The Holy Grail is Bold New Scottish Winter Line
Greg Boswell and Guy Robertson have made the first ascent of The Holy Grail in Scotland, a bold new run-out winter route.
The climb is on Slime Wall on Buachaille and gets the burly grade of IX/10. Planetmountain.com reports that Robertson “had previously climbed almost all routes on the Slime Wall, both summer and winter, and on 11 January he and Boswell climbed the first two pitches of Ravens Gully before exploring a new direct line straight up the face and through the obvious jutting roof.”
The Holy Grail was climbed in six pitches and both climbers said it was some of the best climbing they’d done.
Robertson has a full report on UKClimbing.com, which you can read here. Here is some of what he said, “Cutting loose again on the one axe, foot free above the abyss, my options were fast running out. Then, in a strange moment of automation, my weight fell away right and the palm of my right hand fell onto a flat hold out on the very lip of the crack. Simultaneously, both legs swung high up left to match the left tool.
“With one gargantuan horizontal press the unthinkable happened – I elongated tenuously up higher into the slot. Then again…udging, and again…squirming. I couldn’t move, stuck fast, feet kicking into space. Greg was laughing out loud below, bastard. He’ll never fit in here I chuckled to myself, in return.
“But somehow, miraculously, my gasping burrowing continued, and soon the flat handhold became a knee press, then eventually it accepted a foot. The Guillotine had fallen, and we had dodged its fatal blow.”
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