E1

The 27th of July 2008 was a turning point in my climbing. I finally ticked my first E1. Due to the lack of wind we (jamie and me) decided to hit cummy as it is always good weather there. We arrived and headed straight to Orange Wall. Apparently in recent years Jamie is probably one of only a few people to actually lead here due to the nature of the rock so I am quite happy to add my name to that list. I decided to play the head pointing game on this one so I could make sure my 2 bits of gear were good before committing. After 4 or so goes on it I decided to man up and get on with it. About 2 minutes or so later it was done with minimum fuss which for me is pretty impressive. I dare say I even enjoyed it. Anyway so there we have it, Flakey Wall E1 5a* has been ticked. We are heading back today so I can top rope a good looking E2.

Stewart.

When Stewart met Dave

For my birthday my parents gave me a session with mr Dave MacLeod down in the fort. After waiting for the summer months to arrive and for uni to finish, myself and my sister headed down for the session. Dave had conveniently found a new boulder and we decided to visit it for the start of the session.

We did a short warm up on a slab and then got to it with some new problems which I think Dave will add to his website when he returns from America. The first of the problems was a nice wee roof, no idea what the grade is maybe V2 to V3 nothing to difficult but good fun. We followed this with another two problems, one of which I will return to finish off at some point.

From this boulder we moved to skelton boulder to try a route there and after failing at the sit start I gave the standing start a bash. I managed to get a couple of holds from the top but started to get tired and got a bit psyched with the exposure and the drop off down the slope so whimped out. At this point I was nailed and after a couple more attempts we headed indoors to kimbers wall to cover the basic movement techniques dave had covered early in the day.

At this point I thought I should probably cover some of the actual coaching dave did.

The main points to come out of the session where movement, foot work and reading the rock. All things I needed serious help with lol. He showed me some really good techniques with such excellent names as the head butt and discus. I have been putting them into practice and they are really good. I think some people are lucky and can do them naturally, unfortunately I cant so it was nice to be taught them. All in all it was a cracking day that I have taken a lot from and I am actually trying to put into practice. This includes me even doing proper training sessions down the wall (shock horror I know).

Anyway thats enough of my ramblings, I will add photos once I get them from my sisters camera.

Stewart

Jungle Bashing Part 1

The 2nd of July 2008 was probably one of the most exciting days climbing I have had which is saying something. I was able to tick off "Get your name in a climbing guide". Myself and Mr Jamie Murray went jungle bashing and were rewarded for our efforts by the climbing and mountain gods (who incidently are probably one of the same). We uncovered 2 new walls with some real potential. On a purely selfish stance I aint going to tell you were it is until I have climbed all the routes I can at it but we thought it was important to document the ones so far. So here we go.

All the routes were onsighted ground up with no inspection.

[Yet to be named] - HVS 4c

Lead: Jamie Murray 
Seconded: Stewart Munro 
Date: 2nd July 2008

At the right end of the crag climb the wall to the right of the well defined crack (bouldery) to gain the big chimney above, finish direct.

Spitting Games - Hard Severe
Lead: Stewart Munro
Seconded: Jamie Murray
Date: 2nd July 2008

Climb the right hand side of the obvious spike to small ledge. Follow diagonal rising crack that trends right to the top and then over short bulge to top out.

[Yet to be named] - HVS 5b (could well be E1)

Lead: Jamie Murray
Seconded: Stewart Munro
Date: 2nd July 2008

Boulder problem start up overhang onto ledge, take the obvious exit crack above to thin topout.

[Yet to be named] - Severe
Lead: Stewart Munro
Seconded: Jamie Murray
Date: 2nd July 2008

From the recess, climb the flakes diagonally right then follow the obvious and enjoyable diagonally left rising layback flake to the top.

Further reports will follow with pictures.

Ravenscraig

Location: kirkcaldy

Crag: Ravenscraig

Climbing Type: Bouldering

Climbers: Me, Tom and Barnes

Date: 08/06/08

We went to Ravenscraig for a short session and BBQ at the weekend to clear the heads and to test drive Tom's new bouldering mat. Anyway nothing to exciting happened except we found a sweet dyno to play on (Dynosaur V4 6B(Morpho)). All round good day and tom got some pretty good pics.

Tom, Barnes and Fraser

Barnes going for the dyno

Me going for the dyno

Me again

MEng Road Trip 2008

Location: Machrihanish, South West of Scotland
Distance: 470 ish miles

Well 5 years of blood, sweat, tears, stress, beers and hovercraft came to an end last week and 7 of us escaped to the country to clear the head and to escape computers. Nobody actually believed that we could or would organise a holiday away as we find it hard enough organising a night out.

