UKC

Does anyone know where the Low Girdle at Hawcraig goes?

The guidebook doesn't give much description, but assumed it would be just above the high tide mark all the way along.

Tried it on Monday and got just beyond Pain Pillar but then there is a short section of steep wall with no holds for hands or feet, seemed a bit improbable for VS?

In reply to Elsier:
Yeah, I always thought it was a bit improbable at VS..I think where it goes a bit holds after Pain Pillar, you just need to move up quite a bit (maybe a couple of metres) for a few metres in length and then come down again.
My 2ps worth

In reply to Elsier:

That is the tricky bit. A friend of mine fell off into the sea there a few years ago.

In reply to Heike:

Do you go up Gaucho for a couple of metres before moving across, or just after there?

Will have another look next time I am there, and see if I can figure it out.

In reply to Elsier:

Been a long while since I've done it but it certainly moves up and down a fair bit; I recall feeling rather high and that was probably at the point you mention. I'm right in the VS camp and it certainly holds one's interest. It seems in the nature of traverse routes that the description is always loose, and that adds to the sense of adventure!

Nick

In reply to Elsier: The few times that I have done it, I have stayed low under PP heading east before a rising traverse which does seem a little high, so I think that you are on the right bit. I too have also fallen off it. Boxing day some years ago after a particularly poor Christmas day I just had to get out. Needless to say all normal people were indoors and I was there on my tod only to fall in wearing my buffalo! Not the easiest thing to swim in!

In reply to el diablo:

Actually I think that sounds like I was trying to go the wrong way. I managed to get across under Pain Pillar to the start of Gaucho (which was a little bit tricky) but then got stuck a metre or two after Gaucho, so was just trying to work out where it goes next. Sounds like I needed to be higher at that point.

Good effort on the Boxing day ascent, sounds like an adventure!