Booking the ferry for the Hoy trip what\u2019s your reg\u00a0no, read Darryls text; Bugger had forgot all about\u00a0that. I was midway through my work season in\u00a0France and sleep and reasoning were in short supply.\u00a0I\u2019m sure I volunteered myself on the basis of having a\u00a0car large enough for the mountains of gear needed\u00a0for the trip and not for my extensive knowledge of\u00a0trad which consisted of 3 days at Swanage.<\/p>\n
All that way for one climb 5 days, 1600miles, 4\u00a0ferry journeys, a fair chunk of cash, is it really worth\u00a0it.<\/p>\n
As I peered out of the tent at around 2am the\u00a0clouds had partly cleared and I hoped the northern\u00a0lights would be in full flow, as the next two days\u00a0had a large solar flare festooning the poles with magnetic particles. It was still light and at first I thought I\u00a0had slept in till dawn, double checking the time it still read 2am, guess it doesn’t get dark at midsummer in\u00a0Thurso. During most of the trip I wasn’t really sure if was midnight, late afternoon or morning they all
\nlooked the same.<\/p>\n
Dick, Naomi, Daryl and I boarded the fine north-link ferry Mv Hamnavoe and slipped into the calm\u00a0north sea (a bit of a rarity by all accounts) shame we had breakfast as the Scottish \u00a310 all you can eat\u00a0breakfast looked very alluring.<\/p>\n
The first sight of the old man and the towering cliffs of St Johns head is pretty special, the water falls\u00a0cascading off the sides and wildness lent a Jurassic feel to the island, the teetering tower looking fragile\u00a0from a distance, a small blue dot near the base must be a climber, there’s a slight quickening of the heart as\u00a0reality taps you on the shoulder.<\/p>\n
Rackwick Bay once a collection of old and abandoned crofts a couple of hardy farmers and the Bothy\u00a0with its camping ground. Well almost unchanged\u00a0since Dicks last trip apart from the crofts being\u00a0turned into swanky holiday homes and a few miles\u00a0of fencing, camp set, a quick dip in the\u00a0sea with the local seal (and I mean quick) and we\u00a0hiked the path to peruse the old man. Bumping\u00a0into the climbers on their way back we inquired\u00a0into their experience, sheepishly he mentioned\u00a0something about vertigo and abseiling off after the\u00a0second pitch, this conversation was not really\u00a0boosting my confidence. Another little heart skip\u00a0as it grew into view all 140m of leaning sandstone\u00a0\u201ccor looks pretty big close up\u201d was the general\u00a0consensus.<\/p>\n
7.30am Thursday 25th of June good weather and\u00a0we set off for the climb, a bit of a slog with the\u00a0gear and the scramble down was pretty ropey, with\u00a0large sods giving way threatening to tip you into\u00a0the next fulmars nest. Think we all tried not to\u00a0keep looking at the impending climb; just one\u00a0spicy pitch and the rest is simple, was my mantra.<\/p>\n
We reached the base and set up. I decided a while\u00a0back that if I was making this rather large effort\u00a0climb this stack then seconding the thing wasn’t\u00a0really an option, and for once I actually studied\u00a0the route and even watched some vids old and new\u00a0from Bonnington to Catherines solo, especially of\u00a0the crux on pitch 2, and some good advice from\u00a0the previous days climber this gave me the much needed boost to get on with the climb and as Dick was\u00a0making his 200th accent then I was sure he would be happy for me to\u00a0do some leading. As soon as I threw my first bit of gear on the\u00a0ledgey first pitch, the doubts left and unlike the heart stopping moments\u00a0at boulder ruckle, I felt pretty good on the whole climb, Dicks\u00a0idea to split the 2nd pitch and belay from the chimney base was\u00a0sound as there would be less drag from the traverse and make the\u00a0crux a little easier. The traverse was very sandy and so was the first\u00a0few feet of the chimney, I was hoping this was not the case of the\u00a0whole pitch and thankfully it cleared for some much more positive\u00a0rock. There was plenty of old tat and gear and wooden chocks some of which disintegrated on closer inspection. Just beneath the crux one\u00a0of my ropes got jammed. Brilliant this was not the best scenario and\u00a0turns out it was a rope tangle which Dick was trying to sort while I\u00a0wrenched the rope at full throttle, it released and I took a breather\u00a0with a large shoulder and arm jam, looked up at the dark recess of\u00a0the chimney, two firmly wedged cams beckoned like sirens and I\u00a0eased myself up to them. Major\u00a0mistake and something I had\u00a0been