Stone Country – Landscapes and Lifescapes

I'm currently finishing off the new edition of the Stone Country companion, a full-colour guidebook to Scottish bouldering. I've got about 80 venues, many of them recent and new (including a gritstone venue, ha ha ha Sheffield), so this is a call to any boulderers who would like their new or classic venues listed and mapped out... just let me know what I should include. Some highlights include Craigmaddie, Glen Nevis updates, the Arran Mushroom, Dumby updates, Clashfarquhar, Muchalls Shore, Clova, Shelterstone, Aviemore venues, loads of far northwest stones, Carn Liath, Applecross, Scatwell, Glen Coe, Tom Riach, Brin Rock of course...the list is extensive, but it's all about what information I can dig up.

Staggered The weather basked on the fringes of a high pressure and rain was attending one side of the country like a distracted bully, so we headed east and to the delights of the County. Bowden was visited after an aborted look at Raven's, proving too rough on the skin for a weekend of mostly skin management. We headed up to Bowden, gleaming in the sun like a petrified golden wave. Pairs of worshippers touched rock all along the length of the crag. Busy. Choose a spot...you can see the white dot-to-dot rubrics of the classics from half a mile away. We chose the winter-snowflake storm that is the Roof. Soon it was crawling. Still climbing gingerly, I snuck off to the west end to do some classics and noticed the crag was suffering just as much bouldering injury as me. Poverty Anyway, the weather was perfect and some classics were done, Colin cranking hard through the Bowden right roof, getting close on Poverty (the foothold is now so worn, it really is harder, nothing sticks now!),...

Here's a list of what I thought might represent the best of the hardest problems in Scotland... please have a look through and get back to me on any opinions/inaccuracies or additions... it's just a matter of opinion, but I'd like to get some feedback for inclusion in the new edition of Stone Country. Scotland Top 100 Boulder Problems Font 7a and above… Font 8b V13 Sanction Dumbarton Rock Dave Macleod 2007 Plain hard. Pressure Dumbarton Rock Dave MacLeod 2005 Aggression needed. Super Size Me Dumbarton Rock Malcolm Smith 2005 Very long. Perfect Crime Dumbarton Rock Dave MacLeod 2005 Contorted. Zillion Dollar Sadist Clifton Paul Savage 2002 Blank and slopey lip. Font 8a+ V12 Sosho ...

Ben Litster on an early attempt at Sussurrus Michael Lee, haunted by a whispering need to get on the big roof at Brin, took advantage of Ben Litster's absence (unlucky Ben, don't be too hard on him!) to campus out the last crucial moves of Susurrus V9. The line is obvious when you walk into the woodland wonderland of Brin bouldering... a cavernous roof with a footless hanging prow, like a Scottish version of Eclipse . Mike thought the problem to be about Font 7c with a new cunning sequence at the start. Great to have two higher-end problems at Brin (the other is Ben's Put My New Shoes On ), prompting questions.... is there an 8th grade somewhere in the forest? Mike's Blog

Niall McNair has climbed a classic and stunning arete in Arrochar: Ajare E6/7 6b . The crag can be spied by lustful trad climbers from Arrochar, but until now no-one had breached the impregnable lines on this crag. The route was climbed in a flash ascent with a cursory abseil to check quality of rock on the dangerous crux, which is a technical 6b sequence over poor RP's leading to thank-god gear in a high niche. Niall repeated the climb smoothly for the cameras and thought it bold E6 climbing on second ascent, but this might still mean a possible ground-up E7 serious onsight, let the repeaters decide... It is good to see routes of this quality still appearing in Arrochar... this is almost as stunning a line as Dalriada in my opinion. More lines will be forthcoming and the crag will soon be revealed in all its hardcore glory...

A flying visit to the Ardnamurchan ring crags and another batch of problems to add to the great 'Ring Cycle'. Walking the volcano is long enough, but add on a few highball problems and easy solos makes for a very interesting and exhausting day's climbing. Start at the central camp-site by the wee river (before Achnaha), go up the back of Creag an Airgid and circumnavigate the boulders and crags anti-clockwise to finish over the craggy back of Sanna and the long ridge home to the campsite. Climb anything that looks good... the slabby crags are highball VS at most and steep short roofs add a little bouldery intrigue. The best bouldering is around the crags and boulders between Creag an Fhir Eoin and Achnaha Buttress, but doing the whole thing will provide up to 1000m of actual climbing on rock, depends how much you want to do!

The weekend was a washout, especially for the Great Climb on the BBC, shame they had no flexibility built in as High Pressure is just round the corner... as a climber in Scotland you always need a wet weather alternative... so on a wet afternoon in Inverurie, I raced up to the Cullen Caves and bouldered away merrily on the dry steep quartzite caves, doing a few lines on St Duane's Den, with a particularly good traverse and a desperate straight-up ( Duane's World , Font 7a+). Topos will appear in the forthcoming Stone Country new edition, but suffice to say some hard projects remain... the caves stay dry in torrential rain, but take plenty of chalk as the quartzite can be damp. Guy Robertson completed his 8a+ (French grade) traverse at Boltsheugh. This is a low-level traverse of the right-hand sports crag and is a real pumper, though you'll need a local to point out the rules...some holds are plain no-no. Good effort, this is no mean feat to link... a bit like Consolidated.....