George Cave

Stacking up: Old Man of Hoy

A full day out of type 2(.5) fun. Busy ferries meant we were restricted to a single day hit on foot from the mainland. It was going to be tight.

The approach took about 2.5 hours, and the first sight of the 137m tall stack is pretty intimidating. I led P1, a pile of sandy, jenga rubble, before Al pulled a marathon stint to get through the dirty off-width "coffin" on pitch 2's crux. A little French-free saw me through the move out of the chimney and up p3 before Al finished the route, including the spectacular, stack-splitting final corner pitch. This time, all fluffy white cruxes were easily dealt with by kind, gentle words.

Descent in 3 abseils was slick and we hit the ground at 5pm. The last ferry was 6:30pm, so we covered the long path to Rackwick in 30 minutes and were lucky to hitch to the last ferry home. Thanks to Erinna for some smart thinking on setting up the logistics for us!

The most type 2 day I've had in years.

Getting stacked: Am Buachille

Our summer Scottish stackstravaganza began in the far north west, camping on the beautiful Sheigra beach.

The next day's forecast was moody and grey, but we set off on the bike across towards headland and then hiked down to our first view of am Buachille. A short, sharp swim and two pitches later saw us on top after careful dodging of four fluffy white cruxes and the grovely grit and grease of Landward Face's pitch 1. As the ab began, the rains started to fall: a lucky escape. One stack down.

Afternoon Canyoning

Early evening canyoning trip with Al+Ali to their secret local spot. Great mix of bum bumpers, wet jumpers and back-and-footing slotters.

Loch Leven Paddleboarding

It was Joe's turn to lead the activities. We went for a long paddleboard across Loch Leven to visit the pink "maerl" coral, stopping off on famous Eilean Munde to explore the hidden graves.

The Magic Crack

Jumped onto the famous Magic Crack with Will & Joe. Brutal finger work, would have preferred to take axes. Thankfully Will took the crux pitch.

Misty Tower Ridge

Joe and I were aiming for North-East Buttress, but the heavy clag made finding the start and best way up pretty tricky. Instead we opted for Tower Ridge in the hope that I'd recognise it from the winter.

The route finding is super obvious (despite the best efforts of Gary Latter to confuse things) and we moved together the whole way. Finished up round CMD arete - a long way for Joe's first big Scottish day!