17th May 2008
Cligga Head
The weather finally caught up with us during a session at Cligga. It was spitting when we arrived and continued doing it all evening. We set up a belay on Masterdon while the rain thought about what it wanted to do, but eventually moved across to the North Face to check out the routes there.
This involved an abseil down to the lower ledges, wet but free from surf and a traverse into the main area. There are a number of good looking climbs down here and after a bit of discussion Joe decided to climb out and skip the climbing because of the dampness of the rock. Chris however went for Bronco, a V Diff with a traverse at the top. Well protected, but still difficult when wet.
Andre and myself waited for our turn while Sally seconded the route. Unfortunately half way through a thunderstorm hit, removing any chance of further climbing and making the escape up the escape route a real epic. Waiting for Sally to finish off a tricky section (particularly when wet) we then had a frightening jump across a slippy sea filled inlet and then found the main slab so slippy it was impossible. Chris dropped a rope down and Andre and I semi-alpined out using short pitches and belays anchored through Chris. Exciting but scary. Not a marked route, but an adventure in its own right.
Next time my moneys going on Joe, who avoided the whole ordeal.
The picture below is of lightening over a volcano. Not quite Cligga, but it felt like this.
Something else occured to me as the lightening flashed around on the walk out. A thunderstorm is not the best place to be when you are hauling a sack full of metal????
"A thunderstorm is not the best place to be when you are hauling a sack full of metal????"
bloody hell! take care!