Smash 'n Grab

It was a mixed bag in Wicklow yesterday (Saturday). The forecast had looked shit for the weekend, but I'd arranged to meet John and after a week of vegetating in front of a computer, some time outside was badly needed! The drive up wasn't exactly confidence inspiring. A bit of drizzle I can deal with, but having the wipers on full blast and still having trouble seeing the road was giving rise to mutinous thoughts. Sod it, I thought, if worse comes to worst we can always hit the quarry or UCD. Picked John up at Greystones (very confusing train station), and after a series of false starts, somehow made our way towards Laragh. Its amazing what blind optimism and a stubborn unwillingness to accept the facts can achieve, the closer we got to Laragh the lighter the rain was! By the time we got to where we were going, it was practically dry! Everything would undoubtedly be saturated though, so we decided to head over to the boulder of choice to clean a project I'd spotted over the summer. I busied myself with an ab rope, a yard brush, and a lot of elbow grease, while John checked out other possibilities on the boulder. The left arete looked like it might go, so we gave that a brush too in preparation for a future assault. But the darndest thing happened.... The combo of dying rain, a healthy breeze, and a good brushing had left the arete dry! John booted up immediately, and after a couple of goes to work out the sequence he dispatched it quite quickly (first ascent?). I followed, and after a bit of flailing made it up as well. Really nice problem, with one funky arete hold and a cool move. Goes to show that Wicklow bouldering can always defy expectations!

After this surprising taste of victory, we headed to Lough Bray. I'd never been before, but on seeing the boulders held out hope that the wind could do its thing one more time. No such luck I'm afraid! The boulders were cool though. Big Ron is HUUUGE, and Away From The Numbers and a few other things look good and worth going back for. Was brought seriously back down to earth back at the car though, when we discovered that some shitheads had smashed in the back window. You have to wonder about the kind of people who do this. There were about 20 cds in the glove box along with a considerable amount of climbing and related paraphernalia in the boot, and what do they take? The lead to charge the GPS from the cigarette lighter!!! Something which is essentially useless and worthless without the actual GPS, which they left. Makes you wonder....

Anyway, piccies:
John cleaning the boulder. You can see the clean patch where the project is to the right.

Cleaning the arete.

John on a first attempt.

Oh and if it was a first ascent, we agreed on the name of the problem: Smash 'n Grab :-)

Peace Out

p.s. 50 points if you can figure out where the boulder is! Theres at least 2 other lines to go on it and I intend to head back to it at the meet next weekend. Psyched! :-)