Thoughts on Dalkey

Indecent Assault E8 6C, Dalkey Quarry, Dublin

 

A few weeks back I caught up with Ron and Howard at the Fair Head meet. I got to talking about Indecent assault and the story behind it. Turns out my comment about Ron "working it over a period" is misleading, apologies. He put a few sessions into it before leading it on trad gear - it wasn't a prolonged siege affair by any means and was a mind blowing ascent for the time.

Ready, Set, GO!

Just like out on the mountains you have to stop and take stock of where you are if you want to get where you want to be without any wrong turns. It’s not pretty but it has to be done. So here is where I’m at in January 2012. I’m 84 kgs (87 at Christmas!). I've been running most mornings now and am building up to the bouncy, upright, feel-good feeling that comes with regular running. Unfortunately it’s all been on road but with a stretch in the daylight due to happen I’m going to try and get out onto grass or sand more. Running down to the coast road and back before the commuter routes come alive with traffic is a great way to start the day.  I've been bouldering outdoors once, into Gravity 3 times and the Arch twice and have noticed a few specific weaknesses (other than just generally feeling shit and wimpy).

·         Lock off power is nonexistent. By that I mean the shouldery static lock that seems to prevail in indoor bouldering moves.

·         Finger strength is ok (not great) but of more concern is the complete inability to squeeze or pinch plastic blobs and slopers. Again, this is a very indoor specific strength that I’ll have to develop over the coming months. Not too worried about this one though as I've rarely found it necessary on rock.

·         Core strength. It’s a healthy dose of L-sits and leg lifts from the Beastmaker for me from here on in. Whenever I do any specific core work I always have to be careful to balance out the lower back with extensions or fit-ball work.

·         And Lastly but not leastly – flexibility. I've been really impressed lately but some peoples bendiness and I’d like to develop some of my own. This ties in nicely with the running actually as I click back into a post-run routine of warming down and stretching.

Great! So plenty to go at. My target weight is 78kgs. I want to boulder V11. Sport climb 8b. And headpoint Divided Years. Just as well I like a challenge, huh? Haa!

Heres some insane, mind blowing, standard defining footage from Font that has been doing the rounds on the web lately. Plus a V14 FA from everybody’s favourite, Dave G – word!

Looking back before moving on…

It’s the last week in school now and I suppose it’s as good a time as any to stop and take stock of where I’m at and what has been achieved in the past year. Like a macro navigation exercise through poor visibility. Taking a back bearing to check if any progress has actually been made in the direction you want. If it has - keep going. If you find you’ve not made much progress or have gone off in the wrong direction simply stop, get yourself together and try again.

I pinched this pick from Eamon (hope you don't mind!) as I reckon his devious 300 move sequence through Loco is about as different as humanly possible from my 7 move shoulder span fest.

I can’t believe it’s been only a year since I first climbed at Ayton’s cave in Howth. Heres the blog from June of 2010 with my original rant and topo etc. Reading Trish’s blog lately has been cool. She’s been visiting the cave and seems to be getting into it. It got me thinking about the one and only day I spent there and the manic rush I had to unlock the more obvious lines. Loco has settled at 7a and seems to be a popular one. I’m really happy that people are using the cave and more importantly that people actually like it and rate the problems. I've always liked seeing routes or problems I've done getting attention and ascents from others – theres nothing like it. And of course, Caroline is happy to hear about the high calibre of wad climbing on her line in the cave too. It does make me laugh though when I think about how shit I am at grading, especially boulder problems. Anyway, seems like a lifetime ago when we first explored that place and I’m psyched to get back into it and try and give some of John’s newer lines a go while back in Dublin before our wedding in July.

Back to the year in review. Back during March 2010 I had climbed a couple of 7C boulder problems in North Wales and was loving the bouldering and beginning to feel some strength gains from it. Before moving to Spain I gave away my bouldering pads to a good home and that was that. No bouldering or indoor training whatsoever during the past year and I must admit I’m missing it now.

We moved to Spain and have spent a year or so not really knowing what we would be doing in the future. Staying in Spain? Returning to Ireland? All completely up in the air. Add planning a wedding from a distance into the mix and taking responsibility for two subjects at A-level and GCSE and you have the ingredients for a somewhat stressed Dave. Not much has changed other than the fact that I've learned that often things other than climbing need to take priority in life, even if only for a brief time.

