The Cobbler and other things

Some dismissed it instantly, others rolled their eyes in disbelief - but it happened, Danny and I spent a night in a cave below the North Peak of the Cobbler. In April. It can snow in April. I wouldn't have been surprised if did snow. It was bloody cold.

I'm not quite sure why we thought it would be a good idea... but it was along the same thinking that sent us up there at the beginning of March (in a storm) looking to do the same thing... Thinking about that now, it was a pretty stupid thing to do, and I'm sure in a month, looking back on this trip, I'll be thinking 'how daft can you get?!' but the thing about these trips is - they don't feel daft at the time.

So, up you go. This was my fourth attempt to top out on the Cobbler, previous attempts being shut down by gales, sleet, snow, rain and myself getting upset about bad weather... This time, however, blue skies overhead made us optimistic about our chances as we set off on the well rehearsed strenuous moves up the path. Before long we were up the gully/path below the North peak and all of a sudden the enclosed feeling was replaced with an open aspect and spectacular scenery. From here the awesome triple peak formation of the mountain can be taken in. Danny commented "Right now, we are in one of the most beautiful places in the world." I fully agreed.

We found an excellent looking place to sleep under a big boulder. It came fully fitted with old candles and other litter debris which gave the place an authentic feel. The rubbish reminded be of the boulders at Dumbarton - a home from home. I wasn't too impressed.

We dumped our stuff and headed up to take advantage of the last of the light and climb Recess Route. A Classic going deep into a chimney on the North peak. The climbing style was fast with Danny setting the pace on the on pitch one placing a total of zero pieces of gear. I bettered him by managing to place a thread on the second. Danny equalled my record by clipping a piece of tat on a combination of the last two pitches.

We made our way down to the cave and settling in for what was anticipated to be a sterling nights sleep. Not the case. I spent the night cowering in my bivi bag, throwing on as many clothes as I had (including my towel) to keep warm. At times I heard Danny snoring and the jealousy made me think 'what a complete bastard'.

After this superb nights sleep we 'dragged' ourselves out of the cave ("thank fuck we're out of that shit hole" - "I'm looking forward to sleeping there tonight... I don't think!"). We headed for Punster's Crack, another classic - which went really well apart from Danny getting stuck at the '6b' bridging move, and myself getting shivery cold with the wait ("Are you up for winter climbing next season, Mike?" - "Argrgrghghhhghhhh noooooooo!!!!"). After this we topped out on the Middle peak - completing my headpoint ascent of the mountain. Yes! We then descended to the south peak where we cruised up Argantian Arete I think it was called.

I couldn't help wanting to climb the awesome looking steep slab of Osiris. It's E4 and that's harder than I've ever onsighted before but, you know, I was climbing well... That week I'd managed to send one of my Dumby projects Totality which has 6c moves on it and the slab had, by the looks of it, one 6a move low down over an overlap and then maybe 5c or 5b moves to the top. And there were pegs, albeit rusty looking ones... So I thought I'd give it a go. Within 5 seconds, I'd fallen off. Put that down to the move off the ground being harder than I thought.

"That bit's VS!" Danny helpfully pointed out.

After that I manged to get over the overlap in a on-er but my foot slipped clipping the peg which lead to a swinging (but not too violent) fall. I pulled up on the rope and manged to get establish on the slab and make a series of ever more scary moves higher and higher above the good thread... After careful consideration I decided I would not be going any higher and I probably could down climb to the gear.

"I'm not up for it, Danny"

I hastily started reversing finger tip mantles. Before long my foot stepped on the rope and down I came with an eyes-closed fall. Danny lowered me to the ground where I lay with my face in the grass trying to regain the mental composure to be at head height was more.

After a recuperation session involving some good banter and a cereal bar, Danny lead off on the classic E1 - Gladiator's Groove. It says in the guide 'a confident approach is needed' so I was really quite relieved when Danny took pitch one. After some 15m of climbing he yelled down "Yes, some gear!" He then tussled with the traverse, some 10m to the right of his gear before finding a neat cam placement which gave him the confidence to complete the pitch. I was enjoying the climbing on the second pitch until a large flat ledge appeared and require a fair amount of groping and grunting to surmount!

Once we'd topped out we lay on the rocks above the crag in the sun. This provided welcome relief from the son-of-a-bitch wind and a chance to rest weary heads (surprising after such a great nights sleep!)

Here, we decided that sleeping in the cave would not be a good idea for the night so left the peak early to eat the remains of our food ratios and pack up our stuff. I've never been so glad to leave a mountain. Nor have I been so glad of a comfy and warm bed to sleep in. I now have a great respect to the shipbuilders of the Clyde who stayed on the mountain before Thermarests!

