that way, it's unlike others I've climbed that don't allow so many variations by their own nature. It doesn't mean all the other lines have sequences that are easier either, or that they are vastly out in grade, they don't & they arnt. You'd know this if you stood in front of any of them & tried - then in front of this cave. These things happen, like Brad Pitt getting V13 originally. We all know it's V9 but who would deny the quality whatever happens to the numbers - I fucked up in a way, but I also didn't, we both climbed genuinely different sequences, & agreed that we did. John being able to squeeze into gaps that would have my leggy frame tangled, but there's a lesson here not to rush things, not to do them tired to the point of a numb brain - to wait for holds to dry. All we need now is for a dwarf to have a go & basketball player for a genuine consensus! It's yet again a reason not to rush things, not to miss holds out, let the mind scrabble & force it. everytime I rush things, they go wrong, I dont explore all sequences. The sad thing is, I'm betting the downgrade without the reasons, will get more conjectured coverage whereas the initial climb was pretty much ignored - & that's the worry I have about todays climbing agenda - People seem fired up to retort endlessly about a downfall of a number , but find it hardest of all to celebrate a success - I bet they'll all have expert views on a climb they acknowledged with a murmour initially - Now that's irony - I thought I'd add that before the forum wailers go into overdrive & start spewing & calling every other line into question by some weird invented head link.
A damp Sea Peanut in an arctic wind - like chips & gravy on a Sunday
We were leaving via Tarbet, & found the ferry tangled up in wire fishing lines - unable to run. Not to be outdone by another thing going wrong you take advantage of a negative & swallow your plus sign instead. We had a wee tour around towards Scalpay & found, arguably the best slab ever sitting quietly on a hillside. A perfect 20ft wall, just off vertical, with immaculate micro edges & frictioned foot smears. It was blasting rain & a freezing wind but our eyes were alight at the find., both of us skidding off the initial holds in wet trainers. Laughing more than climbing...blethering into a wild horizon, hood sheltered, munching apricots. I'll be back to that quicker than John [hoho...something I took great enjoyment in pointing out] & the central, almost holdless slab will go down first. Neither of us will disclose it's whereabouts just yet, but it's a gem of it's class, far outshining anything I've seen in the Harris & Lewis complexes. Its soaring technicalities will be added to the movie, due later this year -not cutting edge, but 3 star & worthy of any film. A true stunner - a bit like my new beanie aye.
Like my friend said, it's time to not look at forums, to discard them from a daily habit [not even sneak look without signing in, to my mind] -Time to let the de-motivating idle & foundationless bullshit you can read about yourself, slip away into nothingness. It's had a creeping negative effect on a life I purely saw as stones & wilderness..Forum abuse & talking about climbing is just a wheelchair for the brain after the event - nothing more. Even sitting here now, I'm wondering how many sneaky wee pm's are hitting John, like they did after Hendos trip asking 'did he set the crag on fire & piss everything' - funny stuff really, peoples agendas. Wait for the dvd release is all I can say. It's time to go back, to before that side of things came to be, to happier days, ignorant bliss, focused sending where the meat meets the metal & awaken the beast -re-awaken the fierce commited spirit I still carry, of what we came here to do -climb like a wild-fire & give no quarter.
This film is about celebrating the lifestyle & particpation of our art as a master or a beginner. Thus, since not one gram of it is about pandering to the needs of the miasmic evidence wailers - I'm immediately involved. The focus, the game plan, is one of genuine passion, integrity steeped with ethical code...& that - is the simple difference. 2006 will be a great year for Scottish bouldering. I'll see you all on the otherside of the dvd. Like the fella says 'Sometimes it's worth going an extra mile...'
Thanks man - for giving me back a precious thing.
Psyching up the An-t Súil f9a sport project -mind over very crimpy hard matter
John looking slender & determined on Skye last trip - Gift Egg- Kilta
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