Weeked Warrior

Well I'm back after another mournes trip and after having had a couple of days to mull it over its still the most amazing place I've ever climbed. I mean, its got everything. Theres a couple of dozen crags so its very unlikely you're going to get bored, the rock is typically excellent with friction on par with Glendo on a cold day, and the walk-ins are long, beautiful and rewarding in their own right. You feel like you've done something before even touching the crag. Basically its the full package for a trad location. When the new guide sees the light of day you'll be laughing!

I drove up on the friday night to the opulent surroundings of the queens hut. Well, opulent compared to Agnahoo. Seriously, if the queens hut was in the middle of cuilcagh the cavers would jizz their pants its that good. Various foodstuffs and liquid supplements were consumed (but not to excess, thats a lesson well learned! :-) ) and everyone hit the hay with high hopes for the morning. Well founded as it turned out, the weather was fantastic....eventually. A group of the foolhardy started the slog up Binnian fuelled by the blind optimism that the cloud covering everything was merely an optical illusion, and even if it wasn't it was this new "dry" cloud that sucked all moisture from the rock. Getting to the top and not being able to see from one tor to another was a little disconcerting, but we persevered and by the time we reached the north tor the cloud had split like a mid-nineties teen sensation boyband to leave blue skies and warm sun. Result! Binnian north tor is easily the coolest place I've ever climbed, its more like sculpture on top of a mountain than a crag. We set up camp under Triggers and ran around getting excited. Especially seeing Crystal Method, Mushroom Boyz and Thrill Issues of the Jellyman all within 20m of each other! How cool is that! Sufficiently PSYCHED, we warmed up by doing a bit of bouldering and trying Triggers. Thats such a cool problem, 2 good handholds and absolutely nothing for about a metre until the slopey jug. Leo, Shane and I were all feeling close, having gotten to within an inch or two of the jug within a couple of goes, but that inch was feeling mighty hard to overcome! After many more goes, and some splitting of skin (especially Leo's, a perfectly straight slice from the tip of his middle finger all the way down to his wrist!) we were no closer and decided to sack it off to check out the routes. Jack and Michelle were already ahead of us on that front, with 'chelle putting in a very good effort on a beastly offwidth corner crack. I went off and did Dreadlocks Holiday with Dan. The most unique VS i've ever been on I think. The crux is rocking over onto a toe-jam in a thin crack that arches across this perfect slab. Hurts like hell, but a very cool move!

As numbers in the group weren't equal, I could go off and be a loner without leaving anyone in the lurch and feeling like a dick, so I set up a rope on Thrill Issues. Effort to Ricky Bell on putting it up, but major RESPECT to Andy Marshall for flashing it! Easily one of the most impressive pieces of climbing to occur on this landmass in recent history when you get up close and see how non-existant those footholds are! Massive props. I spent a good while dangling around, and managed all the moves but one. Another session and I think I could link it. The crux revolves around two foot moves, the initial step up onto the slab with your left foot, and getting your right foot reeeealy high onto a decent foothold. The top part of the slab is straightforward, you just wouldn't want to fall off. It took a while to figure out how to make that first foothold work, but when I did I was doing the move 4/5 times. Its tenuous, but I think it can be made fairly steady. A bit like a mirror image of the Bird Brain crux really. The problem I think I was having with the next move was the weight of the rope in the shunt pulling me off-balance on the foothold. Next time I'll try a toprope and a belayer. Definitely a very cool route though, and something I think might be possible in the (hopefully not too distant) future. As the man said, "Go big or go home!" :-)

As a result of going big (especially that big fuck-off steep walk in to Binnian!) Sunday was pretty muted, with everyone dossing round Lower Cove. Jack and I went off and pottered around first corner doing some VS's and I tried Dot's Delight. Fantastic route, but I knackered myself hand traversing back and forth beneath the crux for about half an hour before nervously slumping back onto 2 blindly placed cams. As ever, something to go back for. Went for a little wander round the crag after that and ended up at the East Face. Fuck. Ing. Hell. It's definitely up there with mirror wall as one of the most impressive single faces of rock I've ever seen! Immense, clean, overhanging, and with only a handful of routes up it! Seeing stuff like this is the best incentive to get better I think. You see it and something inside you goes "yep, I want that". Definitly fuel for improvement!

In the mean time since getting back, Wexford has been slowly giving up the secrets of its bouldering. Went back up to forth mountain and repeated the two nice little slab problems I did last summer or the one before. Climbed the groove between them, which was nice too. The Worst Crag Ever is even starting to seem more inviting, a different moniker might soon be in order! Went up there on tuesday and cleaned a couple of lines on the main overhang. The rock is blocky and sharp and the holds are largely unpleasent, but some of the moves are actually quite good. Especially the sitstarts. I've been working on a low traverse, but topping out that face would be well scary. Highball with dubious rock and a bad landing. Could yield some hard problems though....watch this space.

Disclaimer: In case people haven't read my previous post about this crag, I would like to re-iterate that it is shit. However, if, like me, you're stuck in the barren SE and desperate to climb something give me a bell. T'would be a novelty to see someone else there! :-P

The weekend looks like its going to be a washout unfortunately. Heading out to Wicklow regardless, great things can come from mindless optimism! :-)

Peace Out

p.s special thanks go out to Michelle and the amazing creation of wonderment and joy that is chocolate-biscuit-caramel cake. Yes, its every bit as good as it sounds! :-)