Stone Country – Landscapes and Lifescapes

A week's ferry chasing on the ERT fares saw us through Moidart, Knoydart, Skye, Harris and Lewis, ending up in Ullapool. It was good to see Harris getting some bouldering attention, especially Aird Mighe, which is a terrific venue on the Golden Road, where it is almost impossible to keep your eyes on the road as you wind from Tarbert down to Rodal. I suspect there are some superb gneiss roofs hidden in this wilderness of water, light and rock. A walk through the vastness with binoculars and tent is a must for the next visit, though I am conscious that once in this eye-level maze, I might never come out again! A new topo for the accessible Aird Mighe can be found on Scottish Climbs , I managed the excellent short roof problem of Crystal Voyage, which feels hard in the summer heat as the ultrabasic crystalline nature of the rock makes it a bit soapy. 6c in winter I'd say, but you'd probably not want to be here in winter, unless you have tent pegs to stake out your mat and ta...

Not to everyone's taste, this great little crag is a little mossy and north facing (dank in winter, midgy and humid in summer), but it does have a selection of fine technical boulder problems. It is one of my favourite spots when conditions are right, such as in June this year, when the long dry spells crisped the moss off the rock. I've put a PDF guide on the Boulder Scotland website, or click on the link below and print out. Unfortunately the humid July rains have returned the crag to a slippy, mossy jungle, best wait for the weather to dry again before a visit. Open publication - Free publishing - More scotland

The Stone Country Yearbook is now available at half price. If you want a copy, it can be purchased through Paypal with Freepost and will be dropped through your letterbox next working day. It includes sports updates and topos for The Orchestra Cave, Red Wall Quarry, Dunglass, Ardvorlich, Rob's Reed and bouldering for Shelterstone, Applecross, Trossachs and Glen Lednock, amongst many others. £3.50 Freepost 1st Class

Donald Trump has ridden roughshod over a huge groundswell of protest to turn part of the North East coast into yet another enclosed artificial space (a golf course). Corporate purchases of land in Scotland should be resisted - we won't get our free access statutes back if they are bought for developments. It is a modern form of the Clearances, just very insidious and smoothed over with massive PR. Don't be fooled by the 'jobs' or 'local money' argument, profits are going into offshore accounts of Trump and his cronies.... Check these guys out who are fighting against it, sign up and at least give your voice to it. Could be your local crag next... Tripping Up Trump | Tripping Up Trump

What I keep returning to in bouldering is its ability to absorb our imagination and its open-ended nature. Dumbarton Rock, despite its heavy historical footfall, still keeps giving new 'lines'. In bouldering, there is a crucial core to enjoying it and this is the simple sense of play. The eliminate philosophy of deciding what lines to climb means a single lump of rock can provide limitless entertainment and fun. There aren't any restrictions as to line - it is the movement and quality of moves which counts, which is why we can get so absorbed by graffiti-scrawled rock in a tawdry industrial setting and still feel like we are lost in a new world. This focus on the actual climbing rather than the line dictated by the architecture (these are always the obvious aesthetic lines which are climbed first) means anything is possible and any move can be as good as another: the rock doesn't really care which way you go, after all. Hence the birth of traversing, such as the classic...

Tim Rankin succeeded this spring on the big roof project at Clashfarquhar. With repeats of OPSDS (Optimus Prime SDS), this is another 8th grade on a growing tally of high end problems on the Aberdeen coast. The problem lies on the prop boulder roof just to the right of the Big Grey boulder on the Clashfarquhar platform. Tim describes it thus: Delirium 8a The obvious perma chalked horizonal prow of the platform with a prop boulder under it. SDS at the base of the prow at an obvious crimp. Slap out right to slopers on the lip and continue out the prow via powerful slapping and hugging to a desperate move off a poor sidepull gains the first real hold! A final hard move gains jugs on the finishing arete. Delirium Crux Pic Tim Rankin

Ron Dempster tipped us off about these massive blocs on the way to Carnmore, underneath the trad arete of The Beanstalk (HVS) on Beinn Airigh Charr. The boulders in the foreground look good for a few big lines and who knows what lies in the jumble? They lie just to the west of Loch na Uamhag on the northern side of Beinn Airigh Charr, just off the path on Strathan Mor. View Strathan Mor Blocs in a larger map