coop and ucd

Went to coop mid week, fuller when i left than i've ever seen it, maybe 8 people.

UCD'd today after debating risking glendo, weather was too dodge though, ucd more economical than previously. Got to second last hold of purple but no dice, didn't feel very strong.

gl..oop

headed for glendo but the icy conditions worried us out of going past annamoe so we turned tail and headed for coop. good session, got a little further on bulge traverse using tim's heel. several new hard probs to try on noticeably crimpier stuff. elbows n fingers feel fine. must remember next freeze over to get to glenmac.

alone in the dark

Late in the day idea to get some lamp climbing in. Bray kindly lent me bike and lamps and i was at the rocks by 5.30. Weird in the moonlight on my own without music to distract me. There were a lot of deer, with fuck off antlers and their eyes reflected the torchlight even when they were across the valley. Kept expecting to get gored. Warmed up on BigJim, managed smear test despite seepage, tried the dyno with the top hold in total darkness and nearly lost a tip. Managed andy's ss pretty quickly, pleased enough to do a spontaenous fist pump when I latched the top. The deer were unimpressed. Back to pascals then and difficult to see if i've improved on it though i once felt real close to holding the move from standing, foot popped. Just to compound the niggling sense of stagnation i tried BBE a few times before realising committing to the swing on my own in the dark was pretty spanner. Twas all mint.

coop

shite weather prevented me going outdoors. went to coop with bray, some new holds up, most projects intact. lovely bulge traverse now on shallower walls. bray is getting stronger but remains highly vulnerable to any form of banter.

ucd

coop was being rejigged apparently so myself n bray went to ucd for my first time there since i joined the coop. perhaps didn't sample enough of the problems cos i immediately got distracted by a lovely big purple bulges problem, spent most of my energy on it, got frustratingly close but in the end didn't close it. frustrating cos at €8 a pop i won't be back anytime soon. (V7 apparently but then we were trying v3's and getting nowhere. font all over again.) ring finger on right hand sore at upper joint, need to be careful.

did some roots also. i do enjoy an ould slabby arete.

coop

climbed first time in nearly two weeks. couple of new things to throw myself at. felt mixed, couldn't get off first wall on grey holds traverse but could get rail prob.

Findaloo

Got down for lamp session with bray, very cold, cycled in, dark at 5. After disconcerting warm up got stuck into pascals. Still a long way to go. Right hand up is snatchy and the hold is sharp. Put left foot out further at start, better balance when needed later on. After many failures bray mentioned the fin which i agreed to against my better judgement. After several gos decided right foot needs to pop off, forget about trying to keep it on altogether. After a lot of frustration i removed the tape on my threee crucial fingers and managed to hold it. Fought the top out probably as hard as i've ever fought a problem after my foot slipped at same point as in last lamp session. This time i regrouped somewhat with foot back on crimp, my stomach cramping and managed to top it out. Took a while to get breath back. 8b.

Tried 7b slab, little tiny edge in middle of small base slab, left foot on gets right foot awkwardly to edge on pseudo arete. Don't know if i could move out of that position.

superstar

After an evening of over eating and drinking by rights i should have been a basket case today. However under the guise of going for a walk with Orla I managed to get to the boulders while she spinked. Minto at the late starting time of 2. After a quick lovely warm up and with some reservations i turned to bmx and promptly flashed it, even finishing with the left hand. Psyched I went down to egg ss, tried it a couple of times from standing, then linked it in from the ss, absolutely grovelling the finish. First time ever, chuffed. Realising i had caught Someone off guard here I headed for Pascal's where the run of top outs stopped dead. However I did after some false starts work out an approach that gets me to the triangle. Instead of locking into the high right elbow and crossing through, keep right foot below the good foot hold, left foot flagging out left and left hand in high side pull and go again with right hand for the left most end of the ramp. Hit it but did not hold, it'll go with better skin and some work. Real pleased.

Must do something about how often skin seems to be the deciding factor in finishing stuff.

Woman on her own asked if I'd like a bunt at pascals, i struggled to say something and came out with "maybe later". fortunately she had already passed so i didn't see her face. i should give ped lessons.

