friction's nob

Returned from a ski trip to find what appears to be a rash of activity in Wicklow, 25 + problems added in a week. It was interesting to see what others saw when they visited Tonduff with bouldering hats firmly on, I always felt that the first boulder set heights which the rest of the valley never lived up to. Then again I've often felt out of kilter with what others see as good bouldering spots, a prime example being Doolin, but I've had guiltily negative thoughts in the past about the Gap, the Scalp, Glenmalure etc. This from a man who rates Three Rock as one of his favourite bouldering spots.

Part of it is that I've been lucky enough be a boulderer in Ireland when the sport was in its infancy, and to be party to the exploration of some amazing places like Glenmac and Mall Hill. This means I still have high expectations of any new venue. Also I am a friction snob, I find it difficult to see past dirty, scrittly rock. And by dirty I don't mean an earth covered handhold, I can be as enviro-mental as the next Ped. By dirty I mean that under-the-surface dirt of lichen and millenia of damp, that you could take a sandblaster to and never clean. Another element is that I am more than a friction snob, I am kind of an aesthetic snob as well. I have an almost feng shui reaction to some boulders or problems, eg "Away from the numbers" leaves me cold as a line. Overly featured blocs can also make me turn my nose up and keep looking. Stupid really, but then when was the sport of bouldering ever a highly rational process.

I am also wary of falling for the first ascent fever that comes on when I find a couple of clean looking rocks. Suddenly every shitty, scrabbly shit-start-out-of-a-puddle eliminate is a line, so where there are really 2 lines, your hand scribbled topo shows 20. Part of this is simply enthusiasm, and part might be an unconscious bigging up of your "discovery". However increasingly i think part of it also stems from this second guessing of oneself after having explored an area and mentally crossed it off only for others to come along and see potential you never did. And sometimes they are right about the potential, so doubt creeps in. There's a cycle there, explore a place, write it off then after a few years you see some photos and think maybe and decide you need a return visit to really know, no, no, it is shit, rinse repeat.

Despite many hours spent searching country-wide for rock, there is always stuff that's new to me appearing. The grit in Fermanagh, the Mournes mountain top boulders, amazing stuff. And there's hopes of more undiscovered stuff out there. Rumours of some purple sandstone in the hills around Delphi had me in there on repeat trips, trudging solo into beautiful spots but just being deflated at the small sized boulders of perfectly formed rock, teasers, and still the doubts and what-ifs remain.

Also one thing I am increasingly sure of is that there was always more people out there looking than I thought, and who knows how many people have done the same unnamed problems in remote valleys, one line wonder boulders that you've walked an hour to get to. The wonderful pointlessness of it all.

Anyway good to hear people are still finding stuff, its led me down the waxing path, jealous here in my armchair.