Last weekend we headed up to Torridon to stay at the Ling Hut in Glen Torridon with the OMC. On Saturday, Mhairi headed off to walk the circuit of Liathach (as her knee is still giving trouble on rough ground) while I headed to Diabaig with Jim to do some climbing.
Diabaig village is in a fantastic setting, with the crags up on the hillside behind it. We made our way to the Main Wall.All the routes looked ace; Route Two followed cracklines the full height of the face. The first pitch looked relatively innocuous to start, with a few steep moves through a little overlap.
After some nervous physio exercises on the shoulder I set off. The little wall proved more awkward than I had anticipated, and the moves to get up and right to gain the crack through the little overlap were awkward and tricky. Luckily the gear was good, and I arrived dry-mouthed in the crack above. This provided excellent handholds and gear to tackle the steep slab. With some relief I arrived at the belay.
The second pitch was much more open slab climbing, again with a great crack for gear. It was quite sustained in difficulty, but there always seemed to be either gear or holds "just one move away". It was great. I took a belay on a ledge near the top to give Jim a wee bit of fun leading.
Soon we were down. That was it, a big tick and a feeling that my shoulder was as good as recovered.
We spent some time chilling out, eating lunch and then mooching around looking for a route called Charlie's Tower. We just unflaked the ropes at what may or may not have been the bottom of it when a heavy shower arrived. We took it as a sign to pack up and scramble back round the now-greasy path to Diabaig, and a celebratory pint in the Torridon Inn (the Ben Damph Hotel bar renamed).