Swing and a miss.

Hannah's better than tim.

Arose early and found my new place affords me zero view of the hills and the current weather on 3 rock. Took off for Lough Bray and drove into the rain, wet, cold and windy. Satisfied with my karma building efforts i headed for the coop where Bray was joining me. I took the back roads via Rathfarnam and realised again i'm mostly a stranger to my home town. Coop session was good, Big Mac turned up and gloated up things. Felt better on the arete prob but the final swing seems next generational to me. Got the rail problem again. Need more projects.

Also cooped mid week.

Altar Ego

Headed down to cloghogue for what felt like a stolen session for some reason. Pretty shit conditions, mild and occasionally sunny with little wind and the ground was often glenmac boggy. Pottered on stuff, want to try steep sit start to the arete (between slopey arete starting boulder and the river). Some lovely fine grained granite in places. Finished ourselves on the campus problem. Davo was moving through the starting holds and touching the top. I can't hold the starting position but could do slight jump start and then hold the top from there. Strange pain in the shin bones of my arms when i boned the crimps too much. Top out looks nasty. Enjoyed short steep problem on the back of this boulder also. Good day out.

IBL was on today in DCU, i was close to going but weather saved my soul.

media matters

Font

Font started and ended with stressful journeys, but i enjoyed touching on 160 kph in our hugely upgraded car when we finally broke free of Paris' treacle like traffic. The mobile home was very modren but 6 of us in that small living space for 4 days was perhaps the limit of what i could have handled. Drank too much the second night, a schoolgirl error, still think it was probably worth it.

The climbing was good as ever though i found very few of the problems i worked really stoked my psych. The harder problems tend to be crimpy on marble which is not what font is about for me. I need to be better prepared next time with an idea of the problems i'd like to try. Tried all the Roches usuals and was pretty uninspired. Remparts offered some lovely pure lines but spotted nothing to work. Second day Gorges au chats seemed to have some great problems but was hungover. Elephant also looked great at times but highball and i was totally underwhelmed by the lines inspiring others. Wet third day. On the last day in Apremont found a lovely problem (bleau.info call it 7a) which embodied all the tricksy wonder of font slopers, Ciel something. Also tried another starred prob, egoiste which i felt ultimately quite comfortable on but didn't feel compelled to finish. I was afterwards somewhat envious of the blue team on their ragtaggle route through the circuit. On reflection I don't think i was grade whoring, or certainly not as much as when i had never got a 7a, I just like to be consumed by a problem. Had usual grade sandbagging debate with fairy godmother sparkle and tim and found it exhausting. I think it would be interesting to have a bleau.info style grading system on the shortspan for any problems people care to submit. I think the most we can hope for is internal consistency. Actually yearned a bit for glendo while away which is a little fucked. My skin was thin after last glendo outing which was also schoolgirl.

Smacks was staying a nice gite worth remembering for next time. Longer trip would be highly preferable. Neil did a good deal on the pads and is "always" full so if we wanted to stay there we'd need to book early. always ask for an upgrade.

Starring topcunt, sparkle, the tour nurse, our tour bus driver, varicose, yopolio and a guest appearance by shitblock, bless her shitty cotton socks.

Bingo Wings

Lovely day in glendo with Bray and an unconvicted sex offender. Wore through my tip trying superstars, very frustrating, kept hitting top hold and just not holding it, felt as comfortable on the lower section as one can on something so awkward. With tip bleeding headed up to the Fin and failed angrily somewhat due to two taped up fingers. Got barry's problem on big jim to end the day on a slight up which i haven't got in a long time. Got something of a cheap ego massage by bouldering with some beginner's from RCSI, nice lads, ped has probably added to his entourage of slightly wide-eyed, slightly scared followers.

This reads like it was a shit day, it was a very good day and i'm psyched for Font. i hope my tips heal.

Loners die on misty mountains

Circumstance ruled out a lamp session so i ran up three rock to clean up my skin. Got from bottom to last bend, my lungs being a bit fucked. Pottered around until the clouds came down and clagged everything out, found my usual 3 rock zen mind state unbothered by the trials scramblers hairdrying by.

