Självklart Knasig
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Helt otroligt, hur stark som helst - the Swedes have landed. My mobile rang while I was walking the high roof apex 3 floors up, paint brush in hand, ridge tile circus style, traversing each gable end, boiler suit tied by its own arms around my waist. This was an unsteady slip-hoofed ballet, performed for a passing Massey bringing in turf & the postman heading North into morning ground haar. Up on the roof I had become the fiddler without a banjo, the spectacle mime of a listing drunk, wrapped in concentrated navigation of a Glasgow curb line - the large print street brail equivalent of any homeward bound A to Z for the Buckfast-stuckfast & impaired.

Brrrr Brrrr!! : My arse rang just as I grabbed the southern chimney.

Hey! We are coming to Eoropie, show us the boulders man!
OK, I'll bail for the rocks & meet up. Somebody get me off this roof.
Is that cool?
Aye, but I havn't got much gear with me - I came up to work on this house.
It's OK man, we have lots with us... ropes & this things & more.
Niceage...I'll print a topo off... do you have a spare surf board?
Hahahaha!..

Why does everyone laugh when I request the loan of a random surf board?

Hardcore bouldering sessions are imminent. Some short fierce trad route repeats washed down with some Eoropie & Port Nis surf will follow shortly after. I'm hoping Trace Element or something of a similar hefty nature will finally get a repeat. FFE or Grip Crisis maybe...
Must get back to finishing the endless harl & collecting more sunburn. Gniessian vertical antics will follow shortly. My Hebridean bouldering venues & trad lines seem to be fire-storming into Euro popularity recently, while our project Norwegian bouldering mecca is kept under wraps, via some well placed mis-information.

Här kommer solen! Det är dags, jävla suveränt!

Update 07,07:


An excellent new line named Subbacultcha goes down, courtesy of da Swedes & at a stompy V11/12, or as they prefer, Font 8a/8a+. Feels spot on as far as the numbers are concerned, more importantly, an excellent sequence & a filled blank. The boys are strong...& lanky. Snyggt.
 
posted by ※Sgian Dubh ※ at 4:56 PM | 0 comments
Crash Landing
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The new Coire Lagan V11/12 is the same name as the best backwater album Hendrix ever stacked up...lets just say, it fits. See Gabbrofest updates when James does some furious two finger typing sometime this year.
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As an aside to climbing Crash Landing, theres a funny wee story to go with the ascent & an English bouldering group I came across...I'm also wondering if Ben [Moon] will get on It's Over or Darken Down or any of the other high grade lines while he's around. At 40 years +, we are the old guard nowadays & the Coire continues to rise in popularity, awash with boulderers examining every stone. Some stand under the V14/15 lines scratching their heads, babbling about a lack of holds or possible contortions, & some get demos from me, if the array of conditions allow it. Peace is here, but when I see them all flitting around like tiny bright coloured birds picking clean the teeth of giant carcass... it's still just another Telegraph Road & I'm called to find a new, silent place to climb. I smile & U-turn, to find a place to retire my shoulders, where nobody is, & develop & clean & chalk & work sequences & leave trails & let them...follow on behind. It becomes to that end, a tea ceremony of sorts, performed with intention & stillness, away from the impossible babbling & commercial wailing that has seeped into the simple action of placing a body on cold stone. The locum predicts I have 5 years of full bhoona shoulder & finger use left if I refuse to ease my pulling work rate...I have to decide, & the sea kayak is once again filling my vision while the anger that fuelled my climbing, fades. The soul is by no means a reactionary device.

Anyways, Dave MacLeod has consistantly failed on all my hard stuff, at V12 & beyond, another one is up in the Coire & things need repeating to get a consensus - it's the only way. Maybe inside future hoards, a foward bouldering talent is practising as we speak. Lars at least, enjoyed his epic on Darken Down The Day. Anyways, I will relate the unfolding moments by expanding this post when I get off Harris & the Uists after a couple of weeks painting a house made of harl, some rough-casting & teaching some Greenland kayak roll techniques. Indeed, adding to my own repertoire as well. Somebody I know will be attempting their first ever hand roll soon, although they don't know it yet! There is something about assisting those processes that never becomes mundane. Standing in the harbour up to your chest & taking the panic out of novices. There is a joy in passing on knowledge & seeing people light up when they do a first roll unaided, or a first climb by themselves, confidently alive.
 
posted by ※Sgian Dubh ※ at 12:49 AM | 0 comments
Dubside
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
The master at work, this is vintage Dubside. Going through all the Greenland rolls with humour & style. Pakassummillugu - Elbow Roll, Siukkut Pallortillugu Masikkut - Storm Roll. Avataq Isserfiup Taaqqaanut - Hunting Roll, & loads more. You find many novices to the sea & the characteristics of the kayak, are scared of rolling but the more you roll, the more confidence you will have in the waves & storms offshore. Fear of rolling is probably the number one reason for potential to never be explored, but the ability is aquirable by anyone to a point where it becomes second nature & a pleasure in it's own right. It's the most effective self-rescue technique a kayaker can have in his or her arsenal. I don't think Dubside has had an upright day in his life.

Everyone should try Qajaasaarneq as well. It does your climbing a world of good, as much as your realization of being centered in movement.

Dubside - master technician
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My jet black Anas Acuta is a narrow Greenland style kayak also, 51cm wide, 523 long, although unlike Dubsides folder, it's made of composite kevlar. It's one of the, if not the best design suited to technical rolling in foul weather. The Igdlorssuit design is as old as the Arctic perma-ice. Wrap yourself up in a Tuiliq & you can go all winter in truly baltic conditions, outclassing the modern design of sea kayak with confidence. Good climbing slippers take time to mould to your feet, an acclimatization. The Greenland style Anas Acuta kayak is no exception, but persistence pays big dividends in all avenues of lifestyle.
 
posted by ※Sgian Dubh ※ at 3:22 PM | 0 comments
I'm free
Monday, June 04, 2007

¤ Stevie & the moment ¤ ...it says it all. There ya go John as promised, it's off of Characters. I don't think Arch even had a clue last night. Good luck wi the clam-diving off Mallaig, diver. Obviously it's strictly no octopus wrestling. Coire Lagan calls into the mountains, a power tune wrecking sinue & tissue, as does the Norwegian invasion aye. Wasnt' it always about being freer than the wind at your back - V15 behind me. V14 confirmed. Having nothing, possessing riches more than all. Being nowhere but, in the place you need to be. Free.
I'll see you on the other side, sooner rather than later.


Free like the river flowin' freely,
through infinity.
Free to be sure of,
What I am and who I need not be
Free from all worries,
Worries prey on oneself's troubled mind,
Freer than the clock's hands,
Tickin' way the times,
Freer than a raindrop,
Falling from the sky,
Freer than a smile in a baby's sleepin' eyes
Freer than the meaning of free that man defines,
Life running through me....



 
posted by ※Sgian Dubh ※ at 6:17 PM | 1 comments