UKC

After several pleasant nights climbing over at Pinnacle Crag Duntelchaig over the last few weeks, tonight we were savaged by midges.
Felt sorry for the wee fella ( 12 years old ) on belay at the bottom. When he took me off belay he ran up to the top to get away from them but they were up top too !

Planning to light several small fires around the base on the next visit.

LOL.

In reply to highlandmist:

Bad luck. They've really appeared quickly, haven't they.

In reply to Andy Nisbet:

Aye, group of three arrived as we were on our last climb but one of them beat us back to the car park

In reply to highlandmist:

Certain crags just arent worth it on most summer evenings, and I suspect that Duntelchaig is one of them. Time for Cummingstone/Logie Head?

In reply to Andy Nisbet: We were being gently nibbled the whole way up Centurion today.....
You're right. It does seem a real sudden appearence this year.

In reply to AlH: Believe it or not, I was gettting eaten alive by midgies climbing today at San Bartolo in South Of Spain!! No escape!!!

In reply to AlH:

Possibly making a dash for it after the recent succession of cold spells! There were none at all in Torridon a couple of weeks ago, but it had been cold (new snow down to 600m).

In reply to Toreador: On thE east coast this is the worst summer for midges so early in the season that ive seen ( at low levels) in the last 5 years. Also I always go away for a week late may and mull this year had tonnes of midges as bad as the worst of other years. I don't think cold winters have too much affect on midges after all winters used to be colder, sudden late cold snaps would affect numbers but this yr didn't seem particularly cold (low down anyways) to me.

In reply to CurlyStevo:
Maybe we were lucky then!
From May 23rd to June 1st, in Fisherfield/Torridon areas, we were bothered by them just twice, both times in forestry plantations so hardly unexpected. Otherwise there were none at all

We're off to Glen Fyne for the LAMM this weekend, where I'm expecting things to average out...

In reply to Toreador: Same week on mull was bad 21-23 then ok for a few days as it got windier and colder then back to bad again towards end of the week. At worst it got up to about 2.5 out of 5. Which is as bad as I've ever seen it in may.

In reply to CurlyStevo:
The same week in 2004 we were forced to leave the Torridon campsite as the midges were so bad - we had to eat while walking up the middle of the road as quickly as possible

In reply to Toreador: the little bastards are out in the lakes as well at white ghyll

In reply to highlandmist: I was trudging up the road through Dirrie More on Thursday night, clouds of the buggers keeping pace with me. I was too tired to outrun them. I was going to camp by the road but had to sleep in the car. Might invest in a beekeper's suit this year.

In reply to highlandmist:

We weren't really bothered by them all week on Skye until the evening of 6th of June when they arrived with a real vengeance!!! Though having said that they first made their presence felt on Friday the 5th when we bumped into Al for a quick chat on the Glen Brittle road....!
Even in the east the midges seem worse than normal for the time of year


Cheers Ron

In reply to highlandmist: Maybe that bit of rain after the long dry spell has brought them to life...don't think a colder winter did them any harm at all...after all, the tundra in arctic canada and alaska have brutal winters with skeeters so thick you can barely breath at times in the summer.

In reply to highlandmist:

I know who that was. She was showing us the midge bites last night in the pub. From what I heard it was grim. The other 2 only managed one route. Pinnacle crag is usually the better option in regards to midges so F- knows what the rest of Duntelchaig must have been like!

In reply to pebbles:
Hardly any in the Greater Arrochar area for the LAMM at the weekend
Probably because Saturday was sunny with a good breeze (though some people were troubled in late evening, if they'd camped out of the wind), and Sunday rained all day.

Though I'd found and removed 14 ticks from my legs before I lost count...

In reply to Toreador:
now thats what I call a tick list ;-D

In reply to highlandmist:


Just hose yourself down with industrial strength DEET, wear a long sleeved shirt and a mosquito net and you won't notice a thing. Literally.