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.