We climbed in Ceuse during August and then spent the autumn, winter and spring working various sports climbs and exploring new crags. Although I've not broken any new ground in terms of grades (unless my first ascent in Echo turns out to be an 8b) I feel that I've grown as a climber a lot. I’m learning more and more every trip to a crag. Strangely I consider myself the most unfit and weakest I've been in something like 5 years yet I’m climbing 7c’s and above every day. So much about climbing well can be unlocked through attitude and removing barriers. It’s given me a lot to think about and redefined my concept of possible.

I suppose taking all things into account I feel like this year has been a success and I've managed to prevent any major regression in terms of climbing while working hard on relocating to a new country, settling into a new job, learning a different style of climbing and of course planning our wedding. I’m pretty happy with all that.

Where would I like to take things in the year ahead? I’d like to travel more and do more bouldering during the weekends. I want to spend the darker winter evenings training. I need to focus on developing some raw power while continuing to project harder sports lines. I want to do some harder trad headpoints in Ireland. Boulder V11. That would be the triple 8 for me and represents something I feel would be worth working towards. Whatever happens being happy would be a good priority to have.

Enough of whats happened – now for what is happening! It’s getting HOT!! Mid thirties during the day is the norm now and it doesn’t make for ideal climbing conditions let me tell you! Dani Andrada, Tom Bolger, Roberto… every one living in Spain has accepted that the climate has called a stop to hard focused cragging. It’s the perfect seasonal spread in many ways for me. During school time when we’re tied here the conditions are mint for projecting September through to May. Then it heats up forcing you to take a step back and relax. Let the body recover from a hard and tiring season. Do some easy exploring or DWS along the coast until school finishes and we can migrate north to cooler climates in France or Germany or head back home to Ireland for a summer of coastal trad climbing built on a solid foundation of sports climbing fitness. Hmmmmm… me likey!

Anywho, the other day we took a run up around the mountain behind our house with the intention of seeking out a rumoured mega crag that is being developed. When people talk of a crag that dwarfs the Wildside and is covered in hard, pure tufa lines you have to give in to curiosity and go look for it. Impossible to find was the description.

Well we found it. Steered onwards at the end by the echoing sound of distant drilling and hammering. It was like finding Jurassic park or something! Huge. HUGE! Overhanging cliff face. At a complete guess I’d put it at something like 200m? HUGE! And full of projects and potential. And that’s just one 200m wide stretch of what looks like over a km of north facing rock. Jesus! If anyone out there wants free accommodation for life I’d like a drill with multiple spare battery packs and a couple of hundred bolts please. I mean wow!

Believe it or not you can actually see one of the guys bolting in the picture above but he looks like a dark dot near the base of the main face! I also scoped out what looks like potential bouldering high on a hillside near our house. A couple of house-sized limestone blocks with overhanging faces in an alpine’esque setting – muy wappa!

On a different note, we bought another rope. Edelweiss 70m 9.8mm. Feels really nice. We’re trashing ropes to beat the band over here! So far I've climbed on Beal, Roca, Sterling, Tendon, Mammut and now Edelweiss. I have to admit that to date my favourite rope has been the Sterling.

Oh, another thing – at the weekend we were feeling a bit rough after a couple of late nights so we headed to a shady little crag above the sea. I climbed two routes. One was a 7b+ that took a direct line through three boulder sections getting progressively easier before an easy finishing slab. The 7c+ beside it climbed up a couple of bolts worth of 7a climbing to a great shouldery opposition move between malnourished tufas leading into an upper wall on tiny pockets. Lowering off the routes the next step was obvious. Combine the most difficult parts of both routes by climbing the meat and veg of the 7b+ before moving right via a crossover using a 1st pad mono to join the 7c+ for the hard finish. I sent it first go without any working of the previously unclimbed link section. Sweet!! Stalking the Shogun, 7c was born – get on it!

Birthday Boy!

