Huntly's Crag 7-8-11

These are the pics from my latest trip. This time myself and andy another instructor headed west to escape the rain. We ended up going all the way past Aviemore (about 2.5 hours) to a place called Huntly's cave. Its a cool little crag with only a 5 min walk from the road which was well revieved. The whole crag is quite blocky with big roofs and corners which create a great atmosphere and nice exposed climbing. We both managed to get 3 leads in each before the rain finally caught up with us bringing a greasy end to our exploits.

The climbs we did were:
Me -Slot Direct S** 10m
Cave Route HS*** 25m
Diagonal VS*** 25m

Andy- Right Hand Groove VD* 10m
Jam Crack HS 8m
Slot Direct S** 10m

Me on Slot Direct, the route follows up the crack providing plenty of opportunity for bridging.

Andy faffing about on Right Hand Groove trying to place the worlds most perfect nut.

This is Cave Route, one of my climbs. The route is fairly aptly named seeing as near the top in that shadowy looking cave theres an almost body with slot all the way through to the far side. The route starts up the slab at the bottom, continuing up the corner to the first route where you traverse right and then up to the second roof . Coming back right you squeeze your way up the slot just visible on the right of the final roof. Great fun.

Climb now....read later!

Me nearing the traverse on cave route.

Andy after beasting past the surprisingly strenuous crux of jam crack. His first HS, well done Andy you're a big boy now.

My third route, Diagonal. Starting on the right of the picture and climbing up to the first blocky roof. Traversing right underneath it a strenuous swing around the corner brings you up into the corner leading to the next roof. Some great exposed climbing coming around under the last roof brings you to a similar finish to cave route.

Andy on his way up Slot Direct after the rain had made everything nice and greasy.

These are the pictures from my first days climbing since moving to Scotland. The venue was An Buachaill Etive Mór and the weather was spectacular with views all the way to the horizon.After about an hours walk in I lead the first pitch leading up to the bottom of the main climb, a three pitch VS called Hiccup, which Isi my boss lead. The climb was nice and sustained with great exposure. At the top of the climb we got onto Curved ridge which the three of us soloed. From the top of this it was a quick climb to the top of Crowberry Tower for a few pics then on to the summit. We walked back down to the car and headed to the Clachaig for a sneaky pint before heading home. Not a bad day out at all.