UKC

Lost Arrow Winter Variation X 10 by Boswell & Robertson

© Guy Robertson

The formidable axe-wielding duo Greg Boswell and Guy Robertson have made a promising start to their 2017/18 Scottish winter campaign with a hard first ascent on Church Door Buttress, Bidean nam Bian. As the name suggests, Lost Arrow Winter Variation (X 10) is an interpretation of the summer E3 Lost Arrow (E3 6a), with a significant amount of new ground involved in the 5-pitch line.

Greg on the 'Super Skinny' pitch.  © Guy Robertson
Greg on the 'Super Skinny' pitch.
© Guy Robertson

The pair initially attempted the route last week, but were stopped in their tracks due to slow progress and a lack of daylight. Returning on Monday with an earlier start in the bag, the highly sustained climbing resulted in the climbers finishing at 6pm in darkness.

Despite it still being relatively early in the Scottish winter season, Greg blew the cobwebs away on the crux second pitch with a bold and uncertain lead. Guy told UKC:

'Greg's lead of the second pitch was probably the crux. It takes a strong mind to forge into that kind of thin, blank and virgin terrain in full winter conditions. He did a great job of getting back in the saddle after our first attempt ran out of light halfway up.'

photo
Guy Robertson seconds on Lost Arrow Winter Variation X/10
© Greg Boswell

He added:

'So really I had no choice but to return his favour by leading the final pitch as darkness enveloped us (well, that and the fact he was on a hanging belay on his ice axes...)'

Greg summed up the difficulty and quality of their route in a Facebook post:

'We agreed, once we had topped out, that it was one of the most sustained routes we had done in Scotland, for the amount of hard pitches and climbing that was involved in the route was crazy! It didn't let up from the base to the top, it really was a special day! It will be very hard to beat that experience this winter, but we'll definitely give it a good go.'

photo
Guy on the 'Stevie Wonder' pitch.
© Greg Boswell

Guy told UKC:

'Amazing route, I didn't expect such an icy mixed line up on that cliff. We're both in agreement it's probably the hardest route we've done together to date. We'll soon sort that out though!'

Greg and Guy have established a number of difficult Scottish winter lines together over the years, notably Range War (X 10) in Creagh an Dubh Loch (UKC news report) and The Greatest Show on Earth (X 10) on Cul Mor (UKC news report), both in 2015.

After the disappointment of the 2016/17 Scottish winter period, the 2017/18 season is starting to look considerably healthier and rumour has it that bigger projects are in the pipeline for Greg...


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15 Dec, 2017
Really? For a steep cliff it looks pretty well plastered to me.
15 Dec, 2017
Your post is ambiguous “Deadeye”. It could be read as you being sceptical about the winteriness of the cliff on the day the route was climbed. Is that what you intended to convey?
15 Dec, 2017
This is outstanding, looks utterly brilliant. Well done men. Conditions look sublime.
17 Dec, 2017
I climbed on Church Door the day before Guy and Greg did their route, it was properly wintery. And I saw the cliff the day they were on it, and it was even whiter following overnight snow and riming. And their report makes clear that there was ice (helpful and otherwise) on crucial sections. The phrase "full winter conditions" is itself a bit ambiguous because it is also used to mean a wild day of blowing snow and wind, and that Monday wasn't like that in Glencoe, but in my view that part of the cliff was in good winter condition.
18 Dec, 2017
It seems to me that what counts as a winter ascent should be very simple: it is when it is easier to climb with crampons and axes than without. Any other definition just seems contrived to me. Of course the debates about hacking off unfrozen turf and scratching the rock are important but I don't think they have anything to do with whether a route is in winter condition or not.
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