We have had such good settled weather this summer its hard to accept that the rock season may be coming to an end. Since climbing The Rebellion last week I have been back at Wave Buttress with renewed enthusiasm for the project. I am now experiencing the roller coaster ride of getting painfully close to linking the route but feeling its still nowhere close. There is an added pressure of the new guidebook coming out next year as I would love to have it included, however, two very hard moves are currently holding me back but every time I attempt it I feel like I have made progress, which is the only thing keeping me sane!

Having a play on a potential new route Kev sought out

Dot and I have been out visiting other crags down the Glen. We had an afternoon at Whale Rock where I tried the iconic Just a Little Tease (E5,6b) made famous on the cover of Ken Wilson’s Extreme Rock. Unfortunately it didn’t float my boat much but then maybe I need to get a few harder routes under my belt before putting the effort in. Dot jumped on Earthstrip; an E2,5c test piece which she almost managed to onsight taking a good fall in the process.

Dot trying hard on Earthstrip

We also managed to grab an hour between showers at Gorge Crag where I got 3/4 of the way up Plague of Blazes (E2,5b) before getting soaked by a heavy shower well above the gear and ended up lowering off – back to more typical Scottish rock climbing then!

Enjoying Plague of Blazes before the rain