I’m another year older – but not much wiser. Did you know that 29 is the tenth prime number, and also the fourth primorial prime. It forms a twin prime pair with thirty-one, which is also a primorial prime. Twenty-nine is also the sixth Sophie Germain prime. It is also the sum of three consecutive squares, 22 + 32 + 42. It is a Lucas prime, a Pell prime, and a tetranacci number. It is an Eisenstein prime with no imaginary part and real part of the form 3n − 1. Since 18! + 1 is a multiple of 29 but 29 is not one more than a multiple 18, 29 is a Pillai prime. 29 is also the 10th supersingular prime.

Here are some number ones from Ireland back in 1982 (the year I was born) – representing perhaps the pinnacle of music video production – everything since then has just been cooling down









Ooooooh yeah! I know what you're thinking - Quality!

I've also being doing some climbing. The night before my birthday we went to our local cave. I was keen to try an 8a+ that always winked at me. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I hadn’t climbed on anything this style in a while, instead choosing to focus on developing some Sella stamina. This route was more my cup of tea. It played to my strengths. Technical, reach, cruxy. I gave it a decent onsight go but came off after misjudging a sloper as a decent hold. Conditions were not ideal – the rock seemed moist from the days rain and evaporation but the moves came together really quickly. Lowering off I indulged the thought that this would go this evening. Two redpoints later and a lot of chalk to dry the rounded edges and it did! It can’t be 8a+ though – Felt about right at 8a and possibly harder without my reach – but then again I’m sure the soapy two finger pockets would feel more secure to the smaller folk… yadda, yadda, yadda. So that’s 15 or so grade 8’s but not a single 8b (unless my Popcorn first ascent turns out to be one!) – time to pull the finger out! I Spent the free lessons I had in school on my birthday trawling for information on quality 8b’s on the Costa Blanca. Armed with this new ticklist and 10 new draws I am now on a mission – along with plugging away at all the other routes in Sella :o)

Some other stuff that has interested me of late includes:

Ricky’s new E8 at the Head

Cool Video of bouldering at the Head
http://www.vimeo.com/23933949

New route in the Burren by Ron with a alternative start/second ascent by Colm:

Plus a load of desk jockeys typing about how evil bolts are and questions being raised about the past, reality, history and first ascents – Huh! There was me thinking that the person who actually climbed a line first was the first ascentionist. Go figure – perhaps historical accuracy is overrated?

Anyway… Happy cranking!

Goings on in cyberspace

Wow! I think I miss timed my last post. It was just meant to be an expression of an observation I made about the Irish climbing scene. The up-side of all this has been the positive responses!

I’m going to try and bring a few threads together here...

Firstly Steve from climbing.ie replied with similar feelings to my own. He’s really behind praising any and all achievements on rock but he did make the very valid point that if people don’t make the effort to report their climbs than nothing will ever get said.

Then Pierre summed up the Irish catch 22 very succinctly in his post titled Achievement. Yes, I suppose it really is that simple – it could be down to a cultural mind set.

Meanwhile the grade debate raised its head on Trish’s blog but in a very good and positive way. It seems to me looking at the scene with an outsider’s perspective that the excellent work Dave F has done in producing and publishing his bouldering guide to Ireland is playing a crucial role in the evolution of Irish climbing. The first print edition of grades will no doubt motivate the masses to go forth and repeat all those lovely problems, talk about grades and things should settle – just like what happened with Mr. Pantons first printed guide to North Wales bouldering – Guide gets printed, people get psyched, crush, discuss and guide becomes out of date very quickly. Good news for guide writers :o) They get to work on version 2!

Then today I read Kev’s reply on Stone boulder. "I have heard no song, seen no dance and seen no article in the Mountain log or Outsider mag noting this achievement. People like Caroline, Michael Duffy, Nigel Calendar, Rob Hunter and several more are becoming legends in the ghostly sense - sometimes thought to have been seen out in the boulder fields and crags doing something amazing but how often does the ghost turn into vivid 3D in the climbing consciousness?" I had to smile when I read this. Aside from putting Caroline along side such wads as Michael, Nige and Rob, Kev picked a mental scab of mine. Living away from Ireland the past few years has meant I rarely get a chance to flick through Irish climbing media in its printed form. The last time I did was in Dublin Airport when returning to Spain after Christmas. One article interested me. One. A single grainy picture of Nige at a comp and a small write up about his recent success. Aside from that I couldn’t find much other mention of rock climbing in the issue. Not enough for me to warrant parting with cash to buy the mag anyway! Why? Is it like Steve said – are people hiding their achievements? Are they supposed to write an article and submit it incognito under cover of darkness and then cringe when they see it in print? I don’t know.

