Hard to imagine a better morning’s climbing than this.

Planning endurance training, like any other aspect of physical training demands that you consider basic physiology, individual characteristics, resources available and the demands of the task you are training for. With all this considered, precise prescriptions are not always possible. In the main, I try to err on the side of identifying key priorities and arranging things to make sure those are well covered. My routine when I was training for Rhapsody was one of the simplest plans I’ve ever followed and was also a time in my climbing when I made some of the most sustained progress (excluding ‘noob gains’ as a beginner). In this video I describe what I did and possible reasons why it worked so well.

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…

In the spring, we have to get our leading head back on. Depending on how you choose your routes, mileage can either train or detrain your confidence. In this video, I take you through how I choose climbs that get me ready for bigger leads as the season progresses.

Many climbers are unaware just how much their ability to swap feet efficiently is holding them back. Poor technique tends to make climbers search for alternatives, which usually make climbs a lot harder. In this video I go through the handful of things you need to know to swap feet accurately and extremely consistently.

Failure on projects has been the most important training tool I’ve had. But as with any tool. It’s all about how you wield it.

I thought this for many years.

What is it specifically about the western diet that is unhealthy? Is it the meat? As many of you will have gathered, this a question I have become interested in over recent years. I have watched many friends, family and others suffer with the countless manifestations of diet related disease and our entire health service is in the process of being crushed by it. So it is important to me.

The more I have looked at the evidence, the less I am convinced that meat is playing a causative role in this process and the more I think that its restriction may make things worse. To shed some light on this, I went to the epitome of junk food, McDonald’s, and ate nothing but their burger patties for two months.

It was a way to draw attention to the need to think a bit more carefully about what is in our food and which parts of it are beneficial, harmful or neutral.

Below is a list of references from the video.

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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.

Moving onto the headwall of Banana Wall XII,12 Photo: Calum Muskett

On Friday, Calum Muskett and myself made 2nd and 3rd ascents of Banana Wall XII,12 on Cairngorm. This route was put up by Greg Boswell and Masa Sakano in 2015. Greg had a few onsight attempts on the climb ending not that far into the difficulties. He returned and abseiled down the route, but because of its grossly overhanging nature, he didn’t gain much knowledge other than sight of enough cracks/features to commit to push on beyond the highpoint. Returning in 2015, he made a very impressive attempt, getting close to the belay but taking a large fall on the thin and delicate headwall. Even more impressively, he lowered back down and had another go on the same day, finishing the climb. Even with the gear in place from the previous attempt, that takes an immense amount of fitness and I always thought this was impressive. His efforts were nicely documented by Masa on his blog.

For several years I’ve been interested in taking a look at it, but I never actually made the decision to try it. Once, perhaps in 2016 or so, I did drive over with a friend to get on it, but the ski road was blocked with snow and we went for a cup of tea and drove home. After that, I became more interested in focusing on bouldering during the winters and only did a handful of winter routes per season. I have tried a few extremely hard new winter routes on Ben Nevis over the last few seasons, but all have been failures, albeit still good experiences. I have never posted any photos of them obviously. Maybe I’ll go back on at least two of them?

I would say there is a push-pull effect that drew me towards more bouldering and less frequent winter climbing. The main one is just that the difficulty of my boulder projects just keeps going up as I complete more of them. In the early 2000s, I could just about manage to go winter climbing every week and project Font 8A. When I got a bit stronger in 2016, I managed to raise this to maybe 8B. But at 8B+ or especially harder than that, I start to struggle. It’s okay if I just stick to an ‘off the couch’ grade of VIII or IX. But if trying harder winter routes than this, I find I start to turn more towards an endurance phenotype/burly mountain man and can’t also do the moves on 8B+/8C boulders. Possibly this is just an excuse and I do try to remain aware of that. But surely at some point there is a trade off and it does feel like I’m bumping into it. Ultimately, if forced to choose, I prefer bouldering. That’s the pull.

The push has a few components. One is that my ankles sometimes get quite sore on winter walk-ins, especially walking in crampons. I’m usually fine once actually climbing, it’s just the walks. To be fair though, I sometimes find myself carrying so many mats to boulders that this becomes almost as bad. Another aspect is just a tinge of sadness at the lack of snow these days with global warming. The thing that first sparked an attraction to winter mountains in Scotland was the sheer amount of snow. Vast piling quantities of it. The sad truth is, I have never seen as much snow as in that very first winter I became interested in mountains (1993/94). There have been a few winters that have still been very good, but most are a reminder than winters are warmer and leaner.

