Watch Dave MacLeod’s 24|8 Film

In one long day, Dave MacLeod, along with Kevin Woods somehow keeping up with his camera, completed his long standing 24/8 project, one of the most remarkable days out ever achieved in the Scottish mountains.

Film by Kevin Woods | featuring Dave MacLeod

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Big link ups aren’t unusual, they’re some of the best days out you can have, enchaining classic routes or ridges and covering lots of ground makes an otherwise familiar area feel altogether larger in scale. The challenge is normally personal but with the complexity inevitably increasing as you factor in multiple types of rock climbing or higher cliffs.

Dave MacLeod has spent the 10 years he’s lived at the foot of Ben Nevis in the Scottish Highlands wondering about the possibility of an ultimate multi-discipline link up featuring ‘all the 8’s’ and taking in the best of all the styles of ascent the area has to offer.

In 24 hours he wanted to climb:

• An 8A boulder
• An 8a sport route
• An E8 trad route
• A VIII,8 winter route
• And 8 Munros [Mountains over 3000’]

Spring was the obvious window of opportunity as winter held on in the highest corries and the weather in the valley improved but, as the years went by, the conditions needed to everything in condition on the same day proved elusive. It finally all came together this March towards the end of a remarkable winter with abundant snow and ice on the highest peaks. After a sustained period of freezing conditions high pressure dominated bringing with it the blue skies and crisp conditions needed for 8A bouldering and difficult routes but still with sufficient snow and rime remaining on Ben Nevis’s highest buttresses for an VIII8 mixed line to be viable.

In one long day, and with Kevin Woods somehow keeping up with his camera, the 24/8 project was finally done, one of the most remarkable days out ever achieved in the Scottish mountains.

Visit Dave MacLeod’s blog for a full write up of the day.