It started out as a trip up the west coast from the Mull of Kintyre to Sandwood Bay at the very north west tip of Scotland. With two car loads with enough outdoor toys to keep a relatively large campsite happy for months, we departed HW on monday heading for Balloch to rendezvous with Mr Higgins. With Tom's "insert nickname" Ford Maverick, Alans Rave 4 and Ross's "dont scratch it" Toyota Avensis space was plentiful and we all (I think) enjoyed a relatively comfortable and easy drive to Machrihanish which was to be the first stop on the trip. The only excitment was when we past Ross with his tool kit out and the bonnet up. It later turned out Greig wanted the air filter out of the engine to make it "sound better".

The weather gods were with us and we arrived at the 4 star campsite with the sun out. The only downside was the wind but considering were we where it was no big deal. As you do first port of call was the beach. Andy had packed his kites so we headed for a play. After a slight detour across the majority of the Machrihanish golf course we arrived at the beach. Paddling was order of the day while andy got the kite together and Greig the man he is went for a very very brief dunk in the sea while we watched on. To cut a mid length story short we all are now hooked on kiting even though i did continually get dragged down the beach.

After a gourmet BBQ cooked by Barnes we watched the mighty Holland destroy the Italians in the football which finished off a cracking first day of the trip.

Day 2 was initially going to be surfing day but after rubbish looking surf we decided to go for a wander. Campbeltown was first on the list for some food and a look at some boats (wild i know). After staring at the cool lifeboat in the harbour a guy came out and took us on board for a tour. We saw the full shooting match including the biggest turbos i have seen (geeky yup). After the big boat we were shown the small inflatable which can hit the same speed as the big one and was pretty cool. Anyway big thanks to the guy for showing us about. After campbeltown we headed round the penisula for the light house. On route we saw some grey seals who were chilling out about 20ft from us and didnt seem to bothered. We eventually made it to the light house after a trek and a half across the back roads and on the way back stopped at the Keil caves, st columba's footprints, a well and a co-op for more food. For the evenings entertainment we hoped to find a nice sheltered spot for some fishing and the BBQ. This turned into the complete opposite of storm chasers. The weather began to close in and the wind picked up so we high tailed it across the peninsula in the hope of catching a break.

After a long drive up the east coast we found a 600bc fort and pitched up there for the evening ( not sure if I should give the exact location). In possibly the coolest BBQ spot ever we had a great laugh included getting soaked by the rain which caught us up. Tom taught us the dark art of crab fishing and we found out that most of us are big girls when it comes to holding sea creatures. We turned out hand to fishing and I am going to claim the award for getting closest to catching an actually real life fish.

We returned to the campsite to a beautiful sunset over the beach so we grabbed the Tennents (it was cheap) and the kite and fired down to end the night on the beach. Even though it was ballock freezin it was a class night. It also turns out I am better with the kites on a practice fairway in skate shoes. You can slide all over the place. I will also point out that we encountered possibly some of the craziest people in a long time. Its 10/11 at night with a howling winding and 2 surfers turn up and start surfing. Now if the surf was huge and worth it I could understand but it wasnt, it was crap. Just plan crazy.

It was decided due to bad weather forecasts to return to edinburgh the next day so that we could end the trip on a high. On the way home we paid a visit to the monstrosity that is the loch lomond visitors centre/shopping centre thing. After a couple of photos and like my 10th burger in 4 days we split and headed home.

I think the stand out quote from the trip came from Alan during the drinking, I mean kiting, session on the beach. Tom was on the kite and Alan said "if you ignore the kite it looks like a Jamiroquai video". Genius.

Thanks for the memories guys. I think it was a very fitting end to 5 years of "dossing".

Stewart

Man Powered Hovercraft

28 weeks ago I walked into my first class of my 5th and final year at Heriot-Watt uni were I have been studying for my masters degree in mechanical engineering. This class happened to be for our group project were we get put into groups of 5, get given £1000 and a project brief. The lecturers began reading out the project titles. The first group got given a powered hovercraft project, the second group got give a water jet powered hydrofoil and with bated breath we waited for ours . . . "group 3, we would like you to build a man powered hovercraft. We dont actually know if this is possible but give it a go anyway" or words to that effect. We left the room a bit dumfounded but after a bit of google action it turned out that a number of relatively successful attempts had been made although they had taken more than the 28 weeks that we had.

To cut a 28 week story short we were successful. We actually managed to build one that works nearly exactly as designed to which some people might think is strange for me to say but considering we have never really been given something like this to do before were we had complete control we are pretty proud of ourself. Its probably easier just to stick some photos up for people to look at.

I could sit here and type the spec of it out but that would probably just bore people so on the off chance anyone is interested drop me an email and I will try and answer any questions.

Stewart

Bouldering Update

Just thought I would quickly add a wee update to keep the blog ticking over. Now that we have just got rid of a big piece of coursework we are starting to get climbing again and this week a short trip to A2 was on the cards. Turned out to be a good session and I now have a couple of grade 6 projects which is cool. I think A2 follows the V grades so I am pretty happy with this as V6 was my aim for outside this summer. The projects are pretty different one is on a really overhanging wall with large moves to really good holds whereas the other project is powerfull and fingery.

Anyway not a lot of info and probably pretty boring but nevermind. Until next time