vertigo-hendo

Too small

2012-01-03T10:25:00.001Z

My local hope.... a boulder on the beach no more than 4 miles from my house - a 15 minute walk along the coast past 12 huge lazy grey seals to this....

Unfortunatley its about 50cm to short :(

Still many more places to visit though :)

Is East Lothian an undiscovered gem?

2011-12-29T15:17:00.002Z

? ROFL..............

I think it might be!

Sensationalism over, I've found some new rock - of course its not really new more like several million years old but I don't think its been climbed on, or maybe has but not recorded.

Some of it will be crap no doubt but hidden somewhere there might be a hidden gem

more to follow (hopefully)

Getting a break!!

2011-04-08T13:04:00.003+01:00

Is this what you're always waiting for? a break in life, a break in the weather, a break at work..... So I get a break in my thumb..... awesome and then 8 weeks later as its healing nicely I get a break in my fibula!!!! another 8-12 weeks out of action :(

Comings and Goings

2011-01-04T10:40:00.008Z

Some indoor climbing, some outdoor climbing but nothing really achieved - its all enjoyable though.

Hiding in a cave

font 7a cave problem

possible trad project

Double roof The Tomb Stone (Red Rocks) - what pinch?

Gorse monster devours crag

Again?

2010-11-24T23:20:00.006Z

This is just getting boring now, again I'm out bouldering, again I'm hanging from a fingerboard, again I'm scouring the internet relocating all of the old undiscovered bouldering venues I'd found in the past, again I'm finding new boulders - even in East Lothian!

Isn't Google Earth just F'n brilliant!

But its not boring - well not to me :) I'm really excited again, can't stop thinking about climbing and I'm trying so hard to resist writing a wish list of future completed projects and repeats blah blah blah - yeah that bits boring

Who am I kidding, its already written.

Trad Anyone?

The Thirlstane

2009-10-26T13:40:00.006Z

The Thirlstane is D&G's premier bouldering venue, probably the only place where a consensus of grades has been met and probably the only place that has regular activity (and I doubt that's even that regular)

Its also awesome.

I have in the past slowly worked my way through the problems here until I was project the harder lines, this took me sometime and was great training. I made my first visit to the Thirlstane in nearly 3 years on Sunday and found out that I had to start all over again. I was getting no where near any of the 7A's and found the Bad Seed to be the hardest of the lot and its a 6C. I did manage to retro flash Bad Sneakers and a Pina Colada a powerful 6A and I campused out Lateral Thinking a soft 6B.

I could manage Jihad from the pocket every time but couldn't monkey along the shelf like I used to, maybe need to find a sneaky toe hook or something here. Spent a long time trying to do Nitro the font7A+ direct from the shelf, using a high heel hook and I think I was getting closer, not sure if this is the correct beta but it seemed to be working.

One thing that was very apparent is that I haven't really been trying when I've been out climbing, got totally shut down at Dumbuck on Tuesday and knew about it and the same again today at the Thirlstane, still at least I know my level now and with a winters seige of the Thirlstane underway - hopefully the grades will fall.

Scotland Rocks!!

2009-10-17T22:18:00.005+01:00

A day out in Arrochar today, climbed a couple of hills, met some locals and found loads of boulder problems - Scotland Rocks!!

Easily Distracted

2009-10-11T22:26:00.005+01:00

Thats what pretty much all my reports card said at school, at the age of 31 nothing has changed.

I was planning on visting the Jawa boulder this weekend, but ended up in Dumfries, so thought I'd turn my attentions to Nitro at the Thirlstane.

Morning started early and the tide was still in so I went to Clifton for a look and to start creating a good topo for the place, pretty much everything was wet and too dangerous without a mat, so just climbed Study Break and left.

Stopped off at Port O'Warren for a go on Fiends magnificent 1833 Traverse, which went 1st time surprisingly - I had climbed it in the past though.

Then instead of leaving and hitting the Thirlstane, I got stuck into an old project of mine. A hard dyno from ugly crimps on a really steep bit of the rock, hours passed by and after not even being able to pull on at first, I then managed that and started hanging the holds, then started making movements off of the holds and almost bagged it.... but its too hard just now. Next time maybe, or maybe the next time I should just go to the Thirlstane.

