Stone Country – Landscapes and Lifescapes

Dumby Sea Bloc The Scottish winter is a long dreamtime. Especially in such wet, dark, dank weeks which visit us between old years and new. The Scottish climber probably spends more time dreaming about climbing than actually doing any. A lot of stones and boulders float round ambitious dreamscapes in drifting vistas of cool skies and sun-washed rock. The reality is just about waiting out the weather systems. A Sunday visit to Dumbarton rock found it, not unsurprisingly, green, dripping. One problem was dry. High tides are floating the Sea Boulder again and it's time to take stock, or just bite the bullet and get down the training wall ...

...not Scotland, as was promised! Towards the end of the week, the weather has settled a little and some clear skies and frosts set in. A massive coronal mass ejection (CME or solar storm) was predicted to hit the atmosphere on Thursday, but it was weaker than predicted and evening jaunts to the higher ground round Glasgow were fruitless. Iceland and Norway stole the show, seen live on Skygazing live on the BBC, or the 'lucky-bastards show' as it should be called. Hopefully an active sun will continue to have colourful hissy fits this winter... The clearer skies finally combined with a weekend, so on Saturday 11th, with the east of the country draped with medallions on the forecast, Colin and myself headed to Glen Lednock. Treacherous black ice on the pass over to Comrie (with a buckled jeep in a ditch behind a scribble of swerve-lines on the road) led to a slow approach but we made it up to Invergeldie Farm and stomped the locked-gate approach to the dam for the first e...

Welcome to 2014, Arran 3rd January  January 1st arrived with mild and stormy weather interspersed by long periods of continuing rain on saturated ground. After a grim December, optimism for the New Year is on hold in terms of the weather - an unsettled and wobbly jet-stream seems to have set in motion an endless stream of southwesterly water-baths. On the 3rd January a perfect storm of sorts blew in, combining with spring tides to flood most of the Clyde basin. Exposed shoreline areas saw roads ripped apart and covered in marine debris, Ardrossan and Arran hit hard. Arran 3rd January storms We were staying in Corrie in the sheltered north harbour 'Wee Zephyr' cottage (a rather ironic name), accompanied by an unconcerned otter fishing the harbour bay, but still found both north and south roads impassable for a while at Sannox and Maol Donn shores. New Year companion Walks were the order of the day to shake off the alcoholic lethargy of New Year, up to the w...

Dumbarton Rock, or Dumby as it is known to locals, is Scotland's prime urban bouldering venue. This is the first guide to document the complete bouldering at Dumby: the straight-ups, the traverses, the eliminates, the link-ups, the circuits and the test pieces, as well as the projects ... if you're visiting Dumby for the first time, or have become smitten with the place as a local venue, this is the guide for you! Photo-topos, circuit maps, extended descriptions and historical notes provide the first complete tick-list for bouldering at Dumbarton - even getting to 100 complete problems will seem like an achievement, whilst ticking all 300 would be a world-class first. This notoriously fickle and difficult venue can safely be described as the spiritual home of Scottish bouldering. We have stock available direct at £5.99 plus a little PandP from the bookshop page. Please note stock will be sent out up to Dec 23rd, thereafter only from January 6th, thanks.

“Finding a climber who perceives bouldering as a moving meditation, or one who values form and style far beyond difficulty, is a daunting task . . . bouldering needs its own analytical literature. In this book, Francis Sanzaro takes a significant step in that direction.” John Gill , Godfather of bouldering & author “… today, you rarely see much literature and reflection coming out of anyone. That just changed. Francis Sanzaro stopped what he was doing and took the time to reflect on bouldering and what it means to him and why he does it. The result is his impressive new book ‘ The Boulder: A Philosophy for Bouldering’.   In it, he presents some of the most thoughtful and interesting writing I’ve ever read about this sport. ‘The Boulder’ is a dynamic new addition to the body of climbing literature and philosophy.” Andrew Bisharat, Editor, Rock & Ice Magazine “The language we use to describe climbing is pretty rudimentary, relyi...

Go cleaning and climbing ... just to let you know there will be a Dumby clean-up this Saturday 23rd November 10am to 2pm (at the latest) - plenty of bods will make light work round the boulders and environs. Linda Adam from West Dunbartonshire Council has organised a skip and all the cleaning gear like last time, including gloves, sharp-boxes, bin bags and those grabby things, so you just need to come dressed for a cold dry day, by the looks of the forecast. TCA will be organising events round this, to be announced.The council will strim the area of vegetation so we can make a decent fist of clearing the whole area again. Some anti-erosion work may be going on so bring a bucket and spade if you like. There's plenty of gravel on the beach to place around some muddy holes which are forming under popular take-off aprons. And it looks like perfect bouldering weather, so bring your kit as well! 

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