Barry Valley: Ten Years In

BARRY VALLEY ‘10 YEARS IN’

By Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas on The Blade

The Animal Bloc in winter

BARRY VALLEY by Rob Thomas BARRY: The Scottish National Dictionary (SND) defines this word as: ‘fine; smart used to describe something very good of its type’. The first recorded mention in SND is from the Roxburghshire Wordbook: “A barrie gadjee [fellow]” (1923) and it states that it’s borrowed from the Gipsy dialect of Kirk Yetholm.

I knew it was coming, it was only a matter of time. The crucial hold that allows you to move through to the hanging arête on Fire and Brinstone (a new right-hand line on the Big Black Roof at Brin) is probably best described as a ‘Sharp nodulie wee bastard’ and had ripped a massive, cavernous flapper in my index finger. Today’s session was over, Fire and Brinstone would have to wait awhile. I was gutted. This would be my first proper first ascent, I mean, seeing the line, conceiving the line . . . cleaning it, and then climbing it (I had no idea this took so long nor how knackering it is). Only then could I claim a first ascent, though I feared Richie or Dave had likely breezed up it back in the day and thought it was so easy they didn’t even bother naming it. Old-school . . .

It wasn’t my skill or power that had stopped me, but the thought of peeling off on untested holds high above a fairly dodgy landing. This induced the multiple bails (this seems laughable looking back on it after years of highball acclimatization in the Valley). I don’t actually remember if Stu suggested we check out that big boulder between Brin and Dunlichty Church or if it was me trying to salvage the rest of the day.

In late 2011 new routing and exploratory bouldering had gripped us and even the slimmest of chances at finding the perfect unclimbed line, or perhaps another moss-covered slumbering and untouched Ruthven Stane deep in the woods, filled us with a fevered desire beyond that of Sir

Barry Valley 10 Years In

Rob Thomas on Glory Not Tory

Barry Valley 10 Years In

Walter Raleigh and The Conquistadors on the mythical quest for El Dorado.

Holy Shit! That’s big . . . that’s really big!

The excitement was palpable, it was solid, you could carve it up in hasty jagged lumps.

‘I can’t believe no-one has scoped this out before, bud.’

Little did Stu or I know, as we set about the huge Bear’s nose of what we later called the Animal Boulder with our wee brushes, that many of our preconceived ideas of what Highland bouldering is and was would slowly wear away.

Time works on us as it does the rock.

It’s taken a while to figure out the full extent of previous explorations of the Valley, or Creag Bhuidhe as its properly known, but almost certainly it has had a few ‘flyby legends’ grace its crags and blocs. Namely: Mike Gale and the G2 Outdoor crew, Richie Betts and, of course, Dave Wheeler.

They came, they saw . . . and by all accounts thought it wisnae worth it and fucked off.

Round about the same time as finding the Valley I got signed off work (in the end for a few months) from a day school for young lads with emotional and behavioural problems. I won’t go into details but after five years working in social care, it broke me. Some people can switch off from that kind of work, but I am not one of them. The Valley gave me purpose and life. Hope and space. I spent every dry (and sometimes wet) day exploring, finding and healing. Not that I knew I needed healing but I needed not to think and that’s what I got. For this reason alone it holds a special place in my heart. In seven years of solitary exploring this was my only encounter with another human: ‘Helloooo there . . . erm, you are doing that bouldering thing aren’t you?’ said a fantastically Etonian voice.

Looking up from my little seat under Shiny Dancer (a small

Barry Valley 10 Years In

The Blade

Barry Valley 10 Years In

bloc at the lower end of the Western Face), having just finished brushing myself off from another comical tumble down the hill after missing the dyno (again).

‘Yeah . . . Yes,’ I said, with pleasant surprise at the tweed-clad, silver-haired lady striding down through the heather toward me. I must have looked worried as she immediately put me at ease, saying her husband owned the land and was an avid mountaineer, so I was welcome to boulder here anytime I liked.

She stood assessing me in silence for a while, leaning her chin on her shepherds crook. A conclusion was made: ‘Good luck to you!’ and she strode off down the valley with a wave of her hand.

I smiled. Two minutes late, I topped out Shiny Dancer in the glorious autumn sun.

That was then, this is now, so with the benefit of 10 years’ worth of bouldering exploration in the Valley and across the Strath, what would I recommend?

The main climbing is widely spread out on the eastern flanks of Creag Bhuidhe and can be broken down into three distinct areas: • Close to the Road circuit • The Valley • Western Sector The Big Split (southside of the road), The Animal and its Paw, and the Glory Crag up the hill all make an excellent close-tothe-road circuit.

I had just completed most of the lines on The Big Split, vaguely aware that Dave Wheeler had messed around on that bloc back in the day. I rang him up for confirmation on stuff he might have done.

Barry Valley 10 Years In

Rhys Langlands on Span-ish Doubts

Barry Valley 10 Years In

‘Afternoon, big man, how’s it going?’

