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.