Glendosan

got into glendo in the morning, beautiful morning but no breeze or sun in the valley meant things were a little damp. started on the tripod, avoiding damp bits for the most part though was stumped on the lovely slab not wanting to step straight up to the crimp on the face, couldn't remember sequence. from here headed straight to fin for a change, to try it with fresh skin. wasn't feeling it but after warming up on the surrounds managed to fight my way up it which pleased me. also got stood up relatively comfortably on the fin slab, one to work on maybe. down to the pathside found egg ss fine in parts but completely lacking power to get heel hook in middle section, very specifc failure. headed out then met paul and dave and went to glendasan to try and catch last sun. got more interested in the line on the camping plateau but still failed. ended at the whale trying ahab in the falling dark, the lads felt it was sandbagged. 6c it is.

font

font was good, felt brief and i came back with tips on my fingers which points to someone not giving it their all. mostly did circuits this time, was torn between the enjoyment of all the little gems and wanting to be climbing hard stuff. hard stuff as being practised by the lads seemed to mostly consist of overhanging lines involving core and finger strength which i knew i wasn't bringing on this trip.

isatis -came dangerously close to finding a line up beurre margot (sp?). in fact a climber/guide book present said it was a 7a line troubadours (rhs) but that seemed like nonsense. did the usual greats in the first area then wandered right down the end of the ridge. came pretty close on a 7a the lads were trying but that was pretty much it for my grade whoring for the trip. good long day.

91.1 - did first half of the red circuit, very enjoyable if a little too marbly at times.
cul de chien - did the latter half of the blues, much nicer rock and provided some almost missed gems.

95.2 - a mish mash, warmed up in the area at the end of the red circuit on some lovely lines. very briefly tried some hard stuff the lads were working then headed to half heartedly work the blue/red circuits not helped by occasional spits of rain. found our zen again in the core of 95 on the big slab and surrounds.

franchard sablons- perhaps not the best destination for a damp morning but inertia kept us there and it mostly dried as day wore on. some lovely lines, a place i'd like to return to dry. the irish mobs descended here and i found it interesting how strong a lot of folk were. the country is obviously getting stronger. meanwhile me and james climbed lots of blue slabs. (though it takes considerable strength of mind to use some of the credit card holds on the slabs.)

things i (re)learned
- generally speaking climbing outdoors regularly in ireland is insufficient preparation for climbing >6c in font.
-sat navs save lives.
-Formula1 is 60% the price of Etap. (Though Etap have very tastefully refurbished and the cute girl still works there.)
-FUN fm is the future of music. Or if the mood takes you, FIP fm is.
-Hertz are shit.
- There's a large population of Andorans in Paris.
-Flying pads over is too stressful. I think the pad rental market in font has to expand but still must book early next time.
- Don't join in halfway through someone else's trip. The wind down mindset can be infectious, so instead of "day 1" it's "3 days left."
- Maintain cell independence.
- Nurofen.
- Leave everything in the car.
- A climbing trip and a climbing holiday are two different things. Increased alcohol/buttered pastry intake & near pointless carrefour trips are the trademarks of the latter.
- Get the Frenchy burger in the Taverna in Font but only on the last night.
- 2-4 day trips can work very well if weather behaves.




a beautiful little line between a red and a blue in cul de chien.

brimful and thor

made the most of the perfect saturday by heading up to the grit again, started fierce early, picking up timmo at 7.45am. between jigs and reels and other pick ups probably actually only got to the brimstone barrier at 11. by fluke or design jimmy and joe joined us before very long and also another local michael, happy again to give us whatever beta we needed. brimstones acted as quite a suntrap, enough to make me climb topless until fear for my nipples made me put that shit away. the rock was as perfect as remembered, unfortunately the sun made it a little less than perfect conditions. still managed the groove after watching joe style his way up it. fantastic problem, one of the most sequencey i've come across, i probably would have spent weeks figuring out the more elegant solution. the top move is a peach. from here we headed around to brims. west, out of the sun and a bit dirtier but with some brilliant features/lines. the headline is another tricksy gem recently fa'ed by duffy which had us all (/john) addled trying to hold the vague slopey holds. very conditionsy, you could sense a few degrees difference would have made it quite doable. one to come back to. finding ourselves in a rush we busted up to tor mountain where we tried a couple of lines on the lower boulder which we'd lost to the rain previously. made progress but scrittle and dirt go the better of us, a rope, harness and a hard bristle brush will work wonders. then we can worry about the slabby top out which could very easily be the main event every time.

from tor to the blanch centre in under 2 hours where traffic snarls had tim practising his sorry face. thanks again to the local lads who were brilliant, very welcoming.

glenmalure

just realised this was 5th day on which explains a lot. headed down to glenmalure with tim to the waterfall boulder. after about 2 tries of the straight forward slab i was groaning with fontesque indigestion of the elbows. i grimaced my way through several efforts at the leftwards line but couldn't move beyond the pistol pinch and crimp. intially i could blame the conditions which were damp and scrittly but as it dried and tim progressed i had to suck it up. tim made it quite far but ultimately ran out of steam so we headed up to fraughan rock. i was quite disappointed with fraughan, the rock is dirty, with specific holds generally well cleaned but everything else green or lichen covered. pity cos there seems to be some lovely lines. the rib line drew us but the top out was too speculative on scrittly rock. also theres a big slab with 2 possible lines up it but its filthy. we quickly lost any mojo for the place and ended up on the sad and lonely boulder to finish ourselves off. tim nearly shit himself in the bulk of the mantle while i nearly popped my shoulder out. all set for font.




