UKC

Last week I climbed Sou'wester Slabs, wanted to know if I got lost on the upper section "3 tier chimney".

I came round the great roof, belayed on a jumble of rocks.

Had 2 options, looked left which was a step up to a steep slab with a finger crack on the left, didn't fancy that, so looked right which was a short step blocked by a sticking out chockstone, stick a right foot up on the wall hug the top of the chock and bellyflop over.

The second step was a thin crack which I stuck my right foot in and threw a left foot up onto the slab on the left.

The third step was a slightly awkward step upto a nicely angled slab with a short overhanging corner above it, good holds on the left and a high step bypassed this with some cams in the crack.

Does this sound right?

It didn't feel like a chimney, and it didn't feel vdiff. But it was blowing a hooley and damp with the cloud blowing around. Did I get lost?

Thanks for any info.

In reply to ablackett:

That's exactly what we did yesterday in the sun

I agree it's a lot harder than anything else on the route. I think I've seen it given 4a which seems reasonable.

Cat

In reply to cat22:

Cheers Cat,

We went up to Skye for Wed, Thurs, Fri, got a cracking day on Sgurr na Gillian on Friday so not too jealous!

What a climb the Sou'wester slabs are. Brilliant.

In reply to cat22:

PS see you started up West Flank route, so did I, but it was a mistake, not intentional for me and Fran!

Start up the obvious groove, in the clag it was hard to distinguish from the grove of Sou'wester untill I was on it! "this isn't vdiff!" Lowered off, and managed to wip the nut out when I was down!

In reply to ablackett:

Sounds like you went the correct way. Compared with the rest of Sou'wester slabs it's surprisingly awkward. This picture shows beginning of the chimney as you leave the belay:

http://www.prog99.com/Climbing%20in%20Scotland/2011/South%20Ridge%20Direct%...

I believe you're meant to continue up chimney on the top left of this shot:

http://www.prog99.com/Climbing%20in%20Scotland/2011/South%20Ridge%20Direct%...

However, my partner opted for the right hand chimney/groove as shown in the picture..

Fiona

In reply to ablackett:

The top Tier used to have a chock stone shaped like a rugby ball that only touched the side walls at the pointed ends. You had to make very vigorous use of it to exit the chimney. It was probably the second hardest pitch on S Ridge direct after the Y cracks....