warned about and planned\u00a0not to do, getting wedged up inside the comfort of the chimney this\u00a0meant a bridge with no handholds to get back around the overhang\u00a0and out onto the face, I looked for the black foot marks of yesterdays\u00a0effort and eased my body a few inches at a time and after a few inelegant\u00a0shunts planted my feet in the slots and swung onto the face the\u00a0pitch didn’t let up the holds were small and the climbing steep, I decided\u00a0to climb through and dragged myself onto the precarious belay\u00a0point with a big smile, the large array of tat meant a quick clip in and\u00a0set up for me to belay Dick. What a lovely day I mused to myself as I\u00a0stared down to the turquoise sea and the bays resident seal , \u201c hello Dick I’m safe\u201d no reply , fantastic time for the radio to go down, there\u00a0was a few minutes of very loud hollering to which an eventual reply\u00a0was heard tho pretty faint in the wind, I could only guess when he\u00a0would start climbing luckily I had decided to avail myself of an autolocking\u00a0belay device the DMM pivot guide plate , brilliant little piece of kit which meant I could belay\u00a0him off the anchor and not take if he was in strife, much safer and more comfortable option. He rounded\u00a0the final few feet much as I did with plenty of colour in his cheeks and we swung the lead and carried on\u00a0the climb much more relaxed after the spicy section was done.<\/p>\n
The radios crackled back into life and at the top of the\u00a0third as we all had the same radio frequency we could\u00a0here the Drama unfolding of Daryl and Naomi below\u00a0with their own little battle on the crux. The final pitch\u00a0was here Dick had the inevitable fulmar spew and the\u00a0top beckoned, probably the best pitch of the climb, the\u00a0stack split into its two sections. The sea came into view\u00a0and the breeze coursed its way through. And there I\u00a0was on top on my todd watching the razorbills and\u00a0puffins ferry fish to their young with a rare bit of Scottish\u00a0sun on my face. It felt pretty good, like a hard\u00a0earned achievement type of good. Dick appeared and\u00a0we waited for Daryl and Naomi the weather turned\u00a0and the wind started howling, Dick tried to give some\u00a0route advice over the poor radio connection which led to\u00a0some off piste climbing for Daryl but finally they made it\u00a0and after a quick implementation of the selfie stick which\u00a0Naomi had dragged up, we started our decent down, with\u00a0the culmination of four of us on the small belay ledge at the\u00a0top of pitch two and Dick still not 100% on getting to the\u00a0ground with 60m ropes without the using the handrail rope\u00a0tho the other climbers assured us this was possible, Dicks\u00a0final advice to Naomi on the free hanging 55m abseil was\u00a0try not to stop as the belay device can get hot and melt\u00a0through the rope. We all descended safely and finally returned\u00a0to camp pretty beaten, my respect goes out to both\u00a0Dick whose resilience is outstanding and Naomi who was\u00a0recuperating from bronchitis and employed some classic\u00a0British backbone to complete the day which Daryl and I\u00a0found tough being\u00a0fairly fit.<\/p>\n
Orkney and Hoy\u00a0are wonderful\u00a0places the weather\u00a0is rarely kind,\u00a0but the place always looks magnificent, tho we were blessed\u00a0with only one day of major rain, Rackwick bay is a beautiful\u00a0camping spot and a great bothy with a free head massage from\u00a0the resident rat if your lucky like Daryl. The place has plenty\u00a0of history from neolithic stone circles to scarpa flow and its\u00a0sunken naval ships. Stromness is pretty much the St Ives of\u00a0Scotland and from the ferry there is wildlife abound from killer\u00a0whales to dolphins and seals if your lucky, more then just the\u00a0climb a great experience.<\/p>\n
Zoltan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Booking the ferry for the Hoy trip what\u2019s your reg\u00a0no, read Darryls text; Bugger had forgot all about\u00a0that. I was midway through my work season in\u00a0France and sleep and reasoning were in short supply.\u00a0I\u2019m sure I volunteered myself on the basis of having a\u00a0car large enough for the mountains of gear needed\u00a0for the trip and not for my extensive knowledge of\u00a0trad which consisted of 3 days at Swanage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-2015-trips","7":"category-trip-report"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hastingsrockandfell.co.uk\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}