Scottish Sea Stacks Tour

15th - 21st June 2002

The tale of an "Old" Lady and some even Older Men!

The horizontal cracks were wet and slimy, requiring hand jams all the way, "Like putting your hand between two bars of soap," someone said. The sea, crashing onto the rocks a few metres below, ensures that the rock stays permanently wet and unappealing. My fellow climbers, whom I'd only met the previous day, were watching our guide, Martin Moran, pick his way delicately along. This was Day 1 of a tour of Scotland's major sea stacks, beginning with The Old Man Of Stoer (original route VS 5a) We had earlier admired the graceful, clean column from the cliffs, 65 metres of Torridon sandstone, separated from the mainland by a 9 metre channel of water. One member of the group manfully volunteered to swim across to set up the Tyrolean traverse, ensuring that the rest of us crossed with relative ease, staying warm and dry. That first wet slimy pitch was by far the hardest part of the ascent. Once onto the second pitch the sun came out and we enjoyed excellent climbing at 5a on warm, dry rock. The third and fourth pitches were easier, 4a and 4b, straightforward as long as we managed to steer clear of the nesting fulmars, waiting to puke disgusting fishy smelling oil onto unwary climbers. A short chimney led to the top, a grassy summit with space for no more than three people. We waved to a group of onlookers on the mainland and wished we had been able to arrange for photos of ourselves on the top. We photographed each other instead, and prepared for the descent. Using two 60 metre ropes we reached the bottom in a single, mostly free abseil, again startling the fulmars as we passed.

The following day was scheduled for the ascent of Am Buachaille, a lesser known, but equally impressive stack, near Sandwood Bay in Sutherland. Unfortunately the wind had got up overnight, making the sea too rough to attempt to cross to the stack's base that day. . Like the Old Man of Stoer, Am Buachaille requires a tyrolean traverse, but just to make it even more challenging it has to be climbed within the 4 hours around low tide, and only when the sea is calm. So we abandoned that plan and had a good day climbing at Creag Gharh Mhor on superb gneiss rock, and later considered the options for the next day. All reluctant to leave without conquering Am Buachaille, the unanimous decision was to attempt it around low tide the next morning, requiring an early start.

We got up at 3am, and after leaving the mini bus, walked the 4 miles to the top of the cliffs, scrambled down, and made our way over slippery boulders for our first sight of the slender stack, brilliant in the morning sunshine. Arriving at the base, it was a different story. Waves were breaking over the platform used for fixing the tyrolean anchor, and round the base of the stack, which was looking more menacing by the minute. We retreated reluctantly, and again considered our options. We decided to travel to Hoy a day early, giving us two days in which to attempt The Old Man, should the bad weather continue.

The passenger ferry from Scrabster, near Thurso takes 2 hours to reach Stromness on Orkney. It passes the coast of Hoy, and gave us our first sight of The Old Man. Alongside St John's Head, the highest sea cliffs in Britain and very impressive, it looks relatively insignificant. Close up, and viewed from the mainland it's anything but! A further ferry took us from Stromness to Hoy, and we finally arrived at the tiny hostel at Rackwick Bay, a beautiful spot with huge pebbles on the beach, just like dinosaur eggs.

The next morning we set off on the 3 mile walk to the top of the cliffs overlooking The Old Man. As we approached, it came into view, rearing its head above the mainland until finally we were looking at the whole thing in all its glory. 138 metres of rather soft, crumbly looking sandstone, precariously perched on a granite plinth. At least this one didn't entail getting wet! Another steep scramble to the base, and we were all raring to go.

We climbed the mainland East face, E1 5B. The first pitch took us to a large windswept ledge where all 4 of us assembled to await our turn to tackle the crux pitch. This entailed a move down to an exposed traverse, with a covering of sand, acting like ball bearings. Fortunately it was dry. This was followed by a bottomless chimney with a few strenuous moves out onto the main face. There's a strategically placed wooden block specially put there for weaklings like me, but I was pleased to note that the others all used it too. Predictably I found the pull out onto the main face fairly desperate, and was told I shouldn't have tried to ballet dance up it! The 3rd and 4th pitches were quite straightforward, the main obstacle being more fulmars. We were delighted to see puffins hopping about, they're smaller than I expected, and we were also entertained watching the seals in the bay way below us.

The final pitch is a vertical corner crack, 4c, and provided the most satisfying climbing of the day for me. This crack splits the stack at the top, so there are two sections to the summit. There's room to walk around on the top, always mindful of the not inconsiderable drop on all sides! Then came the descent, 3 abseils, the final one being a diagonal abseil, where we all had the same problem. Too many turns on our prussic loops, resulted in them becoming jammed when we were pulled diagonally. However, we all reached the ground safely and celebrated our achievement back at the hostel.

Next day we travelled back to our starting point at Lochcarron, which left a further day to climb in Torridon, at Diabaig.

An organised tour such as this might not be to everyone's taste. The planning and organisation of such a trip can be part of the fun. However, not only would you need to organise transport, including ferries and taxis, accommodation and food, but also consult tide tables, an added complication. Martin has run this particular tour for the past five years and has the experience to enable the maximum to be fitted in to the time. There's still no guarantee of perfect weather, but that's Scotland for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed the week, and apart from the climbing, it was good to make new friends and see new places. I arrived home feeling pleased with what I'd achieved.

Well, they say pride comes before a fall. In my case it happened at Scugdale the following week, resulting in a broken ankle! Now, as I hobble round on my crutches, I have plenty of time to reflect on a brilliant week in Scotland. Still Am Buachaille to do. Maybe next year!

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