Single Pitch Award (SPA) Assessment - Day 2

We met at Rosyth Quarry at 9am and geared up in the rain. After a lovely fresh autumn day yesterday at Traprain, the weather couldn't have been more different; it felt like a winter storm was coming. We headed into the quarry and we were each given our first tasks - mine was to rig a releasable abseil anywhere on the crag. I grabbed my gear and headed around the path to the top, trying not to slip and fall in the mud and the autumn leaves.
I soon had my rig ready to go and David was to be my client. Euan had asked him to undo the thread-back buckle of the waist belt of his harness, which I spotted almost immediately. It was an amusing moment, as David when pink and immediately apologised, as he felt bad about being involved in such trickery! David and Chris then ran their rigs of an abseil and bottom-rope respectively.
I was then asked to rig a bottom-rope using a ground anchor. At the bottom of Drizzle S, there was a conveniently positioned large boulder and a thread at the back of it - perfect. I then ran my bottom-rope with bell-ringing using the ground anchor and an italian hitch as the belay. By this time, the rain had turned into quite a heavy shower so Euan gave the word for us to pack everything up asap and make our escape.
We headed back to the EICA for a quick coffee before re-grouping down in the main arena. David was the first to play instructor and took Chris and I through a great 15-minute warm up. Then I took over and treated David and Chris as my two clients who were here for a one-off climbing session. I tied Chris in and gave a quick demo of belaying (up-down-slide-slide) before David took over while I backed up and coached along the way. After practicing lowering down, Euan instructed Chris to pretend to be stuck just over halfway up the wall. I then performed a bottom-rope rescue using my Gri-gri. Then Chris took over and took us through tying in using a figure-of-eight etc.
Euan than said that he was happy with everything that he was seeing from us so he said he wanted to 'workshop' bottom-rope rescues. When I performed my rescue, I tied off my Gri-gri as an 'extra' safety, but Euan told me that I didn't need to and showed us how to do it to avoid slack in the system. He said that what I had done was totally safe but he just wanted to show us how it could be done in fewer steps - very useful indeed and I could see how it was a much simpler method. He then showed us how to self belay on an adjacent climb with a separate bottom-rope. He said that this could be useful on a steep wall when it is difficult to avoid putting weight on the rope when climbing up to the stuck client. Again, very useful.
Euan said that the assessment was now at an end but it would take him a wee while to sort out all of the necessary paperwork so he asked us if we wouldn't mind waiting upstairs in the cafe. After a coffee and a scone, it wasn't long before Euan emerged and told us there and then that we had all passed. It was big smiles all round and after congratulating each other, Euan called me over for my individual debrief.
The feedback was very positive indeed and I was very pleased with how the two days of assessment had gone. He said that I shouldn't stop climbing, as this would make me a better coach and instructor. I told him that I really wanted to get more involved in coaching climbing and he gave some advice about what my next steps should be and what courses to avoid. I was told that now I had my SPA that I would be able to get insurance through MTA and I would then be able to coach at the EICA. Euan also recommended that I should try to attend the BMC's FUNdamentals of climbing workshops and also think about aiming for the Climbing Wall Leading Award (CWLA).
It was a great feeling to get this award done so that I can now move forward with my coaching goals and gain further experience and focus on progressing to the next stage (level). Many thanks to Nic Crawshaw and Euan Whittaker for yet another excellent course. More on Euan's blog.

Single Pitch Award (SPA) Assessment - Day 1

I couldn't put it off any longer: it was time for my SPA assessment. The summer had been quite a busy one but I had still managed to fit in lots of climbing, had practice lots of rigging and and Emily had been my 'client' to practice my rescues.

We met at the EICA at 8am for a few introductions. I knew David Walker from the SPA training course in June and Chris Ravey seemed like an interesting and splendid chap. With the formalities out of the way, Euan Whittaker talked us through the plan for the next two days. He told us that we had all performed well on the SPA training and he expected us all to do well on this assessment... no pressure then!

