Boswell and Robertson kick off 2022/23 winter with FWA of The Nihilist (IX 9)
- Sunday 11th December 2022
Greg Boswell and Guy Robertson have started the 2022/23 winter season off with a bang – the first winter ascent of The Nihilist (IX 9) at Lochnagar.
With temps dropping and the onset of winter connies looking increasingly likely, it’s entirely unsurprising that the tried and tested team of Greg Boswell and Guy Robertson has scooped the first biggie of the Scottish winter season, in this case the first winter ascent of The Nihilist (IX 9), Lochnagar, a 50m E1 on Black Spout Pinnacle.
The Nihilist had previously repulsed the efforts of various parties but the experience of Boswell and Robertson proved overbearing and, despite it being their first outing of the 2022/23 season, the pair knocked out the first winter ascent giving thin, pumpy and technical climbing as Boswell confirmed, “The route had had a few failed attempts from previous parties, but I was psyched to be able to keep a cool-ish head and piece together the very thin, pumpy and technical crux pitch. This eventually unlocked access to the awesome, but also very sustained climbing above.”
Kicking off the season with a IX 9 graded route is pretty remarkable; no taking it easy and building up steadily then! Boswell, it seems, was conscious of being “a bit rusty”, but it seems it only took 5m of climbing to find his flow. “It’s amazing how you can feel so nervous and “rusty” when you’re stood at the base of the first route of the season. But after less than 5 meters of upward movement, everything becomes a natural flow and is as fluid and confident as ever before!
“It’s always good to get a successful climb ticked off at the start of the season, but this one wasn’t a foregone conclusion, and we nearly left unvictorious with our tails between our legs. Tricky and bold above sharp ledges is never easy on the head! š„”
Not many would find a “season opener” of such difficulty “fun” but given that Boswell did it seems that some big things might well be in the pipeline ahead so stay tuned; “A super fun way to start the new season, and as they say, the rat has been fed!”