Cooped on tuesday, dec made me look like a punter.

A rest me.

CLimbed after 4 days off and really noticed the difference. Finished monkey problem at last. also pretty much cruised the problem to the rail on the shallow board. Held the breast on lardon for the first time. Got across the curved wall on my old project, should probably make an effort to finish that before the board gets changed. Will not climb from sunday this week, intend to overdo it until then.

Lamper session

Mint cold day got me psyched about lamp session after the success of the one and only one we did last spring. Tim along, in at the boulders @7.30, very cold, badly wanted gloves for the cycle. Little sketched warming up and failed on coupla things early on, either arms tired or weird light angles to blame. Quickly got stuck into superstars, hit final hold three times, still sketched by dark, should have finished it otherwise i think. Up to fin, after a little messin around worked out the key is to go in very tight twist knees to left and lay back off LH a lot and unscrew to reach RH hold, leaving left foot on and maybe just popping right foot off at end of reach. Managed to hold and move through but the light angles made it difficult to see feet and then to find angles for foot hold and i came off, skin spent. Cruxes of both feeling solid though. Headed out entranced by the lovely romantic moon light and nearly crashed bikes into some deer. Mountain Rescue having love-in in the cottage.

Moon man

Was all set for a rest day but the weather earlier had me textin bray to be ready with bikes in car at 4.15, worked a treat, at ruins by 5.10 despite banana stop. Guy manning barrier even on a monday. Midge were out in force. Of note was hitting final hold of superstars, should have held it. only got that high once but felt very comfortable several times, skin on left hold remarkably never really an issue. must remember to stay low on left hold before reaching for the rh hold. very pleased if a little annoyed i didn't just close it out. rails ss felt real smooth. headed cross river and big jim was just turning mint in the cooling air. did the eliminate corner, felt lovely. andys felt sore on lh. lovely evening, cycled out in the dark, bright enought to climb until half 7. possibly first good friction session of season, still awaiting first scalp of note.

Am currently 75kg. Was 72.5kg in March. Aim to be back to that for Font.

Mall man syndrome

Went to mall hill after o/ding on glendo. Went up to flickin the bean which caused me more difficulty than i remember. Lovely slab below below that. Sharp steep arete felt real hard. Spent decent time on gone fission, love it, still don't feel i've straight lined that to my satisfaction. Trees growing fast, mall hill the only venue with a best before date, the first plantings have become pretty much impenetrable. Rock felt strangely dirty, checked dead beat to clarify, it is not as impeccable as it was, maybe it was just the day that was in it. Didn't go into forest without spotter, headed to arete right of beauvais, getting sandbagged on what the guide calls a 6b. Not sure if there's some sort of eliminate thing going on. River very low. got eyeballed by two landrovers on forest track, worried vaguely about getting cheney'd.

cooped twice more, friday evenin was a bit lame, satruday felt better, got back to red on monkey, finish not a formality. deliberately trying crimpy stuff, got further on woodie prob howard showed me. me and bray knocked in the last of the nuts, dusty work. weather cleared to be a lovely day, hopefully will do same tomorrow, get some outdoor fix. best prob thread makes me think i should visit the mournes.

CooP

First time in a while, was good, nearly got monkey problem, held red for first time, very pleased, finishing a formality. Half volunteered to knock in the remaining nut nests on the boards so that a re-jig can take place before everyone gets stuck in for the winter. Tim I'm sure would love to help.

Sunday Driving

Got back to Glendo, comfortable with the idea that it would be shitter second day on but it turned out to be great, got the usuals but also got Black Art pretty comfortably which was defying me last week. Tried pascal's, got higher on egg and bmx. Andy's still undone. Ferns are dying.