Euan Whittaker at the top of Overhang Wall, Traprain Law

We jumped into the Land Rover and headed to Traprain Law. When we arrived, we found that the right-of-way through the field to the crags seemed to have been ploughed over but there were no signs. Not wanting to aggravate a potential access issue, we jumped back in the 4x4 and parked round at the quarry on the North side of The Law. After some difficulty finding the correct path, we were finally at the foot of the crag gearing up. Nic Crawshaw met us there and it was decided that Euan would climb with me, while Nic would oversee David and Chris climbing together. I set my sights on Left Edge S** - I figured I might as well get the Severe climb out of the way for the day. The rock was drier than I was expecting and the going was good until I reached the prominent crack; that was dripping wet. Despite this, the climbing was actually quite nice. I placed plenty of decent wires and found a huge block at the top for the belay but I wanted an additional anchor, as it was an assessment after all! After some hunting around, I found a good cam placement high up the slope and then brought Euan up. After inspecting my belay and giving me some feedback, we headed back down and I started up Deception VD. To my surprise it was a very enjoyable climb, if a little damp. I continued up to the higher grassy rocks and used a single huge block for the belay. Euan came up soon after and told me that he had left a couple of pieces of gear in on the climb and asked me to abseil down and get them. I quickly rigged a personal abseil using the big block (and a secondary block) and headed down to get the gear. I stopped at each of the runners and used body wraps for safety. I was soon on the ground and sorting out my rack.

Chris running his bottom-rope with David and Nic as his clients, Overhang Wall, Traprain Law

Euan then dismantled my rig and joined my at the bottom of the crag again. Next, he asked my to rig a top-rope on Wheech's Overhang VS 5a*. I grabbed my rigging rope and headed up and around the right side of the crag. I found a huge block and a decent flake to use as anchors and I had soon rigged the semi-static line to these. Next was the dynamic rope which was made a little tricky by the awkward stance on the complex and steep terrain. Nevertheless I was soon ready to go and so was Euan, who was now being treated as my client. He tried to get up and over the overhang but the rock was soaking so he detoured around the side to get above the overhang. Then he became disgruntled, upset with me and refused to to lowered down (acting of course!) - so I quickly set up a y-hang and lowered down to rescue him. I made a slight error here and ended up too far below Euan - much to his delight; as soon as I had him safely attached, he jumped up in the air and crashed into me to demonstrate my error! Nevertheless, when we were back on the ground again, Euan said that it was still perfectly safe and that he just did that to demonstrate what could happen and to remind me not to do it again! Fair enough!

Chris running his bottom-rope with David and Nic as his clients, Overhang Wall, Traprain Law

I was then told to relax and pack up, as that was me finished for the day - I breathed a sigh of relief. Chris had been busy running a bottom-rope with David as his client and they were now finished too. As we headed back along the A1, I reflected on the first day. I was really happy with how things had gone so far and it certainly gave me confidence going into the second day of assessment tomorrow. Also, a great day climbing and the weather was rather fine indeed.

Single Pitch Award (SPA) Training - Day 1

I had finally found some time to fit in my SPA training and had signed up for a 3 day course at the EICA with Euan Whittaker. I knew Euan quite well from the EICA and he, along with Nic Crawshaw, had ran the CWA training course I was on a few years back.

We met at the EICA at 9am and chatted over a coffee and all introduced ourselves to each other. There were two other chaps on the training: David Walker and Steven Softly. David had recently started work at the Falkirk Community Trust Outdoor Centre and was just starting to get into his rock climbing but seemed super keen. Steven said he worked as a lecturer at Anniesland College and was trying to get through most of the outdoor awards before he got too old for them - but he looked in pretty good shape to me!

The main arena, EICA, Ratho

After a coffee and a chat, we headed downstairs to the indoor wall where we looked at some different techniques at lead belaying with a Grigri, as well as demonstrating back-clipping, death-clipping and z-clipping. Euan said that he didn't want to spend too long on the indoor syllabus because he knew that we had all done the CWA training in the past so he wanted to be outside and focusing on the real rock as much as possible - fine by me.

Euan Whittaker demonstrating a personal abseil, The Hawkcraig, Aberdour

It was a cracking hot sunny day without a cloud in the sky so we jumped into the Land Rover and headed across the bridge to The Hawkcraig at Aberdour. It was high tide when we arrived but we got straight into some personal trading. I climbed with David and he lead a Diff and then I lead Fish Head Arete VD*, while Euan climbed with Steven and checked out our gear placement and anchors at the top. He seemed happy with our personal climbing so we moved on to looking at anchors and building belays with gear, slings, screwgates, and the rope.

Euan Whittaker demonstrating a personal abseil, The Hawkcraig, Aberdour

We then moved our gear up to the halfway platform and Euan demonstrated how to rig and perform a personal abseil to retrieve some stuck gear. Then it was our turn to have a go; we spent the final 40 minutes rigging in a variety of places while the hot sun shone down on us and it's rays reflected of the bright blue sea. We then descended from the platform and packed up our gear. The tide was now far enough out to wander around the corner and inspect the rest of the great crag. I definitely have to go back there for more climbing - what a location!

