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.