Another issue is that the Scottish winter discipline has an odd scene, in that the culture is a bit harsh at times. I think a few (certainly far from all) climbers worry that the elements that make it unique may become diluted. I have been reading articles suggesting that its ethics of climbing in wintry conditions and focusing on onsight climbing are under threat for about 30 years. If anything, I think it may have the opposite problem. It defends the ideals so hard, it is actually off putting, to me at least. There is always someone ready to tell you that your Scottish winter climbs ‘should be’ this or that. It should be a long route because short routes are too short, or should be icy because hooking is too dry, or should be done in one attempt because [reason needed]. You shouldn’t post your routes on social media because that doesn’t fit with the dark horse image, but you should post on social media so that everyone know the details of your ascents!

I think it’s totally fine for people to dictate what their climbing should be, but if that morphs into dictating what my climbing should be, I tend to just stop listening. For this reason, I’ve tended to pay less attention to Scottish winter climbing culture and a bit distracted from winter climbing itself. Instead, I’ve become more inspired by and connected to bouldering culture. Overall, I just found it more appealing to pull on grippy crimps in the cold months.

Then I got a text from Calum the other week, asking if I wanted to try Banana Wall.

I tried writing an explanation of the above, then deleted it and said ‘yes’.

A good as I am at lining up reasons not to try Banana Wall, it is still kind of hard wired that when a friend asks if you want to try a hard route, yes is usually the correct answer.

I did make a caveat in my message that I was not sure how I would fare with a sore ankle. That was my way of saying ‘I’ll belay you’, but this message was too subtle. Claire is constantly telling me this. When I arrived at the foot of Banana Wall with Calum, he suggested I tie into the lead ropes. Sadly, that is the other thing that is hard wired. If someone asks you to lead; lead.

After two months of attempts to string more than one move together on my boulder project, I had absolutely zero chance of improving my onsight winter grade by three grades in a single jump. But I could at least go up a bit and begin a ground up ascent. I went up, went the wrong way, got pumped and hung around until it was time to down climb. Often on the harder mixed climbs a deciding factor is protection. If cam placements are needed, it’s important the cracks are not coated in verglas. This isn’t such a big deal with wires which you can tap in to seat them even in icy cracks. A few years ago I did the IX two metres right of Banana Wall ‘Bavarinthia’. The whole time I was looking across at Banana Wall and remembered seeing breaks under the overlaps and thinking ‘that’s going to need dry cracks’. They were coated in verglas and so without gear I was happy to fall onto, I climbed down. Calum didn’t go any higher.

I knew that all I would need to do would be to go on Banana Wall once and I’d get the bug for it. When I got home I looked up the picture of Greg on the FA and realised I’d gone slightly off route at my highpoint, missing an important wire placement. I also decided that it was kind of inevitable I’d try it again, so might as well forget my boulder project for a week or three and do some work on my tools. So I started with daily rounds of 3x20 minute circuits on the tools for a week. Of course this is not enough to actually get fit. But the curve of improvement from zero endurance is not linear, so a week of steady work certainly does get you a few rungs up the fitness ladder.

Helen joined me for another day on Banana Wall. Conditions were a lot worse. I had a double rack of cams on my harness which again were completely useless. The route was really far too plastered for a serious try. I did get much further though. With all the cam slots useless, basically all the gear I was getting was peckers in blind seams. After grinding to a halt, I rested on peckers and went a few more moves, finding an in-situ nut, presumably left from Greg’s ascent. It was very well jammed and I wondered if this may have held his fall. In grim weather and with still unfit arms, I lowered from this, leaving behind a few peckers to back it up.

The next week I came back with Calum, yet again finding totally verglassed cracks. With peckers in place and the nut to aim for, I climbed past my previous highpoint but again found the icy cracks made it feel too dangerous (for me at least) to justify running it out while pumped. The cam placements before the two crux sections would be totally reliable runners and without them ended up resting on my ice tool and wondering what to do. Beyond the in-situ nut, the headwall above was vertical but looked thin. I got back on and gingerly climbed to the belay, again only finding a couple of pecker/terrier runners where in better conditions there would be decent cams. Calum also went up the pitch on my gear with some rests.

