10 Years In It - The College Years 2002-2006

This is the second installment of my climbing story, celebrating my last 10 years of climbing.

When I started university at Stirling I immediately got involved in the Mountaineering Club, and met lots of other enthusiastic climbers and found new places to climb. Best of all was finding out there was a cool bouldering spot only a 20 minute walk from campus. That began my 4 year love affair with Wolfcrag, a small but fun quarry with some bouldering and traversing. It has probably had the biggest impact on my climbing than any other venue, I attribute my crimping skills to the chipped holds there. I also made a trip out to the boulders at Dumbarton Rock with Anthony who had started uni at nearby Glasgow. I remember it was a freezing December day and when we got off the train we immediately bought santa hats from a nearby shop for one pound to stay warm. When we got to the boulders the only other climber was the guidebook author Dave MacLeod, he had a good laugh at us in our santa hats. We were really impressed by the boulders there, they were way bigger than they looked in the topo, we were too scared to top anything out, but we had fun messing around on moves low to the ground, we vowed to return in better weather. Soon after I made the tough decision to shell out on a bouldering mat, back then bouldering pads were pretty new and there wasn’t that much choice, but I bought the biggest one I could find which set me back £130. I still have it today, but it looks puny compared to new mats nowadays.



On Gorrila V4 at Dumbarton March 03

 


On White Streak V3 at Dumbarton March 03

Once I had my boulder mat, I used it a lot. I went to Wolfcrag several times a week, and ventured back to Dumbarton in the spring. We slowly worked through the grades at Dumbarton, I did a problem called White Streak for my first 6a (V3) then a few months later managed Gorrila 6b (V4), which was my first ‘hard’ boulder problem, I had been working it for a while, I still think its still one of my favorite boulder problems. At Wolfcrag, I was climbing lots of problems up about V3, but there was no guide so it was all just word of mouth. In the spring of 2003 I sampled some of the best quarry climbing the central belt had to offer going to places like Auchinstarry, Limekilns, Rosyth, and Cambusbarron where I would lead up to VS (5.8 trad). I was still scared to push myself harder on trad, and rightly so given my gear placements. Over the summer I was back up in Aberdeen working and climbing. I got out a good amount with Anthony and Craig, I led my first HVS (5.9 trad) at the Pass of Ballater a great corner route called Little Cenotaph. Then achieved a milestone for me when I climbed my first E1 (5.10a trad), Black Custard. I remember thinking my gear was good for a change, but when I got the crux of the route I hesitated, I could hear Anthony taunting me from below, thinking I was going to bail, but I committed. I think it was the first time I was willing to take a fall on lead, but luckily I didn’t. I it must have been pretty hard since Craig had to hang on the rope seconding it. That was a big step forward for me in terms of my trad climbing, but I wouldn’t push myself harder on trad for another couple of years. Later that summer Anthony and I decided to take a road trip around the West of Scotland to check out some of the new bouldering areas that were just being developed at the time. It was a great trip, we would sleep under boulders and climb in the sunshine all day long, we checked out the boulders at Glen Croe, The Brack, and Glen Nevis. We made a return trip to The Brack, where we camped out for a few days putting up some first ascents, we had the place to ourselves, with a whole hillside of untouched boulders. We climbed up to 6b (V4) and established a bunch of problems up to 6a+ (V3). There hasn’t been much more development there since, I need to go back there some time now that I’m stronger and can try some of the steeper lines we saw. Back at Uni I climbed more trad, and finished up some more routes up to E1. That winter I heard about some new bouldering at Portlethen not far from where I lived. I checked it out, and although it was pretty cold I knew I could spend a lot of time trying some harder problems here.

