UKC

Topher Dagg and Sebastien Rider, authors of the new guidebook '7aMax Scottish Sport', give us a tour of low to mid grade sport venues in Scotland.

"Whilst not perhaps on the usual sport climbing circuit, Scotland is home to approximately 1400 single pitch sport routes of all levels of difficulty from French grade 2 to 9a..."

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=5175

In reply to UKC Articles:

A Scottish Sport guide, who'd have thought we'd ever see one of those...?

In reply to JLS:

...and then there's two along in a matter of months!

I'm going to wait for April and get the SMC guide though - I don't expect to do any sport-climbing through the winter, and I'd like to be comfortable in the knowledge that the profits are being recycled towards the good works of the Scottish Mountaineering Trust, and the production of less lucrative but equally vital publications.

In reply to UKC Articles: The link to 7aMax doesn't work.

ukclimbing.com/articles/7amax.co.uk

In reply to Jamie Bankhead:

>"the profits"

Ha! From a Scottish sport guide. Good luck to the guys I say, but I doubt they'll be able to retire on the "profits" of this "lucrative" tome.

In reply to NottsRich:

http://www.7amax.co.uk/

In reply to JLS:

Maybe not, but there's a definite groundswell of interest in sport-climbing, which is currently not served by any guide, so I think both guides will sell well.

In reply to Jamie Bankhead:


Are you sure it's going to exist?? This entirely unbiased 7aMax advert says "An SMC sport guide for Scotland is said to be in pipeline, possibly appearing next year" :o

In reply to Fiend:

Those involved have stated unequivocally, both on here and to me personally, that it will be out in April.

In reply to JLS:

I can tell you that it is indeed far from Lucrative, in fact we would be happy if we covered our costs...just of printing!

I may also point out that once printing costs have been covered we are putting a percentage of any profits to our bolt fund for the required re-equipping of Scottish sport routes; in Scotland no such fund has existed to date.

In reply to UKC Articles:

I'be bought it and would recommend it, it covers the routes I need for a warm up and shows the harder stuff I'd want to red point. I got bored of waiting for the SMC one about 7 years ago!

In reply to UKC Articles:

I've got the 7aMax guide and have been impressed with what I've seen of it so far, though have yet to have the chance to actually use it at the crag.

The article is good too, and mostly pretty comprehensive, so I was a wee bit surprised how little mention is made of all the various sport crags on the Northeast coast (almost all of which were developed by Tim Rankin, whose contribution to the development of sport climbing in Scotland is an omission from the guidebook history write-up).

These crags include the significant venues of the Orchestra Cave (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=10092), Red Wall Quarry (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=9495), and Boltsheugh (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=1890) as well as the more esoteric Clashfaquhar (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=8738), the Keel (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=3822), Sportlethen (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=1669)and the Harbour Wall at Newtonhill (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=1922).

I realise that the Orchestra Cave and the Red Wall Quarry probably fall outwith the remit of the guide, but the other venues do include a broader spread of grades and include some pretty decent routes (e.g. Underbelly at Newtonhill is one of the better and more spectacular 7bs you'll come across - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8027420@N04/5797060587/in/set-7215762980060047... and Titanic at the Keel is ridiculously steep for 6c+ http://www.flickr.com/photos/8027420@N04/5719918378/in/set-7215762980060047... )

In reply to UKC Articles:

Great article guys! Looking forward to getting out in the spring with the guide : )

Well done - great achievement and a very positive addition to Scottish climbing.

Seb - if you want to do sone winter stuff give me a shout (I promise less eventful than Stirling Bridge!)

Well done again very impressive.

Cheers Alex

In reply to UKC Articles:
Really enjoyed the article, thanks for the inspiration; minor editorial point - gneisses are metamorphosed igneous rocks, not derived from sediments like limestone; far north west gneiss is awesome - try Sheigra!

In reply to TradSimon:

Not strictly correct, gneiss is really more of a textural than compositional category. Orthogneiss is primarily derived from high T/P metamorphism of igneous rocks (like much of the Lewisian gneisses), whereas paragneiss is derived from a sedimentary protolith, and are uncommon in Scotland.

Pictures of folk climbing on conglomerate without helmets: this gives me a major case of the willies!

In reply to verygneiss:

Its the folk belaying that have all the helmets!

In reply to UKC Articles:

The SMC guide will be out in the spring.
Sample pages here: https://en-gb.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=443327835727346&set=a.4179381...

In reply to Jamie Bankhead:


I realise that the SMC and 7aMax guidebooks have obviously taken a lot of hard work and dedication by the two teams. Surely both guides will be a good addition to the range of guidebooks serving Scotland? We did quite a bit of sport climbing last winter in Scotland - it was good fun, in the main; maybe there will be other enthusiastic parties keen to sport climb in Scotland over the winter, after all, there's always 'Costa Arbroath'...

I may be biased as Sebastien and Topher are good friends of mine, but I feel credit should be given for their efforts, hard work and artistic merit - is it not impressive that this project has been realised in a period of 13 months whilst working full time? Good job they are not in it for the money!