The next morning we were back and finally had a break from stormy weather. We had left our gear in from the previous day since it didn’t make much sense to hammer the peckers out and then back in again the next morning. This time Calum lead first. He was saying he felt he had a very low chance of success but nonetheless climbed with conviction, as he tends to do very well. Calum has always been excellent at just battling his was up pitches without hesitation. He appears to accept that a hard route is not going to give in with a tentative or conservative approach. The higher he got, the more pumped he looked but also the more committed to going all the way. He moved out of sight for some time on the headwall and there was mumbling. Shortly afterwards the tell tale sign of falling rime (being cleared off the belay ledge) told me he’d made it.

Calum lowering after his try.

He quickly lowered down so that I could also try to lead it before we tackled the easier, but still important second pitch. I was also unsure I could do it. The main difficulty of Banana Wall I would say is that several of the hooks are very thin to the point they may rip with the slightest movement of a tool. You can certainly make your own luck by being careful and ‘tight’ with your movement, but this is easier said than done when sketching about above aid climbing protection I’d really rather not fall onto. After watching Calum’s fine effort, there was no way I was going to do hesitate and miss my opportunity to finish the route, so just focused on neither rushing it nor hanging around longer than needed. I’d had 8 days in a row of board circuits, followed by two days rest and finally could feel I was just maintaining a steady pump that wasn’t any worse after I got through the hardest moves. For a brief moment on the headwall, on the one hook I’d actually call decent, I briefly enjoyed being there at the time. Normally enjoyment tends to be retrospective on such routes.

Suspended enjoyment soon returned when teetering onward towards a fluffy clump of turf on the skyline above, tempting you on for an even bigger whipper onto that pecker below. It was really too late to care and so I went all in by taking top handle on a thin hook and stretching straight for the turf. Thunk! It was really good turf. Calum followed and then led the top pitch quickly while I marvelled at the total lack of wind that seems to perpetually rasp Coire an Lochain.

Overall I’m pleased that I decided to finally bite the bullet and get on this route, even if was really Calum’s bullet! Protecting it was a little worrying at times and I’d recommend trying to catch it with verglas free cracks which will make a difference for protection. It was hard work trying to place peckers and terriers on lead on steep terrain and would be rather cleaner to use cams since you can just take them out and place them again easily if you end up falling off the onsight attempt. It was an excellent effort from Greg on the first ascent and his ascent inspired me, despite my draw towards bouldering in recent winters.

The question is, boulder project or something else on the tools next. I’ll need to think about that.

Banana Wall on the morning of our ascent. Ideal apart from the verglas.

A music video made by myself, Claire and my daughter Freida recently. It comes from a new album by Aaron Jones and Rachel Walker called Despite the Wind and Rain, which celebrates influential women in Scottish history. Check out the album here https://rachelwalkerandaaronjones.bandcamp.com/album/despite-the-wind-and-rain

This song is about Mary Somerville, a scientist who spent her youth exploring the outdoors in Scotland and cultivating a gift for observation that eventually led to the discovery of Neptune as well as many books and papers on mathematics, astronomy, geography, ecology and anthropology. We thought it would be nice to represent that magic of exploring the outdoors early in life, observing, learning and finding inspiration that can take your life off on some exciting path whether that is science, sport, art or just enjoyment.

Doing this exercise really accelerated my confidence in judging whether my trad placements would be likely to hold a fall.

A video on the logistics I use for top rope self belay climbing, which I have used for countless hours over the past twenty years to work on hard route projects. Note that I use the Petzl Shunt which is specifically not recommended for this purpose and I’m not recommending it either, merely showing how I use it since people ask me frequently.

I made a follow along hang board workout, 30 minutes long and pitched for beginner/intermediate climbers (two handed hangs). In the rests in between the hangs I discuss various aspects of adjusting the hang board loading depending on your level and climbing goals. Enjoy the workout!

This is very similar to the basic workout I used when I started fingerboarding and went from 8b+ to 9a in a couple of years.

Last week I was in North Wales for Mountain Equipment’s athlete team meet. I had some unfinished business to attend to.

