Taking a long drive north in search of the best (least bad!) conditions yesterday, Jamie Bankhead and I set off with Skye in mind but finally diverted (after spying the Cuillin shrouded in thick cloud) to the Stone Valley Crags on the south-west side of Loch Maree. Where we climbed Roman Wall (S 4a), Rum Doodle Arete (HS 4a), Helga’s First Time (S 4a), the superb Open Secret (HS 4b), steep and sustained Lucky Strike (VS 5a) and more delicate Cheesegrater Slab (VS 5a), with Jamie leading the first, third and fifth of these and me leading the second, fourth and sixth. Which is about all I really need to say here except for explaining how Jamie got his new name…
It’s quite simple really, but not actually that funny. While it’s fully deserved for his constant facetious banter and propensity for trying to climb everything he sees by bridging the whole crag, it would have stayed as a private joke but for Jamie saying he liked the name, me jesting that I’d blog it, he saying he’d look forward to reading it and me saying, oh well, perhaps I’d better actually do it then. So there you are, I was climbing with Mr Facetious Bridge and he’s looking forward to reading that! :-/
Yesterday was also the first outing for my new DMM alloy and brass offsets and I was most impressed, placing several and already finding myself wondering how I managed for so long without something so obvious. Flared nuts for flared cracks, well, who’d have thought of that?