Indian summer

Headed to the glendo with the paedo. Blagged our way into the car park when ped took advantage of cross cultural misunderstandings and pretended we were Mountain Rescue. Unfortunately he did not watch what code our young Indian friend punched in which would have cemented his status as some sort of prophet. Got coffee and they wouldn't give me a free ice cream flake, dicks. Big jim was in the shade but warm still so conditions were imperfect. Ped added yet more layers of pointless to our already entirely pointless subset of a pointless sport by successfully climbing the Big jane arete in 4 moves or 3 holds or something, god love him. I failed andy's ss, learnt nothing new. followed the advancing shade across the river, got left of egg ss with grace and style, also rails ss despite the greasy tips. UCDMC freshers were camped out in the sun on the upper path and the fin. Elbows felt fine after a week off with work which is a relief. Will start to vary my climbing locations over the coming weeks, maybe even lough dan once the ferns start dying.

BAck to glendo with bray and found my elbows quickly hurt, worrying but understandable considering my push ups regime has yet to take off. pottered more than yesterday. tried fin ss but failed, no excuses, need more strength to hold the squeeze, hitting rh hold fine. rest of time was fine. must go to coop more for crimp strength for font.

autumns first

headed direct from work parked at hostel and was at the ruins by 5.15, sempre fi. conditions were great, cool, no midge. dry underfoot there so tried the usuals, no hands slab, cherry etc. found legs to be very shaky, almost disco leg maybe too much caffeine or not enough sleep. Got the start of barrys problem first time which i rarely get. headed up to pathside, flashed ss rails with a little more grace this time, same with pathside traverse, nearly pulled calf muscle trying line left of egg ss but felt strong on it. headed up to fin ss with confidence but found that a lack of skin and chalk ( I had some in the car fucking spanner) let me down, could hit the right handhold with relative ease but greased off repeatedly. back down to superstars and BBE which firmly put me in my place, barely getting my foot up on superstars. BBE you fucking inscrutable nightmare. then over to andy's arete, did from standing but lacked the "stamina" to do from sit, crimp felt fine just faded each time i tried to move right hand to arete. after this selective tour of the harder offerings i headed home in fading light, possibly back tomorrow. the leaves are turning.

tour de force

last night between arrival and darkness wandered amongst the scrubble, marvelled again at all the almosts and what ifs. looked at my old forgotten project, someones pavemented extensively so i will assume its ticked. will still go back and give it a shot on my way back up to black art which left me stumped when i thought i had done it previously. pleased with efforts to hold a shit left hand green sloper, pinky important, then right hand up to arete, then snatch with either right or left, not sure which. code has changed. mountain rescue were down giving reassurance to a shaken climber.

nothing doing in the morning so headed to electric mountain and did the lovely slab after some early psych out. then spent ages on a low ball crimpy problem (lipservice 6c apparently) which should go when i get some more core and finger strength. skin was also starting to show fatigue 4th day on. just as we were leaving i looked at the deep ss which at a glance i think would also go without too much extra effort. ha.

on drive back stopped at zef's and tried the right boulder, absolutely immaculate granite, too warm and tired but should go easily enough on another day. very pleased with the productivity of the whole expedition.

roped some more fresh meat into touring 3 rock with me though jimmy being from Braaay had to be back before the 9 o'clock curfew. stuck to the middle boulder in the end, doing all the usuals. traversed well, also got campus slap and got foot up high on the ss. couldn't do pinch line though friction was generally good and skin felt great.

midge menace

got chased out of glendo after an hour, cycled to make the most of the dwindling day. climbed surprisingly well if unconvincingly, flashing ss rails with wrong sequence, and pathside traverse also with fucked up sequence and then managed the ss prob to the left of the egg which i'm quite chuffed about having only done it twice previous. friction not brilliant, greasy tips nearly cost me the rails. really noticed loss of crimp strength on the traverse, had to improvise. still don't know if code has changed.

+++

Saturday in the coop, actually a good solo session, elbows felt rested, nice level of difficulty problems most of which i can't finish but am getting to the second last holds. Am finding the press ups an awful fucking chore which would imply i seriously need them. Need to swim again.

Most importantly this evening i beat ped in a drunken arm wrestle. Thats gotta be about 7b.

Continued Cooperation

Despite the good weather circumstance caused me to climb in coop last night for a good session, new problems courtesy of tim. Circumstance again caused me to climb indoors later this evening and it was uber poxy.

went on a long root through some of deepest darkest wicklow, some individual finds, some backyard venues, weather was good. climbed not a lot but very worthwhile.

