Scotland 2023

Ben Nevis & Dinnie Stones

New expedition plans:  organizing a trip to Scotland in August 2023 to race up Ben Nevis (above) and lift the Dinnie Stones (below).

We’re flying in and out of Inverness, then to Potarch, Aberdeenshire to lift these granite stones – 733 lbs in all.  To get added to the record book, one needs to lift them at the same time off the ground locked-out with straight legs and upright body for two seconds.  Then from there to 4,413’ Ben Nevis to race up and down Scotland’s highest mountain.  The current record is 1 hour 25 minutes and 34 seconds by Kenny Stuart in 1984.  That’s the whole plan (at least so far; depending on how dates shake out we might look for a highland games too). 

In terms of prep, I’m going to keep up with twice a week long trail runs with my running club to be ready for Ben Nevis.  For the Dinnie Stones, they recommend being comfortable lifting 600 lbs before any attempt, but it doesn’t need to be a full deadlift.  For my training, I am using wagon wheel plates for an elevated deadlift (the stones don’t require getting as low as a full deadlift) to work up to 600 lbs.  I also ordered replica iron ring handles for my home and gym.  They attach via carabiner to pins to stack plates.  There is a quite specific grip that successful stone lifters have used (similar to a hook grip, rapping the middle and ring finger around the thumb) that is worth practicing with. 

Want some inspiration?  Here’s a three part series on stone lifting – Levantadores, Stoneland (most relevant to this upcoming expedition), and Fullsterkur.  Thanks to Fergus Crawley, a recent Dinnie Stone lifter, who is both the single most Scottish person in the world and my inspiration on hybrid athletics combining endurance and strength.  Wanna come?  I have at least one volunteer from my CrossFit gym, but this is not likely to be a huge Venn Diagram overlap between people excited for skyrunning and stone lifting.  No final decision yet on whether the lift or race will be done in a kilt.