UKC

anyone out there know much about the History of Unicorn on SCNL? from memory I think Nisbet and a partner got the FWA with some aid, i see on UKC it was freed in 1998 by french climber Kim Bodin. 

If anyone has any details about the FWA and any subsequent or previous attempts i'd be interested to hear about it. I think there was a short write up somewhere like in the SMC Scot Winter Guidebook or somewhere else?

Colin MacLean, Andy Nisbet 24 Jan 1985 1NA, 3 rests

FFA: Colin Smith, Lee Collier Feb 1999

The second on the 1999 ascent appear to be a UKC user so you could email him...

https://www.ukclimbing.com/user/profile.php?id=106538

From Scottishwinter if you've not seen it; 

Nisbet and MacLean formed a formidable partnership during the winter of 1985. In January they visited Glen Coe to try one of the great problems of the day – Unicorn (VIII,8), the classic summer E1 corner-line in Stob Coire nan Lochan. “Climbing in Glen Coe felt like going into bandit country,” Andy told me. “There was a strong rivalry between the Creag Dubh and Etchachan clubs at the time, and when we arrived at the Kings House, Ian Nicolson guessed which route we were going for and said there was no snow on it. We went up anyway, found it covered in hoar frost, and climbed it on our first attempt. On the way home we dived into the Kings House, told Nicolson, and then ran out of the bar before we were lynched!”

I think the old Glen Coe guide from the early 90's has a note of them traversing left to finish up a chimney and v-groove, which assumes they escaped via Tilt after the main event in the corner. I wonder if they climbed the groove all the way as it's done now, or whether they followed the summer line up the rib and back left into the corner higher. 

Pretty mental for 1985, and they climbed The Needle a few weeks after as well!

First pitch, corner direct one nut aid one nut rest. Next two pitches summer route up corner, one rest on each. Due to darkness final pitch avoided, traverse left for 15m to chimney.

White with powder but no ice.

They got a lot of stick at the time because of the style and the conditions.

Something tells me Andy was less bothered about style and more interested in getting things done even if they were a bit "flawed", possibly advanced the technical standards forward by about 10 years at that point. Probably reflected in it not getting a free ascent until the late 90's? Anyone know if it went totally unrepeated until the FFA?

Can't think of anything as hard as Unicorn (Guerdon Grooves the same year?) at that time that had already been climbed, at least until they did The Needle the following month.

I was going to suggest Red Slab (Winter) (VIII 8) but see that was actually 88, so a bit later. Is that still unrepeated? Guerdon was earlier - 84, http://www.scottishwinter.com/?p=2611 and went unrepeated a lot longer. Has it had a third ascent yet? Isn't it in the guide as IX?

GG has not had a third ascent yet AFAIA. I’ve also heard second hand it’s not IX.

Deidre of the Sorrows was ‘86, and West Central Gully ‘87, for context.

I've got a vague memory of someone on here having logged it and a bunch of other hard routes. Someone else started a thread about it and they came on saying they had indeed done all those routes when they quite clearly hadn't.

Did that happen or am I mixing stuff up?

Edit: found a thread mentioning it so it did happen!

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/winter_climbing/guerdon_grooves-492219

Sorry Dave I’m a bit hazy about a previous thread…. I think your right….

Rich Cross and Al Powell got up it before Colin and Mick did the FFA.

There was a bit of shit stirring about it at the time, and they were accused by a certain envious onlooker of pulling up on the ropes.  I talked to Al about it and he said "yeh, but I was upside down with the rope behind my leg at the time!" (having just taken a whipper).  

Lol.  Gotta love Al.  Anyone who knows him, knows there's no BS in him!

I have a memory of Al Powell doing an early repeat, but not totally free? (I have an increasingly crap memory though!)

As in "only" VIII? Or harder than IX?!

It's definitely a route with one of those reputations that seems to keep people off it! 

I thought of Red Slab because when I was in Glasgow as a student (early - mid 90s) I got to know Mark (who was one half of the FA team) a bit through my job. He told me the story of the ascent - I remember him being very modest about it and saying it was his friend Colin, who was sadly killed in an avalanche not long after, who was the genius who led the hard bits. I'm sure Mark said the Colin dynoed the crux! I remember it sounded just on another level. Perhaps nowadays it would "just" be standard VIII, but it seemed really special back then. Perhaps the story kept people who were capable of doing it from trying to repeat that line, a bit like Guerdon Groove's reputation for all those years!

As ‘only’ VIII as Neil has captured in the latest Scottish winter climbs west guide. I think part of the issue with the route (lack of repeats) is its relatively low elevation so is in condition far less frequently in recent years (than I suspect it was in the 80s and 90s).

Particularly when you think about the kit! Axes likely attached permanently to arms with wrist loops, dual front point!!! The overall weight of the kit, the poor head torches.

Those 80s ascents are mind-boggling.

Face was a really lovely bloke. So much enthusiasm and no attitude. Recall him enthusing wildly about Walk on the Wild Side at Auchinstarry and giving us all the info on what kit to buy ( when he worked at Nevisport in Sauchiehall Street). I had no idea that he could easily have soloed down it in carpet slippers at the time.

