The final installment in my Scottish Hard Rock obsession (until some opportunist produces HR3!) took us to Torridon. Arriving at the free/donations campsite provided by the village (they’ve got a card-reader alongside the toilets and hot showers, so no excuse for not chipping in!), the ubiquitous midge-nets on the occupants told a story. Next morning’s bright sunshine…

… bellied the fact that the wee beasties were out in force again.

After our Cuillin experience we were braced for a day of likely midge-misery, but had the good sense to head to the Beinn Eighe parking area before sorting the sacks. Blissful breeze and no beasties!

It’s a three hours walk in to the Triple Buttresses of Beinn Eighe, located in the stunning Coire Mhic Fhearchair. Common sense and a dodgy ankle suggested taking bivvy gear to get two days climbing out of one walk-in – more juice for only a bit more squeeze! There’s an excellent path that starts 50m up the road from the parking (ignore the boggy trod that emerges direct from the parking)

Three hours might sound like a b@ll-ache but actually it’s a delightful walk. I’m never going to be a Munro-bagger but if they were all like this, I could conceivably be tempted:

… a beautifully constructed path rising imperceptibly over 7 miles…

…to bring you into the stunning amphitheatre of Coire Mhic Fhearchair with its enchanting loch and famed Triple Buttresses. We were at the loch-side in a couple of hours…

…and another 30mins had us setting up camp on a flat, grassy shelf overlooking the highest of the three lochans beneath the crag.

Our main objective was Angel Face, E2 5c, on the Far East Wall – the left-hand wing of the cliffs where they tail off to ‘only’ a hundred metres tall. What a hundred metres though – a sheer vertical wall of white quartzite. Here’s a shot taken towards evening, when the sun was starting to set (the route gets sun from late afternoon). We’d been fortunate to bump into climbers the previous day who’d told us that the line shown in the SMC Wired guide (and therefore RockFax) was wrong, which is reinforced by comments on UKC. The route starts on the grassy terrace a few metres up (not at the foot of the crag) and is to the right of the line marked. The description is spot on though, and you do indeed start at the left hand end of a long flake embedded against the wall.

Having satisfied ourselves that we were beneath the right line, we had a brief debate about who’s lead it was. Strictly speaking it was my turn, so I’d get P1 & P3, with Paul bagging the ‘prize’ crux second pitch. Paul generously recognised that it was my ‘project’ so offered to swap. In the end we figured we’d let fate take the decision for us, and a high-stakes game of Rock-Paper-Scissors had us sticking with the original running order. I’m not sure if I was more disappointed or relieved – it looked pretty intimidating! Here’s Paul belaying on the ‘long flake’ taken from the first belay, only 15m up. The pitch only gets 5a but is a good initiation into the intricacies of the quartzite climbing: Sharp, incut holds in otherwise smooth rock, with good gear where the occasional cracks allow, but little in-between. (BTW the ‘long flake’ wobbles quite significantly, so might be worth NOT sitting on it!)

Pitch 2 is an absolute belter. Tough, fingery moves right from the off are probably the technical crux to a good wire at around 5m (situ wire in place at the time of writing).

Sustained moves lead to the main break line, and a slightly chossy teeter leftwards brings some thin cracks to hand up a bold wall and eventually to beneath a roof. Perplexing moves leftwards underneath this (suddenly the edges have disappeared and you are smearing on a rounded slab) lead to a ‘thank God’ flake heading back rightwards, to an airy stance just above the roof (long reach up the crack on the start of pitch 3 to find adequate gear).

What a pitch – I’d like to think I’d have lead it as calmly as Paul, but I’m by no means certain! Here’s me following P2, just after the scuttle left, with the leader of the team behind us settled on the P1 stance.

…moving up thin cracks to the roof…

…and a shot down to the team below so you get a really clear view of what you are looking for to make sense of the pitch 1 starting flake (to the right of the second) and belay:

Pitch 3 is also brilliant, and makes up for being slightly easier (5b) by being even longer (a 45m rope stretcher).

For a big route, it’s a relatively benign descent, traversing leftwards across the cliff top to meet the Munroe path down a blocky gulley, before traversing back to the foot of the route.

By now the team behind us (Darrah and Rhona???) had just finished P2 with Rhons on the P2 stance and Darrah about to leave the P1 stance.

Here’s Darrah at the end of the initial technical groove / wall on P2…

…and heading up the cracked wall to the roof.

Mission accomplished (at least as far as Hard Rock 2 was concerned) and at 5pm I could have been easily persuaded to call it a day and fire up the JetBoil for a celebratory brew. Paul pointed out that it was a long way to come and that ‘who knows when we’ll be back’ so I was persuaded that we ought to hop on a second route. Groovin’ High, E1 5b, gets almost as big a write up as Angel Face and takes a huge series of corner lines up the big grey pillar that marks the righthand end of the East Wall. P1 isn’t at all obvious (and probably isn’t 4c!!!)

Pitch 2 is a perfect square-cut corner, leading up to a ledge beneath a glowering overhang.

Meanwhile, from the belay, great views back to Angel Face where the team behind us were still grappling but enjoying the benefit of a late start by being bathed in the evening sun.

Pitch 3 avoids the overhang via a rightwards slanting line, still pretty stiff. Topped out in just a couple of hours, we were finally able to enjoy the evening sun for ourselves (in mid summer you might well catch it this far over on the wall below).

Back down to the tent…

…with just some very tame deer for company…

…and finally time for that well-earned brew!

…and a magnificent sunset.

Fears of a midge revival the next morning were soon proven to be unfounded, once the early dampness evaporated, to reveal another superb day. The Eastern Ramparts (further right from the East Wall) have a tiny bit of east in their northerly countenance, making for some early morning sun – just the motivation you need to be up and out of your comfy pit.

The king lines here are Pale Diedre (obvious feature in the shot below) E2 5c, and Boggle (just to its right) E1 5b. We settled for the latter and weren’t disappointed with its 3* promise.

‘Steep and Spectacular climbing…’ via a series of stepped corners gradually heading rightwards. P1 is a huge 45m worth of 5b corner fun – quite thin in a couple of places.

Pitch 2 is also described as a long one but has quite a marked traverse after a blocky chimney, so Paul called an early halt to proceedings, leaving me with another rope-stretcher for P3.

A pretty fair trade after he’d put in the lion’s share of the work the previous day!

More magnificent views from the summit

Meanwhile, another team was ensconced on Angel Face as we headed down – unfortunately they hadn’t picked up the topo errors so had had something of a harrowing episode trying to follow the non-line depicted in the guide.

After five pretty full-on days, even Captain Keen (aka Paul) was willing to concede that we should quit whilst we were ahead. Just a gentle plod back down to the loch and a farewell gaze back to the Triple Buttresses, before another couple of hours back to the van.

Angel Face certainly didn’t disappoint, and unlike perhaps Vulcan Wall, there was no debate on its rightful place in HR2. If anyone ever questions my motivation for “peurile ticking” I point them at trips, like this. Sure, I could have chosen to climb on Beinn Eighe’s fabled Triple Buttresses without the motivation of someone else’s list, but when would I have actually got around to the ten hours drive, let alone the 6 hour round trip approach. My ticking has taken me to some brilliant places for memorable adventures with great friends. Long may it continue!