On my FA 'No Bellylop Required' V0 at The Brack, September 03

Working Vietnam, an awsome but hard V4 at The Brack

Early in 04 I heard about Bennybeg a new sport climbing venue only about half an hour from Stirling. At the time it was controversial to bolt a crag like that since it was all easy routes, and there was very little precedence for easy sport climbing in Scotland. I loved it even though it’s a crappy little crag, I managed to flash all the hardest routes there, which were only up to 6a (5.10a), but at the time it was a big deal for me, this was more than 3 years after I first started climbing. It made me want to search out the few moderate sport climbs available in Scotland so a few months later I checkout Ley Quarry, where I managed to onsight some (but not all) routes up to 6b (10c). I also spent a lot of time working a harder route, which I returned to a few weeks later and finished off. It was __ a 6c (11a), for me this was huge accomplishment, 6c was a big number for me at the time, this was around the time I set up my 8a.nu scorecard.

Discovering the bouldering at Portlethen December 04

At the end of the school year, I was climbing indoors at Glasgow and I was trying a crimpy problem when I heard a loud pop in my finger and immediately had a burst of pain in my finger, I had popped a tendon. I tried denying what had happened at first, but I was seriously debilitated. In one way though it was a good time to get injured, because I was about to leave with my sister to visit my grandma in California for six weeks where I knew I wouldn’t be able to climb much. I think I went a whole two weeks, the longest period in the last 10 years, without climbing at all. Eventually I ventured in to a local gym, with a severely taped up finger, and played around on a little bouldering area near where my grandma lived. When I returned to Scotland my finger had more or less healed, so I got to work on the boulders at Portlethen. I worked my way up through the easier problems, eventually sending The Prow, a powerful short font 6c (V5) my first of the grade. Anthony and I were climbing at a similar level, so there was a lot of competition to see who could do it first.

Having fun at the Bowderstone in the Lake District November 04

Doing laps on Malky the Alky a fun E1 at Cambusbarron, November 04



Making the most of some winter sun while belaying on some easy trad at Rosyth January 05



Messing around on some beach boulders in the South of Spain while on a Science Field Trip February 05

Back at Uni, I started climbing with some guys who pushed my to try harder, namely George and Paddy. They were hot on my heels working the same hard boulder problems at Wolfcrag and Dumbarton. In early 2005 we decided to try some harder routes on trad. At limekilns I went for the onsight of an E3 called Grasp the Nettle, in reality the route was no harder than 6a (10a) but run-out and on bad gear, physically this route was well within my limits, but I had to push my limits mentally. I managed the onsight, which made me wonder what else I could do on trad if I tried harder. George climbed it straight after me, it was only his second ever lead climb! George and I got out to the local crags and worked some harder trad routes, we would practice them on toprope figure out all the gear, then lead it placing all gear on lead. Some memorable routes we did were Gobi Roof E2/3, (10c trad), Looney Tunes E4 (6c trad/solo), Chisel E4 (6c+ trad), often these routes were quite dicey, but we had practiced them so much our margin of failure was small. These routes culminated in my boldest route to date Nijinski an E5 (6c+ solo) at Auchinstarry, this route was different from the others in that I opted to solo it, the gear was worthless, and it was outside of my comfort zone. I managed it, but it was very scary, a fall from the crux, would have meant broken legs or worse. I got away with it, but I’m glad I didn’t continue to do hard routes like these. Ironically these trad routes and solos were physically harder than anything I had done on bolts at the time. Over that summer I climbed more at Portlethen and did Lurcher a 6c+ (11c) sport route there, which was my hardest sport route to date. Then in September 05 I got out to Ley Quarry with Kris a new member of the Mountaineering club, he was a strong sport climber and showed me a hard route there called Nirvana it was really hard for me, but I managed it by the skin of my teeth. It was my new hardest route.