A guide to how to actually learn climbing technique, from hard practicalities to underlying principles.

The other day myself and Kev Shields went for a morning’s solo on Buachaille Etive Mor in Glen Coe. We climbed an easy classic, Agag’s Groove, that is a first mountain route for many new climbers. I decided to take a few cameras and film the climb. Soloing and filming at the same time is not all that easy. But its nice to show off the route and I hope it encourages more folk to go and climb mountain routes like this.

Coaches and sport scientists are often trying to quantify aspects of sport and there’s good reasons for this. But climbing technique is hopelessly complex with endless variation in movement. How could we go about quantifying it, or even thinking about it in any kind of structured manner? With difficulty. In this video I introduce some simple ideas for the way I think about technique that helps me to learn it and monitor my learning.

Over the past few years I’ve been involved along with others in developing low-mid grade sport routes at the conglomerate crags just south Oban. The crags are only a couple of minutes drive from Oban town centre at Gallanach, near the ferry to Kerrera. They are roadside, quick to dry, don’t seep much at all and provide great friendly sport climbing.

I’ve been really enjoying developing the crags. It’s also been a lot of work and expense. For all my routes, I’ve used Titanium glue-in bolts (from Titan Climbing in Sheffield) and pure epoxy resin so that they should last many decades if not hundreds of years in this coastal environment. The downside of this is the cost which adds up to nearly £10 per single bolt. Early on I received a small grant from the Scottish Mountaineering Trust which really helped get the ball rolling and fund a handful of routes. Some of you have donated for bolts via my Patreon (link here and I greatly appreciate the help), but the majority of the bolts I’ve self-funded.

The crags are laid out along the roadside over a mile or so, with five main buttresses. Below I’ve made topos and descriptions for the buttresses I’ve been involved in developing. I’m thinking of making a small paper guidebook that is more complete with all the routes, once the development is further on. There are still a number of lines I’d like to bolt yet. The crags take little drainage and seem to dry very quickly and some of the routes can even be climbed in light rain. Give the seaside location, they take any breeze that’s going, but in the forest at the foot of the routes, it still can be midday in summer. Year round climbing is possible here and the routes get the sun from mid afternoon.

Park on the grass verges near or at the parking for the Kerrera ferry. Don’t park in the passing places. If coming by public transport, you can walk to the crags from Oban town centre, or hire foldable bikes from a vending machine outside Oban train station.

HELMETS ARE ESSENTIAL at the crag as they are new conglomerate routes that have not had much traffic. Loose chunks of rock will break off. Don’t stand directly below your climbing partner while belaying. If you’ve not climbed on this rock type before, it takes a little getting used to. It follows that grades of the routes are approximate and will likely shift a bit as these routes get traffic and lose the odd hold or foothold. Let me know your grade opinions in the comments. Most of the routes are equipped with Ramshorn lower-offs which means you don’t need to re-thread or leave karabiners behind when stripping the routes. The buttresses are described below, running left to right.

The Riches

The first crag reached from Oban, situated well hidden in the trees above Dungallan Terrace, just north east of the old Kilbowie Outdoor Centre. Approach from a Lay-by opposite a house called Ardcuan. Please don’t park in the lay-by though, you’ll have to walk along the road from the parking near the Kerrera Ferry as for the other buttresses which only takes a few minutes. The buttress is 50m directly above Ardcuan. Routes described right to left.

1 Potato Hack 10m 6c

Steep burly climbing up the prominent arête.

2 First News 12m 4**

The pleasant corner and slab above.

3 Glitterati 12m 6a**

Nice climbing on some of the best rock at the Gallanach crags.

4 Ultra Rosa 12m 6c+

Technical climbing leads rightwards to better holds up the right arête of the wall.

5 Mango Loco 15m 7a+*

Good climbing left of the blue streak leads to a break and an easier finish above.

6 Mango Maxx 18m 7b/7b+*

Follow Mango Loco to just past its crux, swing left to cross the headwall of Super Rich and continue left to reach the finishing holds of Coming from You.

7 Super Rich 15m 7b*

Thin technical climbing leads to a good rest at the ledge and an easier headwall.

8 Coming from You 10m 6c*

Start from the ledge below the Offwidth and climb the left side of the wall.

