IX,10 for Boswell, Robertson and Macpherson

15th December, 2011

This has been read 8,163 times

Greg Boswell, Pete Macpherson and Guy Robertson have been out in the Cairngorms, putting up a new route called Siberian Tiger (IX,10). The route, on No. 3 Buttress in Coire an Lochain, follows the arete between The Vicar and The Demon. It is based around the summer E3 Siberia.

At an estimated grade of IX,10 it is amongst the very hardest Scottish first ascents made in the ground-up style.

The easy pitch of Siberian Tiger IX,10 © petemacpherson — The easy pitch of Siberian Tiger IX,10
© petemacpherson, Dec 2011

After Guy Robertson led the first pitch (as for The Vicar) Macpherson took over the lead for the main event... Greg Boswell has the full story on his blog - an extract of which is here:

"[Pete] charged up the overhanging flake/crack that was forming the left side of the roof and after some wild axe swings and impressive foot placement changes he was now well above his last piece of gear. One of his axes ripped from the crack but he just powered through with his other arm, unfortunately as he was swinging his free tool to get another placement, the other tool ripped and before I knew it the rope in my belay device was getting ripped tight and Pete was at the end of an impressive 11m fall straight onto the slab."

After that impressive fall, Greg Boswell took over the lead and led the pitch.

For full details of the route read the great accounts on:

Also Pete Macpherson has some stunning photos in his UKC Gallery, one of which is in this news item. Check out his UKC Gallery for loads of great images of Scottish winter desperates.

This ascent has been discussed already in the UKC Forums.

Greg Boswell is sponsored by The Mountain Boot Company - which is: Scarpa , Grivel , deuter , Outdoor Research , Ski Trab , Lorpen . He is also sponsored by Edelrid .

Guy Robertson is sponsored by Rab, Scarpa, Grivel, Tendon Ropes

Pete Macpherson runs the Mac Mountaineering Shop and is sponsored by Lyon Equipment ; Petzl, Beal and the Mountain Boot Company; Scarpa, Outdoor Research, Lorpen.