Some time ago the BBC asked me if I’d be keen to climb something hard on Cairngorm for a live outside broadcast this summer. I couldn’t quite believe it. 40 years ago the BBC did a live OB over three days with Bonington, Patey, Haston and others climbing the Old Man of Hoy. It happened again a generation later in 85 in Glen Coe, and now once again in 2007. Broadcasting is very different now, so it was quite a surprise to hear that climbing was going to be on primetime Saturday television for 7 hours in a single day!

Better climb something good then…Hmmmm

The venue is going to be the Loch A’an basin and its impressive cliffs; Shelterstone Crag and Hell’s Lum. This is somewhere I’ve climbed rarely, being a west coaster. So it’s cool to be exploring somewhere new so close to home. My brief is simple – to climb something very hard, and preferably a new route. I’m more into steep climbing so I opted for Hell’s Lum and went for a look at it. I knew there were new lines to climb in there, but I’d never seen them up close.

Wow. The lower part of the wall is quite amazing. Perfect granite with four pristine straight up new lines to do, and that is just the first pitch. If the conditions are good on the day, I’m going to try to climb a beautiful smooth wall, about E8 or E9. The protection is poor so falling off hopefully won’t be in the screenplay. If I do you’ll see me getting carried off in the helicopter to hospital. Amusingly, the hardest move is a wild dyno as well. Most TV friendly for the viewers, most terrifying for the climber.

Cleaning new lines on Hell’s Lum crag on Saturday

Pitch 2 looks like an E7, a bold traverse across a smooth wall, only protected at the start. So the further across you go, the bigger the pendulum you face if you fall. We’ll go for the flash and see how we get on. Perhaps I’ll allow three falls before I succumb to a plan B. I’m not sure what plan B would be right now? The final pitch isn’t quite so physically demanding, even though it’s the steepest. The holds are quite big, but they are also detachable! This means the chances of protection holding a fall are… erm… somewhat reduced. E6 6a/b and sudden death if I fall. I might not be smiling on this pitch too much. At least the topout is quite stunning if we succeed.

My partner for the climb will be Cubby. After a few years of injury troubles, I’ve been getting txts from him with tales of mileage done and fitness coming back. Thing is, I’ve seen how strong he is in his ‘unfit and injured’ state and lets just say it’s something rather different from what you or I would call unfit or weak…

Hell’s Lum Crag, Cairngorm. Coming to a screen near you!

Folk have been asking me if I’m nervous about doing a top end dangerous route on live TV. A TV camera is not a scary as an E9 that’s for sure, but it’ll be hard if I can’t climb it on the day. The producers asked for a hard climb. Hard climbing means uncertainty. I might fall off and hurt myself, or I might pull off a three pitch E9? I guess we’ll find out…

When is it on? Saturday 18th of August 1pm-7pm (yes you did read that correctly!) BBC2 Scotland or streamed live on the BBC site.

More info and a trailer for the programme here

Ring of Steall 8c+ - more photos added to my Gallery (Photo: Claire MacLeod)

I’ve added more photos of Ring of Steall to the Gallery section and added frequently asked questions about my email training programs and coaching sessions. If you have any more questions about these, please drop me an email.

Michael, rain and midges

Michael arrived for some more days of intense climbing. Sport climbing again since the country continued to be awash with rain. We were even washed out of normally perma-dry Steall by the condensation dampness from a sudden rise in temperature (the southerlies finally made as far north as Lochaber!). The warmth lasted barely 12 hours though. Next morning, with a good forecast, we headed into Cairngorm to clean new routes. Autumnal in the glens, baltic on the high plateaus.

A brief moment of sunshine at Steall, so rare I thought I better get a photo

I forgot my thermals, so much shivering later, I had partially cleaned a new climb for the Great Climb programme and was ready to retreat to Aviemore for a cup of tea. Next day we witnessed one of the great wonders of the natural world – what we both agreed was the densest swarm of midges either of us has ever seen. We were scoping out a new crag. We should have known better; warm, pouring with rain, still, and knee deep heather and bog approach. We ran for our lives.

The final day was looking similar as we negotiated the Loch Lomond road in a heady mix of floods, torrential rain, collapsing road and big coaches full of tourists. Two cakes each in Lochgoilhead caf was enough to raise the psyche level to walk into the Anvil.

Ring of Steall, 8c+, Steall Crag, Glen Nevis. Photos by Claire MacLeod. Click on the pics for a bigger view.

Yesterday I climbed the Ring of Steall project at Steall hut crag. When I got to the belay I had to slap myself and confirm with Claire that it had actually just happened and I wasn’t dreaming. In fact, a dream like state was exactly how I climbed it. The whole thing flowed with effortless ease and perfectly focused effort, on the very first time I made a proper redpoint attempt. Ascents that happen so perfectly with no mistakes, no hesitation and no consciousness of self are so rare. Nevermind on a route I’ve been trying for ten years! I’d say that was by far the most focused moment of my life so far. It was so unexpected, but maybe it had to be to occur in the first place?

This project has been an inspiration simmering in the back of my head for ten years. It was equipped and tried by Cubby in the early nineties and he worked hard on it, coming very close to getting past the crux section before injury and work got in the way and the momentum was lost. I’ve talked with Dave about the project many times since and it was always a huge goal for either of us. If Dave had done it in ’92, it would have been one of the top five sport routes in the world at the time – an incredible effort.

Dave was (still is) a massive inspiration to my climbing, and climbing his hardest routes was a huge goal of mine, in my progression in climbing. Although I managed to climb most of them, the Steall project always remained as a huge test I wanted to pass, but that crux just felt brick hard. Every year I had a day on it, and every year it seemed above my level.

The crux Egyptian of Ring of Steall

It’s about 8a+ to get to the big undercut in the centre of the wall, then you have to get an evil sloping crimp with your left hand, that is so smooth, it’s almost like its been buffed and polished – nothing but pure strength will do to hold it. Then, it’s the Egyptian. Over the past month I’ve walked down the path from Steall feeling that it’s the most beautiful move I’ve ever experienced on rock, and other nights been cursing it to hell. Last week I finally mastered the correct timing of how to drop the knee and then push in the exactly correct direction with each foot. It’s the ultimate move – when performed with technical excellence, it's easy. But if you don’t move the limbs in the correct sequence of subtle shifts, no amount of strength or psyche will make any impression.

This type of climbing suits Cubby’s technical mastery perfectly, so it’s a shame that he wasn’t able to finish it. It’s no surprise to me that the route left such a big impression on him as it has done on me – perfect movement in a beautiful place.

Having completed this route, if I had to give up climbing tomorrow due to some disaster, I’d be satisfied with my effort. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt that. Climbing it has confirmed in my mind something I felt for the first time after climbing Rhapsody; We can really do anything, and I mean anything we want. Circumstances are indeed barriers, but never impenetrable ones. We are limited only by knowing exactly what we want and having the pure motivation to find it. I always heard this idea from ‘motivational types’ in the past. As a sceptic I’ve spent over ten years trying to refute it by repeatedly trying seemingly impossible projects. Every time the result is the same – Tasks you are not truly motivated for may always remain beyond your reach, tasks you are deeply motivated for take you on a long and convoluted route around the barriers that circumstances create. Sometimes, in the thick of the maze of circumstances, you realise your motivation is not deep enough and its best to try something else. But when the motivation remains through deep frustration, the results are always… always… just around the corner.

How cool is that.