Anyway, it’s been interesting reading people’s views on the topic and ‘ve no doubts that with the strength of potential out there things will change in the near future and we’ll be fueling off Irish send psyche in cyber land soon enough. In the meantime and getting back to climbing, here is probably our last vid from the short and sharp Los Pinos crag. This is JogPat a link up of a soft 8a and a stiff 8a+ first climbed by Gaz Parry. It’s brilliant, technical and sustained.

JogPat from Dave Ayton on Vimeo.

Now that we’re working the bigger routes of the Sella Wildside it’ll be some time before the send train stops by I think. But trying hard on these lines is sooo much fun! Sheer climbing joy!

For the record...

In the big picture of things the grades of what we climb don’t matter. Not beyond the personal scales of effort, satisfaction and reward. Definitely not in Irish climbing circles anyway. For some reason we don’t seem to remember or acknowledge notable ascents that much, not in any real sense other than the few among us with a good memory and an interest in collecting facts. A few weeks ago a friend sent me a message on Facebook saying well done to Caroline and asked what other Irish Women had climbed that hard. I realised that we don’t know. I mean I can only think of a few hard Irish female ascents in rock climbing that I’ve heard about. One is obviously Siobhan Coughlan’s ascent of the Sissy 8a in the Peak District. I’ve read more about that ascent through UK media than in Irish circles. If a climber does anything in the UK it seems to get noted. Female, young, old, foreign, solo, barefoot, hungover, on a cold day with the tale end of a flu… anything seems game to make climbing news and seems to get remembered. Maybe it’s still to come for Irish climbing (although hopefully without the bitchyness associated by some with the likes of the UK forums). Maybe part of the maturing of a climbing scene involves distilling all these great yarns from people’s memory. That’s why I like reading the history sections to the Irish climbing guides. Familiar names and routes. Impressive accounts of who did what when, how and first. At Christmas I was surprised to find out about a whole crop of good, strong climbers coming out of Dublin. Mostly bouldering but bouldering hard. I couldn’t believe that I’d not heard about such raw ability. All I‘d heard about was the odd first ascent. Granted I don’t venture onto the forums much but I do tend to keep an eye out for news that interests me. And for me interest is purely in climbing. What is being done.

Michael, Ricky, Eddie and co are good for the odd bit of news and I love reading it. Irish lads climbing E9 and 8b or harder – brilliant! Michael bouldering 8B in Wicklow – excellent! Nigel competing in the boulder world cup and winning the BBCs – amazing! But what is everyone else at? What standard are we at as a country? What are our highest levels across the disciplines? At a guess I’d say something like E9 hp, E7 os, 8b sports, 8B bloc, M8 mixed. And for the women E5 hp, E4 os, 8a sports and 7c+ bloc. These are just my educated guesses – please feel free to amend or comment. I really do enjoy knowing the ins and outs of our quirky climbing community and I think you have to know where you are before you can get to where you want to be!

Grade Whore seems to be the phrase of choice at the moment back home but I suppose that’s a good sign. The fact that the phrase is being used more often means that people are putting some effort it, meaning standards are being tested. Brilliant! Anyway, was there a point to this? Not really. I just felt like voicing something I thought about and in a way asking the question of “What have we done?”

Any ideas?

Happy climbing!

The Process

Before Christmas Caroline eyed up a line of bolts through a roof and decided she wanted a go. Initially even making the long reaches between holds around the second and third bolt seemed impossible. But she kept trying, something about the route took hold of her and she wanted it. I was happy to keep returning to the crag. I had routes of my own that I could work on but even watching the process of someone working a route like this was really inspiring to me. I’ve seen lots of routes projected in the past but I’ve never before seen a route really, truly worked! I think the most I’ve tried a route is nine or ten tries over a couple of days and i don't know how i'd react to taking on a challenge that kept smacking me down. Every move on this route seemed to challenge Caroline in one way or another. Some were scary. Some committing. Some out of her reach and others just plain hard.

