A few years ago I bolted a brilliant line across the big roof on Beinn an Lochain, but never got round to trying it. After I returned to the crag on a flying visit with Magnus Midtbø, I was a bit captured by the crag and bolted and climbed several other new lines, cleaned several more of the existing lines, and then got to work on the big roof. It was as much a battle with the terrible summer rain as anything else. But I was delighted with the end result - No Remorse, a really cool 8c. This video shows it off, looking good in even the worst of the July Monsoon.
Thank you so much to all of you who have been pre-ordering Moving the Needle this week. It really means a lot and you’ve helped us so much with the expensive business of publishing a book.
I’ve always tried to be an all round climber in terms of performance. But just because you spread yourself thinly across disciplines in performance doesn’t mean you should do the same in training. In this video about a lovely and hard project, I explore the results of an adventure in specialising to try and improve my skills as a generalist. It was a rough ride!
My course on climbing technique is out now on Altitude. As part of the launch week, I’m doing a live Q&A tomorrow night (August 5th). Please do join us!
I managed to lead the Gorge Crag project in Glen Nevis. I’d seen this line years ago but various things put me off trying it earlier. It’s in the sun too much in summer, seeps a bit in winter, top pitch seemed to have no holds etc… But Julian Lines encouraged me to get on it. As always with projects, once you start…
A video about adventures on hard projects over the dark months of the winter, with thoughts on why I’ve succeeded or failed on them.
A new film on my YouTube channel now which I made with the John Muir Trust. It's about me making the first free ascent of Keystone (E8) in Glen Nevis in the summer. But although Glen Nevis is somewhere I thought I knew quite well and have spend a lot of time in, I also explore the reasons why this corner of the glen seems so different from the rest of the Glen, and the hills in general. That story is one of land, money and power.
If you would like to know a bit more about the trees I’m talking about in the film, there is more info about them at https://www.johnmuirtrust.org/mountainwoodland
Videos of Robbie’s first ascent and my second ascent on the same day of What we do in the Shadows E10 at Duntelchaig. This was a project we tried together a fair bit during the autumn of 2020 and then came together for both of us last month on a great climbing day.
A video about the first ascent of Zero, 8B at Rooftown near Inverness. I’d been trying this line intermittently across two winters, lockdowns permitting (mostly not permitting).
Video of two great first ascents in Glen Nevis over the the lockdown period. Both I’d cleaned and briefly tried some years ago and I did enjoy going back and completing them. Both were way better than I’d remembered!
I finished my degree! I celebrated with two E8 trad routes. I’ll do a topo of this brilliant crag soon.
The first ascent of Lithium 8B+ (V14) and the hardest boulder I've climbed so far. Some more about the story of this ascent and many others in the movie Undisovered https://vimeo.com/ondemand/undiscovered
I’ve been visiting this great boulder on and off over the past few weeks. Yesterday I put up a really nice new 8A, despite struggling a bit to get it in climbable condition recently. Well, that, and I couldn’t actually climb it. I’ve been trying a much harder project going straight up from the same start. Its a really good line and worth persisting with. At present I cannot do one move even after about four sessions on it. But I am getting closer. One thing is for sure, I’ll not get closer to unlocking it if I don’t show up and try. That is the subject of the vlog episode above (Vlog #42).
My blogging frequency has dropped a bit of late since I have been back at university studying lately. Although actually the main sink on my time has been a he task I’ve been putting off for over two years. I’ve been gathering scientific papers related to nutrition for four years now. There are nearly 2000 in my library at this point. I’ve avoided the hard labour of sorting them into buckets so I can easily make sense of them. But I’m attacking that task now. It will take me ages! But there is no short cutting it, and it will be worth it in the end.
I have spent a long time perfecting how to send hard projects which are above my level. Here are five of the most significant top level factors that I use constantly, either consciously or otherwise to make the send happen.
After climbing Hunger, I took a short break. Now time for a new 9a project!
Many of you have emailed me over the past week to ask what I think of a big budget movie just released on Netflix called The Game Changers. The movie promotes the idea that a plant-based diet will be beneficial for health and sport performance. It also suggests that eating meat will have the opposite effect. In this episode (Vlog #31), I watch the movie and offer some quick thoughts on its content and a look at some of the evidence presented in the film. Below is a list of references I discuss in the episode. I encourage you to read all of them, not just take either the Game Changers, or my own views at face value.
