Aaaaaaahhhh, Yes!

It's nice to be able to write about some personal success in Scotland rather than my usual round of epics. Yesterday together with Andy Turner I returned to the scene of my avalanche incident from back in the beginning of December. This was my second return having been halfway up the hill in drizzle with Dave Macleod in January. This time despite once again setting off at 4.30am in the rain again we hit a freezing level at 800m and found superb conditions on West Central Wall. We spent probably 10 or 11 hours unlocking the false turns and blind alleys of the maze of overhanging rock right of Chop Suey (starting up that route) before managing a superb direct line. I'll post more later about the details (I only got home at 7am this morning after 1 hours sleep) and my daughter Suzanna is more interested in which is the tastiest my mobile phone or the TV remote. It's been a long held dream of mine to climb a winter route on this face. So here's a couple of pics of Bruised Violet VIII,7,8,8,8,7 Andy on the second ab. Bruised Violet takes the big groove (Chop Suey) then a line direct through the roofs before an incredibly pumpy overhanging crux wall to finish.Andy on the first crux traversing the lip of the roofs.
Andy leading the short intense third pitch - more roofs (which more sensibly could be combined with the second or fourth pitch)