possibly a nice little mantle problem on the arse of the fraughan rock.

first lamper

intending only to coop last night bray suggested a trip to glendo to make the most of the clear skies and i found it difficult to say no. drove to kilmac in 40 mins, not used to driving with the rush hour traffic. bray gave me a bike with spd pedals and no saddle which was sweet of him. climbed the usuals, kept up my recent success rate on the rails then got superstars 2 nd time, the flash that got away. mantled grand on egg boulder, but zinged off the starting hold a couple of times on egg ss. could hold the upper section just about. found pathside traverse exhausting and couldn't do the mantle in behind pascals, really bottomed out on it so it points to a general core weakness currently. popped over to big jim, pottered. lamps only needed at this point about 7.15pm. noted that i really can't handle anything approaching a long session, with elbows and arms starting to creak worryingly around the 90 minute mark.

bullocked today, found arms tired very quickly which makes sense. could barely move on the campuses on reardons, which was annoying but in line with yesterday. john sent it after a very few casual efforts.

the weekend

went up to the mac waterfall on saturday in the pissings, should have turned around at loughlinstown but inertia kept me moving forward and i sat in the car park reading the papers until i could summon the energy to ignore the overpowering sense of wasted time. trudged in, dropped a rope down the craglet and bounced down the line i wanted to clean. didn't do a very good job, the brush getting too muddy early on rendering later cleaning efforts useless. the line is still nice but suffers badly from lack of a starting hold, with the first real hold something of a hop off the ground. difficult to really get a sense when everything was so miserable and wet. retreated to heathers for an all day breakfast, always good for what ails ye. can't be wasting petrol money on these trips now that i'm a student.



got up 3 rock on sunday late afternoon in a successful climbing/girlfriend combotrip. stayed on the middle boulder. tried new-to-me vertical line, aim to do 6 pure-ish straight up lines on it, might need spotter.

cooped tonight, felt better for the lack of climbing since thursday.

glendo

went back to glendo with tim with 4th day on elbows. not much variety from yesterday but that was no big issue, good to see getting problems wasn't a once off, flashed nu rails again, the deep right elbow was very effective. got up to chilax and did the right line and then got throught the meat of the leftwards line but didn't have the energy to top it out where i had failed previously for simliar reason. tried fin and was hitting it nicely but not enough of anything to hold it and finish.

the new look valley floor. (sponsored by alpkit)

back on the horse

following weeks of relative inaction, i cooped the last two evenings and then headed to glendo today. i also chose today to break in some new shoes so i wasn't expecting to get up much. after warming up i found i couldn't get up the egg mantle or of particular concern the pathside traverse. i lounge around feeling weak, my joints creaking worriedly under the extra 5 kilos i'm asking them to bear this season. however sitting speculatively at the bottom of nu rails i manage an easy feeling flash. then round the back and after very few goes i managed to send superstars, inducing a fist pump. try egg ss but reality catches up. do egg mantle and go home. finger still sore. path has been mechanically cleared above lake.

mournes

made an arduous but worthwhile day trip to the mournes bouldering. on binnian. on the slog in from the car i formulated a ratio of climbing to travelling time on which you decide if a day trip is worth it. mournes worked out at about 6 1/2 hours round trip from door to boulders which has got to be some sort of limit. the rock lived up to my distant memories of it and lent itself to some lovely problems, with quite a few giant tantalising blank pebbles. south tor had less but a nice intro to the rock and line type. north was more expansive. tried triggers, felt like it would go if we were the other end of the season. tried several lines which weren't mentioned in the mournes guide the assumption being the guide wasn't trying to be exhaustive. rued not having shoes with toe integrity as there were many lovely slabs made for tip toeing up. some scary looking top outs. would like to trip back but would have difficulty not overnighting.


the left line is a 7a for growed ups, horrific looking mantle top out. the right line is a project i think.

cooped. played stamina with sunroof.

the grit demythified

Made the speculative trip up to fermanagh passing through heavy showers periodically and thusly did it continue all day. Met the lads jimmy and joe who soundly gave us the locals tour of the brimstones area. Fairy boulder was good but half obscured by a fallen tree which made it feel a little claustrophobic, particularly in the heavy damp. wandered through the forest shown a behemoth in the mist and various lovely shapes which need cleaning and/or clearing to make them climbable. Undoubtedly the highlight was the best till last brimstones area. two beautiful stretches of gritstone wall, eye wateringly clean in the sun, featured just enough to create distinct independent lines on perfect rock. the waxing was off the charts. west brimstones was too wet to climb but looked like some primo lines of varying difficulty ending at a perfect height on a just so slopey lip. brimstones main was actually dry and so we got to sample the climbing on things like the groove and a lovely arete between showers. amazing place.

headed to glendo after work, got to the mining village and it started to rain. i buried the blind rage in howard's cave waiting for it to stop. the river seems to have cut a new course pretty much bissecting the little meadow between big jim and the main path. the riverbed was dry by big jim, the hole to the left of the dyno full of sand. there's a lot of shifted stone. getting from pathside to big jim is a nightmare of marsh and tributaries now however it seems to be easy enough from mining village.

cooped twice this week, grim enough sessions. i am currently in or around 80 kgs, 7 or 8 kgs heavier than my fighting weight. looking forward to some blue circuit action in font.

quarry

another supposed write off day turned out quite productive. joined dec and jim in the quarry and armed with a specific wire headed up tenashity. found crux fine in the end but came close to bailing above on an innocuous step up due to general weakness and fatigue. afterwards followed duncan up frenzy which i've already ruined my onsight chance on unfortunately cos its good gear and moves. finally got round to doing thrust and it was very good, i ran out certain sections cos gear placing stamina was at a premium, nice big climb.

