Mighty Mournes

Crystal Methods E8/9 6c Ricky Bell headpointing in the Mournes. My favourite picture of Mournes climbing and possibly the most inspiring route in Underdeveloped.
Photo Credit: Craig Hiller

I love the mournes. Simple as. Last weekend was awesome and eye-opening in equal measure. The intercollegiate meet weekend was a brilliant success. It was great to experience a new crag and meet loads of new climbers! In some cases it was a matter of putting faces to names due to the wonderful disembodied communication available through internet forums! You know who you are.... ;-P It was also a surprise to realise that people actually read this (even if its only as fuel for slagging, eh Kev...:-D).

Anyway, the climbing. Saturday started badly, with me suffering the after effects of a night on the whiskey....never a good idea, however good it smells! Everyone else seemed chirpy though, and soon enough we were on our way to Lower Cove. The walk in was certainly something. Long, partly uphill, tiring, and in an absolutely stunning location! It adds so much to the climbing to be able to turn around at any point and be faced with a beautiful vista of mountains dramatically sweeping down to the sea. Beats Dalkey by a long way! Lower Cove was fun. We ended up hanging around third corner for the day. I got in two good leads and one "other one". Agags Wall was up first. It was a lovely long HS with a 15m runout at the top. Very fun! Next was the route Third Corner. Myself and Mary had a wee epic on this one. Especially on the despicable, unspeakable, disgusting chimney on the second pitch! "We'll never talk about this one again" eh Mary? :-) The trickiest HS I've ever been on bar none. Finally was Democrat, by far the best VS I've ever done. Its essentially the direct version of the classic Pillar Variant. We did it as a single pitch and I can't recommend it highly enough. Great moves on great holds in a great location. Then back to the Queens cottage to finish the day off with a barbecue. Just perfect.

Lower Cove. Second corner in the foreground and third corner in the background. Democrat goes straight up the face to the right of the big shadow, then moves slightly left and finishes up the face above via the large visible crack.
Photo credit: Matthew Tranter

Kev and Mary had to head off on Sunday morning so I was a a bit of a loose end. The main group was heading to Spellack, but if I went I would have no way of getting back! Dilemma! Dec and Barry came to the rescue, and along with Carrie and Darryl from Queens we headed off to do F.M. The route is a classic 6 pitch, 162m V Diff/S (depending on the final two pitches you do). Dec and Barry were there to increase their multipitch experience, Carrie and Darryl were trying simul-climbing, and for some reason I had it in my head that I wanted to solo a long mountain route so we all had an objective. For my part the climb went pretty well. When I was up there I decided to do the S final 2 pitches, and apart from a slight "moment" on the blank fifth pitch it all went swimmingly. Apparently the solo speed record is 12 minutes (in the rain). Fair dues John, I wouldn't do it! :-) Though I must admit I'm quite happy with the climb. I think its good for my head, and gives some little extra confidence for some objective I have for later in the summer.

Overall the Mournes were awesome. Perfect rock, great climbing, bold and committing even at low grades and in a stunning location to boot. I definitely want to go back as soon as possible, preferably to have a go at something a little harder. Probably in my present comfort zone of HVS - E1. It'd be nice to make it up to the Tors as well, so I think I may start some hiking or running to up the fitness levels before a return trip is planned!

I'm taking two days off (excluding fingerboard sessions), then heading to Glendo on Wednesday to work the sitstart on Rythm & Stealth and hopefully send Andy's Arete. Gotta go to UCD to pick up some gear for cayoning too. Heading to France on Friday. Soo psyched for this trip! The canyoning is bound to be awesome and I'm chomping at the bit to try sport climbing. The goal is to do a 6b, maybe a 6c. Not setting my sights too high, I just want to get a feel for sport climbing. The weather forecast isn't looking great though, hopefully the climbing stays dry and the canyons don't flood! Otherwise it could be a rather dull trip. Though I have seen pictures of a great looking bouldering wall in Chamonix. So there'll be something to do no matter what happens. It'd be a pity to go to Chamonix just to train though...

Thats all I can think of for now, talk to y'all later when I have something decent to write about (hopefully!)

Peace out

p.s. Anyone know whats the best thing for me to do in the next week so I'm feeling fit and strong when I get to France? The plan is to climb on Wednesday with a set plan so I don't completely knacker myself out, and do two intervening top-up fingerboard sessions. One today, and one on Thursday. Is this a good idea? Any opinions or advice is greatly appreciated. Cheers.