Diabaig to Red Point Exped and Climbing at Beginners' Slabs

After a very successful first day, I asked the kids to pack their expedition packs and be ready to leave first thing.

We woke up to an absolute scorcher of a day without a single cloud in the sky - you don't get many of them in Scotland during the month of May - so I was determined to make the most of it. We loaded up the transit van, piled into the minibus and then headed along the road to Inveralligin. We stopped to take a couple of snaps at the Upper Diabaig viewpoint that looks down on Loch Torridon and I pointed out some of the peaks to the kids - what a glorious day. We then headed along the crazy road to Lower Diabaig and down to the pier at the shore. My plan was that James and Margot would walk with the kids around the coast, via Craig bothy, to Red Point beach. While Laurie and I would drive all the way round to Red Point with the bus and the van. Then Laurie and I would run in and meet the group from the other side.

Loch Torridon from the Upper Diabaig viewpoint

Looking accross to Beginners Slabs from the Upper Diabaig viewpoint

We left the group and headed back to the hostel to pick up some camping and BBQ supplies. Just as we were turning out of the hostel and onto the main road, we met the GWC Cycling Project who had stopped at the Ranger's Centre to take a breather. It was good to see Lewis, Jane, Pete and all the kids enjoying the cycling in the great weather. Nevertheless, I was secretly glad not to be on the Cycling Project this year after my shift on it the previous year - hard work indeed!

Shipwreck on the shore at Lower Diabaig

Loch Diabaig from Lower Diabaig

Heading around the coast from Lower Diabaig towards Craig Bothy

Laurie and I parked made the drive to Red Point in the glorious sunshine and parked the minibus at the end of the public road near the entrance to the farm track. Ideally, I wanted the group to camp in the dunes at the other beach at the end of the farm track but I wanted to drive the van down there so all of our kit could be close by. We found the farmer in one of his nearby fields; hard at work. We went over to him, introduced ourselves politely and explained the situation. He was very understanding and accommodating and he allowed us to drive the van down the bumpy track through his land.

Looking West to Skye from the coast near Lower Diabaig

Looking West to Skye from the coastal path near Craig Bothy

After abandoning the van at the top of the dunes, Laurie and I set off at a good pace to meet the others coming from the other direction. I had great fun bounding from rock to rock on the trail; Laurie, on the other hand... not so much! It was a glorious day and we had a great view to the West looking over to Skye above the brilliant blue sea. The others had made good time and I think some of the kids were surprised to see us, as we hadn't told them too much about what was happening.
It wasn't long before we were all back in the dunes looking for a good spot to camp. It was now rather blustery and the main section of the beach was quite exposed. Luckily there was a sheltered spot in a natural dip that was fairly still at it's base so we made camp there. I split the group into tents and gave them their various tasks for the evening: some would put up the tent, some would gather firewood and the remainder would be on BBQ duty (cooking). I have to give the kids credit here and say that they were extremely efficient and helpful - most impressive.

The group at Red Point in the dunes around the fire after a great day

After a successful disposable BBQ session, it was time for some games of touch rugby and ultimate frisbee. After everyone was tired out, we toasted marshmallows around a very impressive campfire on the shore until late - a great day.

Staff crew enjoying the fire at Red Point

The group at Red Point in the dunes around the fire after a great day

I woke everyone early, as I could see the weather wasn't great and I knew it would take us a while to pack up and get on our way. James and I were hoping to head back to Torridon and introduce the kids to some rock climbing at Beginners Slabs, Upper Diabaig. Sure enough, it was after 9am by the time we were in the minibus and on our way back to Torridon.

Packing away tents in blustery conditions at Red Point

Back at the Upper Diabaig viewpoint and heading over to Beginners Slabs for some rock climbing

We parked at the Upper Diabaig viewpoint and loaded the kids up with the climbing kit, ropes and bouldering mats for the short walk to Beginners Slabs. It was rather chilly compared to yesterday and the view wasn't quite as clear but we all layered up and didn't complain about it. James set up a bottom rope and I took 3 at a time to climb, belay and backup on the first slab - meanwhile James rigged an abseil. After everyone had tried their hand at abseiling, James then set up a top rope and the kids had a chance to climb the slightly harder and longer slab.

Bottom-roping at Beginners Slabs, Upper Diabaig

Top-roping at Beginners Slabs, Upper Diabaig

Top-roping at Beginners Slabs, Upper Diabaig

It was now rather chilly and it looked like it was about to rain so we called it a day and headed back to the hostel with a bunch of shattered kids.

Sheltering from the wind at Beginners Slabs, Upper Diabaig

Top-roping at Beginners Slabs, Upper Diabaig

On reflection, I was really happy with how the Red Point expedition had gone. It worked really well and I would definitely do it again and would even be a possible bad-weather option. Climbing at Beginners Slabs worked really well and it was great as a group venue - something that I will also bear in mind for future trips.

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

Climbing Wall Award (CWA) and Abseil Module Training

This weekend was mostly spent at the EICA under the excellent instruction of Nick Crawshaw and Euan Whittaker. Apparently this was the first CWA training course to be run in Scotland. I had put in a fair amount of hours with the GWC Climbing Club over the last few months and felt I had learned a great deal from watching the instructors teach the kids. This made me keen to get more involved with things and then I read online that the CWA was being introduced as an award scheme and that there would be a training course at the EICA. So I signed up straight away; keen to learn all that I could.

It was good to meet new folk that were also keen on climbing. There were a great mix of experience and knowledge in our group. A few were taking the training for similar reasons to me, and others were hoping to make a living by becoming full time climbing instructors. I think it was fair to say that I was one of the least experienced, but that didn't bother me at all; I was keen to learn from the others in the group too. We spent the first day at the EICA looking at group management, belaying, games, various belay devices and we also did some personal lead climbing. As part of the training, we needed to visit another climbing venue; so we headed across town to Meadowbank Climbing Wall. I have to say that this was nothing like any climbing wall I had ever seen before, but very interesting to see how indoor walls have progressed. It was basically a brick wall made from... well... bricks... and mortor, just like the wall of a building. Various bricks were missing or protruding to make surprisingly good hand and foot holds. We joked that this is where house burglars must train, as it was like scaling the walls to break into a building! Joking aside, this turned out to be a great little venue and I learned alot from it. We looked at the anchors, how the ropes were set up, load rating stickers and a little bit of Abseiling. There were large rings located in the floor at the bottom of the wall and we were shown how to belay from them using an Italian (Munter) hitch; an excellent technique I thought.
The next day we were back at the EICA; with the aim at perfecting the set up of abseils indoors. I had climbed outdoors with Richard before and had also seen him set up an abseil at a crag before and he had said to me that the principals were the same, but the anchors would be different. I didn't really have a clue about what to do at the top of a climb outdoors or how to rig a proper abseil so I was very keen to be shown how to do it. To my surprise, it wasn't too difficult or complicated but very important to break it down and follow each step at a time. As expected, the anchors used indoors are always specific, fixed anchors. A bit more practice and a mock assessment concluded a very useful two days. Many thanks to Nick and Euan for a great two days training.