The other things are basically that I went to Dumby on Tuesday. It was really nice and sunny which is always good for bringing the local youths out to play. I'm starting to be able to classify them as follows:

Idiots: older neds with bottles of Buckfast an a keen interest in climbing. Will always ask if you've climbed that [pointing to Requiem] and will look at you as if they're trying to decide if your a circus freak or top end sports person. Will also ask questions like 'Uni, eh?'.

Crazies: NITs (Neds In Training) wearing Celtic tops, who run around playing a violent version of hide and seek. you'll recognise one from E11. They climb up the back of the Eagle Boulder in Nike trainers with alarming boldness. They need to invest in a pair of 5.10's in my opinion.

Fire-starters: To be avoided/dreaded.

I managed to get a project which I first tried in September on my first visit to Dumbarton - the super sweet Consolidated. Yasss!! Also got a 7b sport route - Half Breed on my 4th go or something which was a bit of a disappointment.

Anyway, I need to start studying for Uni exams so the blog might get sidelined for a while :( but hopefully the climbing won't - trip to the peak next weekend!

Cheerio, Mike

Review of Dumbarton weekend

'Where were you all?' is all I can say. I thought there would be masses of climbers heading to the boulders for what one blog fan elegantly called a 'Pilgrimage'. Thanks to those who did make it, namely Danny, Stewart and Climber Dude Paul. The rain held off for most of the afternoon and we were surprised that there were no other boulders around. Maybe no one reads my blog, or everyone does, and think I'm an asshole? Don't know which would be worse.... ;-)

Danny has a tweaked finger and consequently couldn't pull very hard but seemed to enjoy the one handed climbing fun on the Sea boulder. He also seems a lot steadier when throwing for the side pull on Gorilla - I'm sure it'll go by the summer so make sure your finger heals asap! I got a text from him that evening which read 'Cheers for an excellent Barbecue!' - no problem Danny, glad you enjoyed it!

Stewart was fresh from a week climbing in Font, however not so fresh from what sounded like a rather heavy drinking sesh on Friday where he said there were at least 30 fair game lesbians... nice. However, the 2 day hang over didn't do his climbing any favours, falling on the 4c slab after doing the sit start to Silver's Route (font 6c+) and ran out of time to get the problem before the tide came in. Never mind, Stew... He then tried Gorilla (hanging start), a cool problem which really works the stomach muscles. He came agonisingly close, falling from the big side pull and catching a nasty flapper on his knuckle in the process. Hard luck, Stew. He then tried the Shield but couldn't pull on. Next time, Stew! You may ask why Stewart is getting a hard time in this blog entry - it's because he told me of his plan to launch a rival blog which takes the piss out of mine. I want him to know what he's in for him if he ever does such a diabolical thing!

Climber Dude, Paul turned up mid-way through the sesh and worked a 6a project from last year which he seemed really close to. He also gave Gorilla his best shot, finding it easier to get the side pull from a jump start... impressive!

I wasn't on the best of form, having been out a friends flat party on Saturday night. Perhaps the dehydration after a night drinking made me that bit lighter as I seemed to be able to send 2 hard problems! I tried Dave's new sit start to Tam's Route, hoping for a quick send to start off the day, but couldn't make a move of the sitter :(. Danny and I then headed across to the Sea Boulder where we had a proper warm up and I managed Silver's Route Sitter without too much hassle and to climb (but not top out!) Erewhon, a 5c arete, with one hand!! While Stewart continued to work Silver's Route, I went across to have a few attempts on (one of my many) projects - Silverback. I surprised myself by making it out to the crimp on the arete - one whole move further than previous sessions! This brought a smile to my face but I could only repeat the feat a couple of times before I ran out of crimping power :(. Stewart then came across from the Sea Boulder, reporting no success, but that he was sure he'd get the hanging start to Gorilla. Intrigued, I asked him for the sequence. After some good beta and a series of ever closer attempts, I was able to get the problem much to his dismay!

After this the dehydration started to give a sore head and I lay on the boulder mats exhausted. I decided that if I couldn't climb hard, then I'd climb bold, and headed for the B.N.I slab. I don't see how anyone has the bottle to commit on to the slab - I certainly don't. Instead, I climbed Imposters Arete and soon wished I hadn't due to the descent being greener than snotters. Yum.

The rain came back on in the evening and I left the boulders with the usual feeling of tiredness with the not so usual feeling of success!

