Day eleven - Thursday

Early morning again, 0700 alarm however I actually woke up five minutes before my alarm went off, very unexpected. Maybe I'm starting to get into a routine?! This never normally happens, never in the same pattern for long enough to get used to it. Either way up with alarm and packed all my kit for day out cragging! The weather forecast was pretty good, some rain later in the afternoon.

Met Ben at Morrisons at 0830, a guy I'd been in touch with on UKC. We'd arranged to head out to a mountain crag on Garbh Bheinn (pronounced 'garvain' as bh = v in Gaelic), mainly to do a route called Butterknife, widely acclaimed to be one of the best VS's in the country. He was free today, so I'd decided to take the day off from the hospital if the weather was good. After he'd wolfed down a scrambled egg on toast we set off to the Corran ferry in his peugeot.

View south from the Corran ferry

The crossing takes about 2 minutes, but the price was £7.30... When we asked for a return we were told "We don't do returns, only singles" - so that meant we'd have to pay £7.30 again later in the day to come back over, a truly astronomical amount for such a short ferry! I guess they have to make their money in the tourist season. No doubt the locals all have books of ten tickets costing only a few quid each.

On the walk in

A bit of driving at the other side saw us parked underneath the walk in. There had been two options, long and scenic or short and brutal, we had opted for the latter to maximise climbing time! It took 1h45m to get to the bottom of the crag, after scrambling up steep heathery/grass slopes and up stream beds to gain a col before traversing over and down to the crag base. It was an awesome crag, so much rock just hanging off the side of the hill, just underneath the summit at around 800m altitude. Also we had the whole place to ourselves, incredibly. We geared up and cracked on with Butterknife, Ben led off first meaning I had the 4b pitch. This turned out to be a spectacular corner pitch, with great gear and wild moves on totally bomber hand holds, incredible! Pitches 3 and 4 were less exciting but pleasant enough.

The awesome second pitch of Butterknife

Topping out to spectacular views

We topped out at 1330, back to bags for food before sneaking in another route, Excalibur at HVS. This time Ben lead the 5a pitch, a steep groove pitch, and I took the second 4c pitch, an airy traverse above one of the huge roofs of the crag. I belayed from a hanging stance, nothing but air beneath my feet to the base of the crag. As Ben was finished off the straightforward third pitch the cloud started coming in, at one point it was so thick I could not longer see the base of the crag and all I had beneath my feet was grey cloud - awesome! As I was seconding the final pitch some rain started, so we quickly headed back to bags and beat a hasty retreat through spattering rain. One hour later we were back at the car, tired but happy!

Incredible crag

Jammed in on the ferry back - wonder how much they make every day?

After paying £7.30 again for the return ferry ride of 120s, we arrived bag in Fort William in search of food. We headed straight to Grog and Gruel, for an excellent beef cheeseburger and a pint of An Teallach (pronounced an shelak - where's the 'S'?!). I then said bye to Ben as he set off back home to the Aviemore area. As it was a Thursday the hospital staff were located in Cobbs bar, for the evening tutorial. After a catch up I headed back to the house to unpack and shower before watching a bit of TV. Knackered but successful day, great to get out on a mountain crag and have the whole place to ourselves!