Sandyhills and AuchenGray

2009-09-20T22:25:00.004+01:00

Went to Auchengray hill on Saturday, I had been a number of years ago and found a nice boulder with a couple of half decent lines on it, one a traverse and one an easy arete. My plan was to traverse the entire boulder which would give a 20 metre 6a and to document what else was there. Unfortunatley a tree had fallen down and was lying in the way of both the traverse and the arete, so I spent my time trying a couple of lesser lines, which if I'm honest I'll not bother going back to finish. Picture of the boulder below, if anyone wants to know where it is just leave a message and I'll get fill you in.

I was at Sandyhills this morning, was meant to be the Thirlstane but there had been a frost and the sun was strong so I didn't fancy sitting in the cave so went to the beach instead.

As it was so early and had been wet on Saturday the only thing that was dry was the slab flizz off, which is graded font6c. Its a bit fingery for a warm up but I went anyway and to my surprise got it first time - prompting me to rethink the grade (to which I had agreed with in the past) - its really more a technical font6a+ though.

I then went and looked in the boulder jumble to see what I could see (not a lot to be honest) I did find a big undercut that I was going to try something off but on inspection I found that a huge spider was using it as home so left well alone. I also looked at all of the problems I put on the SC wiki and they're pretty worthless really, except Southside Sun - I have no idea how I managed to climb this and only grade it font6b, I couldn't even find the holds to pull on.

My project was in the Super G state (ie. the ground had dropped a metre) so the sit down holds were now the stand up holds and it was still way to hard to pull on, my fingers had taken a beating by this point though as I'd found a better project...

The project is a hanging arete/prow, highball at around 5 metres but above a good stoney landing, big holds spaced reasonably well apart, steep... I got to the crux 6 or 7 times but I just didn't have the balls to go for it.

With a mat and/or spotter I'm sure I would have and I'd be the proud FA of a top quality font5 or 6a problem, its in the video at the bottom.

The furthest up the arete my right hand goes is to a crap pinch intermediate which is useless, another 4 inches further is a slopey flat jug of a hold, good enough for the angle I was at but if you cut loose on it, it would be uselss. From this you need to go again another 6-10 inches to a bucket which would be the finish (thinking about it, its maybe harder than font5)

Zillion Dollar Sadist pics

2009-09-17T13:44:00.008+01:00

Many thanks to Tony Simpson for supplying these pics (all pics from the Tony Simpson collection)

While Tony and Mike were in D&G a couple of years ago in only a matter of days they repeated everything at the Thirlstane, Garheugh, Clifton and My Evil Twin at Sandyhills.... we need harder problems, or maybe just more

The Foxes Path XXS 5z

2009-09-16T09:17:00.010+01:00

Move over Echo Wall, Cobra Crack - you are no longer the hardest or most dangerous routes in the world...

The Foxes Path is graded XXS 5z and still unclimbed without aid by a human.

I have looked at this route over a 1000 times whilst walking the dog, but never felt the need to try it.

Last night similar to Ben Bransby's ascent of End of the Affair E8 6c whilst out walking his dog Klem I had a go last night whilst looking for my dog Paws!

The route starts pretty easily with a wade through some nettles then over the first crux which is a slippery glass filled ditch, this was negotiated easily and I progressed onto the head wall, despite how slippery and sketchy the climbing was I found myself and the second and final crux, this one much harder on steep, muddy and mossy ground. I was a metre or so from the safety of a tree branch and just as I was going for the deadpoint my footing was lost and I started the plummet earthwards... The briars which I had subconsciously tied around my waist did its job in stopping me from falling too far but also nearly cut me in half! Once I had regained composure and got stood up again, I instantly slipped again, this time another briar caught me and pulled my t-shirt up and then deposited me in a pile of nettles!

Standing on the path below the route recovering I checked out my side which was only scratched really, but my back was on fire a pain that I've never felt before (I honestly expected my back to be gashed open and losing a lot of blood) but it was just insanely stung by nettles, so much so that parts of my lower back resembled the texture of a golf ball!

Still no sign of the dog... 30 minutes go by and he jumps over a wall and runs down The Foxes Path as if it was a set of stairs!

