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My Blog
E8 on Mull
E6
There are a handful of E6s on Mull, Iona and Erraid.
In December ’92 I walked along another unnamed and unclimbed crag excitedly writing down all the features on a sheet of paper; this crag was on Iona.
Nine months later Mark Garthwaite (Garth) climbed the feature I had written down as ‘arete impossible’, photo above.
He encouraged me to follow him on it, the areas first E6, but I was worried about damaging my fingers.
This route has had several repeats over the years.
As I couldn’t be persuaded to get on the route he stripped the gear then went up the hill to see what George Szuca was abseiling down.
There was nobody else so I had to belay Davie Gregg on what would, a year later, become Smoking the Toad E6. He set off then got his leg on the wrong side of the rope, so I had to pay out more slack than I should have. It was hot so his fingers slipped off and he fell. Because of the slack rope he fell further than he should have and smacked his heel on a spike, obviously it was all my fault!
Dr Garthwaite examined his heel, he said it wasn’t broken and told him to sit with his foot in a pool of water. I had recently hurt my heel at work so gave him my anti inflammatories, then we had a very slow walk back to the ferry.
We stopped off at the Kinloch Hotel where I warned George that we would be kicked out if he swore. Davie ordered a brodies cider, George then announced that the last time he had brodies he got lifted.
E7
The first E7 was climbed the following year and was another E6! Garth climbed an E5 (photo below) on Horse Wall at Scoor on Mull. I didn’t belay him but got to second it, I was happy with that.
He returned three weeks later for the wall just right, I belayed this time. Afterwards I was ordered not to clean the wall because without the thin flakes there would be no climb. The wall was repeated a couple of years later after a hold broke, so See You in Hell Soldier Boy was upgraded to E7.
Last year Jules Lines and Gary Latter climbed Out of This World an E7 in Asteroid Chasm on Erraid, photo by Karen Latter below. I don’t think it will get many repeats as it has to be climbed outwith the nesting season and because it is in a gully above the sea a film of moisture is slow to evaporate. Gary states the climb is world class.
Six days later Jules climbed another E7 Kidnapped, I wrote about it in a blog.
http://www.colinmoody.com/Site/Blog/Entries/2015/7/5_Kidnapped.html
E8
Pete Whillance abseiled down an intermittent crack on a slightly overhanging wall at Kintra on Mull. Michael Tweedley also inspected it, he said it would be E8 and would suit Dave MacLeod. Dave led Ice Burn E8 this March, Chris Prescott photo below.
There is a video of the route.
Glen More at 1.14, See You in Hell Soldier Boy is left of the beach at 1.31, Kintra starts at 1.32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5tP_9Mox2A
Not surprising all these stunning routes get three stars, there are plenty more to do!
Thanks to Gary and Karen Latter scottishrock.co.uk
Dave MacLeod davemacleod.com and
Chris Prescott darksky-media.com
Sunday, 18 December 2016