got into glendo again with limited time, maybe should have gone elsewhere this time, felt rushed for the most part. started in the ruins, did the other side of original arete, easier to unlock than when i had last tried it back in the day. could move through the roof but not top out on the cave problem. went into qc and tried both lines but felt like we didn't have time to work out the all important sequence. over to rhythm n stealth where the ucd lads were working ss and stander. tried it a couple of times. moved fairly comfortably up to the point where you reach for the higher left on the arete but was miles off. 2 real goes on it, will go back with time on my side. pulled onto top section, seems like a bit of hustle at height. pottered on big jims, felt weak on barrys prob.

shouted at a fella who's dog was chasing goats, felt righteous, may take up a religion.

glendo

crammed in a brief stint between study and work, 4 hr round trip. conditions were very good despite some occasional wind blown drops. nearly started at the ruins as the puddle was gone but still too squelchy underfoot, next time. warmed up on big jim instead, a lovely lap of lines. managed the dyno static, first time in ages. tried barrys prob and wasted skin figuring out its the counter intuitive left foot which i need to leave on to still be foot-on when i hit the hold. from here my annual venture over to andy's arete. the crimp felt good and was pleased to do it without giving in to the frustration of multiple failures. thats it for another year, a bench-mark in returning finger strength for me. from here i headed eggwards. managed to fade off reaching for the ramp on only my second go, felt almost done, then try and try again i could not get my left hand on the starting hold properly. to bmx to finish on a high, got it second go, as comfortable as its ever felt. went left hand this time to finish. had intended to try line right of qc but ran out of time. good day, pretty primo conditions at the mo.

also had a look at rhythm n stealth for the first time, i'm not sure why i've never paid it no mind. it looks great from the boulder behind, steep and long. looks do-able up until the high crux. i'll go back with pads n spotters.

hollywood

finally went back to hollywood as there was a heavy frost on anything remotely shady and i guessed the slope there would be getting the sun. did the slopey lip line which was nice, took a while, about 6b, Inertia. Wandered around a bit but was foiled trying other lines, the slopey arete on the far side of the same boulder could be great with some serious rock movement. at the mo any sit start to it is nails. didn't really scratch the itch.

waterfall

Being in bray anyway on another mint day i headed down to the waterfall in spite of the inevitable fourth-day-on elbow. davo was above the waterfall trying a surprisingly meaty line. I was eager to head into the marble mantle but got drawn in by the problem which ended up being very nice, Deadend 6b. Went into forest after determined to try the mantle and remembered thats its very hard, really steep and one for the mantle pros. I want to get it and call it Tetris.

Drove home via sally gap and stopped a couple of miles after carrigshouk, turned off the engine and got out. It was the stillest, quietest wide open space I've ever been in, my ears were literally ringing with the silence. then a car came and probably thought I was a murderer.

Lough Bray lamper

Headed down with davo and bray relatively late (7ish). Beautiful night, enough light from the moon to walk by if one felt so inclined. Dead still and clear enough that you could watch any car approach from as soon as they came over the horizon. I waxed about the central line on Grand hotel, think its great but the different versions of the left line are also worthy of great praise. Played on the halfway start of rainbow and managed to top out using my old technique which was pleasantly surprising, topping out still thuggish. Finished on Away from the numbers, my gutfelt disinterest in the line was overcome long enough to hold the crimp in rh a couple of times before we called time. Putting foot out right seems to be the way i'd do it.

Weighted myself in the last fortnight and was 80kgs. Weighted last night on different scales and was 75kgs, we'll see from here.

3 rock

got up three rock after work, worth it holistically but barely so climbing wise, darkness was pretty fully down after half an hour on the middle boulder. nice exfoliation session.

Glenmac

Was up and moving nice and early on sunday beautiful crisp day. picked up bray and headed for glenmac. road was icy enough at height to do a handbraker whilst driving past the waterfall car park, turned thru about 200' and slid off the road into the car park, never gets old.

ground was nicely frozen on the walk in but the boulders had frost hats and the sun was melting them. unfortunately only faces in the sun were dry everything else was skank. got to play on rasher, could hold first hold of steep face but no more, pleasing enough. got tombstone arete, dice boulders were a write off so we headed for solidarity. did arete between dice and tombstone which i hadn't tried in years. solidarity had a river running through the key foothold which was very frustrating. finished again on the s&l boulders with similar success levels to previously. good weekends efforts.

glendo

Got into glendo on saturday with dave expecting a few others but there wasn't another boulderer anywhere. It ws bitter cold and very windy so getting warm and staying warm were very difficult. Started at fin and worked our way down, but fin area got the best of our attention as it was sheltered from the wind, after that the cold added a vaguely urgent element to the climbing. mostly a tale of failure but i was pleased to come out of christmas still able to move on things, couldn't hold the top hold of superstars but hit it consistently, tried the rails twice without success and was too cold to keep trying. barely looked at egg boulder. popped over to big jim, just trying smear and smear left. preferred left on the day but both magic. called it a day with intentions of going to zef's but it was raining sheets of sleet before we'd passed through the slag heaps so we left it.

Hit a pretty big deer at full skid after annamoe, it bounced off the bonnet into the air turning through 270' and landed in the bushes, then got up a bit shaky for a minute and wandered off. i'd like to think there was no internal bleeding.

old beginnings

My first post since November 11th and i didn't even climb. Headed into a wet - damp glendo for a wander around. Took some pointless photos.

Nearly two months since i last climbed outdoors and with only a handful of coop sessions in between. I am now tickling 80 kgs, December was a feeder month. My project for 2011 is the slab on big jim.