Triumphant on the summit of the Old Man of Stoer
One of the “Big 3” sea stacks in Scotland, along with Am Buchaille and the Old Man of Hoy, this Old Man is reputed by many to be the finest of them all. And often with sea stacks you can sacrifice a bit of quality of climbing what with the associated guano, vegetation plus loose rock for the sake of adventure, but this is certainly not the case with this sandstone-tastic Torridonian beauty and it is absolute angel delight to climb.
So with an “exciting scramble” for the descent followed by a tasty Tyrolean Traverse for maximum adrenaline flow, the classic VS 5a Original Route comprises 5 magical pitches of superbly rough grained climbing nirvana to the top of this 60 metre high behemoth. As an added bonus we were very lucky to have a perfect day of weather with glorious sunshine and light winds so even Arnie the Drone took to the skies to have a buzz around the bay. Ironically the day before our ascent it had rained non-stop for 24 hours but the skies magically cleared overnight and the warm sun dried off the rock very quickly so even the notoriously damp and greasy 5a first pitch traverse was bone dry.
All constructive feedback welcome and hopefully it will inspire a few folks to head to the beautiful Sutherland region of Scotty and climb on one of the great sea stacks of the UK!
Dave Linnett
Again well filmed and documented Dave keep them coming
Thanks Keith and happy Monday to you mate! 🙂 Cheers Dave
Nice film folks – really well done. Route looked cracking and blessed with the weather or what!:-)
Hi Richard thanks a million for your kind words and glad you enjoyed my wee video. Ironically it rained 24 hours solid the day before our ascent which was on a gorgeous, hot day of weather and then the heavens opened again in the evening with a thunderstorm of epic proportions! 🙂 Cheers Dave