There were a few more memorable hurdles though: finding the kneebar after the fourth clip and then the following sequence of toe hooks allowing Caroline to make the fifth clip. That sequence in itself took a whole session to perfect and even then it was still touch and go as to whether Caroline could stick it on redpoint. By far the hardest move on the route is immediately after the fifth clip. Caroline uses this horrible tufa with her left hand as an undercut and snatches for a right hand pinch before popping again to a sharp pocket. To be honest I couldn’t do that move despite trying it a number of times. There is a “Lanky” way of doing this route that moves left to good holds at the fifth clip and then rejoins the original route after Caroline’s dyno on the lip. The left Variant is closer to the 7c mark while the straight up method remains the true line and a much harder proposition. Caroline had no choice as to which way to go because she couldn’t reach any of the holds out left!

Day after day we returned and each day some form of progress was made. A new highpoint, an improved sequence or even just managing to give it 3 or 4 goes despite sore fingers. I think Caroline suffered from the typical trad climber syndrome of wanting to static every move. I’ve thought about this a lot and I’m not sure what causes it to be honest. Is it the serious nature of trad requiring you to make every effort to achieve every move in balance, meaning that if the hold you’re reaching for isn’t good you can feel around for a better one or even reverse to safety without falling? Or is it a lack of commitment? Dynamic moves are only really required to carry you to a point outside of your static reach bubble, aren’t they? Their very nature means commitment. You target, you sway, you kick and throw! If you miss, you’re off. I think Caroline’s height requires her to develop a more dynamic and aggressive style otherwise she won’t be able to reach things. On this route Caroline got a chance to work this… a lot! Once Caroline had exhausted every possible method for negotiating the lip of the roof it became clear that she would have to deadpoint. To throw for the hold. That one move took a session to figure out and many more to stick on lead.

The final spirit-breaker came the day Caroline finally stuck her dyno on redpoint. The final tricky sequence of turning the lip to easier ground spat me off the day I lead it for the first time and I knew it was going to cause trouble. Excited, Caroline made the sixth clip and got her high heel hook but didn’t milk the rest and ploughed on up. Matched on the flatty she completely powered out and came off below the top. Gutted. She had to wait another week before we could return and the previous highpoint and close fail made the difference. The mental barrier of sticking the lip had been removed and there was nothing to loose…

The send was awesome!

Cheaper by the dozen, demon toothache and excuses for being shit

I like Reading Pierre’s blog.

It’s interesting and well written and he always manages to highlight something, some aspect of moving over Stone, that gets me thinking. Recently he wrote about excuses, youth and training. I can usually identify elements of myself in his writing and this post was no exception. I know what it’s like to want to climb at your best with your friends, especially when you don’t get to crag with them that often. And when the combination of head games, motivation and physical factors don’t make that magic mix I can recall numerous times when the excuses start to flow. Conditions, tired, sick, skin… all because despite acknowledging to ourselves that there will always be good mix days and bad mix days, we assume others don’t experience this. They crush at their level every day, always progressing, at every discipline – bullshit! Fear is definitely the limiting factor in most people’s climbing. At it’s most basic and tangible, fear of heights or fear of falling. They’re obvious and can be dealt with in an equally obvious manner. Also they don’t seem to affect anything else other than your climbing. But it’s the nasty, insidious other fears that creep in andseep out across lots of other aspects of your life. Fear of failing, fear of looking stupid in front of your peers, fear of creating or damaging any reputation. Ego. Expectations. Its quite common for climbers who push into a new grade to be expected to subsequently float up any route of a lower grade with ease despite style or discipline. It can get to the point where a climber would rather not try a route for fear of failing on it or if they do try a route they opt to hang instead of really going for the move.

Anyway I suppose the point of the ramble is that I’m going to aim to try whatever routes appeal to me regardless of who’s watching or how I’m feeling – no excuses. I simply enjoy working a way through a path of holds that seems impossible for me at first and this will involve a fair ammount of time hanging, falling and figuring out beta – is it being a grade whore? Is it punching above my weight? It’s just what I seem to enjoy most at this minute in my climbing.
Last week I went climbing and I didn’t climb anything. I got to the top of a route 3 times in a session after work but with one fall near the top each time. I know that would be classed by many as a shit day out but I was and am happy with it. I felt I climbed well for my standards and I fell off genuinely fighting, I came home with a slight pump and I got to play on rock. To be honest I like falling on lead so I was happy on all counts.

