Greg Boswell and Guy Robertson cast their Forge in Scotland

Unusually heavy snowfalls in October heralded an early start to the winter climbing season in Scotland and while a flurry of hard existing routes have already been repeated and some new routes added, the big news from the Scottish Highlands is the first ascent, onsight, of the extremely testing The Forge at An Teallach.

The new mixed route was established by one of the driving forces behind Scotland’s cold cutting-edge, namely the formidable Greg Boswell - Guy Robertson partnership that made the five-hour drive last Monday in the hope of finding the mountain’s Hayfork Wall in condition. This hosts no summer rock climbs and only two winter climbs, Silver Fox VII/8 on the right and Wailing Wall IX/9 on the left, leaving an obvious unclimbed central crack that had been attempted unsuccessfully by a previous party.

Boswell recounts "The route had two big pitches of 45m/40m and it took me the best part of 4 hours to climb the crux first pitch up the centre of the steep face. The climbing was very technical, super physical and had multiple boulder problem style cruxy sections along the way. I was over the moon to climb the route onsight, as it really did pack a massive punch and there was more than one occasion where I thought I was about to take a monster whipper, as axes ripped whilst I moved up on minuscule hooks and zero foot placements."

Robertson led the second pitch, a huge looming roof "that Guy dispatched with ease and continued up the last technical face as darkness consumed our surroundings."

Graded an impressive X/10, it goes without saying that The Forge is a major addition to Scottish winter climbing, ascended in the finest of styles, remarkably at the start of the season. Writing to planetmountain.com, Boswell stated The Forge is similar in style to Dave MacLeod’s The Hurting at Coire an t-Sneachda, "just more sustained and physical. It was crazy to start with such a mega route. Thankfully I’d done a few pull-ups in the autumn to prepare for it ;-)"

Links: FB Greg Boswell, Instagram Greg Boswell, gregboswell.co.uk, FB Guy Robertson, www.scottishwinter.com

 SCARPA, Grivel, Outdoor Research, RAB

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Well you might as well jump in at the deep end and start the season with a bang! Yesterday Guy and I had an amazing day on the Hayfork Wall on An Teallach. All the forecasts pointed towards this area being in condition, so we decided to roll the dice and we made the 5 hour journey North on Monday night, somewhat sceptical but willing to try. Thankfully we struck gold! There was lots of stuff in condition in the area, but one line in particular stood out above the rest. The direct crack line straight up the middle of the Hayfork Wall. The route had two big pitches of 45m/40m and it took me the best part of 4 hours to climb the crux first pitch up the centre of the steep face. The climbing was very technical, super physical and had multiple boulder problem style cruxy sections along the way. I was over the moon to climb the route onsight, as it really did pack a massive punch and there was more than one occasion where I thought I was about to take a monster whipper, as axes ripped whilst I moved up on minuscule hooks and zero foot placements. The second pitch forged its way through the huge looming roof above, that Guy dispatched with ease and continued up the last technical face as darkness consumed our surroundings. . ➖The Forge X/10 ***➖ . . . . #mixedclimbing #climbing #newroute #hard #scotland #scottishwinter #anteallach #forge #suuntoclimb #wearerab #scarpa #grivel . . . . @grivel @rab.equipment @seatosummitgear @suunto @scarpa_uk @lekiuk

A post shared by Greg Boswell McInnes (@greg_boswell) on Dec 5, 2018 at 1:38pm PST