Ebb and flow

So. Gola. Good craic, but I got two proper ass-whuppings. First on Fortune's Arete (pics below) then the next day on Gorgonzola. Both routes identified specific weaknesses. On Fortune's, it was a lack of efficiency which meant that even though there was a ledge big enough to bivvy on after the first steep section, I was so knackered I couldn't recover and failed after a couple of moves. On Gorgonzola it was a lack of commitment to going for moves above good gear. After a couple of false starts, I layed one on for the hold (the sequence I saw first but didn't go for) and got it easily. Result: Onsight blown, and immense frustration. Of course all this thought on how and why things went wrong is useless if theres no concerted attempt to fix it. And I can think of no better place than the head to try and do so, lots of milage to practise efficiency and hard moves above good gear to encourage commitment. The limiting factor, as always, is my own head. If I don't push myself, who else will?

In other news, yesterday was quite good. Dandered out to the quarry and soloed Yorkshire, Honeypot and Lumberjack a lot of times. Really enjoyed feeling the flow on easy routes, moving increasingly smoothly each go. Met up with Diarmuid and Ped and did the ghost again with them. Lovely route and felt nice and steady. I've never had the slab feel so easy before, it was nice. Then headed to Howth, and despite a few setbacks managed an hour or two in Ayton's Cave. Great venue, steep, powerful, technical and really sequency. Different to anywhere else I've seen in Ireland and comparable to a mini version of Ali-Baba's cave in Rodellar. Really cool. Met up with John and Eamon. Only managed to find the place due to hearing Eamon's roars after doing Loco Total! Good effort man! John seems to have turned into a proper caveman too, he's been spending a lot of time there recently. He did 2 new links yesterday. One absolutely obscene sequence out to the lip of the cave from the jug on Loco. The other was the low start to Loco itself. More of a route really, the thing is really bloody long! Great effort to the skinny boy wonder! :-P

Back up north tomorrow, and hopefully Fair Head at the weekend. Other than that it'll be workity work work to keep on top of this masters, the academic panic is starting to rise again!

Peace Out

p.s forgot to congratulate Tim on his first E1 the other day. And Diarmuid for that matter. Nice one lads! The trad has a lot of converts these days!