IIRC Colin's axes were the loan pair at the Langie for a few years after.  Used them for a few grade 2s with mates. Must have bored them shitless!

Face gave up climbing but I bumped into him at Stanage perhaps 20 years later and he was having a dabble. Got very into surfing in between.

He got back into climbing about 10-12 years ago, there was a bit about it on here. Anyway, rather unbelievably he'd expanded to 15 stones (he'd been the skinniest climber in the world), so he set himself a target of 6a to 8a in 6 months, which he did. Bloody impressive, though he's a rare talent.

Nathan Adam: That story from Scottishwinter rings a bell but I'm sure Colin was Creagh Dhu even if he was Aberdeen based. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I could be.

It's worth flagging just what a strong effort Colin Smith put in on the FFA of Unicorn.

Unicorn was waaaay beyond Mick's pay grade, as he openly admitted at the time. Colin led every pitch, got to each belay and then hauled Mick up behind him, then carried on with the next lead.  He kept his resolve and did the summer finish at the top pitch. 

All this hanging from leashed axes. I still find it really impressive thinking about it. Such a strong effort to go for it and keep going in that way. 

“ That story from Scottishwinter rings a bell but I'm sure Colin was Creagh Dhu even if he was Aberdeen based. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I could be.”

Certainly my memory is that Colin had Creag Dhu affiliations. Although Andy was very much Etchachan Club Colin didn’t really hangout in the Blue Lamp or climb with many folk from that group. He was more linked to The Harriet Street Bar and, when it closed,The Frigate though he did climb regularly with several folk who were in the Etchachan Club in addition to Andy (who was only ever Andrew or The Droid in those days).

Both Andy and Colin were really pushing the envelope at the time and the stick they got should be seen in the context of that. 

Your write up of Goliath with Andy is great btw Two rowies for breakfast!

https://neiltmorrison.wordpress.com/

Still a great read Neil. It is tough though seeing pics like the Goliath icicle during this winter!

thanks all!

Just to clear something up, Lee Collier here, didn't do this with Colin, no idea how my name ever got associated with it. There was a lot of people trying to do the first free winter ascent of unicorn at the time it was a great effort from Colin.

So who was on the FFA of Unicorn, with Colin Smith, as Lee says he wasn't? And is there any more info on Kim Bodkin's ascent, which seems to pre-date it? I can correct the info in the SMC database when I know what to correct it to. Thanks.

UKC logbook says Mick T. I rightly or wrongly assumed that is MickTighe…

A spot of sleuthing suggests Mick Thompson although I don't know who that is.

I know the Creagh Dhu Mick Thompson….

I'm not sure of Mick's surname, sorry, which is bad form because we climbed together on occasion  - he was just Mick !  I want to say it was Thompson, but really can't be sure. 

I'm terrible with names, sorry, but never forget a story.... Mick was a really nice bloke who worked in Glasgow as councillor to alcoholics. I guess that rules out Tighe?

Yes!  Thank you!

I’ve pointed the Creagh Dhu Mick Thomson (no “p”) at this thread…

Aye i did unicorn wi colin smith , mick thomson, colin led the whole thing o/s, no falls, no rests no aid, climbed wi leashed axes and old school poons. He draged me out of a 10 yr retirement fae winter stuff, think i only did about half a dozen easy routes up to grade 6 in all that time. Last hard route being agags in 88 wi di lampard the dsy colin and mark got avalanched after a good attempt on satans slit. Couldnt really be arsed wi winter after loosing yet another good mate.

Re the route, as innes said, pretty much got pulled up the first pitch but found the second not too bad appart from a wee bit about 2/3 of the way up the corner. Got lucky on top (proper) finish as hit crucial hook above the bulge first time.

We hadnt heard anything about french guys repeat wi the cop out finish at the time

Thanks, Mick, very helpful and well done! The SMC system has now been updated on the public site (see below). There's an additional note in the core database about Kim Bodkin's ascent, but these don't come through in the extraction to the public site.

The SMC is very interested in correcting any mistakes and omissions in the first ascent histories, and in particular including first names to remove ambiguities (for example there are four people named M.Thomson in the original lists). So if anyone out there has any info to offer, please get in touch.

The FA lists of individuals can be viewed at: https://routes.smc.org.uk/ Go to the three lines menu page (top right) and click on the First Ascents tab. You can search for any surname, to bring up a list of all matching entries, then refine the search by initial or first name. The list that comes up may have routes of more than one person if they share first names, or if the first name of someone with the same initial is unknown.

We can also send out personalised FA lists on request.

The first ascent list thing is very cool - I'm down for 10 and had completely forgotten about two of them. (They were pretty forgettable though!)

Are you tempted to up your game and challenge Andy Nibet's high score.

No-one is ever likely to match Andy's score if route length is taken into account - if you laid all his routes from end to end they'd stretch from Glasgow to Aviemore. Imagine pitching that!

I suspect I'm already several decades too late for that!