bets bouldering in the country

went up three rock with jjames, twas very nice, managed high traverse first time, also campus move. go figure. met some fellow tom from ucd, one of only a handful of times seeing anyone else up there climbing. want to work pointlessly on one arming the dyno again. pointing finger on right hand has had swollen knuckle joint for three weeks. great timing.

i'll bite.

here's my theory of the two rats, i just made it up.

i think there are two rats to be fed. one rat is the actual "movement on rock" rat, the purist. it is easily satisfied when it has been starved, hence a short punterish potter in bullock leaving me all lyrically waxing up in here. however for me it is rarely starved and the fact that it's so easily satisfied means without other motivation it is quickly numbed. two return trips to bullock this week would inevitably bore me.

the other rat is the "challenge" rat. without a sense of progression and challenge i would not have any motivation to go back again and again to the same places, which one realistically has to do.

very rarely do they operate independently, last night it was all about the purist rat, some wet bored shitty nights in the coop it could only ever be about improvement, but generally they act in symbiosis.

grade whoring is when the challenge rat has gone deviant. my rats are healthy.

i'm calling ped's clause on this post which entitles me to come back and change/burn it as i see fit.

bullock

the lads went for a swim in bullock so i popped down too late to watch and pottered on the rock instead. felt like i'd not climbed in an age, bullocks like 3 rock, they really are brilliant when you catch them right. tonight it was sun setting, perfect friction, plonking around on my own on 5s and deepwater diffs. felt like i'd again found something that perhaps has been missing from bouldering for me recently, getting lost in that seasonal rush up through the grades climbing the same problems as each previous year. this felt like a different thing, brief but worth remembering.

grit

got up to tor mountain over the weekend. some fantastic grit, better than i was expecting. unfortunately we got rained off but still got to play on a lovely training wall of grit, nice height, landing and spread of holds. lovely big boulder below it went untested due to the rain but it looke d great, only issue perhaps slopey landing. still need to get to navar and back up to cuilcagh. you could drive it in two hours

no disc again so back to the quarry to enjoy the weather. james went up yorkshire pud for openers which had me eyeing ghost speculatively. on my way up after him i skipped left and had another look at the various holds and positions, felt very comfortable. used a different method to get to the niche than when following paul, found it much more reliable. felt good but still nervous. james led another then back we went and off i went (with the two statesmen joe and jim gernon making me nervous casually plodding up masochist beside us.) really enjoyable , real pleased with my head space up the run out upper bit. doing it in this style did in reality take a bit away from it but i'll save those ethical considerations for if i ever keep up the routes a decent amount.

centurion

disc didn't happen again so managed to rustle a bandy legged bray out to the quarry. led dirty dick which was fine then tramp where i got pumped and greasy below the bulge but stuck it out only to realise that the holds are huge once you pull in to position and jug it out. glad to have experienced the pump though. then headed across for james to lead something and got to discussing bushmills. went and had a look then tried the lower section, climbed up and down placing the lower gear in pumpy slippy condition. nearly decided i didn't have the stamina then under bray's psyching up climbed on through the bulge to find again that above the bulge was pretty much a doddle. only my second e1.

shed some water

went to ucd on saturday with tim and got comprehensively crushed by the lead wall. The inevitable pump was all well and good but my lack of general stength and being beaten by tim on a point of flexibility really hurt. tim is looking more toned recently. we were topless together. he untied my knot.

Went to the quarry with dec today quite worse for wear due to my appreciation of other cultures through the medium of alcohol. Thugged my way up things behind dec, blazing saddles etc and was relatively pleased with how i got on. Blazing was sustained but the gear looks bomber and the holds generally positive. stirrups the interest is a bit short. Did my first ever route on central buttress following dec up the e1 there and leading out the top "pitch".

noted that if i were to move elsewhere in april this will be my last winter season in ireland for the foreseeable. might serve to motivate me a little more as i start back into traingin proper in the next month or so.

portrane

got out to portrane for an early session on saturday, it stayed dry despite what seemed like ominous weather everywhere else. tide very far out. started in the alley, worked a traverse and then moved to the arch and played on the cobbled curve. steep bulky workout despite the fact that i only really tried two problems. discovered most pointless lifeguard station in ireland.

lough bray

went up to the eagle line again this time with dave to hold the rope. got to try the lower moves properly which at first seemed too hard but the first move went quick enough. the crux is the next move and is unfortunately quite awkward. after a few goes i got high enough on the move to be confident its doable in better conditions and when i'm a bit stronger. only possible gear before crux would go in the handhold of the crux. to drop off at crux would probably be just about ok with pads. seems to be good gear just after this. diffcult to tell from where we dropped rope whether line could continue diagonally up face.

cooped, busier than i've ever seen.

went back to delphi to make sure there wasn't a purple font hiding in the hills waiting to carry my name. if there is i didn't find it. lots of examples of the fine rock we'd seen previously but generally very little of size. checked up in what the aerial pics seemed to indicate would most likely contain boulders, a steep cliffed basin behind the two lakes north of delphi, but there was nothing of size. went back to the end of the valley to check what we'd only photographed previously, there were a couple of boulders but they were crozelly and heavily featured, maybe worth a visit if you worked in the centre but otherwise a very frustrating walk. only bit of climbing i did was the mantle on the small square block on the hillside. it was a painful reminder of how nicely the rock climbs, its a brilliant little problem. drove down to the northern point of the fujord and there's a lot of rock unfortunately it is heavily fenced off preventing any exploration. a different band of rock type makes up the little headlands locally but there didn't appear to be anything worth climbing.