Think I’ll leave this for a winter ascent when it’s frozen and I can get the crampons and axes out... or maybe I should just bolt it.

D&G this weekend, Thirlstane and a nice project on my favourite hill.

fr9a in Scotland (when will it happen?)

2009-09-04T21:49:00.000+01:00

When is it going to happen?

I'm neither qualified nor experienced to pass judgement on this, so these are just my thoughts.

I'm sure we have the climbers to do it, the climber doesn't have to be Scottish - a French beast could mistakenly get off a plane in Glasgow thinking it was Spain and climb one, the routes are there.

Looking on ScottishClimbs there is an open project list which contains the following

Requiem LH fr9a/b Dumbarton
Requiem RH fr9a/b Dumbarton
BlowFire fr9a/+ The Anvil
plus numerous other super hard project lines

We've had fr8c+ for 2 years now

Reported on Planet Mountain that Maurizio Manolo Zanolla has put up a fr9a at the age of 51! That means I still have 20 years to go from nothing to fr9a :)

Who's trying these routes? are people secretly trying other potential fr9a's?

If during November when Chris Sharma is lecturing in Kendal, he nipped up the M6 to Alien Rock and set a route that he said was benchmark 9a, how long would it be before it was climbed, how long would the queue be to try it?

On a side note, my powerbar arrived today and all of the walls in my flat are too thick to fit it under a door frame... damn it

47 Seconds

2009-08-29T22:55:00.001+01:00

47 seconds, that's how long it takes for me to walk to this wall from my flat, I've been passing it continually for the past 4 years sometimes 3 times a day when I'm walking the dog. Tonight I took my climbing shoes and a chalk bag and trained while the dog chased foxes. It was pretty good actually, had some funny looks from other dog walkers, but nobody commented.

I did 3 sets of 5 minutes traversing back and forth without much height gain, on mostly flat edges and slopers and actually got a good burn going, hopefully I'll get into a routine of doing this a few times a week and build up some stamina. There's actually a really hard dyno on it, with the jump covering 6 feet hand hold to hand hold.

Trossachs bouldering on Monday, how I love bank holidays :) going to try Jawa and Big Up and take a wee walk up Ben Aan as well... sweet.

Edit - went on Sunday , total midge and tic fest, felt guilty about Jude and Poppy getting eaten alive so didn't even put my shoes on.

ZDS Repeated (twice)

2009-08-27T15:57:00.000+01:00

Everyone probably nows this, but me.

Was just trawling the web doing random searches and found a post on UKbouldering.com that says Mike Adams repeated ZDS at Clifton in 19 minutes (this included time to clean the problem) !!!!

Then I found another post on the scarpa site by Mark Katz saying he repeated it in April this year as well, Mark also repeated Shrinking Violet SS at the Thirlstane saying its a belter and 7c+/8a

Both think font 8a+ for ZDS

Zillion Dollar Sadist is Paul Savages hardest addition to D&G following the lower edge of this boulder for right to left and then finishing up the arete

8a

2009-08-22T22:39:00.001+01:00

8a, is this the magic number in climbing?
I'm pretty sure most sport climbers and boulderers want to achieve this level of climbing and I'm pretty sure its very very hard.
Being realistic (as disappointing as it is) I don't think I'm going to reach this level, well not on a straight up boulder problem and not on a sport route, but maybe on a traverse that gets a fr8a grade...
A couple of weeks ago I made a list of goals, after some thought these aren't my goals, they're just a list of boulder problems I'd like to do - forget the trad routes as that's probably never going to happen.
My goal is to climb a route/problem graded 8a.
As this is not going to be easy, lots of things need to be favourable about the route, close to home, climbable in the rain, safe (no need for a spotter), as its a traverse I can break it up into smaller problems, surrounded by easier problems to warm up on.
Agassiz Rock is the perfect venue and the problem is Dave Redpaths 8a traverse.
This has just become my climbing goal, insane isn't it.

Hard Rock Roof

2009-08-18T09:31:00.001+01:00

I found this line back in 2007 and tried it on a number of occassions, a hard crimpy pull on from a sitting start and then launch out across the roof to a big granite sloper, perfect - but way too hard for me.

