When you talk about climbing, you imagine beautiful mountains, sunshine and amazing views.  Well not this time.  the Venue was a wet, dark and muddy cave near Dunkeld called ‘The Tube’ due to its shape.  One of the only venues of its kind for drytooling in the UK (drytooling is using the same equipment for ice climbing but on rocks.

Above is ‘The Tube’ an old disused slate quarry.  I went not with the intention of climbing, but of taking pictures, the route they were trying was way above my physical capabilities ( fast and furious M10+ for those intersted).  I was tired from biking the previous 5 days in a row and went to have a go at photographing them all doing it.  I took a rope with me and managed to get one of them to attach it to the middle of the roof and then I climbed up it and sat there taking pictures form the top of the cave for a different angle.  It is the first time I have tried doing this and really enjoyed it.  Was a bit of a tangle of ropes, and trying to attach my camera to me making sure I wouldn’t drop it to an expensive mess of springs and broken glass, but i got up there and was happy hanging in space with my finger over the shutter button ready for the hero shots!

It was very impressive to watch them all scratch their way up this 55 degree over hanging wall contorting themselves into funny body positions to try and rest and take the weight of their arms.  Sometimes ratehr hard to watch as you knew they were about to pop off the holds and fall into thin air until their ropes tightened and they stopped safely dangling in the middle fo no were.

Good effort to those who climbed it, bet you are feelign sore today!  rest of the pics are here