Yet to place any gear, onsighting an E3 at Limeilns, April 05

On Hard Cheddar an awesome V2 at Dumbarton on my 21st Birthday 05

In 2005 had another big change I started dating an American girl called Laura who was studying at Stirling for 9 months. I got her into climbing and she got good pretty fast, achieving what took me a few years in less than one. That last year at college I visited more areas around the UK, including Reiff, Northumberland, the Lake District, and The Peak District. Mostly just bouldering, and doing some easy trad, towards the end of the year I did another E5 (7a trad) Purr-Blind Doomster which was a great climb, bold but safe. I also ticked a couple more 7a+ sport routes at North Berwick. A dozen or so of us from the mountaineering club took a trip to El Chorro, Spain to sport climb, it was an awesome trip, it was almost overwhelming being surrounded by so much climbing. I only managed routes up to 6c (11a), the heat and unfamiliar rock type made it hard, but I had a blast. I graduated in June of 06 with a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science, but didn’t go to my graduation because I had already left to start a new chapter in my life in the United States.



Climbing in El Choro, Spain April 06

 

Enjoying the awesome trad at Reiff April 06

On a 7a+ at North Berwick, April 06 

10 Year In It - The Early Days 2001-2002

This week (give or take a few days) marks 10 years since I first started climbing. Since then barely a week has passed where I haven’t climbed. Getting into climbing has been the best decision I’ve ever made, it has taken me to some amazing places all over the world, and I have made a lot of great friends through climbing. I’ve decided to recount the past 10 years of my climbing here with some old stories and photos to accompany them. Sure it’s a little self centered, but it feels great to look back on it all.

I started climbing back in my hometown of Aberdeen, Scotland in early 2001, I had already been into outdoor activities, and I’d done a good amount of hillwalking, in fact my dad and I had just gotten back from climbing Mt Kilimanjaro. My good friend Anthony asked if I wanted to check out the climbing wall at the local leisure center, he had checked it out for the first time a few days earlier. I was 16 and didn’t have much to do, so it sounded like fun. The wall there is typical of the early 90’s style climbing walls, it’s completely molded (no bolt on holds) with real pieces of rock glued in to the wall. My first time out there I was in my sneakers and somehow managed to climb to the top of the 20ft wall, Anthony was impressed since he hadn’t managed that yet, but when I got up there I was so gripped that I couldn’t come back down, I spent about 10 minutes hanging on before my arms eventually gave up and I jumped/fell back down. Despite this I was hooked, and went straight to the climbing shop in town (where I was to work a year later) and bought my first pair of climbing shoes for £25. They were the cheapest I could find, pretty old school with a high ankle, but at that point any climbing shoe would have made a huge difference. Anthony and I went down to the wall every chance we had, it cost £3.25 to get in, but we became pretty good at sneaking our way in. A month after I started out climbing for my 17th birthday my dad bought me a harness, I had no idea what to do with it though. So for a while I would just wear it while bouldering at the wall.

Then at the beginning of the summer my dad thought it would be a good idea if we got some formal instruction. We hired an instructor for a few days, to show my dad and I how to belay and climb on rocks. We climbed a bit on the sea cliffs and at the Pass of Ballater where we mostly just toproped easy routes. After that intro I had a much better idea of what climbing outside was really like. We bought a rope and a few pieces of gear that we used to set up topropes. Me and Ant would get out and explore the local cliffs with another friend Craig who had just started climbing as well. Looking back on it now some of the stuff we did was really sketchy, we would swing about on a toprope that was set up with only a single nut. But we had a great time exploring new areas and being outside on rock. One of our first times out, we were climbing on some seacliffs just outside of the city and a pod of dolphins swam right into our little inlet and watched us climb, it was a perfect moment. Over that summer I added a few nuts and slings to my rack and started leading some really easy routes, my gear placements were pretty bad though, and we were climbing slabby routes where a fall would be messy. I’m lucky I didn’t have an accident back then, as it probably would have scared me off climbing, and I wouldn’t be where I am today. I didn’t really push myself, so I progressed pretty slowly, a year after I started climbing my hardest leads were V.Diffs and Severes (5.6 and 5.7 trad).