xibit a from end of delphi valley


xibit b from end of delphi valley




your correspondent on the first ascent of Purple Headed Knobs


a whole lot of nothing 30 minutes from the road.




the forbidden land at the head of the fjord. the master of these lands abides in the house in the foreground.

went to quarry for a cupla hours. tim led d route while my belly rumbled ominously. considered tying him off to a tree but managed to hold it together until i got to the top. only led bodystretcher starting on e route which was very nice, one cruxy move and some nicely psychological gear lower down behind a loose flake, amazing how much it freed up my mental space to realise that there was loads of holds to move higher on to better gear. i need to fall on gear, need to get a better sense of the angles and directions of falls in relation to the gear. followed tim up great eastern with rucksack on back, oeld skule.

cooped for first time in months. was very weak, could barely traverse one side.

Quarryed, did mahjonng, very enjoyable. Still enjoying my new found head for it, mahjonng had that lovely flow to it. Considered Bushmills but heeded tim's intent to not overdo it so decided on Great Eastern which dec had me quivering my way up a fortnight ago. Found it fine, fecked around with the gear below the top wall too much and over thought the last move which turned out to be much less of a desperate stretch than i remember. Great bit of exposure.

Missed the early session with the lads but roped ped into an afternoon session. Heads cleared slowly and got more into it. started on yorkshire pud, then the crack to the right. paul was there also soloing everything so we belayed him up ghost. followed him up it, first time i've gone up it and i'd be confident enough of leading it soon. seems well protected for the most part. didn't like the jug swing at the bottom. finished on fang.

gargoyle

after tim bailed managed to convince bray to join me for a couple of hours in the quarry. turned out we only did one route, gargoyle groove direct, my first E1. really nice airy top section but well protected and plenty of holds for a bouldering wad like myself. nice to be so quickly pushing myself and finding my grade whoring feet so quickly in a new field. its like the ecumenicism of sport. totally clusterfucked the ropes in the belay though.

did another hvs, very warm greasy holds, downclimbing ivy chimney hardest part of the evening.

quarry

went back with timmo for the evening got 5 routes done in 4 hours, getting quicker slowly. did stereotentacles and jameson 10, very enjoyable, tim did mahjonng which was pretty impressive. need to polish up on the ropework.

bird of prey

i'm not used to needing someone to climb with and i have not sufficiently appreciated the independence of bouldering thus far, i will appreciate it more int he future. today being a billy no belay again and with the weather making bouldering silly due to midge and grease i headed to the tor at lough bray where the breeze kept the midge at bay. did a decent ab session on it where i got increasingly comfortable trying moves at height on an improv self locking belay. on the way out pottered a little at the boulders and headed home.

quarry

after my last bodhran class of the summer i headed to the quarry to meet a very slim looking timmo. he led tramp or something and i led superette. it was good fun but hard to get away from the lack of intensity and the thought of how much bouldering you could do in the same amount of time. different mindset needed and no doubt it'll come with time if we keep it up. found myself pretty zoned on superette considering i haven't led anything this year, lovely route.

back to the present

hustled myself back down to the waterfall for another look. didn't have camera or suitable tree felling equipment but went anyway. pottered broadly for myself didn't find anything more of note. midge were out whenever i stopped. the slopey break line still looks great but pretty wad. tried the steep mantle below a couple of times but fingers greased instantly every time i touched the rock. feels hard but not impossible using right hand break and throwing left foot up onto the centre jug. midge went critical pretty quickly and i had to move on. went to the craglet further down where we had barely paused the first time and did some cleaning. the line that had stood out before still stands out, some lovely curved holds, needs more cleaning on a rope but definitely worth a return visit maybe only on a windy or wintry day.

Went to delphi with little real conviction on finding much to do. Started badly going in up to my crotch in a bog hole. Rock turned out to be worth it though, purple sandstone with the occasional rock solid cobble cemented in. First boulder was nice with the vague look of potential nearby. From there we headed right up the valley to the main event a very upright boulder, 3rd rock from the bog. There was some lovely easy stuff and some good looking lines up a high ball double overlapped main face. The whole boulder needed a serious clean, the harder lines particularly but there must be about 8 lines on it. The rock type is the finest rock i've played on in a long time. Further up again to the beginning of the broader valley bowl i could see vague possibilities but more time was needed. At the end of the forest annoyingly close there appeared to be the best hope of maybe one or two more boulders. On our walk back down to the track we cut right between the forests up to a square smallish block 5 minutes uphill. Unfortunately we dumped our bags as we were rushing to meet the babysitter. The block turned out to have 2 lovely things to play on, a perfect steep mantle undoable without shoes and a little 5+ we managed in our boots. Left the place very psyched, the rock being such that one good line would be enough to draw me back and the potential of the many hills around here which appear to be of the same rock type.

Went to fairhead meet and the increasingly popular bouldering below the cliffs. The setting was amazing and the rock lent itself to some lovely gritty crimps, the dial m line particularly stands out as one of the finest lines for its 5 ish grade in the country imo. After that did a lot of exploring but found surprisingly little of an amenable grade. Found the classics, eat it etc and they looked lovely but generally harder problems were all we could find. I wouldn't be rushing back unless I was coop fit and even then I'd want a local, several pads and a route climbers head for heights. And the reality was that the cliffs above us were busy with "real" climbers and i'm not so out of touch with my roots that i didn't feel a little silly playing on the scraps dropped from the table above. Silly enough that when dec came up he kindly belay nannyed us up a couple of routes, bravo dec, which I enjoyed greatly. Good meet, nice big crowd. Got a little more info on the grit but need more.

