Catchup

Its been a busy couple of weeks to say the least! France was fun, didn't do nearly enough canyoning but had a thorough introduction to sport climbing. Did a rake of 5's, a few 6's and came within a gnats left testicle of getting up a 7a. Alex has some video clips of it which I'll see about putting together and posting up. The one thing I did realise during the trip is that I'm a trad climber. Sport is a laugh, but it just felt like training for, what I consider to be, 'real' climbing. I'd rather be playing headgames on a runout HVS anyday than be hangdogging a 7b. My attitude may be a product of Irish climbing's ethical restrictions, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Closer to home, I've been to Wicklow a fair bit recently. Had a good day in Glendo when I actually climbed a dozen or so problems, including a possible first ascent. It was easy enough, but a fun problem to work out. It may sound strange, but actually climbing boulder problems had become a bit alien to me. I had gotten a bit too sidetracked with projecting problems at or above my limit. Gotta get in mileage on doable stuff too. Like the highball arete and slab on Big Jane. I'd been eyeing them up for a while, knowing that the climbing was pretty easy. Just couldn't summon up the bottle to go for it on my own. Quite fortuitous it was then that I met another boulderer in Glendalough (real climbers desert the boulders for the cliffs around May). With an extra pad and some moral support, the problems went down pretty quick.

As well as climbing, I've been exploring a bit too. Never having gotten beyond glendo, I was curious about the other locations written up in the guide. First up was Annalecka. I've got to say it was pretty disappointing. It's not exactly the most appealing of spots. It must have been lovely when the trees were still standing, but now its all been felled. The going between boulders and outcrops is tough, and for the most part the climbing seems pretty easy. The best bouldering is on the beautiful Sadhbh Tree boulder. The roughest granite I have ever seen! Due to having NO eye for a sequence, I ended up campusing the traverse line of 'Return of The Sithe'. My forearms paid the price and I still have the marks! Great boulder though, I'd go back just to tick all the lines. The Wave was another interesting feature. only 2 plausible lines on the whole thing, a faint crack with a good foot ledge and 2 tiny crimps, and a sitstart problem on the left from good crimps to slap for the top. Both very short though, the wall doesn't get far above head height. Again, I would go back to do the problem on the left. The other sectors were disappointing. Cheops looked good in pics, but on closer inspection not so good. Maybe one or two S or VS slab lines. The area is maybe worth one or two return trips, but I can't see myself going there regularly. There might be more potential in the forests though, that'd be worth a couple of recce trips.

I checked out Glendasan and Mall Hill too. As the guide says, Glendasan has very good problems, just very spread out. Gaskins is such a beast, I can't even see how 'Darkness Before The Dawn' is climable! Monster... Mall hill is pretty cool. Again an unattractive felled hillside, but the forest above has some gems. 'Livin The Dream' is a great problem. Unfortunately it was wet and the midges were out in force when I paid a visit, so I only had a couple of half-hearted goes. Definitely going back in the winter. Theres also an untouched boulder in a clearing deep in the forest that looks like it might yield some nice lines. Seein as how the climbing conditions are so shit, I might just go down and give it a brush up in preparation for sending weather in a couple of months. Had a wander in the Rocklands with another climber from Wexford and found a nice steep face for bouldering (great arete line) as well as some nice faces for routes. It'll be nice to give the routes there some action, some of them probably haven't been climbed since the 70's or 80's! The above-head-height ferns that are there at the moment does make this a winter crag though.

And so to the most important news....I sent The Ghost on friday! I know its not particularly hard climbing, but its a fantastic route and was a bit of a revelation to me. Honestly, I expected to fall. The boldness didn't bother me, as I've done much bolder. The grade did. Its an E2 and I've only ever done 2 E1's. I think I had a bit of a stumbling block in my head about grades, attaching too much importance to them. Knowing that I'm physically well capable of doing a route but not getting on it because it was graded E2 or E3 was beginning to annoy me. Still, I set off up the slab with a bit of trepidation. The revelation was that I pissed up it. I know its low for the grade, with no hard moves but it was a big step for me to even set off on it. The crazy thing was that in the middle of the route I caught myself eyeing up the other lines on the slab (The Phantom Raspberry Blower looks soooo good!). Basically, all the slab lines in the Quarry are now on the ticklist and every time I go climbing from now on I'm going to try something I think I might fall off (though obviously well protected). I really want to find my limits both physically and mentally, so some experimentation is in order....

Peace out