Sep 1

Posted by: Matt Spenceley
01 September 2010 

 One long road trip, 4 ferries, 3 days of intense rain, enough midgies to lose all your blood (twice-over), and a great adventure with a good friend in an utterly beautiful part of the World....  The Old Man of Hoy.

I was joined by Alun Richardson, my mentor on the British Mountain Guides scheme.  Thanks for the great photos!

Packing gear in Scrabster before heading for the ferry

Arriving into Stromness, one of the biggest towns on Orkney's main island

Stromness, the port from where we took a smaller ferry to the island of Hoy.  The town was home to my favourite author, George Mackay Brown, so it meant a lot to see some of the places that inspired the man.

Rain whilst waiting for the Hoy ferry...

After a 10 minute taxi ride, it's a short walk to the lovely bothy in Rackwick Bay

Getting ready on the chance the rain would stop...

The original route on the Old Man follows a crackline that's offwidth at times.  As usual, having Big Friends helps!

Whisky-fuelled waiting

An early morning start and some serious luck (or judgement from Alun?!) with the weather...

Starting the descent that leads into the crux second pitch

Climbing around the first of the 2 rooves

Matt on the snug second belay niche.  Looks like I may have been sweating a bit in the offwidth.

Al climbing the beautiful final corner

 

The final corner

 

 

On the top

One of the score of vomitting fulmar chicks that definitely were the main objective danger on the route.  Seabird sick at the start of a climbing roadtrip wasn't great for the clothes!
 

View back to the Old Man

We hauled out a load of rope left at the base of the stack that had presumably been stripped from the route. How many epics had they taken part in?

Rackwick Bay

Getting a peat fire going.  It wasn't cold but the bothy was full of midgies!

Gannets flying past the ferry