{"id":4429,"date":"2014-02-02T20:57:42","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T20:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/?p=4429"},"modified":"2014-02-02T20:57:42","modified_gmt":"2014-02-02T20:57:42","slug":"one-step-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/?p=4429","title":{"rendered":"One Step Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4430\" style=\"width: 441px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4430\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4430\" alt=\"Guy Robertson following the ice section on the bold second pitch of One Step Beyond (IX,9) during the first ascent. The combination of steep technical mixed with thin vertical ice, makes this route one of the most challenging winter climbs in Scotland. (Photo Pete Macpherson)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/29Jan2014_Beinn-Eighe003.jpg\" width=\"431\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/29Jan2014_Beinn-Eighe003.jpg 431w, http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/29Jan2014_Beinn-Eighe003-215x300.jpg 215w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 431px) 100vw, 431px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4430\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guy Robertson following the vertical ice section on the bold second pitch of One Step Beyond (IX,9) on Beinn Eighe during the first ascent. The combination of steep technical mixed with thin vertical ice, makes this route one of the most challenging winter climbs in Scotland. (Photo Pete Macpherson)<\/p><\/div>\n<style><!--\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n\t{mso-style-unhide:no;\n\tmso-style-qformat:yes;\n\tmso-style-parent:\"\";\n\tmargin:0cm;\n\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\n\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\n\tfont-size:12.0pt;\n\tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-fareast-language:EN-GB;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n\t{mso-style-type:export-only;\n\tmso-default-props:yes;}\n@page WordSection1\n\t{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;\n\tmargin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;\n\tmso-header-margin:36.0pt;\n\tmso-footer-margin:36.0pt;\n\tmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n\t{page:WordSection1;}\n--><\/style>\n<p>Pete Macpherson and Guy Robertson made a highly significant addition to Beinn Eighe\u2019s Far East Wall on January 29. One Step Beyond (IX,9) takes the line left of King of the Swingers, and is based on an unusual hanging ice smear that oozes from a seep half way up the wall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve never seen anything like this anywhere else in Scotland,\u201d Pete told me. \u201cI think it\u2019s quite unique. We&#8217;ve been to Far East Wall numerous times over the years but have never seen ice form so abundantly around this area before. We spotted the ice just before New Year when we had to make a hasty retreat off another line due to the onset of bad weather.<\/p>\n<p>Conditions and weather were great last Wednesday, so we thought we&#8217;d have a look. To be honest I had reservations as to whether it would go, and after succeeding on only three routes this season with three failures due to poor weather, I was keen for success. Guy headed up the first pitch that starts below the big corner of King of the Swingers and belayed below the impending grooved ar\u00eate to the right of the ice feature. Gaining the niche below the groove on pitch two involved some intricate moves, but when I was standing below it I was taken aback by the steepness of the groove above.<\/p>\n<p>The groove was extremely strenuous tech 9 with absolutely no rest in sight, so I just kept climbing until I pulled round onto the ice into a wee icy niche, pumped out of my mind and &#8216;one step beyond&#8217;. I was way above my last gear (a small peg only half in), so I stood perched on the ice for an hour and half, scared out of my wits, as there was no more gear. Guy reassured me that there was nothing below me if I fell off &#8211; nice one, cheers for that Mr Robertson! Eventually I plucked up the courage to climb up to a bomber hanging belay at the top of the ice.<\/p>\n<p>A thin crack system sprouts from the top of the ice. It looked utterly desperate, but appeared to be well protected by small nuts. Guy headed up the crack (solid tech 9), but unfortunately dropped our small wires at the start of the pitch. Gutted but not deterred, Guy pulled out a cracker of a lead, especially so when one of the cracks petered out over a bulge forcing him instinctively out onto the ar\u00eate.<\/p>\n<p>The next pitch is common to King of the Swingers and is solid VII,7, but I really struggled with it as I was so wrecked and it was getting dark. I stopped about two metres from the top below a steep tech 6 corner as both my arms kept cramping up. Guy nailed the last corner on failing arms and that was that. We could hardly untie from the ropes we were so exhausted.<\/p>\n<p>Climbing One Step Beyond on sight is the stuff of dreams for me. The route is definitely my hardest on sight to date, and we thought it top end IX,9. It most definitely deserves four stars. This morning, four days after our ascent, I received a text from Guy which says it all &#8211; &#8216;Still high as a kite, dude!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pete Macpherson and Guy Robertson made a highly significant addition to Beinn Eighe\u2019s Far East Wall on January 29. One Step Beyond (IX,9) takes the line left of King of the Swingers, and is based on an unusual hanging ice &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/?p=4429\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[23,5,6],"class_list":["post-4429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-route","tag-beinn-eighe","tag-guy-robertson","tag-pete-macpherson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4429"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4447,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429\/revisions\/4447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}