Pottered on a beginner's circuit up at carrigshouk, quite a bit of rock there when you look but generally only easy stuff. Explored some new rock up around the mac, put in some good cleaning efforts. Mostly craglets but a good sized boulder there also with a lovely slopey break, high and hard. Below it a lovely looking short steep wall into slopey mantle, looks hard. Hopefully a couple of days rain will clean it right up.

Scalped at some stage, enjoyed it, saw the 8a, looked awkward.

Climbed a bit on the aran islands, twas nice but not the highlight of the trip, the wormhole stuff was crimpy and very smooth, though i like the feel of the project line on the right hand end, it looks like a stonking pure line. Also liked the look of the if-only arches near the campsite ,wave smoothed breaky limestone parts of it maybe climbable once or twice a year, if even. Others which were climbable during our trip but we missed.

Spent yesterday in quarry with dec watching his mcdonalds starved rear dance up a few classics, I just seconded all day. Took a while to get any height head on me but once i did i found the lack of stamina very frustrating. Finished up on stereotentacles though, hvs apparently, which i reckon i'd be happy to lead fairly soon, mebbe. And superette with its bomber gear and vertical fall.

Savage sweating up the holds justified the decision to do routes.

loughed in

driving home today i realised one of the main reasons i keep a blog. it is to prolong those oh-so-brief moments when you actually get to the top of something you've put some work into. today i conquered the rainbow, 10 feet of frustration that i suspect I wouldn't have gone back to if i hadn't done it today. the friction wasn't even very good and my first few efforts ended in scrunched up balls of anger that i had wasted another fucking drive up that fucking never ending valley. resigned to failure i threw out my previous beta and started crossing through off the standing start, right hand up first. to my surprise this worked so i broke down the first half into as economic a sequence as i could and after several patient efforts managed to link it all up and top out. in truth topping out nearly broke me, and i needed several minutes to get my breath back. but that just made it sweeter. another silly little line up a boulder has brought me a silly amount of satisfaction.

glenmac

completed a week of skin masochism with another trip to glenmac on saturday. started at the flaming tips boulder but found the scoop brutalising my palm and we moved on up to the rasher where i distracted myself doing a little trenching while the lads full irish'd. Up to dice boulders where i tried the left line of monkey burger ( Orion as named by harry) only a couple of times, felt hard on the skin. Gave monkey a good few goes, was comfortably getting my hand over the lip but was having trouble getting over the mental block of committing to the skin loss of actually trying to hold it. Looked at the mantle top out as well which i tried up to a point just to confirm it would go for me which it will, a fine example of the art. Tried what we thought was the line of smokey and the bandit on the back of the genesis boulder but hard to know. Figured out the tricksy start only to find the next hold a bed of razor crystals. Up to fiontar boulder, tried lip service problem a few times. Nice moves, hard start to match, then sequency and snatchy enough to slice my finger. Deceptively difficult problem but just need to link moves. Trenched a little here also. Bottled the jump onto the couch, true to form. Want to get into glenmalure while still feeling vaguely strong.

three rock

headed up for an hour after work, stayed on the middle crop, finger still sore on some holds. good clean fun.

Back to the mac

Took advantage of the long stretch of dry weather and bounced into glenmac on springy turf. Mostly dry where it mattered, nothing a small tarp couldn't handle. Took under 30 minutes to reach solidarity which i tried a few times from the right using my previous beta but no dice. It's always a rude awakening to the skin getting on solidarity, skin ridging up quickly. Up to the rasher where i think i slightly altered my beta, throwing up the left to the slopey hold with the thumb catch. Everything else remained the same and in fact the right foot at the end was very useful, slightly counter intuitive beta. In the end the problem went quite easily, a soft touch 7a for wall rats? Did full irish with relative ease, fantastic problem, looked at the mixed grill continuation left but didn't give it a real go. Headed direct for the dice boulders next, sat down to the line left of monkey burger and could get back to the same position, still very hard but i think its a brilliant problem, such improbable slopers to hold. Did le joker and the various other lines there and was a little bit enraptured with the wonder of it all, such amazing unforgiving friction. Ended up throwing myself at monkey burger and surprised myself by hitting the lip a couple of times. Two little projects for myself side by side?

kerry meet

went down to the gap for the kerry meet, long way for two days but well worth it in the end, two days of very hot sun. did a lot of wandering hillsides exploring but realistically added nothing new to the areas development, a lot of rock there. started in black valley on a boulder duffy had just discovered, a sheep pen boulder with a lovely looking fingery flake and a very nice blocky corner. went from here to the lough, joined the flash club for rock n lock, a fantastic problem, then could do boneyard from standing but baulked at the idea of the heel toe lock for the sitter even with a soft touch tag of 7b being sniffed around. explored deeper into the next valley and up into the forest off the kerry way but found nothing of note. back for noodles and sean nos. sunday headed up gap, pottered at the turnpike arete, tried onion arete and crimpy face. rock quality much more sandstoney and satifsying than the mostly crimpy holds of saturday but wasn't hurling myself at stuff. explored further down behind the lower lake but again nothing of note. several people raving about the watchtower boulder despite its presence on haunted land.
good honest ibt session all round, everyone living up to their reputations, great to be camping again.