Euan and Steven enjoying the sun at The Hawkcraig, Aberdour

David Walker enjoying the sun at The Hawkcraig, Aberdour

We headed back to the EICA and called it a day from there. On the way back we drove past the entrance to Rosyth Quarry and Euan pointed out where he wanted us to meet tomorrow morning. It had been a very useful and productive day - I had certainly learnt a lot and hopefully got rid of a few bad habits that I had picked up over the years while trading with a variety of different folk.

My view of my rig before abseiling over the edge of The Hawkcraig, Aberdour

Sport Climbing - North Berwick Law Quarry

It was a very clear blue-sky day and we were keen to make the most of it. Without any planning, we took the easy option and headed for North Berwick Law Quarry.

Down safely after leading Wild Iris F5+**, North Berwick Law Quarry

It was after lunch before we were at the car park and gearing up. It was a fantastic day - not a cloud in the sky. As we headed round to the Quarry, we saw many folk out on The Law and making the most of the good weather. When The Red Wall came into, to my surprise, there were a number of folk already on a number of the climbs.

Lots of gorse on route, North Berwick Law Quarry

Down safely after leading Wild Iris F5+**, North Berwick Law Quarry

I decided that I would warm up by leading Wild Iris F5+**. It was a little tricky about halfway due to the gorse bushes being in full bloom! Safely down, it was Emily's turn to follow on the bottom-rope. It was at this point that a fellow climber, a middle-aged gentleman who had been climbing just next to us, came over and asked me how the route was. I grinned at him and told him that it was a little "gorsey" and dirty. He smiled back at me and then proceeded to quiz me about what I had done at the top of the route. He asked me if I had placed two quick draws through the lower-offs and I told him that I hadn't; I had just threaded the lower-offs in the usual textbook fashion. For some reason he didn't seem like he was too convinced by what I had done and asked me if I had my SPA. "No", I replied, "But I climb regularly and have climbed here a few times before". He then left us alone to climb. I'm not sure what his problem was, but Emily followed up the climb in no time.

Bottom-roping Old Law Breaker F6b**, North Berwick Law Quarry

Looking up The Red Wall, North Berwick Law Quarry

Leaving the rope up, I bottom-roped Old Lawbreaker F6b** and tried to work out the sequence. The climb has a couple of hard and committing moves to better holds higher up, but having worked it out I didn't fancy the lead - perhaps next time.

Having a look at the rather bold-looking Darkness Falling F6a+*, North Berwick Law Quarry

Shiny stuff, North Berwick Law Quarry

Taking down our rope, we now had the Quarry all to ourselves. I had a long hard look at Darkness Falling F6a+* but the move to the first bolt still looked terrifying. Feeling a tired and far from brave enough, we called it day. Fish and chips on the shore in North Berwick were calling. A great day.

Looking up The Red Wall, North Berwick Law Quarry

Emily enjoying the sun, North Berwick Law Quarry

Traprain Law

Over the past week, Emily and I have made two evening visits to Traprain Law (East Lothian) for our first 'real' attempts at some Trad climbing. Having broken ourselves in gently with some sport climbing in Gairloch, I hadn't really used most of my new gear, so I was keen to put it to more use on the rocks this summer. I had purchased a copy of the Lowland Outcrops guidebook and at first glance, Traprain Law looked like it had quite a few easy routes. Some folk at work had suggested Rosyth Quarry but I wasn't sure it was the best idea, as it may well have been full of young 'layabouts'.

Setting up the belay at the top of The Vertical Ladder VD*, Traprain Law

As it happens, Monday was a great evening to be out at Traprain - as we had the whole place to ourselves and the weather was just lovely. I thought we had better start on something easy so a quick scan of the crag and the guidebook had me eying up The Vertical Ladder VD*. I had been doing a lot of reading of various climbing manuals and chatting to a few mates that climbed about Trading so I felt that I had a pretty good idea about what I had/needed to do with all the gear etc; the only problem being that I'd never really done it before and had very little experience at this sort of thing. But anyway, undeterred, off I went with my half rack of nuts and hexes clinking away on my harness. The climbing was actually very easy; it was trying to place the gear 'well' that was the problem. I found it interesting, as I was automatically drawn to try and use the bigger hexes in the bigger cracks; simply because I trusted them more than the smaller wires. Once I had figured out how the hexes worked and how they needed to be placed to 'cam', all was well and I was putting in loads of gear all over the shop in order to get a bit of practice in. I felt totally at ease and completely comfortable until I was almost at the very top of the climb. Straight above me and in front of me was a very large block that, quite frankly, seemed impassable! After a good few minutes of feeling around with my hands, I eventually found the good holds and was able to pull myself over the block. But I still thought it was a bit exposed and a great deal harder than the rest of the climb had been - scary stuff!