Having failed the previous day on G I was keen to get on something else that didn't require any crimping, so I thought I'd see what else this boulder had to offer.

I found another 3 lines on the boulder, a nice traverse along the lip, the full roof (the hardest line in D&G?) and a powerful one mover.

I decided that although the traverse needed the crimpy pull on from the sitter I would try and work out the rest of the problem. Pretty much all of the holds are good except a slopey intermediate (that you probably don't need to use). The traverse is only 3 metres long with a tough mantel to finish. I managed to link all of the problem missing out the sitter and its probably around font 6a at the moment, with the sitter the complete problem would be around font 6b/6c I think.

Not Climbing Fit

2009-08-17T22:37:00.000+01:00

In the last 2 years I've kept myslef in shape by training in TaeKwon Do and I've done pretty well, increasing my body weight by around 5 kilos and not gaining any extra fat - I've won 2 golds, a silver and a bronze medal at the British Championship and a gold and a bronze at the Scottish Championship. I've also been running and completed numerous 1/2 marathons and a couple of marathons. I thought I was in really good shape.

Compare this to when I was climbing, where I drank heavily, didn't sleep well and spent my time hanging from my finger board of doing pull ups, again I thought I was in pretty good shape.

I am bigger, stronger, fitter, more flexibile and healthier now - but ultimately I'm a worse climber.

G at Sandyhills, my favourite problem - font 6a, the second one I ever climbed - I've climbed it hundreds of times and even started to work on a very improbable sit start that would push the grade way beyond anything I'd ever done before. I was stopped on this by weak legs, hamstrings in particular - surely now with my strong legs I could bag this or at least make a decent effort at it...No!

The holds that 2 years ago I could actually pull on, I could barely find this time. Once I had found them I just couldn't comprehend how to pull on them - with my strong legs and strong body but weak fingers. So I started again on the original problem. 100% confident that I would complete this 1st go...No! Not second, third, fourth, fifth... I don't know how many times I tried this, continually getting to the last hold and not being able to hold it (and its a good hold)

Gutted, frustrated, but pleased that I'd tried I wondered back along the beach to the car, clicked the button to open the boot and to my horror I couldn't lift the boot! My fingers and forearm were just numb and with a little hint of pain, something was wrong - had I injured my fingers or hand when trying G, maybe this was the reason I kept dropping off the final hold.

A failed attempt at G (you're right Chris, I do need a tripod :))

Lots of Rain = Flooding

2009-08-11T22:07:00.000+01:00

Pretty obvious really - but it never clicked this weekend despite small mudslides, waterfalls appearing where there once was none, my goretex some how not working anymore and the dog looking totally miserable.

A miserable looking Dungeon

Planned well in advance I was well prepared for my trip to the Dungeon of Buchan on Sunday, so much so I was carrying a 50 litre rucksac full to the brim and all I was doing was going exploring.

I have for years told people to go to the Dungeon for new unclimbed boulders and the promised land, this was without any substantiated evidence on my part - just hear say and hope really. I now apologies to all those people as its just not worth the hassle - I will go back but not anytime soon. Despite being totally disappointed with my findings and having a pretty crap day in general it was quite eventful.

Started at 5am with a 2.5 hour drive from Edinburgh, which was nice - quiet roads, coffee and nothing else and then topped off by seeing a white/blonde fox in Moniave, unfortunately my camera was in the boot though.

Parked up and started the walk-in which lasted just over an hour, so wasn't bad - only problem encountered was the Cooran Lane burn, which required a jump and getting a little wet. It had already started raining by this point and continued for quite sometime until it felt like little stones hitting my head through my hood. During my time on the hill I was greeted by the pleasing sight of a golden eagle swooping low and screeching before perching high above me on a cliff, again camera was in my bag and I was scrambling up high above it to look at a rock route, but due to the steep nature of the hill and the water that was running everywhere I deemed it too dangerous to continue any further.

Time to head back and the fun begins, walking along through Silver Flowe I stepped onto a seemingly solid piece of ground only to fall through waist high into water, unable to touch the ground and only held up by my massive rucksac which had made me too wide to fall into the hole, I suppose this could also have went the other way as if I'd stepped a little further I think I'd have went under and my rucksac would have stopped me from getting back up!