All the best Blog Readers,
Mike

Dumby on Sundy

If the weather's nice on Sunday (or not nice which looks more likely), I'm going to go to Dumbarton and would like to invite all blog readers to come along! There will be a BBQ on top of Eagle boulder and I will be laying down a few beats on the guitar to create the 'E11' feel. I'll also be giving signed photographs of myself out to the first 100 boulderers!

See you then! Mike

As promised

As promised here are the long awaited pictures of me lambing over the easter break! Enjoy...

Not just lambs, but pigs too! wow.

Some doubt I actually helped - this pic should silence them! Those are ear clippers I'm holding... (good bouldering wall potentail in the barn)

Me and my pet lamb, who I named Chris Sharma.

Numpties, Nubbins and North-westerlies

With a lift offered to myself and Danny from Jenny (don’t be hasty), it was really a no brainer decision to head to Glen Coe and regrettably tell Cath that I couldn’t make her family get together weekend – a real bummer.

So we quickly arranged plans to go to the Buckle (as I like to call it) for 2 nights. One flying visit to Tesco later, we were off on the road to Fort William in the back of Mitsubishi 4x4 driven by a madman friend of Jenny DBH, who we’d never met before. He got us there in double quick time and I thought myself fortunate to be both alive and setting up the tent in daylight.

With not much to do, we devised a variety of climbing related games to pass the time. These included Nut, Sling, Friend (think ‘rock, paper, scissors’), the classic Guess the Route, Blankity Blank – Glen Coe edition (‘Climb the vegetated BLANK to an obvious BLANK…’ you get the idea).

After a highly banterful though particular cold night, we left the tent at 7.45. The plan was to tick multipitch classics on Rannoch wall then head back to the tent for a refuel and hit tunnel wall for an evening session of bolt clipping. The sun shone warmly on our backs as we ticked Grooved Arête and a slightly lost and loose version of Red Slab, both VS. I first climbed on Rannoch wall when I was 15 with two of my climbing buddies, Nic and James (now only a regular buddy). That was only 3 years ago, but it feels like a long time. So, it was a bit of a trip down memory lane and I was highly satisfied to be enjoying the same exposure as I did years before.

Hanging out between routes

Me on the belay

Danny on pitch one of Grooved Arete

Pitch 2.

The evening sesh on Tunnel Wall was going well until I went to pull the rope down to go for a redpoint attempt of the 7B. The psyche was on and it was getting dark. In my haste forgot to untie the knot before pulling the rope through… Try as we might, we had to accept it was pretty stuck up there. With the amount of rope available looking dubiously small, Danny made a hanging belay at the 2nd bolt giving me vital extra metres of rope to make it to the top. By this point I’d got the head torch on as seeing all footholds and most hand holds had become near impossible. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get the tick, but was really relieved to be freeing the rope from the chain just as the last slither of light from the sky disappeared behind the mountains to the West.

Luckily the path back to the river is not too treacherous and we made it back in one piece though we only had enough energy for a few games of Guess the Route before tiredness kicked in and I nodded off.

After this epic day, we slept in on Sunday. A quick breakfast of Tesco value cereal bars was 'enjoyed' and we then we trekked to the Kings House for a bus back to Glasgow.

Danny appears dazed after the long walk to the Kings House

Now a first for the Michael Lee, Climbing? blog, a game to test your observational skills. What you have to do is guess what we forgot... laughing...

Myself enjoying some pasta. But what crucial kitchen utensil is missing?

There's nothing like pasta and camping, but what did I forget to put in my rucksack?

Walking to the Kings House, but what would made the trip a whole lot easier (think - car)

This past week I've been to Dumby twice, on Monday and today Wednesday. Monday's sesh was a particularly intense 6 hour stint at the boulders, I tried just about everything... New boulderer on the blocks, Simon, made and appearance both days and seems pretty psyched to try everything and is an amazing spotter. Dave was there on Monday and bagged a new problem - I gave it a bash and can report it is definatly very tough - and gave good beta on all mine and Simon's projects including a clever use of a small nubbin on the BNI slab. Danny is also making progress at the boulders managing 3 6a's in 3 sessions - a high limit-tick-to-trip ratio for anyone! Today though was one of those days where there was no shelter from the wind and we had to leave early due to finger injuries...

Anyway, I'll round this blog up with a quick summation of my current wanndo problems, probably more of a personal reference so sorry to any blog fans who find it a bore to read!

