UKC

I'll be visiting Pabbay and Mingulay in June. What gear should I take? Big, small, doubles? I don't yet have the guidebook (in case that gives advice..) and I'm flying over to the UK so want to avoid taking my entire rack. Climbing up to about E2 maybe.

Thanks

Double rack of wires (I seem to remember the large offset things were really useful) and a rack of cams, plenty slings and draws. Pitches are long with generally lots of gear. 100m static is very useful to access some of the walls.

You’d probably get away with leaving the micro wires at home at those grades, but they don’t weigh much I guess…

Enjoy! Probably the best sea cliff climbing in the world.

Double sets of wires, microwires (although I don't think I relied on them at all I probably placed a few) full set of cams including micros, plus plenty more bits (medium cams and hexes) for setting up abseils. You don't want to leave your reds and gold cams at the top!

Just normal big route climbing, there's nothing funny about it. Can't think of any splitter cracks where you need the same size over and over - it's very featured rock with a full variety of placements.

For me, that entails taking my entire rack - not somewhere I would scrimp on gear, they're big routes and you need to ab in.

^^Essential for the main crags. Do not go to Mingulay without this, and on Pabbay you'll be on the baby crags without one.

Not rack as such, but don’t forget rope protectors. Multiple are handy for some of the abs. 

I think that this is the only change I would consider making to my rack if I went back, carrying more offsets (probably dropping some normal wires). Whilst Pabbay and Mingulay enjoy a well deserved reputation for well protected climbing, I found that actually a surprising number of the gear placements were quite fiddly and offsets often seemed to be better than regular wires.

Other than taking more offsets, I'd take the same rack I'd take for climbing in the Lakes or Wales. Plus excess old cams/hexes/spare wires/slings for making the ab anchors.

I agree that 100m rope and rope protectors essential to get the most out of both islands. A shorter static might be handy for many of the smaller crags; saves lugging the 100m rope around all the time. Take a dry bag or large polythene bags to stash the rope and kit nearer the cliffs - saves lugging a big sac back up the hill from the campsites every day!

I usually double up the small wires (up to 7) then a single set of the bigger ones. Double cams from gold to small blue, then a few micro cams but generally haven’t placed too many of them up to E3. I usually carry 14 quickdraws but 12 would be enough as well I think, a few 120cm slings for spikes, belays, last gasp quickdraws etc. 

100m rope and lots of protectors, we wrecked one in about 4 days last year, such is the roughness of the rock. You won’t be able to protect every rough patch but getting the main points gives peace of mind at least. Worth taking a 50m for the shorter cliffs. Agreed about stashing, for Guarsay Mor you’ll need a 50m and 100m to get to the base of Upper Cobweb anyways, so they can both be stashed and then you can use the 50m for trips to the Boulevard and Guarsay Beag.

Keep them in a rope bag/dry bag whilst on the Boy James, there’s a good chance there might be diesel lying around in the water and you don’t want that stuff anywhere near!

Thanks for the advice everybody... looks like I'll be taking my entire rack then anyway! We have a 100m static rope sorted, and few rope protectors. Good tip about stashing the gear. We'll be sailing there independently but also a good reminder about avoiding boat diesel near the ropes.