Feeling very fortuitous I continued on and arrived at a brown, fast flowing and much deeper and wider Cooran Lane... shit, I head back to the loch and managed to cross it at a much narrower spot then was greeted by another tributary which was in a similar state of spate. This time however I found a felled tree which I could pick up and thought I could pole vault the burn (genius I know), whilst searching for a suitable spot I again fell into Silver Flowe this time my rucksac didn't save me but that fact I was carrying and 15 foot long felled tree meant I had something to hold onto as I submerged under the water, in full goretex, heavy walking boots and a 50 litre rucksac, definitely a goner unless your carrying a tree! I clambered out and made my way to safer ground, amazed at what was going on. Was I the unluckiest person alive or the most fortunate stupid person in Galloway - both I think.

Back to the burn and not feeling so brave anymore, I decided to try and wade the burn at a slower but wider bend, being wet already I didn't think it would matter, so I waded out until I was chest high in water and still over half way to go - this wasn't going to happen, the water was cold, much colder than in my two dips into Silver Flowe and it was moving fast - back to the bank.

I then found two large granite boulders poking out of the water and with the aid of my tree I managed to get onto the second one and throw my rucksac to the bank and then after phsycing myself up I managed to jump for the far bank again getting wet but getting to the correct side of the burn. How pleased was I! I then turned to Paws and wondered how he'd get across but he was already there, looking very smug with himself.

Paws hiding from the weather

Finished the day off with a 3 hour drive in wet underwear back to Edinburgh.

Awesome

D&G again next week but mostly mountain biking and drinking :)

D&G Goals

2009-07-23T11:46:00.000+01:00

Back again after a long break... same old story, can't comprehend how excited I am to be climbing again - its amazing that I lasted so long with out.

Again I'm going to focus on D&G climbing because I love the place and all things going well I might even be living there again, although not until next winter :)

Goals for the near future -

Boulder Problems

1. Mary's Massive Mangos font6c+ @ Sandyhills
2. Zillion Dollar Sadist (arete only) should be 7aish @ Clifton
3. Shrinking Violet (standing start) font 7b+ @ The Thirlstane
4. Pauls Dyno font 6b+ @ Clifton
5. Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs font 6c @ Garhuegh

Trad Routes

1. The Road to Wrath HS 4a @ Craignaw Slabs
2. Thunderbolt HVS 5a @ Portobello
3. NRG E1 5a @ Portobello
4. Finger Lust E4 6a @ Clifton
5. any FA anywhere

check out http://www.johnbiggar.com/galloway-climbing-index.asp for the routes on John Biggars excellent website.

Stephen Reid also has an excellent Galloway Climbing site http://www.needlesports.com/galloway/gallowayindex.htm

Other goals for this year include, this mad granite wave I spotted when I was walking near Loch Trool, another winter route, 75 continuous press ups, sub 20 minute 5K

Should be down in D&G in a couple of weeks, so hopefully one of these goals will be achieved soon

Boomer - Sweet!

2008-01-14T13:56:00.000Z

What a brilliant little problem, 90 minutes drive from Edinburgh for a sweet font 6a dyno and an outlook like this - well worth the drive.

A great week

2007-06-11T14:53:00.000+01:00

Tuesday night was spent at the Trossachs boulders by Loch Katrine. A truly idyllic setting with some great bouldering to boot and the midges didn't bother me too much either :)

Warmed up on the Jawa boulder and then spent some time climbing the problems on the Tourist boulder upto about V4/5 all of which are excellent. I failed somewhat dissapointingly to climb Jawa though which is a really good looking problem and one that I will definitely be back for. Also made really good progress on the north project of the Jawa boulder just failing to commit on the big move to the top.

Walking back to the car I stopped at the Fight Club boulder and climbed Fight Club then did the dyno through the middle (which is reported on Stone Country as the Soap Dyno) a very pleasing dyno at around V3. I then spent about an hour trying the project on the back of the Fight Club boulder, sitting from the obvious good flatty and and sharp crimp in the roof, pull on and make a desperate slap for the arete, then finish direct (not up the arete) probably around V4/5 again easier with long arms I imagine.

