I've guided Davy and Heather on Agags Groove and on Boomerang Gully in winter. This time out we decided to start getting them to take over some of the responsibility for themselves. A cool but quick drying day at Polldubh saw us climb Styx Buttress Right Wall (V Diff), The Gutter (Diff) and Pinnacle Ridge (Severe) whilst practising gear placements, belay building, belaying leaders and seconds. Heather was ever the lady with a tissue handy at all times. After our first trip out one of my pictures of her ended up on a wall in the gents toilets at the Ice Factor (on a course brochure!). This time maybe it'll be Davy with his tree 'wig' for the ladies!

Elaine and Jonathon were out with me for three days to move towards lead climbing on their own. Our first day (16 Sept) was particularily wet but we spent it at Polldubh climbing Hangover Butress Left Edge (the first route recorded at the crags), Cross 3 (a spectacular route for a single pitch Diff - a rising traverse with the exposure doubling with every move) and the rainy day favourite - the Gutter. Withme leading we focused on belay builidng, runner placements and lead and second belaying. For day two we drove out to Ardnamurchan - the west coaster's secret weapon for dodging the rain. We had sunny ut breezy weather. We warmed up with me leading Krakatoa (Severe) with the steep 4b finish. After that the guys led An Toiseach (V Diff) before following me up Greta Gabbro (VS 4c). Jonathon finished with a great lead of a single pitch Severe. For our third and final day we followed the forecast to Kingussie. Fresh snow on the tops meant we had a greasy day at Kingussie (where the gear is harder to come by) before finishing early to go for a hot drink at The Ice Factor where we spent some time consolidating on what we had done.

N Buttress and Dunkeld

Martin was keen to learn about mountaineering ropework so we went to North Butress on Buachaille Etive Mor. The varied angled ground of the route gave us plenty of scope for looking at routefinding and different techniques. Rich was looking to practise for his MIA assessment so I let him do most of the work!

Next day Lorenzo and I let Kenny and Rich use us a guinea pigs as we practised multi-pitch rope work on routes and Dunkeld.

Glen Nevis and Borrowdale

Nukshi and Simon had a dry day in glen Nevis for their intorduction to outdoor rock on 7th Sept. We did many of the old favourites and the midges were kept mostly at bay by the wind.

At the weekend Jane and I were at her parents' 40th wedding anniversary celebration but managed to stop at Shepherds long enough to do Chamonix and CMD.

Mountainbiking

Since picking up a knee injury this year I've been doing a lot more mountainbiking. As well as our local trails at Leanachan and Ballachullish we've been to Grizedale Forest in the Lakes, Learnie Red Rocks on The Black Isle and Wolftrax at Laggan and I've done numerous trips from Fort William to Kinlochleven over the West Highland Way and the big loop from Kinlochleven-Luibeilt-Leacach-Spean-Fort William-Kinlochleven. On the first of September Karl had his stag do at Grizedale and we did 2 days biking (amongst other things) led by the 'Leader of the Pack' in full Elvis regalia.

Back to work :-)

Back in Scotland I had a great 2 days out with Jen and her father Derek. Jen is a keen young climber from edinburgh and she and her father came up to try a liilte outdoor trad rock. On the first day we did a few routes in glen Nevis (Styx Butress Right Wall, Pinnacle ridge and Three Pines) and the second day we had great wehter on Agags Groove on the Buachaille.

Back in the UK

We had a few days hols left so we stayed with Jane's family in Keswick and managed to snatch some rock climbing at Wallowbarrow crag between the showers. We also got a little climbing done in Borrowdale before heading back north.