1) Silverback - font 7c - done 2 moves, need to learn to 'clamp'
2) Totality - font 7b+ - done all the moves, though need a more efficient way of doing the top out....
3) BNI direct start - font 7b - need to take my tampon out and have the bottle to commit on to the (certain death if you fall) slab.
4) Consolidated - font 7b+ - done all the moves though some need tweeked and need more stamina!
5) Home Rule low traverse - font 7a - fell off going for the last hold, will get it next time! Seems hard for the grade.
6) Reducer - font 7a+/7b - It's one move and its very hard and seems very close. 100s of attempts failed already.

Another note - the number of non climbing blog readers is up to 3! And as I like to have time for everyone, here's an interesting fact about my non climbing life: I need to do my dishes before my flatmates complain.

Meeting People

Dumbarton...

Ahhh im tired, but can't let my fans down by not filling them in on my latest climbing adventure due to that!

After three weeks in Inverness it back to the old routine of walking to Partic train station buying a ticket to Dumbarton East and through the bog between Strathclyde Homes Stadium and the boulders. But today was different. There was on bog. What was once thought impossible has happened - the weather was good at dumbarton!! YES!
And its long overdue. The increasing in blue skies brought a total of around 6 climbers and 7 Neds to the rock. Neds are funny. They were impressed with my daring climbing on the consolidated traverse (never more than 1m off the ground). It was good to meet them, and these days were more civilised than the ones at the train station on the way back:
'Will ya winch her??'
'you what?'
'Geit Aff we-er!'
'No thanks'
You don't get that at Goat Crag.
Back to climbing. I adheared to the great Dumby tradition of not actually topping out on anything. I tried totallity, consolidated and Silverback for a bit though was too warm for consolidated and totallity is really quite hard. I need beta for Silverback I think...
Danny got his project Toto, Woo!
This weekend I have the choice of meeting most of my girlfriends family or going to Etive Slabs... its a hard decision - which would make a better blog entry?
Anyway I'm going to my bed before a certain someone starts talking to me on msn.

Add-a-move at Muckross

In between getting scared on the routes at Muckross, Edd and myself had an awesome game of add-a-move! It resulted in a narrow victory for me, which is up there with my greatest climbing achievements to date!

Edd was on hand to film my winning ascent... Enjoy -

Thanks to Dave for uploading it on to youtube!

Past Week News

I'll kick off this blog entry with good news - the blog has made the big time! It now has a link to it from the famous Dave Macleod blog! This gets 9 thumbs up out of 9 and my own personal hurray!

This is no time to rest and take it easy, indeed some of you may be thinking 'there's mike... he's good at climbing, but he's not that good... what's he done on grit? his blog has a link to it from dave's blog, but it hasn't had an entry in a week...'

I hope this entry will silence these critics (except those who are saying 'whats he done on grit?') as I intend to make it a doubly good one!

Last sunday, the climbing action was out at Goat crag yet again. I managed to tick Too Old to be Famous, and added the 7b to my 8a.nu account! Nic managed Goat prow giving him a 7c to add to his 8a.nu collection and increasing his route climbing lead over me :(

Stork seems to have had made progress even with shredded finger tips coming agonisingly close to climbing through the crux. Word is he's sent it now and gave it 7c+, good effort! Pics...

Appologies for the slopey horizon

Not as noticable here!

Monday, I went to the wall with my wee bro, Edd, and his pal Calum. I changed the start to the small bits of blue tape boulder problem mentioned earlier, making it better and harder. Fell off the top move which was a bit upsetting :(

Tuesday, I was off to Donegal, Ireland, for some family fun in the sun. This meant asking on website forums and friends what the climbing is like there. And from what I saw, its not bad at all! I had one day climbing with Edd at a place called Muckross Head, which is a totally wild, remote and imposing sea crag west of Donegal. It has huge roofs which gave me the collywobbles when I tried to climb them. The cliffs compare pretty well with anything I've seen (though I'm yet to experience the renowned Aberdeen sea cliffs!). On another trip to the seaside I found a nice boulder problem on the rocks at the shore. If any one wants to go repeat it, its about V4 (probably over graded because I climbed it in my socks) at Trabane. Ask if your desperate for more info. WARNING: I would only suggest going there if you want to enjoy the remote senic beauty and not for a boulder sesh. Cheers to John Watson for a lend of a map and guide of the area!

Edd Grinning at Muckross (dead lambs in the background)

Where are all the other climbers?

Me, my big bro Dave and my mum

Next week I'm back in Glasgow so I'm looking forward to catching up with all my Dumby friends after my three week holiday and hopefully climb some routes to catch up with Nic on 8a.nu and, if I'm feeling strong, go for an onsight of Chemin de Fer...!

So its cheerio to Inverness buddies, and see you soon to Glasgow buddies!