East-West link up attempt 1 (Rock climbing)

Wednesday 29 August 2007 09:42PM

Viv Scott and I had been planning this for a while-linking the classic mountain E1 of the East (The Needle, 275m) with the highest summit of the East (Ben Macdui) and then the classic mountain E1 of the West (Minus One Direct, 280m) and the summit of Ben Nevis. We had a great plan, a good weather forecast, a very skinny single rope, some very light hardware and enough gels and powders to keep the most hardened junkie happy. We would stay in a hostel in Aviemore, get up at god-awful-O-clock, cycle to the ski carpark, run in to the Shelterstone in the dark, simulclimb the Needle starting at dawn, run up Ben Macdui, back to the carpark, cycle to Ben Nevis and repeat…

The plan started to flounder when, at 9.30pm, just as we were bedding down for a few hours kip, smug in our luck at landing an empty dorm, a big guy walks in carrying a bag of chips, strips down to his smalls and proceeds to enjoy his chips in bed. Looking at the size of this guys belly, and the fact that he was drunk and eating chips in bed spelt just one thing: snoring! A few hours later Viv and I moved into the hall, where snoring man continued to keep us awake through the walls. Remarkably, when we got up we were still reasonably phsyched. Amazing, considering we had probably had less than 15 minutes sleep between us!

The cycle up Glenmore was exhilarating under a starry clear sky, and things continued well on the run through Coire an t’Sneachda and over the plateau to the Loch Avon basin. We were at the foot of the shelterstone just over two hours after leaving our sleepless beds. The timing was perfect, just as we finished putting on harnesses and roping up it became light enough to see rock… very wet rock. The first pitch should have been easy and quick (4b) but took me an hour to lead as it was soaking, and the second was just as wet but harder. Viv put in a stirling lead after I backed off, but it was clear, we were going far too slowly and the game was off. Unfortunately, since we only had one fifty metre rope, the only way we could go was up, so we bailed up Postern.

Oh well, as they say, a challenge that comes easily isn’t much of a challenge at all.

A few photos here.