Brin Winter Sessions 2

Nick on 'Brin Done Before'

Inspired by the climbing experience of the previous day, we headed back out to Brin the very next day. This time the sky stayed clear for the day, so plenty of climbing was done. The usual suspects turned up, with two climbers Mike and Ben know from Glasgow - Danny and Stewart. Jamie also came along. Ben was unfortunately ill and I can barely imagine how ill he must have been to miss a Brin Winter Session!

We started out on Preppy, V2, on the campus boulder and having lost sufficient ankle skin we moved to the Happy Boulder, behind which Nick was trying the infamous 'Brin Done Before', a very scary looking V6 highball. He never topped out, but spent enough time on it for me to get some good photos. Having repeated most of the problems on the Happy Boulder, Jamie spotted an obvious dyno which submitted fairly easily to Mike (once he had taken off his wellies and given it a bit of the Sharma power scream.) Stewart was working a sit start to this, however, Mike nipped in for the first ascent and Stewart didn't manage to stick the dyno from the ground.

Mike sticks the dyno

Stewart on the sit start to the dyno

Then it was on to the classic boulder of the crag - The Den - to climb 'Spank the Ramp' and the nails V5 'Graeme's Pinch'. Of course 'Graeme's Pinch' easily fought off our valiant attempts, however a few ascents were made of the neighbouring 'Spank the Ramp.' Mike, meanwhile, added a desperate sit start to the 'Guillotine.'

All in all a pretty successful day, with a fair amount of sending...though not very much by me. I'm still not sure what I think of Brin, I'm not sure what the Glaswegians thought of Brin. I have had some really good days there, with some excellent problems...but equally sometimes the bracken, the dampness, the moss, the cold/midges are just too much. As for it being the mecca...well, given the choice between Magic Wood and Brin, I know which I would take! Of course, Ben and Mike would probably agree, if a little grudgingly...

Brin Winter Sessions 1

Ben, Mike, Nick and I headed out to Brin Rock on the 29th, inspired by Ben's description of Brin as 'The Mecca of Scottish Bouldering.' More on that later... A combination of my small car, 4 people, 3 boulder mats, and most of the contents of Mike's shed (for cleaning problems) ensured that the journey was a little cramped, but this was easily solved by piling all of the stuff on Nick, whilst Ben and Mike could not see anything with a mat on their knees.

Walking...

Cleaning...

Eating...

In the dry part of the morning, Ben and Mike cleaned a stunning arete, Nick and I went to try 'Pitt Bull' and concluded that it was desperate. Then the rain came and we sat and ate lunch under a boulder then went home. So no-one actually did any climbing. As Nick put it: "They said it was the Mecca... but I'm not so sure."