This was the day, the biggie, the stage 4 of my hill climbing career. Stage 1 was the CMD arête, stage 2 the Forcan Ridge, stage 3 the Aonach Eagach and now the climax, the In Pin. All excuses out of the way, Sean, an old schoolfriend of Graeme's, a stunt man with rock climbing experience, had agreed to help us. Now he was here with his gear and the weather was good and promising. It had to be done before I got much older and I doubt if I would ever have gotten a better chance. From the Glen Brittle Memorial hut it is a fairly gentle climb to start with over muddy ground up to the Eas Mor waterfall. Once on the path the route was fairly clear leading up to a pointy notched ridge, the west shoulder of Sgurr Dearg. Round about here you run out of grass and the way gets increasingly rocky. As usual I was very slow, not helped by all the climbing gear as Sean had split the harnesses, helmets, carabiners etc. between Graeme and
myself while he carried the rope. Just below the point on the shoulder, which I think might be called the Window or something like that, there is a sharp scramble. Not difficult but interesting and would need care in the wet. Then a short narrow patch leading onto another ridge going up to Sron Dearg. Sean and Graeme actually thought this was the summit but I had seen further rises beyond it earlier on. This nose is described as castellated which is not inappropriate and there is quite a bit of scrambling over rocks to get round the top on the right, including a twenty metre or so stretch over slabs. Round this point you get your first and only view of the top of the In Pin which looks impressive and a bit worrying. You can also see the Great Stone Chute for the first time, leading up to Sgurr Alasdair, a fantastic view. I followed the path round the side but Graeme and Sean tried to go over the top of the ridge. They soon gave in however as they felt the way to be impassable and rejoined me on the path. After a few more scrambles up and down I came to a ridge crest , which turned out to be the summit of Sgurr Dearg, which Graeme and Sean had already reached and seen beyond. Both warned me to get ready for the view of the In Pin as we were here. Even with the warning I was not prepared for the sight. You look over the crest and it is there right in front of you. It is not something you walk towards, it's literally in front of you. I had somehow thought it would be an anti-climax, smaller than expected but it is not. It is impressive, horrendous and terrifying and it hits you like a rock. Your stomach sinks and the instant reaction is "Oh shit" or even worse. You immediately see, and feel, the huge exposure from the perpendicular drop on your left side. There is not even a slight sloping -- it is straight down. The right side is not quite so bad as the slope of Sgurr Dearg runs under it down to the start of the rib walk. I just stood there and thought there was no way I could climb that. I just kept looking at it knowing I was going to bottle out and that I couldn't do it. How was I to get out of this? Speaking to Graeme he was going through the same thought process and with Sean sitting on the ground looking very worried I thought he was feeling the same. I was hoping Sean would bottle out to enable me to save face but he was only getting himself focused and working on the best route up. As he said after there was no way he was going to walk up 3000 feet and not do the climb. Even just standing on the steep slopes of Sgurr Dearg was a bit daunting though you got used to it. Graeme walked down to the base of the cliff and I followed. Once in the lea of the cliff the sense of exposure totally disappears and this made a huge difference. You could then see possible ways up without having to look at the vertiginous drops and the climb began to seem a bit more feasible. It looked very tricky at the bottom in finding a hold but it looked as if, once you got about ten feet off the ground, off to the left was a shelf that looked reasonably easy. Working out a way up made me feel easier, some of the terror went and I actually began to get a bit excited at the prospect. Now I intended to do it. Sean checked our harnesses and roped us in, me tied in the middle and Graeme at the end. This meant he was sure we were both tied in before he set off. It also meant I would be the first up after him, which suited me fine. Sean of course was free climbing and took a long time working out his first move from the ground. He was quickly up the next few feet. I had the job of belaying him while seated on the ground so my vision was limited. As he reached the ledges we felt he should go left but he actually went straight up after thinking about it for quite a while [all the rest of us went left -- we weren't brave enough to go up]. Very quickly after this he was on the top. I reckon that all told it took him only 3 - 4 minutes.