Training

Went to coop tonight for an hour. indoor motivation is difficult to kickstart, particularly when the holds are all the same. Decided to start training my elbows a little so gonna do 50 press ups a day. gonna climb at least three times a week and want to swim twice a week. so it is written.

3 Rock

ran up 3 rock from upper car parking. slightly greasy but good. managed to do elimniate dyno off slopers on the 3rd boulder, only my 2nd time ever. makes no sense. if i am not focused and on my own i can be done climbing everything there in 20 minutes.

Back to Glendo

Drove down in the late afternoon under a doubtful sky, tired enough that rain wouldn't have bothered me nothing. More importantly windy conditions promised no midges. Car park attendant meant i couldn't check if code still works. Few heads pottering around boulders, recognised only Kevin M. Warmed up straight forwardly. Couldn't get path traverse then did quite easily later with chalk. Could do sit start of egg traverse with ease. Tried andy's arete and felt surprisingly comfortable, did the hard bit. Tried from sitting and could feel the absence of power somewhat. A reminder that i find it very difficult to keep track of what stays and what goes during prolonged downtime.

Bullocked...

...on the weekend. Nice low water, did the usuals mostly, looked at moving right from the foot of lan mara, nice jug rail which turns into a slopey break and then a finger crack. Wetsuit probably a good idea.

Knocknagun on thursday

Trekked up knocknagun for an explore. Started at small coillte gateway close to glencree and took ish straightline route, the value of which is debatable. Met mass rocks first, the granite is very three rock in nature. On the left boulder was a small lovely concave slab with an intriguing straight line, no holds just very fine friction. Got leg over trhs of slab but direct woul dbe nicer. The right boulde yielded a coupleo f lines also, a high face with very distinct holds over a landing that dropped away. The k'gun tors themselves were more elaborate shapes than 3 rock but very similar in style. Some nice little traverses and very short almost eliminates. Wasn't feeling it generally more to do with being out of climbing shape than the venue.

*

Went to Glenmalure in the pissings of rain. Showed dave around. Next time i go i want to start ticking in earnest.


Went up 3 rock on thursday, warm weather but friction was still very good. Managed the centre line from standing which was surprising considering the weather. Mostly pottered and tour guided for Mark.

Scalp

Went up to a dank scalp to see a pair of lines near primer listed as projects, the right one of which we hear has since been done as two independent lines. The left line goes from a lovely head height break drop knee up to a small hold on the arete and somehow bump about a foot higher on the arete to a better hold. From here another 8 feet of dirty arete will top you out. Good landing for the lines. Fucking weather. Midges were out as well.

Slowing down

Having gone to virginia and climbed on some fantastic sandstone I overdid it with two 3-day-on sessions on sweaty rock and tweaked my left elbow. It felt worse than font elbow ever has, aching quite piercingly for several days after i had finished climbing. So it is useful to come home with less time on my hands and facing into a warm wet summer when bouldering can take a backseat. I suspect i might still attend the coop at least once a week and hopefully get outdoors a couple of times a week but i do not aim to stay strong over the summer instead i will "rest" for the summer and hopefully iron out any tweaks without losing my baseline tendon strength, then hit the coop running in september so as to be ready for some form of autumn Font trip.

Got up to scalp for an hour. There is more there than i have previously acknowledged but the rock often leaves me cold. Useful distance.

Need to get back to hollywood.

Dead Wood

Went down once more as i realised after my trip my mid-week weekends would be no more. Roundly disappointed with a lot of aspects. Firstly i explored further and found pretty much nothing, occasional scrappy dirty craglets but not worth cleaning. Also the lovely short hard sit start to the lip and over proved very/too difficult, though still has potential. Tree is very annoying on upper fine grain boulder but i am reluctant to cull it, there is a line here though. Found couple of small lines elsewhere around the crag but generally my expectations have plummeted, for the best probably as i will not be back for over three weeks now.

Damp moss on the rocks nearly gave me lower limb injuries on numerous occasions, as bad as mall hill.

