My Blog
My Blog
The Pillar
I can’t remember which year I first abseiled down the pillar at Bornesketaig on Skye. I was on my own and feeling nervous so only went down it once. Surprisingly there were holds so maybe it was climbable. I thought it should be called ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ to fit in with the crag theme.
Protecting the pillar would be a problem. Pegs were obviously wrong. Long slings round the pillar for protection were suggested by Stephen (my lawyer) but I didn’t like that idea. I was happy to bolt it but knew that people who had never been to the crag before would go out of their way just to visit and remove the bolts.
An alternative to bolts was to get a proper climber to lead it. I e-mailed a photo of the pillar to Jules Lines after he took me up a few routes on Mull, he replied that it looked like Spantastic but we never climbed together on Skye.
We had a gathering on Skye in November last year so Stephen and I went to Bornesketaig and abseiled down the pillar a couple of times, we were surprised to find places for gear, it looked like it might be on! There was some hairy lichen near the top, I didn’t touch it as it’s always good to know if someone else has spent time on a project. We decided to return in the spring to give it a try.
This year we had a couple of trips to Rum and climbed in other places, the year was flying in so I knew we needed to get back to the pillar soon.
At the end of May (at work) I said I might want the Friday off on holiday and told Cynthia we might be going to Skye. I then got in touch with The Lawyer’s office, they would try to clear his diary. While this was going on he was in court where the police rushed out because there was a gunman in the library, part of Fort William ‘went into lockdown’. The gunman asked for my Lawyer to represent him but he had a pillar to look at, photo above.
The next day was bright and sunny. I abseiled first, the fulmar near the top of the pillar tried to puke on me but couldn’t manage a direct hit and settled back on the egg. We had forgotten to bring a brush so I cleaned the hairy lichen with the palm of my hand I also tried to prize off any loose flakes I could find.
We managed to top rope the pillar but were not up to leading it that day.
I worried about having to lead the pillar as the gear wasn’t brilliant, then in June more pressure was piled on! Stephen was going for a hip operation in July so I would have to lead the route soon or leave it till 2018. We had six weekends before then. I couldn’t manage two because of holidays and one because of work, it might rain the other three!
We left Glencoe to go back to the pillar on the last possible Sunday. It was still raining when we stopped in Broadford and when we got to the crag I pointed out the rain above the sea towards Harris, but I was told it was just mist by a visually challenged Lawyer.
It was cold and windy but the sea spray didn’t affect the rock on the pillar, the salt caked the windscreen of my car which was well back from the top of the cliff. I struggled top roping the pillar and knew I wouldn’t be leading it that day. After one of the heavy showers soaked the crag we went for a slippery walk to look at other parts of the cliff. I told Stephen that I wouldn’t be leading the route that day so he could go for it.
When he decided to go for the lead he was keen to get on the climb quickly as another shower looked imminent.
For a man needing a hip operation he did really well. His operation was three days after the pillar at Raigmore Hospital, the operation lasted three hours and he lost 2 litres of blood. Five days after the pillar he went home.
I climbed the crack to the right of the pillar ten years ago.
http://www.colinmoody.com/Site_2/Blog/Entries/2010/6/14_Bornesketaig%2C_Skye.html
There is a video of me trying the route behind the pillar with Bruce Taylor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3lfm5YpsII&t=15s
Above: Me on top rope, Stephen Kennedy photo.
Below: First Ascent 21st Century Schizoid Man E4 6a 16.7.17
Thursday, 27 July 2017