Salamander, Creag Ghlas

This route has to be high up on my list of favourites - lovely slabby climbing, great gear and a fantastic situation with stunning views. The weather helped a bit and Ron and I enjoyed a hot, sunny, blue sky day.

We arrived to find two other climbers high on the route so we really felt we had it it to ourselves as we climbed. The first pitch has an incredible dog-leg crack which the guide book describes as "noticeably harder after the dog-leg". It was right, it was more difficult but in a nice sort of way! The second pitch has less protection but lots of good holds and some heather too. The trick seemed to be how to work out how to get along the heathery ledge without getting mud on the rock boots. The next pitch has a choice of 5a or 5b and Ron chose to climb the 5a route up the slab and around a little overlap. And so it went on with another lovely slab and some layback moves into a crack. The final and fifth pitch took a hidden chimney on big moves to the top.

Above are a few photos of Ron climbing on the third, fourth and fifth pitches.

More pictures from Ron here http://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/blog/mountain_diary.htm