28 Jun Dave Macleod redpoints Kolus E8 6c on Torridon, Scotland

 

Kolus E8 6c,  the beautiful line redpointed by Dave Macleod on june Saturday 20, is located in the remote Seana Mheallan at Torridon, Scotland, and was attempted by Dave Cuthbertson, a gifted scottish climber of the 80s.
In fact  Dave Cuthbertson told to David  years ago about a really outstanding quality arete project he’d been trying that would be E8 7a at least. He spoke about it several times, and eventually told him  where it was and to go and try it.
Macleod redpointed  Kolus after an attempt top-rope. The route is protected only by a cam and a nut.The E8 6c is roughly equivalent to French 8a+ climbing, but on trad gear.
 
This is the comment od David on his blog:

" I got a bit of a fright snapping an important pebble foothold off at the crux on my last toprope practice. Scary stuff. Thank god it wasn’t on the lead. Jamie said he got a bit nervous when some really big gusts of wind were whipping around the arete just as I was heading for the crux on the lead. It was really windy but it amazed me how the second I started climbing, the wind didn’t even register in my consciousness. For me, everything was completely silent until I was holding the jug on the lip of the slab".
 
Dave Macleod is one of the best Scottish climbers of the last generation. On his curriculum, lots of sport and trad routes of a very high profile, up to 9a and 8a+ onsight, dry-tooling itineraries as Vertical limits M11 at Uschinen in Switzerland.  
 
On Ben Nevis North Wall, he recently realized Echo wall F8c+, and near Glasgow completed  the first ascent of Rhapsody, the hardest traditional route in the UK, the last bastion of dangerous rock climbing. At E11 7a, Rhapsody requires 5.14c climbing with 70-foot fall potential.
 



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source
http://www.davemacleod.blogspot.com/