Barry Manilow and The Hulk The Ruthven boulder, or the ‘Bunnet Stane’, is the Hulk of Scottish boulders, swollen with primeval stone anger, isolated and alone; bursting with gneiss veins; a steroidpumped glacial erratic. It sat in the belly of a glacier metamorphosing, its underbelly becoming smoothed and bicep-ed, its upper surface roughened and abraded into shark’s skin. Then it burst from its icy cocoon and howled its loneliness on a perfectly green tuft amongst the heather, until boulderers came along and gave it sympathy. Trevor Woods, our guide for the day, and its main developer and keeper, turned up on his bike from Inverness and showed us the tricks of this massive beast. It is so big, we were assured, that it is beyond the ability of all modern cranes to move. Perched above Loch Ruthven, it will never budge: it sits there, fat-bellied and brooding with power and baseness. The bouldering requires commitment and grit and the moves are sweet and delicate despite the brutality of the approach required. Like the Hulk gently melting back into the human, the problems have a tender nature to them, with technique and knowledge and hard-earned familiarity their own rewards. It is not a kind boulder, nor is it gentle on your hands, but it is perfect, a sort of mutant-perfect - a lost creature: warped, muscular and transfixing. The boulder itself is easy to find. It sits quite visibly on a grassy knoll overlooking Loch Ruthven, south of Inverness. The B851 should be taken south-westwards from Daviot, through Farr to a right turn before East Croachy. The road crosses the River Nairn and winds down to a car-park beside Loch Ruthven, from where it is a short walk up through the heather to the stone. The problems are described clockwise from the bulbous nose of Barry Manilow.
RUTHVEN STANE CLASSICS Barry Manilow (V6 - Font 7a) This tremendous problem starts under the east roof and climbs up and right to holds beside the jugs, then reaches left to the bulbous nose where a desperate crawling mantel might gain a quartz hold just out of reach. Sloping Off (V4 Font 6c+) To the left of BM is an obvious flat sloping ledge. Climb from two small edges to gain the sloper, then a crux move right gains the ramp and a top-out rightwards. Going direct from the sloper up over the bulge is slightly easier. Razor’s Edge (V7 Font 7a+) The Left arête, which sit-starts at good edges and reaches for blind razors and continues up on crimps to a flake and direct finish. Austin Powers (V1 Font 6a) The groove round the corner is excellent! The Cheeky Girls (V3 Font 6a+) Left of Austin Powers is a wall beside the descent groove. The right side of this has a sloping ledge out of reach, which is gained from small edges, leading to a round hold and delicate finish. Trev Woods on Nefertiti - Pic Tim Morozzo
‘Rock ’n’ Roll Baby’ (V1 Font 5) Round the corner the west side has a roofed right arête opposite the ‘baby bunnet’ stone. Starts on low jugs and traverses left to the crack until a rock-over can gain the slab. Neil Armstrong (V1 Font 5) Left again is a wall. This climbs from a horizontal crack directly up on quartz holds Shreddies (V3 Font 6b) The undercut arête facing the loch. The Big Tease (V2 Font 6a+) Next left, takes big quartz holds up and right. The Big Lobowski (V6 Font 7a) The front face of the boulder holds some of the best problems on the stone: this is a traverse along the low sloping rail; from the lowest incuts travel right to gain a sidepull and pull up on sharp holds leftwards to a crescent crimp, then aim for a small hold over the bulge to finish. Linking the traverse from the far left gives a F8a traverse. Outstanding (V2 Font 6a+) is the obvious line up and left from the start of the traverse incuts. Good incuts lead to a long throw for a quartz hold, then a long move to a jug allows a finish up and left on crystals. Get Into the Groove (V3 Font 6b) is the obvious challenge to the left again. A variation wanders left and up the wall at V4. Nefertiti (V2 Font 6a+) The left-hand wall of the front face gives a classic! Start at two tiny edges and pop for the good hold, then move up right to an incut, from where a twisting reach up left gains a good edge, finishing by a layaway flake.
...and on Barry Manilow - Pic Tim Morozzo