Forrest Templeton on the steep crux pitch of Stalingrad (VI,6) in Winter Corrie in Glen Clova. The route was climbed on Saturday February 2 – a notable anniversary – Stalingrad! (Photo Brian Duthie)
Brian Duthie and Forrest Templeton made an excellent three-pitch addition to Winter Corrie in Glen Clova on February 2 when they climbed the left corner of the wide stepped square-cut groove right of Sun Rock Blues. (Moon Ice Jazz follows a line that approximates the right hand corner of this feature).
“I left Aberdeen at 6.30 heading to Alford to pick up Forrest with an idea of heading north, probably for something in the Northern Corries,” Brian told me. “However, it turned out that the Cockbridge-Tomintoul road was closed due to drifting. So we turned back south via Aberdeen to Clova. We decided to head up to Winter Corrie with thoughts on maybe repeating Henning Wackerhage’s route Moon Ice Jazz or doing the line to the left of it which we saw last year when we did Sun Rock Blues.”
They ended up climbing the new line. “Stalingrad has tenuous technical sections and limited protection in places,” Forrest explained. “It follows a natural line with some interesting rock architecture and is a ‘true’ mixed route.”
