"Before I go home to China, I want to go to strip club..." Not your average work leaving do, and when at 1am I make my farewell, I see the seedy reality of the dingy Lothian Road club has fallen some way short of Scarlett's Sex and the City expectations. Red-eyed and pathetic, clutching a litre of water, 6:30 am finds me at the bus stop, and by 7am I'm leaving Waverley for the Fort. Coming to at Bridge of Orchy there have been two new developments: the east coast grey has been replaced by brilliant sunshine, and the empty seats around me have been occupied by Munro types of the the worst kind. The light and the scenery is spectacular, but it's having an unwelcome effect on my new neighbours - they're getting all excited and shouty. "Martin, did I tell you about mine and Tim's trip to Skye?" No? Well, you'd better tell the whole carriage. I hope you get sucked down to a peaty end with that ridiculous rucksack. What have you got in there anyway? They disembark at Corrour. I eye up likely bogs and my mood lifts. At noon, I meet Gaz at the station and then it's lunch and copious mugs of coffee at the Crucible. Spring has arrived in full force in Lochaber and the contrast to the damp grimness of my last visit is marked. We head down to the Glen with routes in mind and make a sweaty toiling mess of finding Secretaries Buttress on the hillside of Polldubh. With showers threatening we go for the easy option of Secretaries Direct - a fun three pitch route. On the other side of the buttress Gaz fancies a single pitch E1 that he quickly climbs in good style, with only a brief wobble on the crux final moves. After that, it's down to the Hat for a throw on Maisie Gunn. It doesn't feel good though, I can't seem to sort my feet out and I flail. Meanwhile Gaz is doing well on his recent project, and manages to link Killer Instinct before blowing the (what looks) easier final mantle. He gets it next go though, and it wraps up the day nicely - check out the video at the bottom...
On Sunday morning, we take the Corran ferry to check out some boulders in Glen Tarbet that Marshall has previously spotted on one his dawn bird-bothering raids. The boulder below is about 500m from the road up on the hillside and is shaped like a large clamshell. On close inspection it's larger than you initially think, with a bulging wall of black rippled gneiss about 8m high. Gaz climbed the obvious dirty crack and I busied myself with a sit-start through the bulge to the right...
Back down the hillside is a smaller boulder with a slabby nose that gives a cool mantle problem...
Further west, down by the stream, are a collection of heather-topped granite boulders. Gaz off, and on a thin slab...
A fat moon over Cairngorm
Some folks skiing Aladdin's Mirror
