The recent break in winter had coincided with a few Dutch friends coming to Scotland to sample Scottish winter climbing. While they were somewhat unlucky in regards to winter climbing it has provided some remarkable rock climbing weather and conditions. Over the last week we have managed to climb on mountains, crags and sea cliffs of various aspects with generally brilliant weather and conditions however Wednesday was in a league of it's own.
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| The Shelterstone Crag |
At the head of the Idyllic Loch Avon basin stands one of the most impressive bastions of rock in Scotland. The Shelterstone is 270m high and towers up to a spire from a great base of slabs. A real Minas Tirith of granite. The Needle was first climbed by Robin Smith and Dave Agnew in 1962 and was the first Extreme graded climb ever done in the Cairngorms. It is as classic as routes get and one of the most sought after routes of it's grade in Scotland. Getting dry rock and good weather in February is ridiculous when you consider it faces northeast and has a base of 850m.
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| The First Pitch |
Andra and myself had been on Stag rocks on Tuesday and seen that Shelterstone looked bone dry. At E1 5b the Needle is at the edge of my current ability and this compounded with it being a long route on Cairngorm granite means it would be a big ask but as luck would have it I found my self surrounded by more able climbers. The Dutch pair of Andra and Tim as well as Adam who had contacted me as a friend of a friend looking for someone to climb with. We set off together on a fine morning from the ski car park at Cairn Gorm.
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| Tim And Andra Starting Up The Second Pitch |
We walked into Coire an t'Sneachda and then up the goat track onto the plateau. from here we dropped down coire Domhain into the basin and headed for the foot of Shelterstrone's slabs. Along the way Andra fell in a river, something she is making a habit of, and twisted her ankle. She taped it up and managed to carry on while resigning Tim to all the leading.
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| Adam On The Spectacular Fourth Pitch |
Arriving at the base of the route Adam and myself geared up and I led the first pitch. straightforward slabs with a committing step before reaching a big ledge to belay. The way the pitches run on The Needle every second one is hard so Adam being the stronger climber led through and we would swing leads all the way up. I found the second pitch quite hard but managed to second it fine before leading a short easy pitch to the foot of Adam's next one. This pitch was quite spectacular following cracks on a steep wall offering fantastic climbing. The guidebook description from here seemed a bit off and the pitch lengths were well short. With some subsequent investigation it appears we followed the adjacent route, Steeple, for a couple of pitches and missed out the thin fingers crack. Thankfully Adam had climbed Steeple last summer and after a few minutes of confusion below a stunning looking corner realised where we were and was able to traverse right into Needle's chimney crack allowing us to finish the route we started!
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| Myself Following Up The Chimney Corner Crack |
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| The Final Belay |
The corner chimney provides stunning climbing and for me this was the most enjoyable pitch suiting my best style of climbing unlike the lower pitches which were less traditional. I passed Adam on his airy belay stance and followed the chimney to the plateau threading the narrow needle chimney to finish. Andra and Tim were not too far behind but somehow managed not to 'thread the needle' instead climbing a steep wall to top out for which they received considerable abuse.
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| The Standard Finish |
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| The 'Dutch' Finish |
A stunning day with good company on a classic route which is an absolute steal in February. I will need to return and lead the harder pitches though!
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