I think it is safe to say that Will Atkinson has done a lot for climbing at Dumbarton in the time he has been living up here. Numerous new problems, repeating everything, keeping the faith and inspiring others to push themselves to try harder things. He has now capped that all off with a ground-up ascent of Requiem. I hope this will inspire others to go enjoy one of the best pieces of trad climbing anywhere, a route with real international importance and put up by an all time legend, Dave Cuthbertson.
Will attempting Requiem (Photo: David Brigham)
On the same night I managed to find a spoiler sequence which got me up Thoroughbred which is the latest trendy tick now that almost everyone has done Sabotage. My Spanish route beast beta, might drop the grade a bit though.
Otherwise Scotland is back to normal. Showers, sunshine, torrential rain, wind, hail, snow, midges, humidity. Such a dissapontment after a month of amazing rock climbing opportunities. I tried to go do Metalcore last weekend, cycling in with the intentions of a sustained bout to finally kill this thing off, only to be dissapointed to find the whole crag covered in a film of condensation. I then wrote the rest of the weekend off with too much beer!
With squally showers forecast there isn't much hope of Metalcore action this week either. Frustration! At least it gives me some more time to get in to shape. My internal dialogue is a real battle at the moment between the half that wants to knuckle down and get serious about athletic discipline and the hedonistic side which wants to spoil it all. I think it's time for an ultimatum - "no fun 'til the routes are done".
I recently started rock climbing cornwall and have been blighted by similar weather related irritations - and similarly the temptation is to just go to the pub instead!
ReplyDeleteHope it's going well and the weather is improving (and becoming more reliable!)