Grease frightening

Went to glendo after work, very sunny but not a hint of midge. Warmed up , rock was greasy, tried rails ss times three but greased off. While waiting for the sun to set on pascals ( about 7ish) played on the Squamish problem which was suprisingly clean, must get some traffic. Tried rightwards tending line from same start which turns into a flicky mantle with the left hand, Flicking the Seam, it would be called, if i got it. nice and not very hard but hard enough to make me stop to save my skin and energy. pascals felt pretty dreadful higher up, the heel to hold me in reaching for the triangle kept popping. but the gap between the link is much smaller now, i can do it from standing starting arms crossed. from sitter i just need to hold the move of right hand up which i currently start to barn door.

also this.

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/diarmuidshalf/.

glendo

headed down to glendo with sick boy and big daddy, hot day occasionally shitty conditions. warmed up on tripod which bless it is a good bloc with several independent good lines. then to andys where we failed to make any impact, though i did do out the top section. then for a wander over to craftsmanship where i changed my footwork to right foot on the little pointy bit and left foot sort of just resting on foothold of qc. would have done it if not for my flapper tape. made way through scree did little nice bulgy yoke nice holds, 5 maybe and then Scrittles, a step up and slopey crystally mantle that should become a rite of passage like the chimney, 5+ going on 8a, hernia inducing, between dec's pyramid and track. the lads were playing on pascals, tim should have got it, and after a few tries i am starting to feel better on it, use tims method, drop right knee as you crank up on the left undersidecut, was going for sidepull dab more comfortably, need to get that in exact right spot. if i hit the upper crimp, left heel up to bring left to triangle, then two feet on and throw full length for gash jab, right foot out under right hand, drop left onto crimp and campus for top with right. i will never read this description again.

good day topped by dave seeming to accept that superstars meets his criteria for an independent line, justifying its own number in the guide. in front of three witnesses.

polldoo n elsewhere

decided to use my easter hols for something and headed up to donegal to polldoo valley again. went to considerable lengths to check some boulders we'd spotted before at a distance but found them to be buried in farmers fields and not as big as first thought. made it into polldoo proper before it got dark. didn't climb due to damp.

up in sunshine in the morning, tried the arete but it was slightly green and needed many hands working it so i passed it over and trudged up the hill to the split pea boulder to get stuck into one of the four projects on it. First hold i bear down on my hand rips off and i get a flapper on my right index finger and that was that for the climbing.

Split pea needs some serious ground work for the drainage but it would be worth it. The one which really caught my eye was a super slopey over hanging lip traverse up to an arete squeeze and mantle. next time. popped over to the slab again, such beautiful rock.






from polldoo i headed homewards passing through fermanagh where i managed to find the legendary gritstone. didn't get to try much of anything but some really impressive looking rock and seemed to be plenty of it. not sure if there's a guide or who's sitting on what but i can only assume a lot of stuff has been done.

glendasan

down to a very damp glendasan with dec and bray, found everything unclimbable despite the wind, showed the lads back to black then the lads did running club and while i waited for my pick up i wandered up and found the whale dry and got it after a few gos, very pleasing and very nice, ahab 6b, very conditionsy.

stolen day

drove down speculatively with dec to glendo and it started to rain at laragh. coffee and a creme egg with the nice ladies and continued doubtfully on our way only to find the roads dry within a few hundred metres. sun subsequently stayed out until we drove home at 5.

started big jim, did a lap, couldn't get barrys, need left foot on. then over to andy's and worked for a while in quite poor conditions. dec got up it but i did nay. debated trying pascals but decided against it. headed into decs pyramid 7a that isn't. not sure now from guide but if we had same prob we agreed it was probably 6a. pottered on a few things around here. then worked way over to quality control which has a very awkward start. by the the end i grudgingly conceded its a nice problem with some lovely holds. ran out of skin and juice to do the rh finish which seems like the more natural line and involves an interesting right toe left heel squeeze to throw for the crimp, upper section seemed fine just need to get the starting pop. conditions pretty poor on these problems.

cooped twice midweek starting to focus a bit more on crimps.

got into aughris head over the weekend, never really got into the zone, no spotter, one pad, seepage and a bit of spray in the air. didn't climb as much as i would've liked.

ucd'ed yesterday with lucia, put my harness on upside down and was corrected by the wall monitor.

peds brief video of the meet manages to catch dave not climbing, me eating biscuits, sparkle tour guiding and dec making a hard prob look piss, not bad for 2 minutes of footage.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yfsDTDTFXo

lough bray

after another aborted effort last night made it to lough bray direct from work today. when i started climbing found i still felt as stiff as i did at the coop yesterday. after a grand hotel warm up threw myself at rainbow for an hour. forearm shin bones very tired, quite weird. held the upper hold a few times but never comfortably. felt like shit, had lemsip on return home. will blame this shitness for shit climbing. maybe learned to just put left hand on best bit, dab with right then crank through.

meet

no night session due to rain and bed by 2am friday night, 13 people slept down. up to shitty enough weather but sun out by the time we got to boulders and stayed all day. opened with rails, couldn't do egg mantle, got egg ss using dec's humping beta, couldn't get superstars. up to pascals and watched chris get it for his first time. found that i could get to the break if i used chris/ tim method of left hand up into best part of undercut and right hand sidepulling above it before moving up. can move into it but at the moment finding left hand too open in the undercut crimp and quite painful. lot of work still to do. couldn't get blind stick, got black arts quickly. lot of real impressive features in and around crackland. up to chilax and couldn't top out the left. then up to fin, got ss second go. real clean top out was very pleasing after long day. decent crowd down, probably close to 40, though as usual very few stuck around for the night, lamos. bed by 3am.
sunday -up to electric mountain for damp wander in forest, an unwitting tourguide. by the time we'd done a lap holds were drying and spent the rest of the afternoon trying 4 moves 4 feet off the ground. built up a good technique only for the beta to change late in the day, all in the twist of a knee. hands match start on crimp, foot low right, rh onto low ramp, shift feet across left foot/knee pointing left, right foot hugging low out right. important to hang very low and plumbline, match on ramp then left up to good crimp on the lip, r dabs and goes for arete. top out looked intersting but low ramp out right important. worn out back to hut to fail miserably at hoiking a heavy weight over my head. good meet, good people.

