Dave Macleod climbs new route on Torridon, Scotland

On Saturday Dave Macleod made the first ascent of Kolus E8 6c on the remote Seana Mheallan at Torridon, NW Scotland. The outstanding arête had been first eyed by Dave Cuthbertson, one of Scotland's leading climbers throughout the '80's (the hallmark 1983 testpiece Requiem E8 6b at Dumbarton Rock is just one of his many creations) and after being tipped off by the man himself Macleod ventured to the crag is gusty Baltic conditions.

The first ascent came about immediately after Macleod had snapped a crux pebble - luckily the Scotsman was on toprope practice. He describes the route as follows: "If it was on grit, the arête left of The Torridonian on Seana Mheallan would be one of the hailed true grit classics. But it’s in Torridon, so it’s sat there quietly, just being perfect on it’s own, with hardly any climbers knowing about it."

For those seeking a bit more information about this route, the E8 6c is roughly equivalent to French 8a+ climbing, but on trad gear. Macleod explains: "The protection for the crux is one poor micro cam and one sideways wire which should hold but only if it doesn't flick out during the fall. If they don't hold it's 15 metres to the boulders."

Macleod has already identified two further projects on this Torridonian sandstone, which he compares to gritstone, only better. Success will depend much on infamous Scottish summer conditions permitting. Stay tuned.