It’s been a few years since my last visit to climb on the immense granite cliffs of Creag an Dubh Loch, but the borderline drought conditions, combined with a free weekend and a willing partner sealed the deal. Working my way through the more moderate routes on this rather extreme cliff, Goliath (HVS 5a) was next on the list, and Jim was more than happy to repeat it considering he’d last done it some twenty years ago!
The approach was fast and easy on bikes to the end of Loch Muick, with minimal bog-dodging on the path up to the Dubh Loch. Crucially, nae midge either! As we approached the crags we could see tents by the beach and teams already a good way up Cyclops (HVS 5a), Blue Max (E1 5b) and King Rat (E1 5c).
As we neared the base of Central Gully we also found a team on Mousetrap (VS 4c), who warned us that they’d been up to look at Goliath and found the initial slabs and crux corner to be wet. Slightly surprised and a bit disappointed, we elected not to see for ourselves and head up Mousetrap as a consolation.
I’d climbed Mousetrap with Debs and Will as my first mountain VS back in 2013 and have very fond memories of an adventurous and intimidating journey up the cracks and slabs of this classic route. Since then, I’ve added King Rat and Dubh Loch Monster (E1 5c) to the tally, to complete the trio of routes up this section of the crag. I was interested to see how Mousetrap would feel all these years later!
I was keen to lead the pitches I hadn’t led last time, so I set off up the easy introductory groove and traversed the slab to the base of the main crack system. In my haste to make progress, I overshot the natural stance and ended up awkwardly belayed directly beneath the crux bulge on pitch two.
Jim followed smoothly and led through the cracked bulge above – rounded pinches, laybacks and high feet being the order of the day. Above the bulge, the climbing continued in a similar vein, with technical and insecure climbing on less-than-positive holds before finally easing off – exactly how I remembered it!
I joined Jim at his comfortable block belay beneath the “Mousetrap” itself – a steep recess with a large, disconnected pinnacle-flake, that one must carefully surmount to escape the trap. This pitch goes from being quite spooky to very exposed, and if I remember correctly, was the last pitch Will ever led after his battle with it in 2013! In reality, it can be climbed without yarding on anything loose, by bridging delicately up the groove and stepping carefully left on to the top of the flake. The climbing above is simply superb, before another spacious stance is reached.
As Jim embarked on what turned out to be a very long fourth pitch, the sun went behind the cliff and the wind picked up, resulting in a perishing vigil holding the ropes. Being unimpressed with the usual stance, Jim had decided to push on, with numerous deviations from the line of least resistance in an effort to find a good belay. Once again though, the climbing was excellent – never too hard, but always thought-provoking and interesting for the grade.
By the time I’d made my way up to Jim and led through on the final pitch, I had warmed up nicely and could enjoy the final metres of clean slabs and cracks. The route presented a sting in the tail before the easy ground, consisting of a choice between a lay-back crack and bulging slab on the right. After a bit of dithering, I nipped up the slab and got as far up the scramble as the rope allowed – I’m pretty sure I made the same choice last time!
The descent down Central Gully was very straight forward, but we were slightly peeved to find Goliath looking bone dry. It may have dried up during the day of course, but we wondered if the other team had been looking at Vertigo Wall, which was indeed sopping. With time getting on and the rat sufficiently fed, we headed down to the bags and made our way out – but at least there’s something to come back for!