The old Man of Hoy (Climber on top for scale)

This is how my final email to Dave (Pritchard) started. here is the story of how the cunning plan was put into action...

The plan was to fit an ascent of the Old Man of Hoy into a 2 day weather window that had suddenly appeared before us. It all sounds easy until you consider small difficulties like there are over 500miles of driving plus 4 ferries to be caught on time not to mention the 500 foot sandstone monolith to be climbed. Missing any of the ferries would result in either a wasted journey or worse being stuck on an island for a full day as there are no ferries on a Sunday in the winter season. Both myself and Dave had work & other commitments so there was no way we could miss the ferries back from Hoy.

The cunning plan went something like this :

 

Friday
Head up early morning for 13.15 Northlink ferry from Scrabster
Arrive Stromness 16.45
Drive round to Hauton
Hauton Ferry 17.30
Arrive Lyness 18.10
Drive to Rackwick bay.

Stay night in Rackwick Bay Bothy

Saturday
Alpine start - i.e. breakfast while dark.
Have walked in and ready to descend to Old Man at first light. (7.30?)
Do the route and be back sharp for the 3.30 ferry
Drive round to Lyness
Lyness Ferry 15.30
Arrive Houton 16.05

Mainland Ferry Check In 16.10
Stromness Ferry 16.30
Arrive Scrabster 18:00.
Drive home.

Friday went according to plan and we managed to get a look at the start of the approach path before it got dark - A good call by Dave as it does wind its way round several houses and different paths before striking out onto the hillside. The Bothy at rackwick bay has to be the poshest bothy I have stayed in. Not only does it have running water and comfy armchairs, its got a flushing bog too ! We sorted the rack out and packed the bags ready for the off first thing in the morning. We were both not too bothered who led what pitch so a flip of the coin decided that I would be leading the crux. With everything set to go for the morning we opted for an early night as it would be a long day on Saturday.

BEEP BEEP BEEP, I tried to find my head torch in the pitch black. It was 4.30AM, time to go. A quick cuppa and an "All Day Breakfast" sandwich and we were out of the bothy heading to the car. It was drizzling and Dave asked if I had heard rain through the night - I had, it was not looking too good. We drove the ½ KM up to the youth hostel with rain starting to bounce off the windscreen. The rain stopped as we got out of the car and started the walk in. Thoughts turned to my last fall and how I had decided not to rock climb in the wet again as it had been a simple slip on wet rock than led to my last winger. We managed to loose the path despite our earlier recce mission but quickly corrected the mistake and made good time over the cliff top to the old man. I could see the top of it looming out of the darkness - I thought it didn't look too big. When you get to the cliff top you relise that you can only see the top ¼ from the walk in. It's huge. We had a quick look at where we thought the line went and then started the descent down 500 foot of muddy grass picking our way between various crags. We heard some really eerie voices echoing round the base of the old man and wondered what it could be. If you were the type to believe in ghosts I expect you would have filled your pants at this point. I concluded that it was probably fishermen shouting far out at sea and promptly forgot about it.

Stage one of the cunning plan was complete we had made it to the foot of the route for first light. Dave racked up and made short work of the first pitch, an easy rib up to a large ledge - "the gallery".

Dave on Gallery Belay

I followed up and we exchanged the rack and I set off onto the crux pitch. This strangely starts with a 2 meter descent down onto a traverse ledge. I gained the traverse ledge and stated to shuffle along it. My thoughts turned to gear I thought about how to protect myself and Dave seconding along the ledge. Then I realised in my haste to get stuck in to the pitch that I had forgotten to take the extenders from Dave. Bugger, this was supposed to be a smooth operation to get up and down the old man quickly. So I reversed back along the ledge and back up to the gallery ledge. Now fully racked up I set off for the second time, and crossed the slimey traverse ledge via a move to gain the base of the chimney. There was no gear on the traverse and I had to climb up a few feet to get some solid bits of gear in. I had pointed out some tat for Dave to clip to protect his descent onto the ledge and was happy that once I was belaying him from above he should be ok. I knew the pitch went through two roofs so I was using long slings as extenders and trying to limit gear placements to only the really bomber as I really did not want rope drag on a big wandering pitch. From the chimney I surveyed the fist roof. I managed to scrape most of the red sandstone gunk from my boots and dry my hands with chalk.

The first roof turned out to be OK and I moved up to gain a nice hanging chimney. Some back and foot work brought me to below the second roof. More bomber gear went in and I had a first foray out to look over the edge, a damp fist crack - lovely. I scuttled back to the safety of the depths of the dark dank chimney. I surveyed the situation, a roof with a big fist crack at the top. I looked at the drop out of the bomb bay chimney - 50 meters straight down I reckoned. I tried to dry my boots and hands out as best I could and back and footed out for a proper go. I managed to gain the fist crack but could not pull through the roof, the gap was too wee. I looked at the huge drop and though of where I would fall - right out into space. Elvis managed the first line of "Hound Dog" before being told to shut it. I reversed back to my safe position.

More contemplation - it's only 5b - aye 5b in the wet, you'll not die if you fall off, probably as safe a fall as you can take, no chance of hitting anything, had I remembered my ascender in case I came off into space, you'll go for miles with all that slack in the traverse etc etc.

