Sat 25th, Sun 26th Sept 2010 - Neilston Quarry and The Whangie

Saturday 25th September - Climbing at Neilston Quarry

A welcome return of some bright sunshine inspired us to throw the ropes in the car and head to our local crags at Neilston Quarry. This is a place  Alfie now considers an extention of his own territory, having been left to his own devices here so many times during his first summer.
The last few visits Shona has taken easy, resting her knee and belaying my exploits. Today though she was feeling energised, so we set up two top anchors and played around with some route combinations.

The rock here is dolerite, which i'm quite fond of. There is something for most levels of climbers, however if you're looking to take on routes above 6c grading you will be dissapointed. My personal favourite is a combination of curving crack and punk rock both graded HVS 5a. Two other good routes are Willies route E2 6a and strawberry direct which is also a 6a but only takes up about a third of the crag elevation.

Shona took on intrusion line VD and an extention of both Polish hangover VS 4c and crack corner VD. She buzzed up and down them 4 or 5 times while I was suffering leg tremble on my combination of curving and punk. All the while Alfie had chewed his way through several sticks and managed the uncanny knack of appearing at the top and bottom of the crag at the same time.

Sunday 26th September - The Whangie (midway between Milngavie and Drymen)

The last time we visited the Whangie the weather had been miserable. Climbing had been out of the question as the rock was way too slippy. Today however the sun was beaming down.
Arriving at the car park we were amazed how busy it was, and were lucky to find a space to abandon the car. The thirty minutes hike to the crags took half that again with all the dog-walkers and children ambling along the route.
Suprisingly at the crags there were only two other pairs of climbers that we could see. We came across what looked like an appealing stretch of face on the outside wall and began setting up our gear.
I soon found out that a route I thought looked do-able from the ground became impossible (for me anyway). About a third of the way up my pitch I was struggling to find anywhere to place a nut or cam. My first placed protection was too low to prevent an impact if I slipped off now and the holds available here were too poor to put any faith in. I reluctantly conceded defeat on two occasions, before opting for an easier looking chimney ascent further to my left.
At the top of the chimney I moved back towards my original route to set up a top rope anchor using a substantial chockstone trapped in an opening. Abseilling down I surveyed the route past an overhang and inviting crack.
This time using the top rope and ascender I was more confident of taking on the protruding rock. After some fairly tough fist jamming of the crack lower down, I clawed my way around the overhang and onwards to the top. I must admit that the small audience sitting on boulders below  probably had quite a bit to do with my determination to get back up to my anchor.
I was very grateful of Shona's patience with me. After belaying my double failures, she'd been deprived of an opportunity to climb herself.
 The sun was now on the slide so we packed up and made our way back to the car, grumbling along the way about the lack of protection and user friendliness of the Whangie.
Next rockclimbing outing I shall be mostly belaying for sure!