It’s not the quantity, it’s the quality. That’s what could be said about the May Bank Holiday meet to the Naismith Hut in Elphin. Both for the number of attendees and the hut itself.
Lee had been booked in for the Friday night too, but a last-minute change in the weather saw his and Dean’s plan to climb the Old Man of Storr dashed. They did however make do with a day at Glen Nevis climbing a handful of the classics there.
Saturday started a bit damp and despite a long dry spell leading up to the meet a cold Northerly wind made sure climbing on the mountains was not going to happen. With inconvenient tide times we selected Rubha Coigeach (the far end of the Reiff sea cliffs) as a suitable venue, lots of short easy routes from a non-tidal platform.
Unfortunately, the one-and-a-half-hour boggy approach walk was rewarded with a strong cold wind (no surprise there on a North facing sea cliff) and waves breaking halfway up the routes we had in mind (bit of a nasty surprise…)
The three of us headed back to the Pinnacle area in the hope that it would be more sheltered. Jeannie then suggested that Seal Song area would be worth a look (She was to join us later). This proved to be a good choice as it was sheltered from the wind and a long way from the big swell. A hand full of routes from Diff to VS 4c were climbed by the 4 of us before returning to what must be one of the best huts in Scotland.
Sunday was still to be cold but a bit more sun was forecasted. Three of us hesitantly set off for Ardmair after I dropped Svetlana at the start of the Ben More Assynt / Conival car park to walk up the (now snow dusted) Munros there.
For those not familiar with Ardmair, it is a good place to get your arse handed to you on a plate, and I had yet to leave the crag feeling good about my climbing. Luckily today was to be different…
We started on a steep and a little imitating HVS called Just Add Lib, which, while steep and intimidating is definitely not my style, went surprisingly well. Dean lead Moondance, a good VS 4c which feels a lot harder if you are not used to sandstone and hand jamming.
Jeanie then led a brilliant little HS 4b called Microlight which has fantastic hand jamming crack split by a big rest ledge. Again, arse kicking is highly likely if you’re not into jamming cracks. Then the finally: Acrimonious Acrobat E1 5a (or 5b depending on your guidebook). I’ve stood at the bottom of this before and had enough excused not to do it, but this time I couldn’t think of any (in fact I was quite psyched for it). This is a brilliant sustained, well protected pitch. It is very steep but has good ‘resting’ places if you make used of the bridging available. The holds at the top are great jugs, all you have to do is hold on and keep going. Dean seconded the route with no problem while Jeannie took photos.
Dean headed straight home while Jeannie and I went back to the hut where I carried on to pick-up Svetlana, who I met a few km from the car park contemplating a big hill on her cycle back. Good timing, and like her knight in shining armour I whisked her away back to castle Naismth.
Jeannie had climbing plans with a friend of hers on Monday at a sea cliff near Rhue. Svetlana and I drove around the coast to Gruinard Bay to climb on Svetlana’s favourite rock type, the aptly named Gneiss. Dog crag was our destination with a two stared VD called Wanderlust and a two-star Diff called Gerda.
I eventually found what I though was the line of Gerda, but was told by a local climber I was chatting to at the top I had just climbed Wanderlust. This was welcome news as it felt pretty hard for Diff. It was however worth the two stars given to it. Next, we climbed Gerda, or the line that I thought must be Gerda as it didn’t really match the description of this route (but the one I just climbed did…). This was definitely not worth two stars and while probably Diff most Diff leaders would probably be a bit upset by the lack of gear and lichen.
We were going to head home then, but a ‘quick look over the brow of the hill’ revealed The Apron, which was much closer than expected. The sight of a party climbing a one-star VD on the right side (Smashy) and 50m long clean slab of the two-star Diff (Gneissy) to its left was far too good to resist. I ran back to pick up the bags while Svetlana carried the ropes to the base of the crag. It was worth it. The route was actually Diff, well protected and excellent climbing. A good way to finish the weekend.