3 rock

late start verging on a wasted day however the sudden mildness of the weather meant that conditions in any of the daytripping spots would have been pretty shitty so perhaps no great loss. Went up 3 rock and found it not so much of an issue but still noticeable. Bit spaced. pretty close on ss of centre line.

near misses

back to glendo at the rock at 5.10 with sunset at 6.31 ish and still climbing at 7 pm. started in ruins first time in an age. did wallop, remembered the right holds without which its nails. also the frustration slap which was lovely but the first real indication that friction wasn't perfect. up to egg ss and relearnt it. first right hand suddenly had sharp point to it i don't remember, now bunch fingers under it. leave room on ramp for right foot. throw left hand to higher on crimp. when reach hand ramp with right its best as an almost crimp, left hand goes in behind and left. building on yesterdays thoughts i decided tonight its like a stuck combination lock, you can get all the details right but in the end you still have to thug it. twice i got to the hand ramp and fucked up the thugging through, one time managing to open my belt and top button of my jeans in my desperate humping. walked away tired, tried bmx a couple of times but failed then over the river to andys to examine my crimp strength. crimp felt huge and i'd like to think only fading light and energy stopped me getting it. good session left tired. brought crossword found my most successful efforts came after crossword rests.

some dice

down to glendo for an early session with bike in back. started well getting rails and egg mantle. tried egg ss for first time in a while and managed to get into position to snatch for rib but not very convincingly, poor concentration generally. pascals went as badly as ever. watched dec repeatedly cruise the move through the undercut which he did going left up and moving right straight thru to break. rang tim for his beta which is to also go left up but then match and move thru. broke down the moves into variations and found each and every one too powerful for me sparking a thought process on how much weight i'd need to lose to be able to contemplate them. will still try it but need to see noticeable improvement on other problems before i can seriously expect to get it. up to chillax then and got the leftwards version comfortably enough, all about a solid heel. looked at project(?) behind chillax, very hard. up to fin suntrap, very comfortable with launch but hand was sliding down the hold. despite pascals felt generally good today, stronger than of late.

first evening daylight session

got up to three rock after work, interestingly i only get to the boulders at the same time as i would going to glendo, 5.20 ish. Lovely friction, walking down at 6.30 dark by the time i got to the car.

cooped for an hour yesterday.

bray

headed up for first lough bray lamp session a record attendance of 4. skin was always going to break me but stilll would have liked to do better on rainbow than i managed. could hold campus but its a shit way to do it. in future when matching high on arete need to keep low, arms straight and resettle right hand then go. maybe move heel closer to hands also. really frustrating. tried away from, crimp is very sore on sore skin, matching seems difficult but probably doable, move up to vertical break seems very long and hard.

hard scrit

headed to glendasan for a change and it turned into a good old school exploration of the masses of rock above the mining village. first tried problem lower down on slopes, from standing try and hold dirty sloper and move through to bottom of a crack, hard. sit start is all there but would be very hard. tried another one up amongst the crags which starts on great side pulls up to a frustratingly slopey break. sun shining directly on it made it very difficult but the rock was cleaner than lower. another lovely looking line involved a following a dwindling crack up a slab to a slopey highball top out, again the sun and fading tips meant i didn't risk the top properly. a few great looking slabs around but the rock type doesn't do them justice. an interesting lip traverse might be worth a revisit. finished on back in black a really brilliant line up a steep overhanging arete on textbook holds to a disturbingly difficult top out that i couldn't do.

on walk out had look at the problem to right of darkness but fingers were too burnt to give it a go, upper slopey section felt nails though.

tainted glove

after 2 nights in coop with beautiful clear skies outside i managed to cram in a lamp session on 3 rock after bodhran with bray. perfect night for bouldering, no wind, which would have killed us, cold feet an issue. did the usuals marvelled again at the mostly eliminate wonder of it all except principally for the last two on the tour. got my micro dyno pretty easily, 3rd time only methinks, the friction was frightening. threw toe up on central line once but wasn't overly pushed on it, pleased to hold swing on one go after foot came off, felt like a god. lovely venue for lamp session i reckon less than 2 hours round trip from the car when you're not with a world class route climber.

back to bray

went up, was shit, holds felt greasier initally and area was clagged, cleared ultimately and holds felt better but was beasted after bullock. abs really bad but arms and shoulders also wrecked. gonna try decs match/cross through another time and it should work. start should be fine when friction's good. away from the numbers side seam was green and wet looking.

karma whore

on the way back from work on friday on a lemsip induced rush of optimism i took off up towards lough bray despite the changeable weather. only once i was hilt deep in the hills-have-eyes did the rains come. come saturday morning and on/off sprinkles of rain had us at the quarry in lough bray before we could really tell it was pointless. driving back to the coop and the sudden sunshine makes us head for bullock only for it to rain as we rolled into the harbour. this time we wait it out and despite continuing to sprinkle on us it ultimately cleared. everything sea side was pretty much unclimbable so we quickly ended up on reardon's roof which felt lovely. dec finished it after a few tries (2nd ascent?) and i made it to the corner relatively comfortably before calling it a day. dec levered on the last jug to a frightening extent due to the top out being quite wet and slimy and i didn't relish the prospect. the right hand of the tiny piano chord holds felt huge. fed the rat but want to get out again tomorrow.

pascal sheehy

Went to coop and worked out a pascals style problem. This time i didn't need to move any holds, last time i put up one extra hold to mimic the very same problem and some cunt took it down. That is the only reason i have not done pascals yet. It is not a perfect match to pascals but does have the same gastony move which is key and hopefully will help me get the body tension and lock off strength i need.

tried one of the big boys problems, 7b+ apparently, on the barrel, couldn't do the first move.

