UKC

It's been a while since the last proper Scottish new routes round-up, so upon agreeing to do this year's Peter Herd was faced with the immense task of where to start and how to split it. As such, this will be the first of two articles, covering new routes and signficant repeats south of the Great Glen.

Thanks for this Pete

Some of those routes have your name written all over them Dave...

Question is, if you could repeat just one - which would it be?

Nice write up Pete. More quality routes than you can shake a stick at... the problem is, I'm nowhere near got to the end of the list of routes I wanted to do before I had read this.

That was a fine write up, and some great photos.

Great to see minor crags like Binnein Shuas, The Shelterstone and Craig an Dubh Lock getting the recognition they deserve. Climbing is not all about the honeypots like Craignarget!  Hopefully articles like this will spread the load and reduce the footfall that all Galloway crags suffer from...

Cheers,

Lex

I've come to the conclusion that as travel restrictions are lifted in Scotland I need a personal advisor to choose what to climb on any given trip. There's too much!

Thanks all. Look forward to sharing the next one(s).

Pete 

Great write up, well done!

One wider point - it's 2021, can we not feature more ascents by female climbers? I know I won't be the only one growing increasingly weary of reading climbing journals/articles/books that represent a boys club. Scotland sometimes seems way behind the curve in this regard.

Yes, a particularly good and inspiring write up.

Is it a matter of significant ascents by female climbers going unreported or of a lack of significant ascents by female climbers to report? 

I don't follow closely enough to know this, but how you define significant could be part of the issue.

Judging by the down votes already suggests the male dominated UKC audience don't see any issue, no surprises there!

Great write up, well done!

One wider point - it's 2021, can we not feature more ascents by female climbers? I know I won't be the only one growing increasingly weary of reading climbing journals/articles/books that represent a boys club. Scotland sometimes seems way behind the curve in this regard.

Thanks. Appreciate it.

Your very much correct in pointing out the lack of female first/second ascentionist's in this article. Whats not the case is that I have avoided reporting relevant ascents by women.  I've investigated thoroughly and found that for these years trad development South of the Great Glen has been predominantly male. What you'll also notice about the area is the relatively high grade skew, which whilst perhaps unrelated is worth pointing out for the purposes of this discussion. I can offer some theories but nothing more..

Thinking about the sorts of crags represented in this area , the rock types and average angles, the relative sparsity of 'gaps' that exists  in comparison to the NW crags, plus their proximity to population centres, I could make a few guesses about demographics and activity. I found it quite illuminating to think about.  Now my research efforts are by no means exhaustive and I certainly will have missed a few things out.  But I have done my best to be impartial.

By way of contrast to South, I'm close to finishing North of the Great Glen. It happens to feature roughly 1/3 women involved in first and second ascents. The grade specturm also happens to be skewed much more toward the middle. I would refer to some of the above factors as having potential influence, but again their only theories. 

What I haven't done in either article is selectively report based on gender. I am very conscious of the potential to undermine less well represented groups and that I cannot be a closely relatable figure to everyone. All I've aimed to do is to represent and celebrate the activities of people who put up quality new routes and make 'significant second ascents'. Admittedly my criteria for significant second ascents is pretty loose and skewed toward higher grades. Well, I guess thats one for the forums.. 

Regarding old boys clubs and Scottish climbing. Well, yeah. Trad climbing in Scotland is still a male dominated activity. I'm not denying that. What I am confident in saying is that the Scottish community includes many very active women and that there are more women climbing trad now than I've ever known. But like many climbers in Scotland, they don't all shout about what they get up to, so you do need to be on the 'scene' and/or do some digging. Many of them will  however feature in my next article, which I hope you look forward to reading.  

I think you've raised a point many folk will considered and appreciate your concern. I remain keen for feedback, including constructive criticism. I know UKC are too. 

Cheers,

Pete 

I think the lack of mention of the development of bridge climbing in Edinburgh is absolutely criminal! An entirely new venue (and somewhat new type of climbing) on the doorstep of a major population cruelly ignored.

Most of us will never reach the dizzying heights of many of the climbs in your article, so if you have time a short rundown of new crags or crag sections that you have found during your research would be of much interest.

Thanks for the considered response. I never thought you, or indeed anyone would ever actively under report ascents based on gender. If men are making all the ascents it's hard to address the imbalance as you can only report the facts. But as you are clearly aware you have to actively seek out and encourage contributions by under reported groups in order to change wider perceptions and participation etc.

I certainly meant it is a broader point rather than singling your report out e.g. this year the Climbers Club journal had 49 articles/pieces and not a single one by a woman, there's no excuse for that. As you are aware Scotland is not much different and it turns people off - men and women. Noticed the grade skew too so really glad to hear part 2 sounds more balanced in these respects, aside from these points everyone up here knows the NW is where it's at!

Keep the good work up.

I think the lack of mention of the development of bridge climbing in Edinburgh is absolutely criminal! An entirely new venue (and somewhat new type of climbing) on the doorstep of a major population cruelly ignored.

Ha.. yes. Good point. I did actually make minor mention to this. It's in the Inverness-shire paragraph. Maybe someone else, better informed than I am, could summarise it and I can slot it in. The article remains editable forever, as far as i know. Any takers?

Most of us will never reach the dizzying heights of many of the climbs in your article, so if you have time a short rundown of new crags or crag sections that you have found during your research would be of much interest.

Sure thing. There are a lot of routes in the article in the VS-E3 bracket though..

Regarding rundown my short answer is no, I don't have time and  the list of quality additions is fundamentally the list of crags mentioned in the article. However, if your looking for more info about those crags or others not mentioned I would draw your attention to the SMC new routes reports for these years. 

Pete 

Thanks for the considered response. I never thought you, or indeed anyone would ever actively under report ascents based on gender. If men are making all the ascents it's hard to address the imbalance as you can only report the facts. But as you are clearly aware you have to actively seek out and encourage contributions by under reported groups in order to change wider perceptions and participation etc.

I certainly meant it is a broader point rather than singling your report out e.g. this year the Climbers Club journal had 49 articles/pieces and not a single one by a woman, there's no excuse for that. As you are aware Scotland is not much different and it turns people off - men and women. Noticed the grade skew too so really glad to hear part 2 sounds more balanced in these respects, aside from these points everyone up here knows the NW is where it's at!

Keep the good work up.

Sure. I'm with you there.

Thanks. 

Pete

I guess (a) the membership (who, after all, write the articles) will probably be predominantly male, and (b) they can only publish what they get sent.

Just as long as pieces aren't being kept unpublished; one would certainly hope not.

So if that's the case are you implying the CC has done all it could?
Whatever measure is used to represent the membership, I think having 100% of articles written by men is a really poor show.

It seems the CC has a fairly even split committee (gender wise), which makes it even more surprising.

I appreciate club roles are all voluntary, so I wouldn't want to be too harsh, but I do think the roles come with responsibilities to represent your members. Many reasons exist why women would not write and send articles, and good reasons exists why it's very important for editors to actively invite and support women to send in content, as well people from under represented groups.

One could have a rule that certain thresholds of representation have to be met before publishing. Could be applied to other editorial contexts too.

I would hope the CC actively asks for articles from women. But as I say, they can only publish what they get sent. Also, there may be competition for space and perhaps some articles (from both men and women) have been left until the following year.