Drove up to the Head for the meet on Friday with Jane, Trish, mystery7, Brian, and Senor Peenapple. The senor gave much amusement from the back seat, and added a touch of continental class to the drive. Not to mention a distinct tropical aroma to the car. Ah well, better than the usual fragrant perfume of my dragons. Got up pretty late and crashed early to make the most of the saturday. The boulders were crawling and the prow was hopping so we went to Farranagandando or however you spell it and Jane did Pangur Bán. Lovely route. There being nothing that took my fancy there, and being averse to crowds, we wandered over to the bird hide block area. Didn't fancy anything too hard but wanted a wee adventure so thought I'd ab down and give King Cobra a quick brush, as it always jumped off the page in the guide as a great line. Quick brush...nip up it.....lovely. I abbed down and three hours later was at the first belay with vegetation everywhere from inside my ears to other parts of the anatomy where the sun don't often shine! The thing was completely bogging. Practically a vertical field. Got the top pitch just about climbable though as I shunted up most of it to get out. Will go back and finish the job next time I'm up. Apparently its one of the worst routes at the head according to a pretty eminent source, and if it got climbed it would probably be a third ascent. Dunno about the worst route bit, but I'm honour/ego bound to go back and confirm now :-) Whatever, bit of an adventure.
Finished the day having a great time on Burn Up with Jane and a lovely welsh bloke called Jeff. I got the top pitch and it was great fun. Things feel so much easier when they're not covered by mud and grass! Though the last couple of metres remininded me of how much I hate lay-backing. Great fun.
Sunday dawned clear and shite, so we beat a hasty retreat from Ballycastle to the coop. Jane and Trish were cruising moves I couldn't do. To prarphrase Orwell, "Any life viewed from within is just a series of defeats" (obviously never met Charlie Sheen). I settled for getting spanked spanked on "Barrys classic hard problem". Awe-inspiring bit of plastic. Think I might give up this outdoors stuff, too easily influenced by the vagaries of fortune and less likely to submit to the all conquering power of BURL! Or maybe not.
Dropped Jane to the airport Monday morning for her couple of months in the states (*sniff*), then bought a tiny toy laptop (the "mini-pooter") and cleaned and played on a lovely project in Wicklow. Still lots to do.
Lots of Work, training and climbing will be HAD in the next two months. Mad psyched on some cracks at the Head and an impending trip to Scotland/England at the end of August. Anyone keen for the Head from Dublin this weekend? In a bit of a financial straightjacket en ce moment, so petrol money would be welcome/essential. Have room for 2 on the way up as I probably have to rescue Brian and Jono from rain/sheep/pineapples/themselves come the weekend.
Lovely fontesque wicklow project with desperate slopey topout. There are still gems to be had.
Peace out
p.s I believe Ry Mc Henry (a nordie unknown to me) has just set off up Tangerine Trip on El Cap. Hope the weather stays good for him and others.
p.p.s While E8's are all well and good, massive effort to Ricky on leading Striapach! Great fun to toprope, but quite an undertaking to lead. Though theres now apparently an in-situ tree trunk...... a 12" big bro and a couple of Valley giants and I might just consider it..... :-)
2 comments:
Nice looking piece of rock, cool pocket stuff, where's that at? Don't worry though, it's OK if ya don't want to give away your little secrets...
P.S. keep me on your list.
Alright Barry, its no secret. Its on camaderry, straight up the hill from the Glendasan car park. About 15 minutes walk. Kind of hard to find if you don't know where it is, and impossible to describe. The whole hill looks the same. Go for a bit of a wander round and you should find it. Its good though, I reckon it'll be a good problem.
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