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.