We made it across the country unscathed and parked by the head of Loch Broom at sea level. We unpacked the bikes, pushed them through a gate, and began riding up a muddy road toward the cloud-covered hills at the head of Gleann na Squaib. Rain squalls blew across the fields. I hadn’t ridden a bike in years, and with a 35-pound pack on my back, my quads soon were screaming. We climbed hundreds of feet above the valley, left the bikes at the end of the road, and then walked about an hour and a half along a trail that started muddy and eventually was covered with a shallow layer of snow. Our goal was Beinn Dearg, a broad ridge that topped out at about 3,400 feet above the car, with a steep escarpment that holds half a dozen routes; Edwards and Webb hoped a new line might be possible today.

When we stood below the face, the two Brits somehow could discern that it wasn’t in condition, despite its healthy white coat. The crucial clumps of turf, they felt, would not be adequately frozen. So, we continued upward, turning around a prominent arête and into a gully, in hopes of finding colder turf and a climbable line higher up. Seeing nothing obvious, Webb and Kristiansen opted to repeat the four-pitch Tower of Babel (IV, 6), the nice-looking arête. I still hoped to try a new route, so Edwards and I backtracked to the right flank of the prow and eyed an unclimbed line that diagonaled up to the ridge. I took the lead and started up a shallow corner, but the turf, I quickly realized, was not all solid. The mossy clumps took thunker tool placements, but my picks and frontpoints ripped through the grassier patches. Worse, mud and grass balled up in my crampons, causing my feet to pop off alarmingly. At the top of the corner, a few rock moves made for a fun traverse, but soon I found myself plowing through a field of turf. The single nut I placed for pro after leaving the corner soon levered out. One-hundred feet up, I halted at a decent stance. Were conditions as awful as they seemed to be, or was this all part of the game? I needed an expert opinion, so I placed a meager anchor and brought Edwards up.

“This isn’t right,” he said. “We should go down.”