cloughogoue

headed out for a spacey mornings climb before work. my car obviously overheard the mechanic earlier in the week say the prognosis was bleak and went all psychosomatic on us. barely made it to the climbing. whilst there we had a good day, a weird spaced out day with little conquered. the setting is one of the finest on offer but i'm not convinced of the climbing. i do enjoy a couple of the 6a/b lines in particulars and they gave enough challenge on this occasion to make it enjoyable but another day the lines were pretty much flashable. very rosemantic anyway for me, bray and trish.

car just got me to bray for work then died this morning on the drive home. RIP you little green wonder. my climbing trips have just got infinitely more complicated.

mac

was sitting in trinity at 9 pm last night listening to a raisin when i realised i could wake up in the hills this morning. made good time down and aimed to sleep in mall hill but by the time i got down i was too tired to make the trek in so i parked at the top of the waterfall and slept al fresco in the forest. in the morning glenmac was looking glorious and i realised i'd feel almost claustrophobic n mall hill so i parked at the little glass memorial to my car window and trekked in.

arrived at solidarity thinking 6c me bollix but then got it second go. its pointless grading friction aretes. headed up to rasher and managed the steep line with a bit of work. pleasing cos last time i sat under it i couldn't hold the first move. this was before 9.30am. sun started to heat the place up something savage. someone's patio'ed the next gen dyno which i'm glad to see. tried the lad's thing on the dice boulder but conditions were shit and it felt hard. joker was more work than usual. worked my way up to lugadroohan via the other boulder near nemesis. couldn't do the ss to lucky me, it felt shitty. wandered the jumble behind it and found a couple of almost lines, if someone strong were to put a lot of effort in there'd be 3 or 4 good hard lines in the jumble. descended via lip service. too trashed to hold the match. i did the couch jump though which was a more important project. did happy days on the way out, lovely.

bending myself

hit a wall on the essay so decided to escape up three rock. there were 4 hooded lads lurking on the top of the middle boulder, no doubt waiting to hurl shit and shrapnel down upon me so i skipped it and started at the end. initially found everything very greasy and felt like we'd skipped spring and already shifted into summer. however my skin seemed to adjust and even warm holds felt good friction after a while. got the rarely got little dyno really comfortably. tried the main dyno one handed and nearly dislocated my elbow, age setting in. did the mantle and nearly puked. moved back to the middle boulder and tried everything. got the sit start but fell off the top section. also did the New vertical line i'd looked at before, a lovely big undercut sidepull pinch proving the key. that makes five distinct non eliminate vertical lines. how exciting.

friction snobbery

got into the scalp before dark. started on the east side and the rock was sharp and marbly and the moves we were trying seemed snatchy. found it hard to get overly psyched whilst davo was ticking away. we went up to the old steep line and i felt a deep and ancient hatred for those holds. tried a couple of times then headed over to LDF which i hadn't tried properly before. the rock was a world away from that which we'd warmed up on and i managed to top out second go which was pleasing, real nice looking little line, i'd have even preferred a battle. finished on dark angle, both of us quickly getting the standing, i managed to move through the start of the sitter more controlled than before but fell off and then the darkness was too much. this was 7 o'clock, looking forward to the clock change.

the up-yours finger on my right hand is in a worrying state.

a day from nothing.

arrived downstairs to find a couple of people still passed out amongst a trashed kitchen. reckoned myself unfit to climb but decided i'd just escape to glendo to avoid the clean up. brought the bike but ended up walking in with the crossword as the bike seemed like too much effort. struggled up to the others at the fin only for them to be finishing up there by the time i got to them. went to chillax and was pleased to warm up on chillax left, topping out with a delicate knee. from here to crackland etc. tried and failed on white stick, trish has it nailed down and tim followed suit fairly shortly. left heel needs to be high but right on the corner of the foot hold and higher left hand works better. i finally touched the left high hold and it started to rain so i ran to black art. it dried quick but was still a little greasy, no sticky damp here, and only managed it after quite a fight on the upper section. big fan of that problem. stumbled on the crack nearby which i'd manage to miss before, very impressive. tried pokery for the first time properly since way back. managed it after tim, felt solid despite a swing and dab during the mantel, nice all important foot work needed down low. stopped long enough at fuck all for tim to send it then headed over to big jim where me and tim sped climbed our favourites to warm down. james spent most of the day having a moment, trish flapped out on pokery and stopped climbing to stop us getting her aids.

Surrender Monkey

Headed back to Mall hill for another bout with piece of resistance.It was foolish really, the tip i'd worn through on monday had quickly worn through in glendo on wednesday so there was little reason to expect it to last very long on the friday. In the end it didn't even make it through the warm up on chigaray arete which i made a sincere effort to fight my way over to. Lovely problem but not one to try with thin skin or to try to get to when its damp underfoot. Once I'd drawn blood I grumbled my way back to the big bloc for a fight. Sieged it to no avail. The lower section's pretty wired but the higher right hand just would not land in a way that didn't need adjustment. I even specifically filmed it to try and get a sense of how my hand should end up but it didn't work. Even when that's comfortable I'm not sure as a man of smaller stature how I'm going to hit the rib out left. I stopped when the tips on my right hand started to properly grease off. Great project though.

Waxing Empirical

Had a daylight/lamp crossover session with timmo in glendo, tore down after him after all duties had been dispatched. Got in and suddenly felt tired and not so motivated, warmed up real briefly before trying stuff on the egg with little success. Managed to get through the worst of the egg ss but couldn't get the rib. We backed off before we wasted too much skin, up to Fuck all left. Initially found it harder than before and felt way off holding the barn. Kept at it though, tim demo'ed the top section with ease so we worked the bottom for a while. Did a sparkle special by deciding it was my last go, we were both sick of trying the one move, and then i stuck it and topped out. Tim was obliged to get it now, kept repeatedly sticking the move we'd spent an age trying without success, only to not top out, one he'll flash another day. From here we had intended to go to white stick but darkness ruled it out. Went to fin instead, friction getting minty fresh the whole time. Managed to get the fin with a bit of effort but with surprisingly poor use of the right handhold, there's such good rock on that problem. Pottered on the other local problems all very lovely. The left arete of arotf has grown back in to a nice little line in my mind. Felt late but the conditions felt too good to waste so we headed in to chillax to try the softest 7a in Europe. Found on my first go that without thinking i could transfer my left hand out on to the lip without using the heel, something i wouldn't have dreamt of trying, felt super solid. Tried again but failed by paying attention to it and then just resorted to old heel up method and topped out. Fine end to a fine evening.