Just got back in from a spot of rock climbing and cycling touring around the southern end of the Hebrides. We drove up to Ardrossan where you catch the ferry over to Arran and left our van there for a few days, the car parking is cheap and so is the ferry – happy days. Check out Arran Ferry for more info.
The weather was stunning and we decided to take a very light weight rack of rock climbing gear to go and climb ‘South Ridge Direct’. This is a hard rock tick from the Ken Wilson book ‘Hard Rock’ and has seen me for many a year ticking through lots of the climbs in that book. Scotland how ever still hasn’t seen much attention from myself and it was good to go up there with rock climbing on the brain.
The ferry from the Ardrossan to Brodick on Arran was easy and took less then an hour. From Brodick we then cycled north around the island to Lochranza to the YHA their as there was no where else that had room for two people needing a bed for the night. The cycle was lovely and there was one large hill that we needed to go over but we were in no rush and took our time.
The next day we awoke and decided to hitch hike the 7 miles back to Glen Sannox and funnily enough got picked up by a French mountain guide and his family. The walk in was long and hot, the temperature was around 32 degrees and swimming in the river seemed like the better option then climbing a massive rock climbing route. Fear not though we had lots of water but only 35 small bits of flapjack from Co-op. This was my idea of saving money and weight and by the end of the day i was feed up of eating flapjack – funny that.
After 2.5 hours of walking and sweating we made it to the base of the south facing crags. It’s like a UK version of Yosemite and today with it being baked by the sun – even more so. My rack was light – only a 34m half rope, 4 quick draws, 3 cams, 4 slings and a few wires, so i was hoping that the route was going to be easy at VS 5a allowing us to move together and get up the thing in good time.
The climbing wasn’t too bad there is one harder move on the Y cracks pitch but the rest is fine but it did feel like i was soloing the route most of the time having to go past good bits of gear due to the lack of mine. Either way we pitched when we needed too and moved together for most of it. The weather stayed hot all day and a few times on the route we had to take shelter in small caves to get some shade – Scotland??!!!
The South Ridge Direct joins Western Slabs a VD that comes in from the left and then shares this route to the top and then onto the summit. Amazing route, great views, pitches, climbing situations….everything. This route should be on everyone’s tick list. It does feel very remote and the walk in will put most people off especially those that have only been used to climbing walls but please don’t, write down the name of this route in your diary and go and do it – stunning.
Once we reached the summit we headed down still in the baking heat and decided to have a swim in Sannox river, wow. Super warm, water slides, everything you could want from a wild swimming experience. We headed on out of the Glen and fixed ourselves a well done pint in the pub. We hitch hiked back across to Lochranza and our days was nearly over, a pub meal and bed….sorted.
The next day we woke up and the weather was starting to turn. Rain and wind was coming in making it less then ideal for long cycle rides but we put our water proofs on and set off.
We cycled all the way over to Islay and got stuck there when the ferry wasn’t running across to Oban. This didn’t matter as we could do a different route back on ourselves and with the weather getting worse and worse it seemed like the right thing to do. Would i go back? yes!! but to Arran only i think. I have been to Skye and it is nice but Arran seems to have something magical about it and liked everything i saw, maybe due to the lovely weather who knows but go and see for yourself.