Right I thought - it's going to go this time ! Back and foot back out above the void and I was eyeballing that fist crack again. I back and footed further out this time, right to the edge of the chimney, before doing the last back move I had a quick check behind me to ensure that there was still a chimney to rest my back on. A couple of deep breaths and I pulled out onto the face. I briefly stopped to take in the situation. Fist into crack, 30% jam 30% hold in the crack and %30 arm bar, yes this only adds up to 90% but that is how certain I was that this combination would not slip out of the damp crack.

A few similar moves and I was stood above the roof bridged out and in my element. The corner continued up for 10 meters of so and I made steady progress up. The rock was much cleaner and drier here but sill damp enough to still be a little careful. A final haul onto the ledge and I was soon arranging a belay. As I brought Dave up four spectators arrived at the cliff top. As they started to descend down to the old man I realised that they were climbers and had a wee chuckle about our alpine start. Dave arrived at the stance and we both agreed the pitch was quite nasty in the slimey state it was in. Somehow Dave had managed to squeeze through the gap that I had tried first - he found it quite hard - I thought it must have been desperate. Coming from someone who has lead some pretty big E numbers I was happy that it was not just me that found it quite nasty.

Green Slime

A time check revealed it was now 9.15 A quick rack swap and Dave set out onto the third pitch. "It's all covered in green slime !" he shouted. He managed to pick his way through the slime coated ledges to go out of sight up a slime coated corner. After a while he shouted down he was safe and I followed on, up the slime.

I got to the belay ledge and took the rack again and tired to follow the cleanest bits of rock through the slime. About half way up the pitch I climbed a clean wall and was brought to a halt when I realised that I had to mantle onto (yes you've guessed it) a slime covered ledge. I tried to dry the manky crimp out with my chalk ball and managed to mantle onto the ledge. Easier ground then led to a short chimney and then a grassy ledge below the final corner crack. I took a belay here and brought Dave up.

Nearly there

The 5th and final pitch was Dave's. Apparently this is the best bit of rock on the old man and it looked to be slime free. Dave bridged off up the corner, pausing for a bit to arrange protection below a small roof before romping up to the top. He topped out on the old man and then came back down to a solid bit of rock just below the top. I followed up the corner which was actually quite a nice rock climb, not like the last 2 pitches. It felt steep but there were loads of good hand and footholds. I got to Dave's stance and he suggested I top out and then come back down to arrange the abseil. I went up top and stood on top of the old man. I didn't really have much time to take in the views as we had a ferry to catch.

Back at the stance we rigged the ab trying not to hit the climbers below who were by now spread out over pitches 3 &4. The first ab was a short one - 30 meters down the final corner. As we pulled the ropes I asked the leader of the group of 4 how he had found the crux. He remarked it was OK not too hard. I was surprised at this and asked if it was not wet ? Nope dry as a bone came the reply !

We reckoned that we could ab the next two pitches back down to the second stance on our 60meter ropes. Dave set off down taking a while to sort out tangled ropes etc and I kept testing the tension on the rope to find out when he was off it. There was no way we would be able to shout to each other over 60meters. Eventually the rope went slack and I concluded that it was no longer running through the belay plate and that Dave was safe on the belay. I rapped down passing the other 3 climbers who were heading up. It was a full 60 meter ab with just a couple of meters to spare. A bit of pendulum action and sideways climbing got me onto the ledge. As we stated pulling the ropes the rope going up the way got wrapped around a spike about 10 meters out to the right. I cursed and started flicking the end of the rope. Having had my fair share of jammed ab rope epics I knew how quickly this could degenerate into a total 'mare. Some aggressive flicking and I managed to free it and it pulled down smoothly.

One more ab to go. This is the one where Tom Patey famously swings out into space on the first ascent or descent ?. If you have 50meter ropes you have to leave a backrope in place on the way up. Thankfully with our 60 meter ropes we should be able to ab straight to the bottom of the stack. Dave rigged the ab but we couldn't see the ground to check both ends were on it. I went first, remembering to take some screwgates and slings in case I had to prussic back up the rope. Once established on the ab I could see both ends were on the ground - just! After about 10 meters the ab goes fully free hanging for the remaining 50 meters until the ground is reached. I tried to keep the descent as smooth as possible. I've done a few "free" abs off bridges and various crags but this one had to be the most impressive so far. The exposure is immense, I had a quick look at the crux on the way past - it did look dry now.

50 Meters of Space

Once Dave was down we quickly packed the sacks and started the walk out, we still had a ferry to catch ! Back at the car we flung the bags in the back and drove to Lyness. We had made the ferry with 30min to spare, still running to plan. The rack was sorted much to the amusement of two American tourists - "Gee have you guys just climbed the old man, were you scared" etc etc. We only had 5 minutes between the Hoy ferry docking and check in for the mainland ferry closing. Some heavy right footwork from Dave and we flew up to the ferry check in booth. "You look happy to be leaving" said the woman - we were, happy to have got the route in the bag, descended safely and made both ferries on time - mission accomplished !

Footnote : The route would have been much easier if dry and from our experience it does dry quite quickly. If you go don't go expecting a pristine rock climb, it's not. It is however a great adventure to climb the UK's biggest sea stack. In summer season you can also get a passenger ferry from Stromness and taxi to / from Rackwick bay. Right who's up for the Maiden then ??

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