Haystack

A beautiful place to climb

After getting back from Skye last night, Blair, Nona and I went for a hit over on the Shelterstone over in the Cairngorms.  Lots of time spent in a car recently but today I got to sit in the back, stretch out and relax.  Legs were feeling good after 5 days on Skye and excitement was high for another adventure up this colossal face.  We block led the route so we all had a few pitches each, Blair had unfinished business on one pitch which he resolved.  Haystack (E3 5c) is such a great route with pretty much every pitch having a special experience.  We had a couple of other teams on Steeple which we met where the routes shared a pitch and again at the top.  Blair being Blair, we couldn't walk back without touching the snow, looking at the layers and having a little 'ski' down it!  impressive snow feature to be honest.

Nona and Blair enjoying the easy (hard) initial pitches

Dr Snow doing his thing!

Trainer skiing in July