I would read everything about climbing I could get my hands on, mostly climbing magazines and websites. I found out that there were climbing competitions down in Edinburgh, three hours drive away, so over the winter Anthony and I would make the drive down. It was a reality check, I realized how much of a beginner I really was. At one of my first comps, a professional climber, Ben Moon, was there to hand out prizes and sign posters. I remember being in awe seeing how effortlessly he climbed, it made a big impact on me. To this day I still have his signed poster hanging on my bedroom wall. I really wanted to try bouldering outside, I saw photos in magazines that made it look really fun. But back then bouldering wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now (especially in Scotland). There were no established bouldering areas nearby, and barely any sport climbing so I just had to make do with what I had. In the summer of 02 I found out about a new bouldering spot that was being developed just 10 miles from my home, so I checked it out with Anthony. It was a cool place, the boulders weren’t too big and there were nice grassy landings, which was good since we didn’t have any mats. We managed a few problems up to 5b (V1), and a 5c (V2) that was probably soft. We even put up a FA of our own, its in the guidebook as 4b (V0-), but its still pretty tricky. The summer of 2002 we spent lots of time there as well as doing more easy trad, we also checked out a place called Cambus O’May which had the only sport climbs in the area, but most of the routes were too hard for us to try. That summer I worked in a climbing shop, which was great since I could get a good deal on more climbing gear, but ironically it also took away from my climbing time. I was to be exposed to a whole lot more climbing soon though, at the end of summer I moved down to Stirling about 3 hours from home to go to University. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos on my computer of my earliest climbing adventures, but maybe I can get my dad to scan in some old photos of me soon. Here are a couple from a bit later that’ll give you a taste of the next installment coming tomorrow, The College Years 2002-2006.

My first project 'The Crack' a V1 at Wolfcrag, November 2002



Working an awesome V2 at Wolfcrag, February 2003



NC3 WWU

Yesterday I competed in the first Northwest College Climbing Competition (NC3) of the year up at Western Washington University up in Bellingham. I’m not climbing really strong right now because of my lingering finger injury, but a group of guys from Olympia were headed up so I tagged along. Chas, Morgan, Micah and I represented Evergreen. Jimmy and Kevin climbed for SPSCC, and Andrew came up with us climbing for UW. The gym up at Western is not the biggest, so it was pretty crowded with a couple hundred students from the major colleges around Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The comp reminded me a lot of the university climbing competitions I went to in the UK, there was the same excitement, team outfits and fancy dress. But in the UK there was a lot more money in it, back then our university sports association would pay for our flight and accommodation and we weren’t even that good. I think if the NC3 comps stay this well attended, they should move them to bigger gyms.

Micah deafens onlookers with his power scream



Chas almost sticks the second dyno

Morgan respresenting Evergreen in Men's Open Finals

I climbed alright, I had good strategy and got in 5 kinda hard problems. I liked the fact that they had a 30 point bonus for flashing problems, I think 4 of my top 5 were flashes. But a major criticism a lot of people had with the comp was that they didn’t allow any smearing at all! This made the problems really awkward and contrived, and the rule was really hard to enforce. I ended up taking 7th in advanced, if I were in better shape, I think I could have challenged to get top three, the standard wasn’t all that high. Chas and Andrew climbed well in advanced category as well. Micah climbed strongly but struggled to finish off the hard problems and ended up ripping up his scorecard and just climbed for fun. Jimmy, Morgan and Kevin climbed awesome in open. Jimmy and Morgan got 2 of the 3 spots in the open finals, a guy from the UW took the third spot. While they were in isolation there was a dyno comp, I entered and made it past the first round, but the next dyno’s were huge, it was really fun to watch though. Then open finals came, they were closely matched until the steep and slopey final problem, which I knew would suit Jimmy’s style. And sure enough he flashed it to win! Here’s a really badly shot video I got of it.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday, and I think I’m going to compete in some other ones throughout the NW in the next couple of months. I missed the pre-registration for the one in Spokane next weekend, but I heard from a guy from Central that Vantage is dry, so I think I know where I’m going to be next weekend if the weather holds.


