Swastika was the third of my Hard Rock objectives for this long-weekend blast to Lochaber. Scorching temperatures on Friday and Saturday made it an easy decision to opt for the altitude and shady disposition of The Bat on The Ben on Friday
… and the dank depths of Raven’s Gully on Saturday
With all the stars seemingly coming into alignment, that left the cooler overcast conditions of Sunday for our foray on the south-facing, low altitude Etive Slabs. Checking my usual selection of four weather forecasts, a couple were expecting a dry day, one was predicting the chance of a sprinkling between 3 and 4, and only the reliably pessimistic Yr.no was contemplating any moisture before then with a 20% chance of a light shower at noon.
We set an alarm for an earlyish start to be on the safe side and were setting off from the car park at just after 9am, relieved to find a spot to park the truck in amongst all the family campers…
George and I had only climbed on the Slabs three times between us, and not for over 20 years, and we’d both managed to come away with the impression of an easy-access, almost roadside crag. The subsequent squelchy stomp up the hillside, came as a bit of a shock as we discovered that the guidebook time of 55 minutes wasn’t a misprint.
The mood lifted as we geared up on the famous “Coffin Stone” and then flaked the rope at the start of the route.
George set off confidently up the first 5a/b pitch (confidently is the only way to climb on Etive Slabs!) and was unperturbed by the modest amount of gear – the friction was excellent.
P2 is a scruffy, heathery affair (the only disappointment in an otherwise immaculate route) and is easily linked into P3 through a fun little overlap to reach a good thread belay beneath the main overlap.
This is the famous “Moustache” pitch, with a gritstonesque mantle over the overlap…
… followed by a 25m wander (straightforward but terrifying!) along a floral break on the lip.
This is only a couple of inches wide, with good footholds interspersed with verdant foliage, and nothing much in the way of gear along the way. I was silently congratulating myself on my good fortune in seconding the mantleshelf move when I realised I’d be doing it with the rope running horizontally to George with nothing but a dodgy gold cam inbetween (a big blue camalot might have been better). Definitely “don’t fall off” territory!
Next comes the “Quartz Vein” (don’t you love routes where each pitch is worthy of a name?) which follows the eponymous feature for about 30m with only a couple of bits of gear for comfort. Only 4c but quite thought provoking and great fun.
George soon joined me at the end of pitch 5 and things were looking good with only an hour and a half or so of climbing under our belts and just 3 pitches to go. I ignored the first few spots of rain – they evaporated instantly on impact and in any event it would soon pass. George’s wise council: “let’s give it 5 minutes” was very sensible given the runout nature of the climbing, and turned out to be prophetic. A cloud burst changed the complexion of the day entirely, and within minutes we were soaked and shivering with the crag literally turned into a waterfall (bizarrely a warm waterfall, heated on the sun-drenched slab)!
At least there was no “should we, shouldn’t we” ambiguity about the decision – the only way was down, and the sooner the better!
With a decent thread at the p5 stance, 60m ropes got us to a stout sapling and another rap saw us back on terra firma.
The rain was over in less than an hour, but it would be a while before the slabs were climbable again. No option but to head for home with the weekend’s third Hard Rock tick snatched from our grasp. It was particularly galling to find dry tarmac as soon as the A82 and then clear blue skies and 28C on the road around Loch Lomond – a very localised shower and a reminder that 20% events do happen (apparently about one in five times!) Never mind – we’d thoroughly enjoyed the five pitches we’d done, which capped a great three days, and Swastika will still be there next year!
RockAroundTheWorld 
Dom, I’ve been there just once many years ago and I think I did Swastika with Cec or Andy? I remember being terrified on runout steep slab padding on friction, thinking of the cheesegrater consequences of a fall, feeling very alone somewhere below the overlap. I recall crossing path with Mick Fowler who was guiding a client and I asked if I could clip his gear as I got to the overlap to which he cheerfully agreed. Shame you got rained off.
Hiya Martin – I’ve been meaning to get in touch to pick your brains – Bill and I are heading to Utah and Primrose Dihedral is one of the possible routes on the list. I seem to remember you did it way back when… Any memories or advice? Cheers, Dom
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