Abseiling down The Vertical Ladder VD*, Traprain Law

After a few moments to catch my breath, I managed to get two solid hex placements in as my two good anchors. A few screwgates and a couple of clove hitches later and I was ready to bring Emily up safely. We had practiced all this at home over the weekend so we were pretty comfortable with the set up and the calls. Not to my surprise: Emily flew up the climb and did a great job of pulling out the gear. As I thought, she wasn't too happy with going over the large block at the end so I suggested that she move to the left and finish up there instead; which she did in her usual style.

Abseiling at Traprain Law

Totally elated with our efforts, we wanted more! So we abseiled back down the crag and we quickly dispatched Shuffle VD (me leading once again). A brilliant first evening of Trading together and we were both beaming all the way back to Edinburgh.

With the good weather still holding, we went back on Wednesday we managed to tick: Spider Route 1 S, Spider Route 2 S, Brute S, Double Stretch S* and The M.S. Route HS**. We were a lot quicker completing the climbs as a team the second night and we both agreed that they didn't feel much harder than the first climb we did on Monday night but it was probably mostly down to our confidence growing. Very happy with how the week has gone and super excited to get out on more rock!

Abseiling at Traprain Law

Grass Crag, Gairloch

After a great start to the summer so far, my folks were due over for a couple of weeks holiday in July. They hadn't been very far north before so they fancied doing a bit of a road trip - with me as tour guide. Naturally, I was more than willing; as I never miss an excuse to go north for some outdoor action.
Our first day was spent driving to Kinlochewe from Glasgow; a lovely scenic drive but not forth mentioning here. We settled into our B+B and then made some plans for the next day. I was keen to show my folks Gairloch, as I knew it would be right up their street, and I was also keen to do some climbing (I had really got the bug after The Lakes, some bouldering and having just purchased some shiny gear). I had borrowed a copy of Scottish Rock - North and had just had a quick skim through the local area. Being new to trading, I didn't really want to try anything too daunting and I wasn't too clued up on anchors at the moment so I was a bit unsure about what we could do. But then I found Grass Crag, very close to Gairloch. A small sports crag with a short approach and some easier graded routes - perfect.

Grass Crag, Gairloch

After exploring Gairloch in the sun and taking in a hot chocolate from the excellent Mountain Coffee Company, Emily and I set off to find this crag. We parked at the tip entrance on the right hand side of the road, as you head out of Gairloch towards Poolewe. We grabbed our gear an set off due northwest over the boggy terrain. After around 15 minutes of bog-slogging, we spotted the shiny bolts glinting in the sunlight - we had arrived!

Grass Crag, Gairloch

We geared up and were soon ready to climb. We were focussed on the far right end of the crag - where the easy routes were. I set off leading Third and Final F5+ and it looked ok from the bottom. The rock was warm but rather harsh on the skin; fingertips especially. It was quite easy climbing and it didn't feel daunting in the slightest, considering it was my first sport lead in the outdoors. I was soon at the top and clipped into the lower-off... not to attempt the thread.

Grass Crag, Gairloch

I recently invested in a copy of Libby Peter's excellent book: Rock Climbing - Essential Skills and Techniques and I had read up on what to do at the top of a sport climb with a lower-off. It was fairly straightforward but I just had to concentrate to make sure that I did everything in the right order. But it was nae bother and I was soon securely attached to my figure-of-eight on a bite of the rope and being lowered safely to the ground with a huge grin on my face :-D
Next it was Emily's turn. She had never climbed outside before but was super-keen to give it a try and she flew up it in no time at all - I was most impressed. With the rope still up, I thought it would be rude not to give something harder a shot on a bottom rope so I had a bash at Kick Ass Yoga F6a+. This felt a lot harder than what we had just done and I struggled up to the top but ticked it nonetheless - happy with that.

Grass Crag, Gairloch

We packed up and headed back to the car and then met up with my folks at The Old Inn for some excellent grub. I was nice to share and reflect on our afternoon at the crag over good food and with good company. When we headed outside later on, we saw that the sun was heading towards the horizon and that it was going to be a spectacular sunset that evening. We headed back to Kinlochewe and I remembered from the Cycling Project last year, that there was a fantastic viewpoint just a wee bit up the road from Kinlochewe.
We made it there just in time to snap a few amazing pictures of the sunset - what an end to a great day.

Sunset over Loch Maree