Scottish Bouldering – Malcolm Smith and Dave MacLeod

by Jack Geldard – Editor – UKC Dave MacLeod and Malcolm Smith have climbed a pair of desperate boulder problems.MacLeod in Glen Nevis and Smith at Dumbarton. Dave Mac, ´Big Long Now´ (Font 8b?) – Glen Nevis: From Dave´s Blog: “The massive 50 metre horizontal trip across the crag is now ´Big LongNow´ and Font 8bish although a highly unusual one and quite hard tograde. Certainly the hardest link I´ve done on rock anyway… …I see some of my problems at Dumbarton are receiving some upgrades withrepeats. Perhaps this could be harder than V13? It´s certainly muchharder than A Muerte at 9a which would make it V14. I lose track to behonest. Anyway the vid of it will be in Echo Wall so you can see foryourself its the brilliant climbing that stands out here. Because thiswas my endurance training project for Echo Wall it´s a nice feeling ofcompleteness to finish it for it´s own sake and also in time to make itinto the film.” Malc Smith, ´Gut Buster´ (Font 8b+) – Dumbarton: From Scottish Climbs: “Start as for ´Serum of Sisyphus´. Make hard moves to join ´PerfectCrime´ and follow this to an ab sapping knee bar rest in the niche.Finish up ´Sanction´ then wander up the easy arete to the top of theboulder. 8A/+ then 8B = 8B+? Breaks new ground in Scottish bouldering.” Thanks to John Watson of stonecountry.blogspot.com for the excellent photographs.

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