Another flash-in-the-pan blog?

No! :-) Just in case you were thinking that this is one of those blogs that someone has set-up, briefly maintained and then abandoned, that isn't the case at all. We just haven't had chance to get out climbing in ages. Hopefully soon...

Self portrait

I haven't been able to get out climbing for a while now so I don't have anything new to write about here. So how about a self portrait?


The beautiful old car was found on an industrial estate. Remind you of Christine at all? I also wanted to do a picture with me sitting in the driver's seat but the thought of Christine was entirely too spooky so I chickened out. I shall return with backup and do the interior pic! :-)

View of Kingussie Crag

This is a view over Kingussie to the crag where Katie and I go climbing. The image was produced using the High Dynamic Range process, compiled from 7 exposures at 1-stop intervals.


That picture was taken from up on the hill at Ruthven Barracks. I did this photo of the Barracks while I was there, also an HDR.

Jamie Andrew @ Equal Adventure

I photographed the Equal Adventure Festival at the weekend for the Press & Journal newspaper. This event gave teams of disabled and able-bodied people an opportunity to participate in a wide range of sporting activities. One of the people taking part was climber Jamie Andrew who lost both hands and both feet while climbing in the Alps in 1999. This is the picture that was published in the paper, showing Jamie walking a slackline.

Psycho Vertical

I had a nice surprise waiting for me when I got back from work last night. Andy Kirkpatrick had been in to Katie's shop, Cairngorm Mountain Sports in Aviemore, so she got him to sign a copy of his book Psycho Vertical for me:

Up another grade: Hard Severe (seconded)

Katie and I were back at Kingussie Crag tonight with Martin. We'd been away from climbing for a week as both of us were ill for a few days with a nasty little stomach bug. We only did one route tonight, graded as hard severe, The Groove:


Martin lead the route, placing gear while I belayed him:


I love looking up at the climb ahead of me and seeing the rope trailing through quickdraws instead of just a dangling top-rope. It feels like proper climbing!


You can learn things from photos and videos of yourself climbing. One thing that jumps out at me from tonight's photos is that I'm starting to trust my shoes, and getting used to how grippy they are. Look at the tiny toe holds I'm using in the next few shots...






Nothing much to say about this next pic, we just both like it :-)


Hey look how far I climbed!


This route was fun, fun, fun. There was a lot of it, it had just the right balance of difficulty, and there were a few "nowhere to go" bits that I managed to get past by just going for it and clinging on for dear life. Very satisfying. Before I even finished it I was looking forward to doing it again some day.

Once I'd got to the top, Martin showed me how to set-up a belay point and how to belay from above, which I haven't done before. No photos of that part of the evening as both cameras were back down at the bottom of the crag. And sadly no photos of Katie climbing, but I do want to mention that she did it a lot faster than I did.

Then it was time to abseil down! I had a chance to try abseiling at Dunrobin Castle a couple of months ago, but I turned it down. I had sort of wanted to do it, but I realised that my motivation was to be able to tell people that I'd done it, not because I wanted to do it for myself. That would have been the wrong reason. But tonight, learning to abseil was part of my mission to learn how to climb, so I did it. I was controlling my own descent but Martin still had me on a safety line, although he slackened it off about 2/3 of the way down.


I think you can see from the body language in this next shot that I wasn't entirely confident about abseiling! :-)


This next photo shows one of the climbs that I'd like to do at some point in future. The route is called Left-Hand Crack and it goes straight up the middle of this big vertical slab. It's graded E1. I know there's no way I could do it at this time because there are no good rests and my arms aren't even close to strong enough yet, but it's good to have a goal...


Last pic for tonight, Katie and the moon:


Katie has started her own blog! Have a look: What Katie Did?

New crag, new grade: Severe (seconded)

Katie, Martin and I hit a new crag last night, Pinnacle Crag near Duntelchaig. I added three new routes to my ever-expanding logbook: Pinnacle Face, Right Angle and Tapered Groove.

Pinnacle Face, graded severe, is now my best outdoor grade, and it was also my first time seconding a climb. I was top-toped on Right Angle and Tapered Groove, both graded as very difficult. Katie also threw on a harness and squirrelled up Tapered Groove, with a much more confident and fluid climb than mine.

I met my match with the severe-graded Stepped Corner. The first 8-10 feet were so slippery that my shoes had no friction, and apart from two tiny foot holds it was all about arm strength, which I don't have enough of, so I failed. I did try, and tried, and tried, but basically just spent 10 minutes humping the leg of it before pathetically falling off, exhausted. My unconquerable determination will reign supreme next time! :-)