Muskett and MacLeod get Banana Wall (XII,12) second and third ascents

• Thursday 2nd February 2023

Calum Muskett and Dave MacLeod have made the second and third ascents respectively of Banana Wall (XII, 12) in Coire an Lochain, Cairngorm.

Originally climbed by Greg Boswell in March 2015, Banana Wall (XII,12) was Scotland’s second-ever route of the grade after Dave MacLeod’s Anubis on Ben Nevis. Having attempted Banana Wall twice, on both occasions taking a ground-up and on-sight approach, Greg climbed down rather than push on and take a possible very serious fall. Eventually, Greg abseil-inspected Banana Wall and then returned for a third time to make the first ascent but only after taking a massive fall. Click here to read our report on Greg’s first ascent.

Since Boswell’s ascent in 2015, Banana Wall has laid in waiting; finally, Callum Muskett and Dave MacLeod have taken the second and third ascents albeit after considerable effort.

Calum and Dave have made a number of trips to try Banana Wall finding not only the climbing very thin, the protection scarce and the conditions sub-optimal. Calum explains how their initial attempts went, “It's a tricky wall to get in good condition; ideally you want the crag to be well frozen and rimed up, but with dry enough cracks to allow you to place cams for protection.

“On the first day we tried the route, the crag was heavily iced up and we got shut down by a lack of protection & not realising we were trying to go direct where the route takes a dog leg. Before the next visit we found a picture of Greg climbing which showed us which way to go on the initial section. Dave then made a second visit in very challenging conditions whilst I was in Wales and impressively made it to the headwall placing terriers and pecker hooks for protection in the icy conditions.”

Dave outlined the difficulties as he saw them, “The route is very steep and pumpy and I was reluctant to get fully committed without protection and icy cracks prevented me from using the double set of cams I had hanging from my harness! I might have been able to work around this with good endurance fitness. But I didn’t really have this either, having just spent the last couple of months trying to link more than one move on my boulder project.”

Dave believed the solutions, were limited, “The solutions were to 1. Carefully go a bit higher on the climb, finding the odd pecker runner here and there. 2. Do a week stint of 3x20mins circuits on the tools on my board 3. Keep coming back until we got better conditions.” Somewhat tongue-in-cheek Dave suggested that Calum followed the same game plan – minus the training!

Calum explains how their next attempts unfolded, “I made a second trip up to try the route over the last couple of days. The first day was incredibly cold and icy with us both turning into human icicles as we climbed. It was the kind of day it would have been easy to turn around and go home, but Dave put an excellent battle in to make it up the pitch with a few rests. This made it a lot easier for me to go up with prior knowledge and protection from Dave's attempt. The climbing was really tenuous in places and very pumpy. We both left at the end of the day feeling like an ascent would be a tall order the following day with tired arms & bodies.”

Tired arms and bodies notwithstanding, Calum and Dave returned the following day to resume their efforts. Calum again, “The following morning we had blue skies and low winds. I went first as I suspected I would be falling off and seconding Dave. I surprised myself by making it up to the headwall pretty quickly, but had to really dig deep towards the top! Dave then led the route smoothly and we finished off up the much easier 2nd pitch after I huffed & puffed seconding!”

Dave summed his feeling about the route, “I was very impressed with this route by @greg_boswell from 2015. Hard Scottish winter routes can sometimes be overhanging, sometimes with very thin hooks that take a lot of care and are often difficult to protect. But rarely are they all three at the same time. This combination is what gives Banana Wall its big grade. It’s one thing hanging about on an overhanging wall on reliable hooks, or with bolts. Quite another to be scraping about trying to find very thin hooks above questionable gear in icy cracks.”

Calum too is in no doubt about the difficulty of Banana Wall and the grade, “As for the grade, we both thought grade 12 seemed to be fair, with climbing in the realms of M10. An on-sight ascent of this would be very impressive due to the difficulty finding hooks and placing gear on lead. Top work by Greg on the FA!”