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31569235 Johnston, B. C., Zeraatkar, D., Han, M. A., Vernooij, R. W. M., Valli, C., El Dib, R., Marshall, C., Stover, P. J., Fairweather-Taitt, S., Wójcik, G., Bhatia, F., de Souza, R., Brotons, C., Meerpohl, J. J., Patel, C. J., Djulbegovic, B., Alonso-Coello, P., Bala, M. M. & Guyatt, G. H. 2019. Unprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption: Dietary Guideline Recommendations From the Nutritional Recommendations (NutriRECS) Consortium. Annals of Internal Medicine.
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31622423 Händel, M. N., Cardoso, I., Rasmussen, K. M., Rohde, J. F., Jacobsen, R., Nielsen, S. M., Christensen, R. & Heitmann, B. L. 2019. Processed meat intake and chronic disease morbidity and mortality: An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PLOS ONE, 14, e0223883.
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1973470 Ornish, D., Brown, S. E., Scherwitz, L. W., Billings, J. H., Armstrong, W. T., Ports, T. A., McLanahan, S. M., Kirkeeide, R. L., Brand, R. J. & Gould, K. L. 1990. Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial. Lancet, 336, 129-33.
4. https://archive.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/gladiator.html
5. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0110489 Lösch, S., Moghaddam, N., Grossschmidt, K., Risser, D. U. & Kanz, F. 2014. Stable Isotope and Trace Element Studies on Gladiators and Contemporary Romans from Ephesus (Turkey, 2nd and 3rd Ct. AD) - Implications for Differences in Diet. PLOS ONE, 9, e110489.
6. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141020090006.htm
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23988511 Rizzo, N. S., Jaceldo-Siegl, K., Sabate, J. & Fraser, G. E. 2013. Nutrient profiles of vegetarian and nonvegetarian dietary patterns. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 113, 1610-1619.
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28534027 Phillips, S. M. 2017. Current Concepts and Unresolved Questions in Dietary Protein Requirements and Supplements in Adults. Front Nutr, 4, 13.
9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10584048 Campbell, W. W., Barton, M. L., Jr., Cyr-Campbell, D., Davey, S. L., Beard, J. L., Parise, G. & Evans, W. J. 1999. Effects of an omnivorous diet compared with a lactoovovegetarian diet on resistance-training-induced changes in body composition and skeletal muscle in older men. Am J Clin Nutr, 70, 1032-9.
10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17684208 Hartman, J. W., Tang, J. E., Wilkinson, S. B., Tarnopolsky, M. A., Lawrence, R. L., Fullerton, A. V. & Phillips, S. M. 2007. Consumption of fat-free fluid milk after resistance exercise promotes greater lean mass accretion than does consumption of soy or carbohydrate in young, novice, male weightlifters. Am J Clin Nutr, 86, 373-81.
11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1323303/ Volek, J. S. & Feinman, R. D. 2005. Carbohydrate restriction improves the features of Metabolic Syndrome. Metabolic Syndrome may be defined by the response to carbohydrate restriction. Nutrition & Metabolism, 2, 31.
12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18396172 Volek, J. S., Fernandez, M. L., Feinman, R. D. & Phinney, S. D. 2008. Dietary carbohydrate restriction induces a unique metabolic state positively affecting atherogenic dyslipidemia, fatty acid partitioning, and metabolic syndrome. Progress in Lipid Research, 47, 307-318.
13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16443784 Nieuwdorp 2006 Glycocalyx Nieuwdorp, M., van Haeften, T. W., Gouverneur, M. C. L. G., Mooij, H. L., van Lieshout, M. H. P., Levi, M., Meijers, J. C. M., Holleman, F., Hoekstra, J. B. L., Vink, H., Kastelein, J. J. P. & Stroes, E. S. G. 2006. Loss of Endothelial Glycocalyx During Acute Hyperglycemia Coincides With Endothelial Dysfunction and Coagulation Activation In Vivo. Diabetes, 55, 480.
14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2352199/ Key, T. J., Thorogood, M., Appleby, P. N. & Burr, M. L. 1996. Dietary habits and mortality in 11,000 vegetarians and health conscious people: results of a 17 year follow up. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 313, 775-779.
15. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29674591 Smith, F. A., Elliott Smith, R. E., Lyons, S. K. & Payne, J. L. 2018. Body size downgrading of mammals over the late Quaternary. Science, 360, 310.
16. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-latin-america-50330717
17. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618215011829 Wißing, C., Rougier, H., Crevecoeur, I., Germonpré, M., Naito, Y. I., Semal, P. & Bocherens, H. 2016. Isotopic evidence for dietary ecology of late Neandertals in North-Western Europe. Quaternary International, 411, 327-345.
18. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24694282 Helander, H. F. & Fändriks, L. 2014. Surface area of the digestive tract – revisited. Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 49, 681-689.
19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4844163/ Sobiecki, J. G., Appleby, P. N., Bradbury, K. E. & Key, T. J. 2016. High compliance with dietary recommendations in a cohort of meat eaters, fish eaters, vegetarians, and vegans: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Oxford study. Nutr Res, 36, 464-77.
20. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23183299 Carpenter, K. J. 2012. The discovery of vitamin C. Ann Nutr Metab, 61, 259-64.
21. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16848698 Cahill, G. F., Jr. 2006. Fuel metabolism in starvation. Annu Rev Nutr, 26, 1-22.
22. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5056667 Drenick, E. J., Alvarez, L. C., Tamasi, G. C. & Brickman, A. S. 1972. Resistance to symptomatic insulin reactions after fasting. The Journal of clinical investigation, 51, 2757-2762.
23. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9311957 Popovich, D. G., Jenkins, D. J., Kendall, C. W., Dierenfeld, E. S., Carroll, R. W., Tariq, N. & Vidgen, E. 1997. The western lowland gorilla diet has implications for the health of humans and other hominoids. J Nutr, 127, 2000-5.
24. https://journals.lww.com/nutritiontodayonline/Fulltext/2018/07000/ Assessing_the_Role_of_Cattle_in_Sustainable_Food.5.aspx#pdf-link Layman, D. K. 2018. Assessing the Role of Cattle in Sustainable Food Systems. 53, 160-165.
25. https://www.biogeosciences.net/16/3033/2019/ Howarth, R. W. 2019. Ideas and perspectives: is shale gas a major driver of recent increase in global atmospheric methane? Biogeosciences, 16, 3033-3046.
Celebrating a send with junk never seemed to work for me. I go through what I do instead. The original blog post that inspired this episode from 2009.
I could feel the remaining window of autumn was closing pretty fast to lead my Shuas project. On one hand, I did expect to be good enough to be even close to leading it, so its hard to be frustrated. On the other, as it dawned on me that there actually was a possibility I could do it, I was obviously highly motivated to grab the chance. I arranged with Masa Sakano to climb there on a good forecast and started to get scared.
As I left the house to meet Masa and his friend Ed in the morning, it rained most of the drive over (not forecast). But it was dry at the car park, so we proceeded. In the vlog episode above you can see it turned out to be a desperate day for preparing myself for a lead, with constant start-stops with rain showers.
On my first attempt, I slipped off one of the holds on the technical crux, but thankfully a body length before the runout gets into the slab-hitting zone. Thankfully the gear all held, although I later saw that the cam on the left-hand rope had half slipped out of its placement and had held on two cams. This probably helped me relax a bit. The second attempt I climbed the crux probably better than I ever have and same for the upper crux. I was definitely climbing well for me and feeling fit, light and strong.
Overall I’d say the route is almost as hard as I’ve climbed on trad. It was a long time ago but probably only Echo Wall is harder, since it is more serious again with poorer protection. In some ways, this route is more similar to Rhapsody - both in the region of 8c to top-rope. But this one has ground fall potential from a couple of moves at the end of the crux, and is in a mountain situation rather than an accessible roadside crag. So you may well ask why do I give it E10 when Rhapsody appears to have held its grade at E11.
The short answer is I’m not sure and just being a bit conservative really. I climbed Rhapsody a long time ago and maybe its harder than I remember? I’m also maybe not as bold to apply such a ridiculous grade as E11 as I was in the past. I’m not sure if that is right or wrong. It’s also not that important - someone else will come along and repeat it at some point and will have a more objective view than me. All that’s really important to know is that aside from Echo Wall I’ve not climbed a harder trad route than this.
I will be back to Shuas next summer. Not for anything quite as hard, but there are at least three more routes of E8 or harder that I’ve either cleaned already or know are possible. Its such a great place and can’t wait to get back there. For now, I can move on to several other projects for the autumn and winter, from a base of climbing well and feeling confident.
