UKH

Had a top day out yesterday with Andy and G, took a punt on the weather and were blessed with dry rock, no midges, good temps and the whole of the Shelterstone to ourselves. A coup of sorts.

We were following the Scottish Rock first issue description, where it says you start P4 of the needle (the pitch with the left traverse under the roof), but you go midway along, then break through.

What's the history of the route? Both the old SMC and the newer versions of Gary's book describe it as moving up and right away from the traverse, and following some 5b pitches direct up to the crack for thin fingers. Was this "extra" pitch climbed prior to the knowledge of the original FA?

There's a photo of Stork on that pitch in the guide, with a caption "on the FA of the 3rd pitch of Stone Bastion".

Seems like that pitch has been omitted in newer guides, so is it perhaps just a relic that's no longer deemed worth it?

We found it to be a little bold, technical and quite dirty. I had to scrub a fair bit of lichen and moss off the crack and holds, and dig out dry soil from the better holds. A notch hard than the rest of the route and either hard E4 or low E5.

As other have said - the top pitch(es)* are very good, and, all-in, quite an enjoyable route if you follow the needle initial pitches (not sure what the true start pitches are like). 

*best done as one long pitch in our opinion.

That's it, I officially declare that this is no longer a climbing forum... 

Unsure about the history of that alternative pitch, is that essentially a direct version of the 2nd needle 5b pitch (down on UKC as The Needle Pitch 4 Variation (E4 6b))?
First pitch of S.B was pretty bold, E1 5a for sure, 2nd pitch gets 5c in the guidebook, but it seems a very forced line when you can just bypass the hard move by going slightly further up the shelf. It is a slightly pointless pitch though as it would make much more sense to just carry on up the corner to the belay, as opposed to going round the other 3 sides of the square...

But yeah, top 2 pitches are good, but it all seems a bit wandery to get there.

I agree about the first pitch being pretty bold E1 5a - if the moves had been just a little harder I'd have been seriously unhappy! Pitch 2 we ended up on the Needle, then pretty much the guidebook pitches to the top.

Yeah the top bit is excellent, and surely E3 max if you split the pitches sensibly. No way I'd be combining pitches with those ledges there to fall on, though maybe not such a worry if you're climbing E4/5...

I can't throw any light on your question, but to show there is still an element of climbing to the forum, we saw you having the Shelterstone to yourselves on Saturday (though assumed you were on the Needle). We took the same punt on the forecast, and had a lovely dry Hell's Lum to ourselves. It turned into a lovely evening did it not?

Hmm, can’t remember too much about the route. When we did the FA of the new Direct Variation on The Needle, don’t think we had a description of Stone Bastion with us, just followed our noses. Stork would have climbed that new pitch on-sight. None of that “Rabpointing” bollocks that happened on the first ascent of Stone Bastion -  pre-placing the gear on abseil - what’s that all about!?

I agree with most folk that the approach pitches to the main two pitches a bit underwhelming - probably better to start up The Needle…

Hadn't spotted that E4 variation in the logbook until you mentioned, but Andy clearly had as I see he's logged it! 

Glad to see your post finally got some replies, Alasdair, despite the prodding needed!

I did Stone Bastion in 2021, using the SMC Cairngorms guide description.  It mostly made sense apart from P2, which I'm not sure we found.  I asked Rab about it afterwards, but (not surprising 30 years on) he couldn't remember where he'd gone on that pitch.

I wasn't aware of the direct variation you climbed, because it wasn't mentioned in the guide we had.  I also belayed too early on P6, probably (according to my notes) because it is 40m, rather than the 25, the (definitive) guidebook says.

But the oddest thing in the description I was using is how it describes the top pitch.  One of the joys of this route is the way the 2 finishing pitches remain completely hidden until you are beneath them, in our case leading to wild, yet ultimately inaccurate, speculation as to the exit feature we were heading for.  Anyway, the last pitch climbs a huge flake to the right of a tall blind corner.  The flake swallows gear and has lots of good locks.  However, our description quite specifically told us to climb the corner, only resorting to the flake for gear.

I must have been feeling either unusually compliant, or perhaps just knackered, but at first that is exactly what I tried to do.  Of course the corner has no gear whatsoever, as well as a paucity of holds, so after a while I just set off up the flake - though I did return to the corner at least twice, just to see if I was missing something... Which I wasn't.

In retrospect I realise I was just daft to try to climb the corner, but the route was completely unchalked and I was being an automaton, rather than exercising 'sound mountaineering judgement'.

As a result of these unnecessary excursions I was pretty pumped on that top pitch, and I would just like to record my disappointment, therefore, in hoards who have since dismissed it as a trifling E4, 'probably E3', or, worst of the lot, 'E2 on a roadside crag'...!

Neil

It is really odd how the route originally climbed the corner rather than the very appealing crack. It looks desperate!

Ha! I do miss the days of Scottishclimbs.com when there was a fairly regular trad scene. Faceache and Instawank have been the death of the online climbing forum (just hit 40, so allowed to say that now).

It seems, from what Gary's said (thanks Gary!), that perhaps that pitch was a bit of an obscure variation and we just got unlucky with only having the original Scottish Rock with us, which takes you that way. It's an ok bit of climbing, just was pretty dirty!  Harder than Too far for a Bear at Farlatter and (maybe almost a grade?) harder than the rest of the route. Not sure I'd "recommend" it, unless you want extra credit. If so....take a brush!

Reading the SMC description does make you wonder what the guys were thinking on the FA? Probably why they originally proposed E5. The crack is the obvious way for sure. Great fun climbing on that section - and yes, I imagine the "experience" on the top pitch is highly reliant on your fitness, approach etc. more so than other routes where you can escape the pump with trickery.

For the record we all felt that, as a big single pitch it was either low E4 or hard E3, but E2 is just nonsense.

Good to see it's been getting a bit of traffic this year though!

Just realised I never replied! Yes, the light was stunning and we felt pretty lucky being up there. Great to get out.