South Ridge Direct, Cir Mhor.

Now summer is upon us, with an unusually long sunny dry spell, I swapped my ski boots for my climbing shoes and took to the Mountains of Arran once again on Saturday 12th June. Darryl Urquart-Dixon, Mountain Rescue Team member, and I started out from Glen Rosa heading towards Cir Mhor to climb the ‘South Ridge Direct’ route up this Alpine style mountain. The route, first recorded in 1941 by J.F. Hamilton and D. Paterson in the days of army-surplus pitons, creaky karabiners and the first nylon ropes, has long been considered a classic by the Scottish Mountaineering Club. With our modern tools; one 60m 10.3mm dynamic rope, harnesses, lids, a rack of rock-nuts, cams and hexe’s and a few other essentials stuffed in our packs; including our wives’ monster sandwiches, the ubiquitous first aid kit and the mandatory 2lts of water each, we reached the base of the route about 1 hour later. We sauntered up the first few scramble pitches of the route which provided a healthy warm up before the more strenuous ‘Very Severe’ graded pitches to come. Some 80ms up Darryl led the famous ‘S crack’, attacking this distinguished ‘Serious’ grade pitch in his usual physical fashion with big raking hand grabs up the ‘S’ shaped granite flakes securing gear for protection as he went. Soon it was my turn and once secured above the call of ‘Climb!’ bellowed down the rock face. With my sticky rock shoes on I was immediately impressed by the friction that this high quality granite provided, allowing most of the upward motion to be controlled and driven through the feet. This proved essential as I was able to conserve strength in my arms for the most serious pitch of the climb; the infamous ‘Y crack’. It was my turn to lead and although this pitch is short by comparison it is the subject of bar room gossip, conjecture and even fear. On the day, with the sun making the granite sticky the alleged ‘polished’ nature of the rock was not apparent. With some composed planning, reading the rock, a few delicate foot movements up to the overhanging section to find an upper hand hold on top of the ledge, positioned as if chiseled there on purpose, I was able to pull up and over onto a ledge that made a perfect belay for the second climber to be secured (Pic1).





Some 200ms below we could see the multi-coloured helmets of other climbers starting out on ‘Prospero’s Prelude’ and we could hear another party chattering away to our right on ‘Sou’wester Slabs’; it was getting busy. Darryl vanished in the distance, traversing across a wide inclined ledge to reach the ‘Layback crack’ belay (pic2). Leading again he secured gear in the almost vertical right angled crack until he disappeared diagonally along a weathered hand seam protruding from the otherwise smooth but grippy steep inclined slab. Not until I reached this section did I realise the exposure he had been in, covering 20ms with one gear placement as no earlier opportunity had presented itself. Arriving at a large ledge we encountered an RAF Mountain Rescue group from the Cairngorms, who were the voices we heard echoing up ‘Sou’wester slabs’, so we stopped to devour our sandwiches and take on some liquid. After the obligatory rib-tickling banter with the RAF we took on the ‘Three Tier Chimney’, our final real climbing pitch of the day, which although not technically difficult certainly demanded brawn not brains and a scrap to get up.




After 3 hours we’d reached the summit; time for some back slapping, arrange the gear and head for the pub…another Arran Adventure in the Bag!
For all those thinking about attempting this or any climbing route always remember; ‘there are old climbers and there are bold climbers, but there are no old bold climbers’.


Article by D.Lilly. As featured in the Arran Banner, all photos copyright D.Lilly 2010.