Oh, one last thing, the name comes from the Soundgarden song which I listened to a couple of times while jogging up and down the hill to try this project. Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I’ve spoken recently about depression and suicide and one of many horrible losses in recent years was Chris Cornell who sung the song.
I first saw Creag Mo as most folk do when you’ve just come off the ferry from Skye and drive over the pass from Tarbert and drop down into Glen Scaladale. It dominates the lovely vista across Glen Scaladale to the Isle of Harris hills. I could see straight away that it would have massive new route potential for me. But given the weather luck we had on early Outer Hebrides trips, it was actually some years later when I first stood at the foot of it.
I went there with Brian Hall to check out potential new routes for a BBC film (which eventually became The Triple 5). I wanted to inspect the massive horizontal roof in the centre of the crag and Brian belayed me for hours as I aided across it and gave it an initial clean. That line was my first new route on the crag, climbed with Tim Emmett for the BBC film: The Realm E8 6c, 6b.
A few years later I returned on a very quick trip with Calum Muskett, we added another couple of great E5s, and cleaned and very briefly tried three other new routes but didn’t have time or weather to see them through. Two of them became The Mighty Chondrion E7 6c, 5c with Masa Sakano and then, a couple of weeks ago, The Hard Drive E7 6c, again with Masa.
The name ‘The Hard Drive’ came as a mark of respect for a friend Andy Nisbet who died in the mountains earlier this year in an awful accident, along with another friend and brilliant climber Steve Perry. Andy meticulously collected and processed new route information for the whole of Scotland for decades, feeding the information into the excellent SMC Scottish climber’s guidebook series with accuracy, attention to detail and outright obsessiveness that is rare. There was also the 1000s (not a typo) of new routes which he climbed himself. If you are not familiar with him as a character, I made a short film about him a few years ago, in which he took a terrifying whipper off a new winter route as I was filming/taking pics.
Every time, without exception, when I would post news of having climbed a new route on social media, I would get a reminder email from Andy immediately afterwards to make sure I sent him a description for the SMC journal and the guidebooks. Incidentally, the new Outer Hebrides guidebook is just recently published and we sell it in our shop. So I have come over years to associate climbing new routes in Scotland with Andy, and my first thought on completing this one was that it would my first new route with no contact from Andy. Andy was also known for his white knuckle driving around the highlands and I was told by someone else that he never had less than 12 points on his license (apologies Andy if I am perpetuating a myth here!). So I named the route after an appropriate sounding pipe tune by Fred Morrison called The Hard Drive.
The third route I’d looked at with Calum was the smooth wall of immaculate rough gneiss just to the right. On my trip with Calum, I couldn’t see a way to make the line work and gave up. But out of curiosity I swung the rope across and had another look. Perhaps the ‘no pressure’ play on it helped, but next thing I found a way to make a desperately thin traverse right just after the crux of The Hard Drive to reach the line. I devised several different sequences for the upper crux which were all desperate and I could only link one section if it was less than 10 degrees with a good wind. As soon as the wind dropped, I just couldn’t hold on to the ‘holds’.
Keita leading pitch 1 of Mega Kagikakko E7 6c
Visiting Japanese climber Keita Kurakami, after climbing his new line Mega Kagikakko E7 6c, 6b, 5b, had a play as well and he found an improvement on my method that further sealed the deal for me to return to the island immediately. We both agreed that the line was kind of similar to and perhaps a bit harder overall than The Walk of Life E9 6c, a route we have both repeated.
Masa kindly offered to return with me soon afterwards, even if it was an uncertain bet whether I could be ready to lead it. For a couple of days, he and visiting Naoki Komine dodged showers on the sea cliffs while I sessioned the project in gaps in the drizzle. On the fourth day of our trip, it became clear that it would be a washout from the following day. So despite the continuing drizzle showers, we walked in determined to take any opportunity going. Naoki took a small fall on Drive Station, E5, when wet holds forced him to use an alternative undercut which promptly came off in his hands. After that there was a beefy shower and it looked like the game was up for me lead. But it was immediately followed by 5 minutes of sunshine. By the time I had my rock shoes on, it was raining again. What followed was a somewhat bizarre and stop-start ascent that briefly got to the ridiculous stage with me swapping feet on a decent foothold before the crux, watching the holds start to get wetter. Take a look at the vlog episode to see the outcome.
Myself and Keita on the FA of From The Depths E6 6c, 5c. Another top quality new route we added to this cliff.