Almost November!

Cragging and chatting!

Inspired by my neighbour, Cyril the squirrel's climbing antics while raiding the bird feeder this morning we headed off to Moy...
Arriving just ahead of us were Heavy and Tom who'd driven over to check out the crag from Burghead the other Scottish all weather micro climate climbing venue!

Apparently Moy Rock had been used by the RAF for training in the 60's and 70's and a number of routes were climbed then?  We also met Mark C who like us was on a mission for Spanish Hot Rock - in his case El Chorro.
Martin H as the crag moderator arrived too!

Fairly cold first thing with numb fingers and belay jackets on the slabs an Pebble Party though it warmed up a bit this afternoon.

As the skies cleared and the sun finally hit the rock it felt like Spain again so we climbed Old Man of Moy, Bueno, Corvus and spectacularly situated Scooby Doo (Moy Bridge!!!) before heading home...

7b clip up!!!

Another trip up to the Dingwall area to build on our fitness for Spain.

Andy N, John McK and co were making a first ascent of Andy's newly bolted line on the far left as we headed for the easier lines on the right to warm up.

It was a bit damp and gloomy in the trees so after a few routes we decided to climb one of the harder more compact routes in the sun that I'd spotted. 

It was a good test for my homemade clip stick made with old alloy tent poles and shockcord. The route turned out to be 'The Seer' (7b) and a good exercise in aiding techniques using a clipstick!

Just as Fi was completing the final few moves to 'The Seer' lower off, Andy, John and co passed by on the descent path.

They were all heading home with a very surprised look on their faces - until I mentioned the clipstick ;-)

Colder with snow on the hills

Despite a cold wet summer the autumn has been fairly wet, windy and warm with few if any overnight frosts compared to normal.

With the recent colder weather we've had a bit of wet snow on the hills but no hard frosts beforehand to freeze the ground.
The snow may look pretty but wet snow insulating sodden wet ground is not what's needed for good climbing or skiing conditions. Nevertheless a few keen climbers have been out and about on the high mixed rock routes and believe it or not in a snowy rubble filled Aladdin's Couloir....!!!!
With the temperatures forecast to increase over the next few days the snow will quickly disappear before hopefully the return of proper winter weather in a few weeks time?

Highland sport climbing!

It's not Spain but it's not far off and ideal for mixed weather climbing in the Scottish Highlands. We've now been back to Moy Rock several times finding it dry and warm when most other Highland crags have been wet and cold. As a bonus lots of new routes are being added almost weekly by local climbers with plenty of scope for loads more over the next few years. Martin H and John McK were quick off the mark when I mentioned that I'd seen Ray W and Andy N cleaning up some new lines! They climbed a variation of Ray's project calling it 'Moy Bridge' which has since been renamed!!!

New routes!

Walter (Watty) was decorating his new house in Aviemore so we again headed up N for a bit more conglomerate climbing. We met Andy N and Ray W busy at work cleaning and bolting up some new routes. Watty was climbing annoyingly well making 6b plus look surprisingly easy after taking on board Dez's advice on falling off to relax!!!