Team Oly (minus Chas) at Boomers in Bellingham afterwards

2011

Well it’s another new year, and that means I need to post my goals for the year. Looking back 2010 was another great year from a climbing perspective, I got out to new places, climbed hard and had a lot of fun. I climbed 191 new routes, which was less than what I’d done the previous two years but its still a good amount considering it rained for half the year. My 8a.nu route score went down a little, but I still had a pretty solid base of 12a onsights, and I managed to redpoint a 5.13a for my third year running which I’m really proud of. I got out bouldering a few times, and even though I wasn’t taking it as seriously as in previous years I still managed two (albeit soft) V8’s in Leavenworth. I did a handful of trad routes, but didn’t really get into it until towards the end of the year, my flash of Wartley’s Revenge at Smith has really got me psyched for getting on harder trad this year.


2011 is going to be a big year for me, I predict a lot of changes in my life. I graduate in June, and I’ll be looking for a teaching job. Where I end up will have a major impact on how much I climb and what kind of climbing I do. I would love to land a job in the Olympia area, but with the way the job market is now, that looks very unlikely. I will most likely have to move to get a full time teaching job, I’m just not sure yet how far I’m willing to move. One thing I know though, is that wherever I go there must be good climbing close by.

I know where I’m going to be the first half of this year though, and while I’m here I want to make the most of it. I hope to get out on some early season trips out to Vantage and Smith Rock focusing on trad. I’m planning a week-long smith trip for spring break, where I want to get on some harder trad routes, like Sunshine Dihedral, any other trad recommendations? Then once the weather gets better I can see myself spending a lot of time up in Squamish, goals are to get more efficient climbing longer trad routes, like Angel’s Crest, Squamish Buttress and The Grand Wall. And try to improve my trad onsight and redpoint levels. Over the summer I’m also keen to get on some big mountain routes in the Cascades, something I haven’t really done yet. I’m also really excited about going back to Tensleep WY, the climbing there is so much fun. I think the style suits me, and if I am in good shape going into the trip and spend a good amount of time on a project I think I’ve got a good chance of climbing my first 8a (5.13b) there. I think the theme for this year is to push myself mentally and physically to break boundaries. Here are a handful of my goals for this year, I think they are pretty ambitious.

1. redpoint 5.12c trad
2. onsight 5.11d trad
3. climb 5.11 trad multipitch
4. onsight 5.10 trad mountain route
5. redpoint 13b (8a) sport
6. climb 300 new routes clean
7. climb 30 pitches in a day
8. have fun bouldering with friends

What do you all think of my goals for this year?

Bishop over New Year

Just after Christmas Chas and I headed down to Bishop California for a week of bouldering. It was a cold week to be down there but we still ended up getting a lot done. We set up camp at the Pit, and ended up climbing only at the Happies all week, the Buttermilks were snowed out. I was worried about my injured finger, but I taped it up pretty good, and tried to avoid anything crimpy. Hanging off pockets didn’t hurt it, which was good because the Happies are all about pockets. On our first couple of days we managed a quite a few V4’s and V5’s pretty quickly. Chas was climbing really well for his first real bouldering trip, we didn’t find anything project worthy though. The temps were chilly, it was nice in the sun, but it was really tough when a strong wind was blowing. The forecast looked called for very cold temps and strong gusts, so we thought it would be a good chance to drive up to Mammoth to visit and old friend of Chas’. It was nice to sleep indoors and have a hot shower, but Mammoth was a little too crazy for me, and I was glad to return to Bishop the next day.

Chas sending a V4 "one finger!"



