Stuart McFarlane on the first ascent of Gangnam Style (V,7) on the East Face of Beinn Ime in the Southern Highlands. (Photo Stuart Burns)
On Sunday December 2, Stuart McFarlane and Stuart Burns added a good five-pitch new route to Fan Gully Buttress on Beinn Ime. Gangnam Style (V,7) climbs the obvious hanging right-facing corner system to the left of Ben’s Fault.
“I tried this line a few seasons ago with Stewart Anderson, only to discover we had left our pegs and turf gear in the car,” Stuart told me! “Under the heavy snow conditions encountered, after climbing the first 25m of the corner, decided it was too bold a proposition to continue, we escaped left onto Ma Fault. Pegs and hooks packed in our sacks, Burnsie and I returned on Sunday [and the deed was done].”
The Cobbler has seen several ascents this past week. North Wall Groove has been climbed a couple of times and North Wall Traverse was climbed by Gary Gray and Gordon Gray. Current consensus is that the latter route will be upgraded to IV,6 in the next edition of the SMC Sourthern Highlsands guide as it shares the difficult second pitch of North Wall Groove
PS: For those who may be wondering, ‘Gangnam Style’ is a pop single by South Korean musician PSY released last year. According to Wikepedia, the song’s “signature dance moves were performed by many business and political leaders including Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who hailed the song as a ‘force for world peace.’”
Looks excellent, well done guys.