Stone Country – Landscapes and Lifescapes

With the new edition of Stone Country almost ready to go to press, it's been a year where it's fair to say I have maybe not been reflective about the bigger picture, having been swamped in detail and numerous new venues, repeats and quality new lines. It's the time of year to sit back, pour a glass of port and mutter on about all the good things we did... That said, what strikes me as possibly a watershed in scottish climbing activity is the army of young boulderers coming out of the walls and finding their own way, that is, exploring their own abilities in a wild landscape. Trad may not exactly be dead, but everyone wants to do something new, and if you're young and keen (or just old and know no better), bouldering is a Yukon of gold rock and new possibilities. The amount of new venues that get mentioned to me (usually casual hints as I'm about to print a book!) is encouraging and it's good that Scotland is providing new impetus in mountaineering circles to co...

November may be autumn in the forest but it's a time of revival. Waking in the tent at 4am, I wriggle about in my cocoon a bit, wrapped in a chrysalis of decaying dreams. A rain of leaves whispers on the skin of the tent... the morning chill snapping them off the birches. I am beginning to go numb, so I crawl out, open the car and wipe my breath off the dashboard thermometer: -10 degrees. Minus ten in the forest, a star-studded sky that's already going from black to purple with the promise of perfect egg blue at noon... everything is frozen: the olive oil a thick lime-green cake in a bottle, the water taps spilling out their clear mutant forms. I feel invigorated with hidden movement... the bouldering will be perfect. The stove roars up a protest against the silence and the coffee acts like oil for the diesel engine, we begin to throw our arms in circles to loosen shoulder tendons, crack fingers outwards, begin a slow rhythm of waking to the forest, an old friend... a place of...

We are gearing up a little for Christmas and providing a few offers if anyone is looking for gifts for that keen boulderer! All items can be bought securely through the STONE COUNTRY SHOP : Stone Play - The Art of Bouldering £19.95 'The prints excellently portray the many aspects of bouldering, from aggression, technicality and confusion, to calm, subtlety and mastery. The essays complement the prints, taking the reader into the minds of some of bouldering's main protagonists – old and new. Overall this is a thought-provoking book for any climber, prompting personal reflection on one's own style, attitude and habits.' Dave Redpath Free additional T-Shirt with each T-Shirt order (£9.99) ie. two for a tenner!! Stone Country Edition 1 - NOW ONLY £9.99 !! Free draw - win the new Bouldering Guide!! The new full colour edition of Stone Country will be available by February 2008, and I'll be entering everyone who gets in touch in a draw to win a free copy, deadline is D...

Image from 'Stone Play' - can you guess where it is? It's been a hectic period putting books together, but finally Stone Play has been released and is receiving some good reviews. Two years in production, it maybe took a while, but hopefully folk will enjoy a bouldering circuit of historical photos and literary musings! Now I'm full time, I'm seeking publication ideas and commissions, so if you've something you want to publish, drop me an email at stonecountrypress@btinternet.com Stone Play is available in shops now, or order online for Christmas from Cordee On the Scottish bouldering front, I heard that Dave MacLeod, newly resident at Fortwilliam, is cleaning up the bouldering mythologies of Glen Nevis. He climbed the first confirmed ascent of the problem formerly known as The Morrighan which is the awesomely steep crimpy line under Pinnacle Ridge crag - we await a reappraisal. A few other projects fell in the glen and will be reported soon, John Watson havi...

The bouldering season is here and Stone Play has just been published! The book is 160 pages, only19.95 and available in all decent bookshops, or online through Cordee distributors: http://www.cordee.co.uk/CTC173.php This is the first collection of bouldering writing and photography ever to have been published. It’s a global tour through the history of bouldering, including writing from as early as Oscar Eckenstein and Harold Raeburn, through to the modern era, including Klem Loskot, Jacky Godoffe, Bernd Zangerl and Dave MacLeod. We have Niall Grimes, John Palmer and Nick Dixon on the Peak; we have Geoff Dyer on Hampi; Tim Carruthers on Patagonia ; Jacky Godoffe on Fontainebleau …. from the ‘golden age’ of American bouldering we have Pat Ament and John Gill… the list goes on.

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!),...