UKC

I'm sure I can't be the only person to have an Albatross route.

A route you've attempted several times, that you're perfectly capable of climbing, but for one reason or another seems to be permanently jinxed.

Mine is The Bat.

I've made the slog up to Carn Dearg Buttress five times to climb it, and five times I've walked (limped) back down in abject frustration.

The furthest I've got is halfway up the Hoodie Groove, when it suddenly started pissing down, turning to hail, and then a full on snowstorm.

Two attempts failed to even reach the start - on one, my partner forgot the other rope, and the other I fell over on the walk in and sprained my ankle badly.

One attempt ended shortly after we'd roped up at foot of the buttress when a sizeable stone came out of nowhere and knocked my partner unconscious, and another attempt failed when we were involved in a head on collision with another car at the entrance to the Golf Club.

So come on UK brethren, please beat my top trump score of five in the Albatross route stakes?

In reply to Goucho:

I can't approach your top trump score but can add an entry taking into account bonus points for esoterica maybe?
Two attempts over a two year period to do to a route on the North side of the Aiguille de Talefre, namely either the Central Couloir or the Grande Couloir (Col de Talefre). First go in 1980 saw my climbing partner suffer from serious stomach cramps before bivvying below the face, so a return to base ensued the next day. Two years later saw me spending the night alone on a rocky outcrop? on the Talefre Glacier, then failing to find a way across the bergschrund onto the Grande Couloir. That time I ended up tagging on to & running ropes up a manky condition NNE Couloir d'Aguille de Pointe Joseph for a couple of lads I bumped into (Dan Moss, Chris Hine, are you still out there?), which took an exhausting 10 hours to complete.
Not been back since but the Talefre Glacier still resides in my memory...

In reply to Goucho:

It took me six visits, over more or less consecutive weekends, to do Coronation Street. This included, like you, leaving the ropes in London on one occasion, spending the whole day in the caff listening to the rain drumming on the windows on at least one other occasion, being forced by sleet (and softness, ineptitude, etc,) to retreat from the stance beyond the Shield and losing a fair slice of my rack in the process before eventually succeeding and wondering what the hell the problem had been.

I didn't write off my car at any point, though, which is always nice.

jcm

In reply to Goucho:

We were gearing up at the base of The Bat when Mike and Marjory Mortimer turned up. He was pretty miffed, but I promised that if he caught us I would let them through.
From the top of the Hoodie Groove I could see him on the on the initial traverse and hollered down that he needed to get a bit of a shift on or they would get benighted!

Chris

In reply to Goucho:

My story is not as bad as yours(I keep thinking of going up to Carn Dearg in summer, but it seems more practical to appear up in that area in winter conditions{and in fact Green gully was a bit of an Albatross,but I got it done after about four goes-brilliant route} but one day I will try Centurion to begin with, up in that region) but Dream of White Horses is the Dream that will not go.
I have been to our club hut in Wales on many weekends intending heading to Anglesey and doing the route. Most of those weekends have turned out to have poor weather. A couple of weekends the weather looked more useful,but the weather gods changed their mind. On one occasion the weather turned dramatically worse(chucking it down) just after arrival.
The worst time though was when the weather was perfect and I and my friend went onto the promontory opposite to somewhat figure out where we would be going. At the point when I said "right lets go and just get on with it", my friend said, "well if I had slept better last night, and if I'd done more climbing recently, and if I actually felt fitter, and especially if I wasn't so overweight I'd do this route; but as it is I won't do it today." I could not believe what I had heard. I was truly in shock and utter disappointment. It was as if one of my animals had died. I was depressed for two or three weeks.

In reply to Goucho:

I went up to do the N. Face of the Droites 8 times in the 80's. Only crossed the Bergschrund twice and never got more than a few hundred feet up before deciding the conditions weren't any good. Unlikely to ever do it now.

In reply to Goucho:

At the risk of this sounding like a Carn Dearg thing, I've been to the base of Centurion three times in June snowstorms and not set foot on rock.