‘What, eh? Pass the ball you twat! Eh, is that you Rob?’ said Dave. It was obvious that I had interrupted his football match.

Since Dave had given up on serious bouldering and exploration (of which he has done an admirable amount over the years) he now focused on the more important pastimes of watching football, Italian Scooters, Northern Soul, and chewing Nicorette gum.

‘Aye it’s me . . . Big Split, did you do the quality line between the crack and the arête, bud?’

‘Oh yeah, that was me. Cool line, eh? Did that and the arête, plus the crack.’

Slightly disappointed (but not really ‘cause its Dave), I asked for a name.

‘Oh Come on Leicester for fucksake! Eh, what bud? Oh, call it what you like.’

So I did. C’mon Leicester fer fucksake! At 6a, it is the stand-out problem on the bloc and well worth a go.

On the north side of the road just up the hill lies the imposing Animal Bloc. It took us years to pluck up the courage to finally scrabble up its high slab after scrubbing it, so if you fancy crapping yourself over an unthinkable landing then this is the bloc for you. The best problems are the classic 8m wobbler of Dirty Rainbow (6b), or the desperate entry of Shut yer Mustache (7c), the hard cave start to Dirty Rainbow which was Stu Goodwin’s passion for a long time. It has seen only one repeat by Dave MacLeod in 2020. Anyone fancy it? The Paw just below the high slab went much quicker and has seen way more traffic over the years, as has the absolute star of the show Barry Span Commander, a 7a to rival any others in Scotland, with its unusual palming trick. I unlocked the sequence for this, then wasn’t good enough to send it. It’s ok though, I’m not bitter. No, really, I’m NOT.

Barry Valley 10 Years In

Stu Goodwin on Butch & Sundance

Barry Valley 10 Years In

Dirty Rainbow is a classic 6b where I found myself saying: ‘Fuuuuuck . . . I shouldn’t be here, this is wrong!’. Heart pounding, I looked down toward my feet but couldn’t quite see them tucked under the bottom of the slab I had been working on a rope for the last hour. They felt solid and I knew they were.

Some years later sitting under the Wobble bloc up in Rooftown, I recounted this first ascent to Dave Mac as he was interested in Stu’s hard cave start (the epic 7c of Shut yer Mustache). I said it was entirely accidental (which it was).

My intention had been to climb up and above the cave to jump off and test the pads but I got there and found myself leaning in close as if embracing the cold stone. Forehead on the slab, I shut my eyes and breathed my own breath. The world slowed and I topped it out as I had done many times.

This time without the rope. Dave, God bless him, sat intently through this as I went on to explain my process (to the Master) and how to climb it. The bit he did find amusing was that as I wondered back down, stunned and elated, I was greeted by my angry compadre: ‘You shitehoose, Thomas! That means I’m gonna have to climb that now.’ So, he did, shitting it the entire way. Hahaha. The Paw just below the high slab went much quicker and has seen way more traffic over the years.

The 6c of Butch and Sundance is also worth the walk-in.

Explorative boulderers who ‘open’ new venues are an odd bunch, and I count myself (with pride) as one of them. But inside that obscure little group are even weirder cliques and factions. I have always been pretty systematic when it comes to opening an area. Clean, then climb what’s in front of you, then move on to the adjacent line or bloc, and repeat until you’re done. Stu Goodwin is the find the hardest line in an area and work it till it goes kind of guy. This implies that all the work has been done by me over the years and that simply isn’t the case. Stu has cleaned entire blocs he wouldn’t climb and grunted his way through platform-building that he has never landed on, all for the love of the new. With this is mind,

Rob Thomas on Hissing Sid

Barry Valley 10 Years In

I feel it is only fair to point out some of the amazing lines that Stu has put up in the Valley most of which are unrepeated: Shut yer Mustache 7c; Spanish Doubts 7b+ (the central line on the Glory Crag); Equinox 7b+. Check out the Strathnairn Guide and seek these out!

In the Western sector down the hill from the ancient hill fort of Cam Bheithin lies a small trad crag with an imposing slanting roof on its left-hand side. Little did I realise, as I stumbled round the corner after another rainy day exploring, that I would be returning here season after season like a tired and lonely goose. A massive amount of cleaning was needed for this one and even when it was done I still had to mortar the lip to create a gutter so the water would run away from the face. Every spring, as the summer approached, I would mournfully chip off the mortar bringing it back to its original state. Seven years later, after some solid training and the arrival of some good weather, as well as dropping 6kg, I finally saw off Sid. It brought tears on the drive home, as I was both saddened and overjoyed that our story had come to an end.

Rob Thomas, 2021 For a complete guide to these and other venues in the Strath, check out the new Strathnairn Bouldering Guide, to be published by Stone Country Press, 2022.

Videos of Classic Problems: Shut Yer Mustache:

https://vimeo.com/242492196

The Animal Boulder:

https://vimeo.com/209987289

Butch & Sundance:

https://vimeo.com/212936526

Equinox SS: https://vimeo.com/212915990 A Short Circuit:

https://vimeo.com/461459306