Greg Boswell and Jeff Mercier on Scottish winter rampage
- Friday 19th January 2024
Rab athletes, Greg Boswell and Jeff Mercier ditch a trip to Norway to rampage around Scotland instead.
A super dodgy forecast scuppered their planned return trip to the frozen ice-lands of Senja, Norway; instead, the Rab athletes switched tack and zeroed in on the Scottish Highlands for a two-week long trip. Greg explained that Scotland became the obvious choice saying, “So, @jeff_mercier_ and I were planning to be on a @rab.equipment trip to Senja just now, but with a really bad forecast for the start of our trip and minimal daylight for our main objectives, we opted to cancel that plan. We spent 48 hours looking for other options elsewhere in Europe, but when it came to making the most of our time, finding the good conditions and having the opportunity to climb some of the best mixed routes in the world (maybe I’m biased), there was only one realistic destination…Scotland!!! 🏴”
Thus began their ongoing rampage of winter gems.
Wasting no time the pair kicked off their sending spree with the second ascent of Guy Robertson’s Black Spout Wall. Located in Lochnagar, this unrepeated route was originally graded IX 9 by Robertson after his first ascent; Boswell thought that IX 10 was more realistic.
Day 2 saw Boswell and Mercier adding a two-pitch finish to Manticore in Lochnagar which they graded VIII 8. For Day 3 they headed over to the more traditional forcing grounds of the Cairngorms repeating both The Migrant Direct (VII 8+) and Savage Slit (V 6) in Coire an Lochain. The team did both the direct start and finish to The Migrant Direct; after their ascent, Greg commented, “I’ve wanted to do the big corner of the direct finish for years, so it was mega to get on it today and embrace the whirlwind of spindrift! 🥶😍”
Whilst their whistle-stop tour continues details continue to emerge online about their activities. It seems that Black Spout Wall, in particular, impressed the pair. Writing about their second ascent, Greg said this about the route, “This was the start of pitch four on Black Spout Wall. Known as The Inhospitable Crack pitch, It was super tricky! A wide crack with nothing to hook at the back, just the head of my axe marginally catching on the sidewalls with nothing to stop it if it ripped 🤢. Plus my arms were wilting with fatigue after the beefy pitches we’d already done lower down to reach this point. I had to fight pretty hard as I progressed into the steepness above, but eventually found myself on the turfy ledges, which marked the end to the difficulties on the route!”
Climber will continue to bring you more information as it becomes available.