UKC

In this month's Crag Notes Andy Moles takes a long look at Carn Mor, a crag which - upon first acquaintance - doesn't look like much, but look a little further and you'll start to see huge overhangs and sheer walls.

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lame thought this was gonna be about gaskins

In reply to UKC Articles:

Read it and re-read it.

Strong writing, I thought. Thank you.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Nice article Andy, when we went, 3 oil executives invited us into the Hut just before our walk out, they plied us with smoked salmon and cheese and biscuits, and a lot of whiskey, we nearly never made it out we were that drunk 

In reply to LouisJones:

Brilliant, it hadn't occurred to me that the title was a surefire link to the holy of holies in bouldering mythology. The only false reference that crossed my mind was Joy Division.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Lovely writing Andy, and always nice to see Tessa's artwork. You've made me really want to visit this crag  

In reply to UKC Articles:

"Next up, the long diagonal line through monster roofs that is Gob, a timeless enactment of Robin Smith's audacity. I've wondered about the name; perhaps he spat from the final belay, and followed its mesmerising, uninterrupted fall."

The Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal of 1960 (- the one with "The Bat and the Wicked" in it) contains a lengthy letter from the new editor on "The Naming of Climbs".

In it he bemoans "irritatingly pointless" names such as "...Gnib, Gnob, Ouch....., by which the less gifted seek to perpetuate their achievements in the vertical."

He also suggests that suitable use of Gaelic should be considered.

Robin Smith never named a climb without thought. Gob was climbed in 1960, and was accompanied with the explanation, tongue firmly in cheek, that Gob was Gaelic for "the beak of a bird".

Some other climbs he did around then were also named or described with a bit of humour: "Thunder Rib, 1000 feet, Very Severe. Start left of Deep Gash Gully. Follow the line of least resistance to the top."

His route descriptions were often superb, and its a great pity they have been homogenised in subsequent guidebooks.

Great article, by the way.

In reply to danm:

Yes great writing, but the artwork looks suspiciously like Bla Bheinn to me, not Carn Mor (lovely sketch though).

In reply to Cam Forrest:

Thanks, that's interesting. I still find it incredible that Robin Smith was only 23 when he died. Of all the routes I've climbed anywhere, irrespective of grade, I find the first ascent of Shibboleth a contender for the most impressive. Slightly harder things, by modern grading standards, may have preceded it, but I can't think of any that could have been so sustained and improbable and intimidating for someone approaching it as an unclimbed line.

In reply to Grahame N:

You're right, but Tessa's Bla Bheinn sketch has been used for all the Crag Notes series so far.

In reply to Cam Forrest:

As it happens, Gob can mean the beak of a bird in Gaelic (among other meanings)!

https://www.faclair.com/ViewEntry.aspx?ID=FBBF87397E3FA901336FB69F0976D4CC

In reply to David Bibby:

and according to my dictionary it's thought that the English slang word originated in the Gaelic