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We have delivery of our stock of the new Scottish Bouldering guide by John Watson. It’s fantastic to see John put so much effort into updating this excellent and much needed guide. It’s an important contribution to Scottish climbing. Just flicking through the new expanded book, it reminds me not only of the infinite amazing boulder littered all over our country, but also of the great many memories I have of developing many of the areas myself over the past two decades. I just had, and continue to have, so much fun. From lurking at Dumby - its polish refining my technique, to hitching every day to Glen Croe for a whole summer, to more recent perfect days out in amongst the grand highland scenery of the Skeleton Boulders in Glen Nevis. If you live in the UK, and especially in Scotland, and you boulder, please don’t let your life go past without visiting many of the spots in this guide. Don’t wait for years to discover just how good the Torridonian sandstone is, or drive up the A9 wi...

Dave MacLeod speaks to URBAN UPRISING from UrbanUprising on Vimeo . I’m delighted to say I am now an ambassador for the charity Urban Uprising , which takes children from deprived backgrounds climbing. Sounds simple, but it can transform people’s lives, as it did mine. It shows them that someone believes they are capable, it shows them a new world of the outdoors and adventures. Climbing and the outdoors also offers some respite from the stress these young people have to face. I think that being given a window into another world like this, a sense that good experiences are possible, is critical for these people. So I’m right behind it, and encourage you to be as well. I'm joining other great climbers on their team such as Robbie Phillips, James Pearson, Caroline Ciavaldini, Niall McNair and Natalie Berry.  I hope that through any influence I have, I can help raise some awareness and ultimately, raise funds to make the Uprising projects happen. If you are able to donate something...

Dave Almond approaching the bulge on pitch 2 of Knuckleduster Direct (the original version goes right, the direct goes left to continue up the general corner feature.) Yesterday was a fun day climbing Knuckleduster Direct VIII,8 on the Ben with Helen Rennard and Dave Almond. It was also my first day leading trad since breaking my leg in the autumn. I was very slow placing the gear, and placed a lot. But otherwise fine. It was certainly a good idea to have a gentle break back in to trad leading again.  The route was first climbed by Greg Boswell and Guy Robertson in 2012. All four pitches were really good fun, with mostly positive hooks, especially where you really need it. In fact, I got my tools stuck in the crack twice on pitch one! The highlight of the day was the lovely moonlight as we abseiled back down. The Ben is a little worrying right now, with a lot of loose blocks which are not keyed-in as they normally would be since it’s been both very dry and snowless this winter so ...

FWMF Showreel 2017 from Fort William Mountain Festival on Vimeo . The Fort William Mountain Festival is always a highlight of the year for me. In fact, aside from climbing trips themselves, it’s the most important mountain-related date in my diary. It’s always an inspiring gathering of all the like-minded outdoor folk of the UK. We socialise, watch films, coach climbing and see some lectures that you just get at the many mountain festivals around the world (I’ve been to most of them, many times).  Anyway, I would say that. The festival weekend itself also marks the end of the busiest work period in my year. Each year I edit the festival showreel, the mountain culture award films and also my own films for the festival. This year has been maybe my busiest. I’ve just finished seven pieces of film and I’m exhausted. As the last one uploads to dropbox, I was straight back on my board and felt much better, and tomorrow morning I’ll be heading off into the fresh snow that finally arri...

Good Drying, 8A+, Arisaig Cave from Dave MacLeod on Vimeo . As ever I’ve found recovering from being broken and stuck on crutches a long road without many shortcuts. I’d definitely lost sight of light at the end of the tunnel for a while. But since Christmas, things have begun to look up quite a bit. My gait has normalised, I have much less pain, I feel a bit more agility coming back. But most importantly, I completed another phase of my long running diet experiments, a phase which definitely didn’t work. It had caused me to put on quite a bit of fat. After the experiment I switched back and even after one week started to get leaner again, and feel like I can climb! I’d put a bit of effort into training for winter climbing. But winter does not seem to be coming this year. So on with the boulder projects. Readers of this blog will know that last winter I did a straight-up 8B in the Arisaig Cave called 4th Wave. Its an absolutely brilliant piece of climbing, and so it was a shame the ...

A minute away from breaking a leg. And I just thought I was about to climb a great new trad first ascent. Photos: Masa Sakano During August and September I was a wee bit frustrated, bothered by my decision to stay in Scotland and do mountain trad projects, only to be met with a dire wet summer. Still I was aware how lucky I was to have these sorts of problems to worry about. I did a ton of training and felt pretty fit, waiting for a weather window for a cool project on Binnien Shuas. My time finally came. As soon as the rain stopped I headed up with Masa, finished cleaning the line and tied in to lead it. Although it was a tough route and I didn’t expect to succeed first try, I was relaxed and just so delighted to be outside, with a cool breeze in my face and starting up a hard rock climb. Inspecting the new line. It will be an amazing route, when I get the opportunity to go back to it! I was just getting started, two moves up the route and was lifting my feet ready to place a good wir...

Myself and my friend Niall McNair who also spoke at the Urban Uprising event at TCA Glasgow the other week A couple of weeks ago I gave a talk at a big boulder comp/party event at TCA Glasgow organised by the charity Urban Uprising. Various talks I’ve done in the past have raised money for Climbers Against Cancer, various mountain rescue teams and others, but I mention this one specifically, just because I really like what they do and want to encourage you to support it. Urban Uprising take deprived or otherwise at risk kids climbing. Usually it’s the first time they’ve had an experience of an adventurous sport like climbing. In my view, this is a pretty special thing to do. I’m biased of course, because one experience I happened to have as a kid (randomly going out on my bike and finding mountains) totally changed my life. I have no doubt at all that this one experience not only set me on a path to make far more of myself than I otherwise would have, but it also allowed me to gain ex...