Hannah was there and she didn't burn me off any problems like she previously did to Tim.

GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My goal is to get Pascal's on or before the meet. This will be made more difficult by a firm intention to avoid glendo for a while as it is getting a bit stale.

Also wanna do the whale.

Interested to see how i get on on that steep 7b on the rasher if i ever get in there again.

Going to go through guide looking for projects for myself. Any suggestions from my legions of readers?

lurking in the dark

up early again for a trip to glenmac and snowy conditions on higher ground looked promising until we got there and found the ground to be nowhere frozen underneath the snow. so we headed to glendo on the basis the snow wouldn't be in the sun and hoepfully wouldn't be melting all over the holds. turned out there was no snow on the boulders just some serious damp in the shade and beautiful sunlight starting a third of the way up the scree making us feel even colder. difficult to get psyched initially. tried rails ss got off the ground but upper holds were fully wet, just happy to have got start for first time in a while. tried egg mantle( after having to melt ice in handhold by rubbing it with great vigour ) and surprised myself by getting it. up to enter the goat sloper problem but it was damp, looks fun. up to fin, again surprised myself by holding starting hold real solid, so solid that i felt comfortable dropping off over some minor discomfort with my left hand, thinking i'd get it next go. Ha. Dec then quite comprehensively fucked the shit out of it and topped out. having no interest in sloppy seconds my energy faded quickly on it, happy to have held the start. on the way out decided to quickly try Superstars and flashed it which was more than a little pleasing. FLASH etc...

portrane

headed to portrane early, starting journey in sun and ending in the distant mists of donabate. We skipped quickly past the main areas due to seepage and gashness, played a bit in pirates cove, not really psyched by it myself but then down to the pit which appears to me to be the best climbing in the whole place ( alley was damp but having been there before i don't remember it being that good.) A couple of very distinct lines on lovely slopey bulgey rock and a lovely traverse problem and they all had top outs, a rarity here. A lovely local little training wall if it was local. bray beat me on a traverse, back under my rock i go. went back to ground zero but was entirely uninspired by the multi featured, arbitrary finish climbing so we skimmed stones and tossed the caber. a good day. also starring bray, dec and davo.

climbing in portrane is beasting. in future will probably skip to alley and pit.

Glendo lamp

Did a later lamp session cos bray's found work screwing our country up. Bitterly cold but very romantic clear night. Climbed like shit, hopefully cos its third day on and i'm tired from restarting cycling but still demoralising. blew off rails ss and grazed my chin. couldn't touch mantle or egg. pulled onto barrys at least and could throw awkwardly. little head torch more important than helmet mounted 1000 W spotlights. Intend to do a few 3 rock lamp sessions though soon i'll be able to get up there after work while its still bright...

coope dup

went for another late solo session in the coop, felt stronger than of late, got further on chris's project.

lough braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

after a long absence nice to get back to braay even if we didn't get much done before rain came. did what might be a new line up the right most end of grand hotel (wtf?) boulder. short but worthy problem using rh crack and lh on arete up to nose. tried rainbow until the rain came, starting on the jug to the right felt like i could link it which i 've never done before, normally only able to get standing start.

bottoming out

went to glendo for a lamp session on the spur of the moment after work friday, thank you bray. felt proper weak, the darkness not helping, couldn't pull on to barrys problem, tried andy's, small thumb catch part of crimp has broken off. hopefully it all only gets better from here.

glendo

back in glendo after a long absence, track impressively disrupted in several places, washed out to its foundations near the rangers cottage. interestingly baltic cold didn't guarantee perfect friction. added new line on the rails bloc to warm up circuit, bad landing but straight forward enough to go padless. got rails start but fell off halfway up, was content witht that, also got pathside traverse. really started to feel lack of power on the egg mantle, found it very difficult to keep body in, didn't get it, then up to pascals to watch dec confuse my sequencing again, far too weak to progress in any way. had fun on chilax trying to go left did pretty well once but my shoe started peeling off and after that my stamina seemed to be shot, the Power Bar going down in my arms almost tangibly. threw self at fin, fail.

nearly had a flat balancing boulder pin my legs on the way up to fin. would have needed several people to lift it if it had caught me when it fell and would have pulped my legs.

grit bit

headed to the grit without huge enthusiasm due to my recent lack of exercise, good crac, went to cratcliffe lovely slabs lovely rock some very fonty stuff on the egg particularly, lads tried a t crack a steep hard classic, i'd like to come back to it, almost got a supposed lowball 7a . robin hood stride has overly hard roof which caused more difficulty than expected. curbar next day, not so psyched, grand, would like to get gorilla warfare direct line, amazing lookin slopers.

cooped today, not as shit as expected.

backstreets back

Went into ucd after over a month of nothing. Was weak. Got burnt off a load of stuff by everyone. Enjoy it while it lasts fuckos. Soon I'll be as strong as ped.