Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Blackford Bouldering

After an amazing week in The Lakes, I was super keen to climb as much as possible this summer. During the trip, Adam had suggested that I try a bit of bouldering at Blackford Glen on Agassiz Rock. Keen to make this my local crag, Emily and I set off after work with a couple of school bouldering mats into Blackford Glen. I had purchased a copy of the excellent guide book: Bouldering in Scotland and a bit of our local knowledge helped us find the crag in no time at all. The guide book and the ScottishClimbs page show diagrams of some of the illuminate (harder!) problems but I found them quite hard to pick out, to be honest. I stuck to the traverse problem: High Traverse F6b**
Agassiz Rock, Blackford
Agassiz Rock, Blackford
Agassiz Rock, Blackford
Agassiz Rock, Blackford
It was quite hard, I thought! Obviously not having climbed outside much wasn't doing me any favours, and the rock was quite harsh on the skin... to say the least! I had a few goes on it but couldn't quite get through the middle part, so I decided to split it up into two. The first section was easy and was mostly good jugs with polished footholds. The second half, from left to right, is on smaller holds and some slopers. I found the crux was moving from the high first section to the lower second part. I just couldn't make the link. Ah well... I would be back... hopefully frequently!
Climbing Hands, Blackford
Climbing Hands, Blackford