9 Ill Wind 10m 6c

An unusual route bridging and laybacking up the edge of the off width crack. There is a tricky move rightward at the top to reach the anchor.

10 Ripper Ramp 10m 6c

A bouldery move off the ground (stick clip useful) leads to easier climbing following the hanging ramp. Would be much improved another quick clean.

Oakley

Topo and descriptions soon

Sigma Buttress

This is the most extensive buttress of the Gallanach crags with long and interesting climbs on open walls and grooves. The central routes are long and a few longer draws are useful.

1 Kilbowie 25m 6c**

The left-hand line of bolts up the vertical wall. Good climbing with some useful pockets

2 Thin White Teuch 25m 7a*

The right-hand line. Move left at the crux in the middle of the wall to follow pockets, then step back right with a couple of thin moves to reach the finishing slab.

3 Arran Victory 30m 6b+*

The leftmost line. Follow the crack in the slab then a left-facing groove. Where this peters out, move left (crux) to gain the upper cracked groove.

4 Pink Eye 30m 6c**

Follow the crack in the slab as for Arran Victory but break rightwards from the steep groove to reach an overlap. Pull through this to gain the upper steep left-facing groove.

5 Skerry Champion  35m 6c+**

Aims for the rightmost of the three left facing crack/grooves at the top left of the buttress. Follow the pocketed slab and corner of Sigma then continue up and left following a flake-crack to the spiky ledge. Crank between good holds up the overhanging wall to reach the crack.

6 Cream of the Crop 35m 7a+***

Follow Skerry Champion to the spiky ledge. The smooth headwall directly above gives good sustained climbing, trending rightwards to join Electra at the last bolt.

7 Electra 35m 7b***

Climb to a few moves along the right-slanting ramp of Sigma. Tackle the bulging overhang above with burly laybacking up the undercut flange.

8 Sigma 35m 6a***

The central snaking line of weakness, weaving its way through the steep wall. Climb the white pocketed wall and short corner above. Step slightly right and climb another white wall trending rightwards to gain a big right-slanting ramp. Move along this and then continue into the steep finishing groove (crux) of Miss Blush. A few long quickdraws are useful to avoid rope drag.

9 Irish Cobbler 35m 7a*

Start up Miss Blush but step back left on the pillar and follow a flaky crack to the right end of the ramp of Sigma. Attack the groove steep bulge above, just right of Electra. The slab above is easy.

10 30m Miss Blush 35m 6c**

A steep start through a bulging right-facing corner, followed by a blunt prow trending rightwards to the top of the pinnacle. Step right into the overhanging groove and follow it to the top.

11 15m Melody Grooves 35m 6b*

Climb the bulging right-facing corner and blunt prow but move rightwards onto grass ledges and a lower-off. Belay here if you want to climb it in two pitches, other wise use a few long quickdraws moving right onto the grass ledges. From the lower-off gain the open groove near the right edge of the crag and follow it to the top.

Roadside

Mission Creep 6a+** 35m

Start in a scoop near the left end of the wall. Climb up then left through a bulge on good holds and through the gap in the first overhang on good holds to the bottom edge of the slab above(rams horn here to redirect the rope when stripping the route). Balance leftwards on good foot ledges to a big hold in the left facing groove. Bridge up the groove to the lower-off.

The Towers

The large buttress right above the parking verge, featuring prominent arêtes.

1 Vomitorium 30m 6b***

The original line on the crags. Left of the deep roofed corner is a vertical wall with two lines. This takes the left-hand line, moving through a deep crack at half height.

2 International Kidney 30m 6b+**

The right hand line on the wall, moving past the big detached flake at half height with a crux moving left on undercuts at the last bolt to the same lower-off as Vomitorium.

3 Herbie Mhor 30m 7b*

The steep right wall of the deep corner.

4 Majestic 30m 6c***

Excellent climbing and positions on the flying arête right of Herbie Mhor. Good pockets where needed.

5 Tabula Rasa 30m 6b**

The grooves and walls just right of the flying arête.

Maddy and Ollie at Lattice Training recently invited me to their HQ in Chesterfield for their finger strength and endurance testing protocol. It was fun and interesting to see how I compare to their ever growing database of high level climbers for these basic measures of strength and endurance. As you can see in the video, it yielded a couple of surprising results for me and a little food for thought for my general approach to climbing goals in the future.