MJ Mountaineering

It was great to be back on Skye on Thursday, especially as it coincided with the only dry day in the week. I was with a former student who missed out on a trip to climb the Inn Pin when at school due to illness. She was touring Scotland with her family and so another opportunity came along. My wife also accompanied us as photographer (many thanks!)

Another beautiful day in Perthshire and a great opportunity to head to Flat Line Wall in Sma Glen. The video shows the crux 5c move on the three star Ouzels of Fun. A very well protected E1, unlike the adjacent Dead Bop (E2 5b). This also offers fine climbing but is a far more committing lead.

It’s that time of year again and well done to the four boys for completing their Gold DofE qualifying expedition. We were in the Cairngorms again but this time following a linear route from Aviemore to Blair Atholl. The Reindeer in the Lairig Ghru were very keen to investigate my tent!

Luckily we gambled with the weather and won on Saturday. I’ve started looking beyond the chance of rain to look at the amount of rain forecast on the rainfall radar. That worked well today, thankfully. Dry rock at Bennybeg and a first lead climb for Sofie.

Productive day at Kirriemuir with lots of climbing done. There are loads of great routes at Kirrie!

We held our nerve despite a discouraging forecast and were rewarded with a beautiful dry and sunny day at . The team were stoked to lead the four 6a routes on the right hand side.

We dodged a few sporadic showers and had an adventurous afternoon at the atmospheric Pool Wall at Ley Quarry yesterday. Great effort from the girls on these hard routes.

Caught the perfect day at Glen Lednock sport crag today. Steep and exciting lead climbing from the team in a beautiful setting. A mountain crag right next to the road, what’s not to like!

New venue today with the climbing team. We were at Dollar Quarry on a lovely sunny afternoon (after a damp morning). The climbing is surprisingly good, I’m feeling bad for having taken so long to come and climb there.
Well done to Anna for leading a route I told her was 6a+ but turned out to be 6b+

Great to be back on the rock again after Easter. It was almost too hot at lt was also good to refresh leading skills before going to Kirriemuir on Saturday.