Me pulling on pockets on the west rim

We returned to the Pit to find my tent missing! It had blown away and was lying in a heap a hundred yards away, some people had pinned it down with big rocks. Apparently there had been crazy gusts and lots of people had lost tents, boulder mats and other things during the night. We decided it would be a good call to go in for a motel for the next couple of nights. It was definitely worth it. With a rest day behind us we were climbing really well, at least we thought so when I thought I had flashed a V7! And Chas was close on sending it too, but after about an hour of effort he checked the guide again and it turned out what we were doing was a undocumented traverse into a V2 that probably only clocked in at about V4. We were pretty bummed, but I did manage to flash a couple of V5’s afterwards and then we found a sweet V6 to work on. Its called WORK is a four letter word, up on the west rim. It starts with a powerful  steep move off small pockets to a left hand sloper, then you work your feet over and slap again to a slightly better sloper, hold the tension and bring your right hand up to a slopey dish then slap up to better holds. It was really sweet sequence with each move close to our limit. Chas came the closest to sending, but as dusk approached and the temps dipped below freezing , we knew we’d have to wait on it. That night for new years eve I enjoyed a couple of beers in the motel room and we watched a climbing movie, it was pretty low key, but we knew we had to save ourselves for the project.

The first powerful move of WORK is a four letter word

The next day we had one goal in mind, and after a quick warm-up we headed straight to it. With the beta wired, I knew all I had to do was execute the moves, on my first go I got to the last hard move, then on my next go I got it! I was pleased to have done it quick so I could try some other things. Chas however was getting frustrated on the problem. He worked it for a couple of hours with not much progress. Eventually, much after the point at which I would have given up, he summoned all his strength and got up the thing! I was just as pleased for him as he was. With not much time left in the day or skin left on my fingers, I taped my fingers all the way up and worked on pulling on the pockets as much as I could. I had a ton of fun working a V5, but I couldn’t link it all together (see second video). With another storm forecasted to be on the way, we decided to hit the road that night. We were both really satisfied with our sends. It was just exactly what I needed to get out for a quick trip before school starts up again, thanks Chas!

Me thinking I flashed a V7!

Almost sending a V5

The end of a good trip!

Injury Frustration

Since getting back from the Dominican, I've had a lot of free time, and I've been trying to focus my energy on climbing. I've been in the gym every single day since getting back, and would love to climb more and and for longer, but I've got a really annoying finger injury. The pulley in my right hand middle finger is inflamed. I think I picked it up in Smith, but it didn't seem too bad at the time, pocket pulling in the Dominican didn't help, and now that I'm climbing in the gym all the time its gotten a lot worse. I've applied an anti-inflamatory gel to it, and have been icing it and taping it when climbing. I know what I really need to do is rest it, but not climbing right now doesn't seem like an option. I'm in a time crunch because I'm headed on a trip down to Bishop with friends on the 26th-3rd, and really want to be able to climb hard without the pain then, but its asking a lot to recover from this in such a short period of time. Thoughts?

Dominic in the Dominican

I'm back from a two week visit to the Dominican Republic. It was quite a shock to go from snow and rain here in Olympia, to the sun and heat of Santo Domingo. It was really interesting visiting such a different city, but it seemed to me such a chaotic place. Driving around was scary, the drivers pay little attention to the rules of the road. I was wondering how there weren't more traffic accidents, then one night we were hit twice, and a couple of days later we witnessed the aftermath of a terrible accident where are car was wrecked so bad it was split clean in two 50 yards apart, and the drivers dead body was lying in the middle of the road for everyone to see.

I do bring back a lot of good memories though. Scuba diving with my dad was really fun, the water was probably the warmest I've dove in. And I played a lot of beach volleyball at a resort we stayed at for a few days, which was awesome, I really wish the weather was good here for beach volleyball. My sisters wedding (which was the main reason I was over there) was beautiful, she looked great in her wedding dress.



Me and my big sister Luisa



And I even managed to get some climbing in there as well. I met up with some Dominican climbers and they showed me the local crag, which was actually really sweet. It was a short steep limestone cliff stacked with stalactites, tufas, and pockets galore. It was tough climbing in the heat and humidity, but I managed to get up a bunch of 5.10's and 11's. A big thank you to the Santo Domingo climbing community for showing me around. If anyone is looking for information about the climbing there, look up the dominicanclimbing yahoo group and they will take care of you. Unfortunately I broke my camera early in the trip so not much photos, you'll just have to use your imagination.