A failed attempt on what became Bob Bitch Tits (BBT for the politically correct) V4/5

Thursday was an early start and a trip to Kilnsey with Dave Redpath, Dave was going to try Full Tilt fr8b+ an awesome looking route climbed by Gaz Parry, I was just going to see if I could over come my fear of climbing on a rope.

The day started off worse than could be imagined when Dave realised that he had forgot to pack his harness! Climbing continued though using a harness made from the climbing rope and my harness for the person climbing - not the most comfortable setup - especially when someone is climbing a route as hard as Full Tilt and is spending almost an hour at a time on the rope working out the moves. Dave looks like he can climb this route and will probably do so soon.

As far as my confidence building went it started pretty badly, I was panicing so much I couldn't remember how to tie on... then getting totally freaked top roping a route and having to be lowered (thoughts going through my head like - this isn't safe, my knot is going to come undone, the rope might snap, what was that noise, am I wearing a harness....). Resigned to my day being over and happy to just belay Dave - I was quite realived to be honest. Dave however got me to try a bouldery fr7a+ (sideshow? I think) and although I didn't climb it and didn't get very high at all I did start to trust all of the equipment and myself a bit more (thoughts going through my head at the end - how cool is that move, maybe I could try climbing to the 3rd bolt on Full Tilt :), man that looks hard, can't wait to get back.)

Dave Redpath @ Kilnsey

Saturday was spent on Criffel getting chased by hundreds of flies, covered in tics and sunburnt. This is not a summer venue, although I did spot two brave souls on the Viewpoint boulder as I was leaving. NOTE - The access to Criffel will soon be much tougher as the trees that were planted a couple of years ago are now totally covering the path to the hillside, this will mean an alternative walk-in which I did on Saturday and it is not pleasent and around an hour long.

Sunday evening was a nice walk in the woods project hunting and it was VERY successful. Only tried one but its great and I've dubbed it the Hard Rock Roof Project an easy hint for anyone wanting to find it. A brutal sit start at the base of the roof and then either follow the lip or a huge span across the roof to a jug, very excited about this one. Also found another impenetrable wall (or so it looked).

Hard Rock Roof Project

How did Schumacher train?

2007-06-06T08:46:00.000+01:00

Michael Schumacher didn't train in a mini metro and then expect to go out and do well in an F1 car.... by Dave Macleod. I like this anology, so gone are the comfy climbing shoes and here are the super tight replacements. Now its time to just sit back and watch the grades fall :)

DandG No More

2007-05-29T20:57:00.000+01:00

I haven't really updated D&G for a while and when I did try to recently I seem to have lost my username and password and when ever I ask for it to be sent to me it goes somewhere else - so DandG.blogspot is no more :( But lets face it, it wasn't that good in the first place.

So this is take 2 on my blogging odyssey, 1st things 1st - the name Vertigo-Hendo. I am scared of heights and some people call me Hendo.

Those that know me will know that I try and climb things (boulders mainly) that are way, way beyond my capabilities and this hasn't really changed and probably never will - but I am now going to try and become a good climber instead of just being one in my imagination. I have quit climbing 5 or 6 times since 2005 and each time I always drag my ass back and this time I hope its for good.

My Evil Twin - Sandyhills Bay

I have been playing around on My Evil Twin for a long time now and although it is beyond my capabilities at the moment I'm hoping to get this and my G sit down project this summer when I holiday at the boat house with my family.

G at Sandyhills was my first font 6a and I think its still one of the best I've ever climbed, when I first saw the wall I had only just learnt of bouldering and My Evil Twin, taking a walk along the beach I found My Evil Twin and thought it looked good and then I found G and thought that even the worlds best couldn't climb this - only to find out a couple of days later that it was font 6a, every time I'm at Sandyhills I climb this as its just so good and only recently I found a couple of tiny crimpable holds that may allow a sit start - at the moment though I keep getting cramp in my hamstring when trying it as although you can't see it in this picture my right leg is stretched way out left to a crap foothold and as soon as I'm off the ground it cramps up.

A relaxing week 2 miles from Sandyhills Bay in the summer should help though :)

Boat house before and after