Euan, Paul and I had a great day yesterday climbing on the The Stuic, Lochnagar. Road conditions meant for a late start as we had to drive around via Stonehaven. The crag was in excellent mixed climbing condition with well frozen turf, rime and scoured by the west and north-west winds of the last few days.
We climbed Serendipity Pillar with Euan linking the top two pitches. This gave good climbing, but care was required with a couple of loose blocks on the upper section. There were other people around, otherwise I’d have removed them on the second.
We then soloed down a defined narrow Grade I gully a couple of gullies right of the normal descent, before climbing The Slot, Left Hand. This gave two very good pitches, which felt stiff for the grade with a steep pull off a ledge, which may be easier with a build up of hard snow.
There were two other teams climbing on the North-West Face with at least one team on the Stuic ridge; possibly the busiest day the crag has ever seen and maybe a testament to the recent publication of the excellent Chasing the Ephemeral.
