UKC

Has anyone used a climbing guide to do the Scottish sea stacks? Looking for recommendations. Thanks

Try Mike Twid Turner www.miketurnerguide.com

See from Facebook posts he's running the classic Scottish sea stacks course(s) later in the year.

Hi Nicola,

I can arrange this for you. Drop me an email at info@inspiredguides.co.uk

The sea stacks make for some incredible and adventurous days out, great fun! 

Jack

My son and I hired Mike Pescod of abacus mountain guides when we did 3 stacks a few years ago. We had a great time. Mike was brilliant. 

Paddy at: http://www.mountaincircles.com

Paul at: https://www.rocknridge.co.uk/rock-climbing-courses-uk/

Both offer guided sea stack days. Great guys and super experienced too.

Your guide request is specific but I just wondered if the stack at Pen y Holt has shown up on your radar yet. There's an easy HS 4b on it. It's in Pembrokeshire and might be a good way to get into stacks without a guide. There's an MOD  briefing to attend to get access. Lave Linnet who films under Bald Eagle Productions has a great Youtube vid of it on his channel somewhere. Good luck either way.

Hi Nicola,

I can help with this. I've sent you a DM.

Tom

Thanks a million for your kind words Mr Doggy. And Nicola, as an unashamed sea stack bagger myself the very best of luck on your mission to climb ( I presume) some or all of the classic 3 Scottish stacks of Hoy, Am Buachaille and the Old Man of Stoer as they are fantastic, adventurous days out.

olddirtydoggy mentioned the picturesque Pen y Holt stack in Range West, Pembroke (briefing required) and there is a reasonably graded route at HS 4b called Making Passage up it. However like all stacks it is quite adventurous, with some poor rock and requires an abseil off a jammed buoy (!) at the top. It may be of interest to you as a first, gentler introduction to the dark arts of sea stack bagging, a bit closer to home and you can see the vid here:

youtube.com/watch?v=wJYsnor94Zk&

If interested you can also view vids of Am Buachaille and the Old Man of Stoer on my You Tube channel to give you an idea of the difficulties encountered and what lies in store! Or should that read in Stoer...

Cheers and bon chance

Dave

Hi Dave, hoping you've not retired from the camera, really missing your content.

That's HS?

It looks terrifying!

Nicola, I highly recommend Paul Tattersal.

Enjoy! David

https://www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk/rock-climbing-in-north-west-scotland/se...

Thanks for all these replies. I’ve not climbed trad for a loooong time and my past climbing partners have started families or stopped climbing. I will look into these suggested guides. I shall ignore the fact that some posts recommending guides have been responded with dislikes. I assume that anyone who actually recommends avoiding a guide would say something specific!

Looks amazing! Fantastic film you’ve made too. Thanks for sharing. 

Hey odd "no" I've not retired from filming! Just been keepin' a low profile during the last 2 years of Covid, but hoping to get back behind the camera + drone for 1 or 2 filming projects later this year...

Cheers

Dave

Heya Chris yep Making Passage is listed as HS 4b and the easiest way up Pen y Holt stack! However one of my partners in crime in the vid, Emma Alsford (who's climbed a few things over the years!), did say on camera that it felt a bit stiff for the grade... Cheers Dave

Making Passage (HS 4b)

No worries Nicola and I'm glad you enjoyed my wee vid! If you want to explore all the worthwhile sea stacks (including the Big 3 in Scotty) in the UK I can highly recommend Chris Mellor's excellent Stack Rock 2020 pdf:

https://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Books-Media/Guidebooks/Scotland/Sea-...

Cheers

Dave

Hi nicola there are a number of local guides and local mountaneering instructors in the north of Scotland who regularly guide the sea stacks. Look on the  accociation of mountaneering instructors page or the BMG page to find someone who  actually lives in the area and has local knowledge 

Have you thought about doing them without a guide? 

Think mid August to mid Oct to avoid fulmars and have better ocean temperatures and hopefully good weather.

You need 60m ropes ideally as they get you off Stoer in 1 abseil and off Hoy in 3. 

A solid VS climber can lead all the pitches except the crux pitch on Hoy which is more solid HVS- mid E1 terrain and very exposed, but also very doable with more than one way to climb the crux out of the coffin slot.

The other piece of advice is pay attention to climbers above you as the stacks are loose, especially am buchaille (someone knocked a loaf sized block from the top of pitch 2 which exploded next to my feet while we waited to climb!).

If you watch the Bald Eagle videos a few times you'll be good to go! Worst case scenario is that you have to leave some gear and bail which will cost a fraction of the fuel costs of getting to the top of Scotland - go for it!

The UKC approvals system suggests that you should ignore my advice, do not attempt this adventure unassisted and hire a guide

Ha the cheques in the post! Cheers Dave

Similar but different, I’m running a guided sea cliff climbing to Mingulay: 7-13 May.

More info here:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/press/guided_trip_to_mingulay_-_saturday_7_...