Zealots and Serums

Perfect late March spring weather, cool mornings and sunny afternoons, the friction still good on the rock, everything dry and crisp - Scotland owes us a few weeks of this after the winter!

Malcolm Smith has done a variation 8a+ at Dumby called the 'Serum of Sisyphus', which climbs the Perfect Crime start and then escapes up the Good Nicks crack.. an easier alternative (well, more achievable I guess) than finishing up the desperate Sabotage. It's another good addition to Dumby, which now has a feast of 8a and above problems. He gives this variation three stars...he should know! Nice one Malc.

On his return from Spain, a lean Dave MacLeod has also completed the full cave traverse of the Home Rule boulder to give Sosho Font 8a+..., the boss sequence into Hokku 8a... it's an awfully long problem Dave, you sure it isn't harder? Seems like the 9a Spanish roofs have made this seem more achievable for Dave - it went very quickly on a fine evening in March... another excellent high end problem at Dumby, surely the rest of Scotland has a few more??

John Watson took advantage of the fine weather to work a Glen Ogle project and complete the excellent roof fight called 'The Zealot'. On the giant and accessible Hollow Stone, this should be a popular 7b... a couple of mats and a spotter make it less of a heart-squeezer through the crux layback on the crimp. A deeper cave start will make it 7c... plenty of other projects remain in the glen, but the rock is a little suspect and takes time to settle. See the wee vid below...


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