{"id":7189,"date":"2019-12-24T17:46:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T17:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/?p=7189"},"modified":"2019-12-26T17:41:28","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T17:41:28","slug":"trial-by-satyr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/?p=7189","title":{"rendered":"Trial by Satyr"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dave Almond on the bold first pitch of Satyr (IX,9). This sustained IX,9 was first climbed in winter by Donald King and Andy Nelson in December 2010. A recalcitrant mantelshelf move on the top pitch means it may not have had a complete second ascent. (Photo Jamie Skelton)<\/p><\/div>\n

Dave Almond and Jamie Skelton had an excellent run of routes earlier in December that included the second ascent of Dark Angel (VII,8)<\/a> in Glen Coe, a near miss on Satyr (IX,9)<\/a>, and a very early repeat of Brass Monkey (VII,8)<\/a> on Ben Nevis. Dave takes up the story:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d hoped to be climbing in the North-West but conditions were reported as not being very good so I ended up staying around Ben Nevis and Glencoe. Jamie Skelton was foolish enough to accept my proposal to climb and we kicked off with a possible second ascent of Dark Angel (VII,8) on Church Door Buttress on the December 12. It has a spectacular second pitch with well-protected, balancy, technical moves the type of which I really enjoy.<\/p>\n

The following day (December 13) we headed in to have a play on Satyr (IX,9) in Stob Coire nan Lochan. Jamie had a go at the first pitch, which I had always thought was the crux, and kept his cool on the highly verglassed first half whilst I was totally uncool belaying him as the ground fall potential is serious for the first eight metres. Fortunately he managed to find a few decent bits of gear above that before he swung onto the head wall before popping off and taking a scary but safe 10m fall.<\/p>\n

After lowering him down I pulled the ropes and set off, immediately regretting being so ethical as I entered the verglassed ground fall zone. Despite my worry I made it to the upper headwall, and with Jamie\u2019s fall in my mind, I swung across a series of small hooks to the big ledge to make some very technical knee grovelling moves along the ledge and pulled on to the belay.<\/p>\n

Jamie followed without too much effort and quickly raced up pitch two as it became dark. The third pitch goes up a big offwidth crack on the side of a huge pinnacle. I don\u2019t particularly enjoy offwidths and was quite surprised to find some interesting stein pulls and features that meant the second half could be climbed out of the crack.<\/p>\n

The top of the pinnacle put me at the base of a three-metre vertical wall leading to a slab with a mantelshelf move onto a small ledge. I pulled up to find the snow had insulated the turf patch and I could only get placements on the front edge of the ledge and despite several valiant efforts, the first of which a tiny crystal pinged off, which first ascensionist \u00a0Don King informed me could have been crucial, I couldn\u2019t get established. As time was getting on I detoured left into the last 15m of Central Grooves. After about 3m there was an opportunity to break right onto the slabs and finish up Satyr\u2019s top pitch, but I thought it contrived, as the mantelshelf move is obviously the crux in those conditions.<\/p>\n

Even finishing up Central Grooves the route is excellent and we had a great day of climbing. Could this route be undergraded as it has repelled several strong teams now? Hopefully one day I will be back for another go to complete the route as per Don King\u2019s premier ascent.<\/p>\n

After a couple of rest days Jamie and myself headed into Observatory Gully on Ben Nevis to have a go at Brass Monkey (VII,8). This time it was me that took the tumble as I took the wrong line on the crux. I offered it to Jamie who powered his way up the same line allowing me to find the correct line offering very pleasant moves that make the route quite amenable. I then continued in the dark, up the nasty off width, on to Tower Ridge with Jamie following who emerged utterly exhausted, as he had forgotten his torch. I was very impressed with his tenacity on completing the route.<\/p>\n

Many thanks to Jamie for a good few days and to Don King for making me feel better about not getting the top pitch of Satyr.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave Almond and Jamie Skelton had an excellent run of routes earlier in December that included the second ascent of Dark Angel (VII,8) in Glen Coe, a near miss on Satyr (IX,9), and a very early repeat of Brass Monkey … Continue reading →<\/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":[10],"tags":[8,703,146,716,134],"class_list":["post-7189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-repeat","tag-ben-nevis","tag-church-door-buttress","tag-dave-almond","tag-jamie-skelton","tag-stob-coire-nan-lochan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189","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=7189"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7196,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions\/7196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}