Lough Dan

Climbed a little bit on saturday evening and then again with a foggy head on sunday morning. I'd forgotten how much potential there was in lough dan, though generally lough dan granite is a poor relative of the surrounding valleys, sugary, dirty, occasionally friable. Did Beef to the Heel, waist high lip traverse on nice roof formation. On what i think is the no.9 boulder ( Three Kings in my mind) there were 3 very nice distinct lines, managed the lines on either arete (nice subtle right arete had evidence of cleaning, great moves, left face/arete was nice slap then up to lovely rib) and did a rough clean out of the crack up the face but didn't manage to top out. Nice obvious pure line which should go without great difficulty if the crack continues to provide holds further up as it did in the first section, feet on crystals. Shadow boulder is surprisingly big, i fixated somewhat on a direct line up the left arete which involves somehow pulling over the bulge on opposing sidepulls, to a high left foot and uncoiling spectacularly to throw either for big flat left break or for perfect right hand slot on face. One for the wads.

Back to the Future...

Welcome to the Hyperbowl.

Got back down for an hour to clear some of the "potential" lines out of my imaginings as they were clouding the reality of the place. Rasher line is good clean line as originally thought. The opposite arete has potential but need to cut down a dead tree to access it proper. The downward face's potential is unfortunately pretty much lost to a gnarly multi trunk holly tree. (Evidence of quarrying on this face, one of those shafts for dynamite). Back left arete is a line, slopey either direct or out right but possibly dirty rock. Found the rock terraces surprisingly easy to rearrange and there's a possibility of clearing out underneath this corner for steep problem into mantle/arete, there are holds. 

From here upslope to Angle Grinder a steep lip traverse which should have felt nicer than it did, easy enough. 

Up again to the second of the big three, cleared a bit. Made landing platform for the main line which is nice highball with i suspect the crux at the top. Line also to the right. Micro route to the left of these as ground drops away. Scrubby one mover line on opposite face. 

To the third of the big ones and disappointed for the most part. Very impressive Cracks and general formation but rock quality a little bit shitter than elsewhere. One nice obvious arete line on the right but the landing is a rock ramp. Hard to formulate rest of the rock into climbing terms, landing needs a lot of work. Round on the "face" of this formation is the possibility of a monster dyno if one cuts down a decent sized holly tree. The main section to the right of this is obscured by another unmovable gnarled holly trunk.

Upslope of here is a big dirty face that i cleaned to reveal a lovely easy highball line. Potential of a line to the right but looks hard and relatively blank and needs cleaning and terracing somewhat.

The setting is beautiful. Also on drive in felt that pretty much for a good kilometre before the forestry track there would be some potential on the slopes for more rocks. Worried during gardening of how well sound travels as i can clearly hear farmer in his field opposite, not sure if they would take kindly to my efforts.

Glenmac

Tried the arete line between the cross problem and monkey burger on the dice boulders. Using left heel hook on the left face on crystal can hit and hold lip/change in angle. Need to try again with more skin. Maybe use right crimp on face just below lip. Couldn't do full irish but got steep face. Also felt better on tombstone face.

Holly Wood

On my way from a clagged out wicklow gap to check out the top of the valley i remembered the vague hunch on some woodland by the road. My initial hunch was wrong, between the crossroads and the monument and beyond seemed to be mostly chossy shale outcrops. Further on though (2km after monument?) a forestry track forks off upslope and after glimsping some granite i followed it. Very scalp setting with holly bushes hiding the biggest boulders. Much better granite than the scalp i think, finer grain and the boulders more distinct and yet in subtler forms, some frustratingly blank faces. Some need a lot of cleaning for perhaps little returns.

Need to return with saw, secateirs etc. Chainsaw would be brilliant.

Followed forestry road up till it crossed waterfall river and up to the hairpin bend. Found only one big chunky outcrop, more scalp like, with nice big arete on it.


The pics are all over the place, the pad/bag give scale in some but size is generally poorly shown, anything shown is worth showing, .

