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.

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

GWC Staff Climbing at Traprain Law

We had a free session in the GWC Climbing Club schedule. The previous Wednesday had been the last in the current block but there was still another Wednesday before term ended. It was decided that to put it to good use, we should have a 'staff jolly'. The original plan was to simply head to the EICA but with the longer summer evenings now upon us and the weather looking good, it was decided that we should take the opportunity to do a bit of 'trading' outside. This really excited me, as I had never climed outside 'properly' before. Until now, most of my climbing experience had been on plastic and indoors.

We managed to get sorted and leave school pretty sharp without too much faffing. It wasn't long before our mini bus was on the other side of Haddington and we were gearing up after the short approach to Traprain Law. It really was a lovely evening in East Lothian; perfect conditions for climbing. I had been climbing fairly well and regularly over the last couple of months and I knew Jamie had been climbing a lot too and had also been doing some trading quite recently. It was decided that we would pair up, as he fancied doing something more challenging than the others. I said I would try and follow him up anything; I'd give it a good go anyway. Jamie started up Pinch (HS*), and was very quickly at the top and grining down at me. Jamie had given me a quick brief and a nut key. I had an idea about what to do with it but never actually used one before. I started up the rock face with feelings of what felt like nerves but also excitement. I had been watching Jamie very closely so I had an idea of the line, what moves would be needed and where he stood to place the gear. The first bit was straight up and fairly straightforward and, to my surprise, the first nut came out rather easily just by pulling it up in the opposite direction. The next bit of gear was up and to the left; in under the lip of the small overhang. I reached up and removed the cam with ease. It was then I hit the first snag... traversing left under the overhang, I couldn't quite reach up high enough to remove the bomber nut that I saw Jamie place on his lead. I had watched him reach up as high as he could to place it and I remember thinking that I probably would be short of that by quite a way. I had no option but to climb on until I was level with it and then try to remove it from a more difficult stance. I got along side the gear but didn't really have anything good for my feet to stand on; one was on a tiny edge and the other was simply smearing against the polished Trachyte. I pulled up on the nut but it just wasn't shifting. Being in that strenuous position for over a minute, I had to take a rest on the rope. "Bomber, that one, eh?" Jamie shouts down. Knackered, I just looked up at him and chuckled. Standing up again, I climbed a little higher and grabbed the quickdraw from above. Now with a more comfortable stance, I pulled up on the gear as hard as I could. It popped out of the crack to my delight. With the crux of the overhang conquered, the remainder was fairly easy and I didn't have any more problems removing the remaining bits of gear. A grinning Jamie greeted me at the top. I knew he could tell  by the look on my face that I had loved every moment, even when I was struggling to get the gear out.
My first proper experience of trading... well chuffed.
Topos of Traprain Law can be downloaded here.