Sean took ages and ages to secure everything on top or so it seemed to me waiting to go up. He says he was looking for extra belay points and was at first a little unsure about the permanent wire ring for belaying. Starting was no problem. As soon as he shouted off I went. Actually I did not go very far as I could not get off the first step. I just could not find a suitable place to put my feet and in fact slipped off onto the ground. Just as well this was the first step. Graeme was telling of places to put my foot but this was not where I wanted to put it. I knew where to go -- I just could not get there. After what seemed ages and after the horrible feeling that I might never get off the ground I found purchase and was up the first few feet. From there it was easy for about ten feet until I reached the first of the ledges, a ribbed one. This was not at all as easy as it looked from the ground as the ledge sloped down and the wall sloped out. With very few handholds there was very little security and I had another painful delay working out how to get on to the next ledge. My memory has blurred as to how I got from this to the next ledge and then onto the MG (Muriel Gray) ledge. I know that at one point I could not get my leg high enough to get up [no problem at all for everyone else] and had a long delay trying to work something out. Graeme again shouting advice that I ignored and me beginning to worry about people getting annoyed at my slowness. I also began to realise that there was the possibility of a slip which terrified me. At the back of my mind was the knowledge that Sean had the rope and nothing would happen if I fell but you don't think about that in this situation. You simply are terrified you might slip. In the end I had reached the point where I had only one left hand hold and could not find anywhere for my right hand. At one point I put my foot on a hold at the edge of the ledge only to find I was stepping onto thin air. Hastily back. The holds, for a beginner at least, were pretty awful, tiny little cracks, holes and ridges. What made it even worse was that my fingers started going numb and lost feeling. I thought it was due to pressure but Sean and Graeme had it too, Sean said it was because the rock in shade was icy cold. Graeme couldn't fathom out why I was sucking my fingers. Actually as he told me later he found my climb more terrifying to watch than his to climb. Just when I thought everyone must be sick of waiting for me and knowing that I had to do something I started edging my knee onto the next ledge. Not a good thing to do but my foot simply would not reach. As I had no proper right hand hold I was taking a risk but could not think of anything else. Stretching up I luckily got balance, found a grip higher up and managed to stand up. Relief that I was at last on the MG ledge but even here there was no great security because of the sloping ledge and leaning wall. The ledge looks easy on the Muriel Grey video but is still difficult. You have to edge along without any handholds for a couple of feet till you can grab a corner which is not a secure hold but gives you a better feeling of security. Gradually edging along to the corner is terrifying [and it
shows in the photos -- Graeme said my face looked grey] and you have to carefully step up over a rock while rounding the corner, which takes you onto the safe ledge on the front of the cliff just under the summit slope. What a relief to see Sean's smiling face, much closer and quicker than I had expected. Using my hands to lift myself onto the summit slope I got my fingers into a crack and crawled up to Sean [ everyone else just scrambled up as easy as pie at this point, only me made a meal of it]. Sean gave me some very complimentary words on achieving the climb which cheered me up no end and I continued on behind him to sit by the big rock. I thought I had taken about 15 minutes to do the climb but Sean reckoned it nearer 10. It could not have been done without the rope. I am certain I would have fallen, or more probably I would have frozen. As I said before, even though you know the rope will always hold you are still not careless and it is all still very scary. Also as I was carrying the rope, being the middleman, the higher up you get the more rope you are trailing and you are conscious of a weight dragging you down.
Sean put a belaying tape round a rock and after unhitching me from the rope tied me to the belay so I could not fall, taking no chances. After that he concentrated on Graeme. I just sat there, not at all euphoric as I had been on doing the Aonach Eagach, but kept looking around me and thinking " I'm on top of the In Pin." This feeling was to hit me every so often for the next two days, even when driving back to England. Graeme seemed to be up in no time, taking at a guess about five minutes. He also had had a brief problem getting started and had problems at the MG ledge and was terrified
he said. He did well though and actually enjoyed doing it. Graeme and I had to walk up the short slope to the real top of the rock but not a lot to see there. Without climbing over the rock you can't see the rib and the general views are just the same as on Sgurr Dearg.
Graeme went down first on the abseil. Strangely enough this had been the part of the climb that concerned him most ( it had never given me any worries) but he went straight into it and was down in seconds. Then it was me, by now a wee bit nervous but no qualms about walking backwards over the edge as I felt very secure. Actually you go over the edge twice. First over from Sean but you land on a ledge a few feet down -- the relief ledge on the way up. Then off the next edge. I did really well for the first half keeping to my left as Graeme had warned there was a natural inclination to move right. Just about ten feet from the
ground there is a slight overhang which made me start to swing a little but I soon sorted myself out and was on the ground in no time. DONE IT.
Sean was down in no time Guinness for me and for Sean, Grolsch for Graeme. We watched two other guys climb, using Sean's gear - they were just as slow and nervous as us which made me feel better. Split all the gear again and set off for the descent. Funny how different the route seemed this time. I know we veered off route a couple of times, ending up once on the wrong side of the ridge, but even on the bits we were retracing the path seemed more hairy and exposed than on the way up. Usually it's easier going down. We somehow missed the slabby bit and were soon down the scrambly bit, which was much easier on the way down and on to the easy grassy path. It had seemed to take us ages on the way up, going through the grassy, boggy path but this time it seemed easy and I wasn't too far behind the others. We got down fairly easily to the car park making this an exceptionally long but satisfying day. But don't ask me to rock climb again - I hated it.