Glendo

Took time about heading down to glendo so nearly lost the day to inertia as misty rain met me at the turn of the valley. Pushed on angrily and sat under howards roof grumpily. Realised the mist rain was so fine that things were staying relatively dry. Managed warm up circuit then straight into Nu rails as its last to dampen, last to dry. Got it only cos the weather left me few alternative problems. Turned out egg ss start was mostly dry and weathered worst of the "visible wind" by putting my hat on the most exposed hold. From standing managed to hit and hold higher right hand hold once using right heel hook low with left foot on nub below ramp. Could not repeat. Stretched right leg considerably first. Tried BBE, now putting hand higher on arete, more pinch there. Experimented with left hand being higher but it gave poor purchase for initial launch. Nice slow controlled failure. Tried pascals, feels long way off, that right gaston crank killing me. Remember low feet to start.

Weather improving the whole time, very impressive how much stayed doable. Still feel i'm progressing on at least two of these problems.

Glenmac again + Mall Hill

Was lured back to Glenmac despite the very warm weather, perfectly blue skies, was hopeful that the shade would be where i needed it and was proved right. Despite several days of sun the ground was still quite wet, solidarity landing was still boggy and at one stage on the walk in i went up to my knee.

With the sun on my back but my fingers in the shade I claimed Solidarity in about 4 or 5 gos, it felt good and not too hard with the top out making me sweat. I tried the left arete briefly but the sun was blinding from that angle so left it quickly.

First try of the steep face had me getting as close as i ever had, but it took the discovery of a new crimp on an old hold for me to finally top out. This was a close run thing and with my skin and the shade both disappearing i had to force the issue more than i liked. Feet got wet cos i spazzed.

Headed out at this point skin bad but not done, headed up to the line in Mall hill in search of new project. I had dismissed it in the past as too hard for me and little has changed. Sit start is nails. Stand start would be very hard. Possibly a vague jump start would get me on but i need more pads and a spotter to investigate further. Rock quality is poorer than i would've hoped, with grains rolling off under skin. Arete is slopey as fuck nearly the whole way so this could be a huge issue. (What i thought was a cleaned groove i suspect is actually a run off channel something i noted with relief.) I took consolation in the fact that summer is coming and another project is probably not what i need.

Had a lose the will to live descent out of Mall Hill, long day.

weight 72.5 kg

Glenmac projects

Solidarity - right foot on low crystal , right hand low, left hand high with two fingery crystals and left foot steps up to little ramp on arete. Left hand high to best bit after step, settle. Maybe one finger right hand on nearest crystal on face to stop barn and right foot high, got highest with this method once but very tenuous. Or else right hand inside level almost with high right foot and try and uncoil. Higher foot disappointing.

Steep rasher Face - Right on shelf, left on slanty crimp, left foot on low ledge, left hand up to middle notch, heel to right hand, right hand up to right crimp with thumb on square crystal, settle, left out to left crimp, settle, right hand just up to slightly right of apex of lip, settle, left hand over lip to the goodness. right hand up and over to hold on break by crystal, right foot up to unused rightmost crimp, left hand palming down, bear thru right hand. Came off at this point but doable with skin and conditions.

Remember lines on happy days boulder and scoop on back of flaming tips boulder.

Conditions strange. Access very muddy as expected. Walk in quicker than expected, 25 minutes to tips boulder. Weather was very mild even sunny, and quite windy, but faces in the shade were damp to soaking whereas rock in the direct sun was greasy, as shown by failure to get up full irish, ( also due to ongoing problem with bearing through right knee when heelhooking). Lucky with general condition of rasher and solidarity. Landings very boggy under both, torn bivi bag gave some sense of stayng dry but not particularly, still worth the weight. Skin the most important commodity on this trip, 5 blood points by the end and tips very raw. Peeling from first crease on both indexes returned after abating in recent times. Midges out, 5 or 6 of them but no bites. Waterloggedness annoying, lot of mat adjustment on bivi bag. Only really tried those two problems in over 2 1/2 hours apart from brief effort on full irish.

Nearly encountered group of walkers on way out, comfortably outside of conversation range, practiced my big foot glance as they stared at my mat.