Good luck and happy failing :o)

Dave

Edit: I typed the above in school last Wednesday. Since then my resolve to stay positive has been tested. I think I had the worst crag day (performance wise) in the last few years – it was a shocker of a day when nothing clicked. But I suppose those days only act to make the perfect days seem even more amazing. Tomorrow I’m finished my antibiotics and am having my demon tooth pulled at last! Last week was a weird and brilliant mix of entertaining guests and meeting new people. I just regret having to work during their visit.
Anywho, best of luck and ride that psyche
… I hate dentists…

Sowing seeds for a future harvest

“you never climb your best on a road trip”

I can still remember Toby saying this to me over 7 years ago while climbing with him and Neal around Europe but although I could remember the words they meant little or nothing to me until recently. Looking back now I can remember Toby’s frustration with not being able to send routes at his desired grade across France and Germany. It seemed stupid to me at the time because he was able to send every 8a he tried within a go or two. Now, having had a home crag in the UK for a year or so and being able to adapt mentally and physically to its unique style of climbing I can finally understand where Toby was coming from. When you travel you must learn to accept a backwards step in performance in order to learn new techniques and develop new strengths that will ultimately allow progress on to your next level of performance. Being Irish and not having any form of home sports climbing to speak of I had never felt this before. Travelling and going on a climbing road trip was where you collected all your best ticks, surely?! Because there were none at home!

While here at Ceuse I think I must have gone through the following mental mind sets:

• I’m gonna flash all the 7c’s and start working my way through the 8’s straight away.
• Wow! I don’t remember this place being so technical, where are all the positive edges?
• I can’t stand on that!!
• I need mileage!
• Right, turns out I can pull through all the moves on the 8’s maybe I just need to stick to some hard projects and avoid all that balancy shit I don’t like.
• And finally… OK, I can learn a lot from this place and its routes, especially the ones I don’t find easy or particularly like. This isn’t a go for broke climbing trip with a return date set to Dublin. This is the start of a long term apprenticeship with European sports climbing for both myself and Caroline and we need to forget what we think we know or think we should be able to achieve. Our expectations had been calibrated to UK limestone and needed a reset if we were going to move on and enjoy our climbing in Spain.

It’s weird how stuff that you hear or read or think at different stages can all come together at a certain point along the line to make perfect sense and provide the impetus needed to make headway towards the next level. Seven years ago I witnessed Toby’s frustration in Ceuse and Frankenjura and also got an idea of the training he had put into his climbing and how much it meant to him. While chatting to some Slovenian climbers here in Ceuse they mentioned that they had climbed 8b+ at their home crags this year but usually drop their target grades to around 7c for their summers in France and enjoy trying onsights and climbing loads on a totally different style of hold and rock. When they return home for the Autumn they resume training and projecting, you know, pushing their standards. And then there was Jerry. Jerry Moffatt that is. I had been given his book “Revelations” as a going away present from Tim my head of department in Rhyl and had held off from reading it until here in Ceuse. I was never one for reading biographies but this had me hooked instantly. I consumed it within two days and then went back and read it some more. There was so much in it that I could understand, remember feeling myself, relate to, be motivated by and that just plane inspired me. One concept of relevance here that crept up a lot during the first half of the book was what I’m gonna call the “relocation smackdown”. Jerry recounts his early fanatical climbing career relocating from crag to crag. Tremadog in North Wales for two months followed by a two year apprenticeship literally living from the dirt in Stoney Middleton in the Peak District and then onwards to further afield destinations like the States, France and Germany. At every point along the way he details achieving his highpoints at each location before moving on and getting smacked in the face at the next. Climbing and training almost continuously, he repeatedly spent between two and four weeks adapting to each location and style of rock before he could resume climbing at his level and begin sending.

Coming back to the real world I can remember going through similar difficult patches moving from crag to crag over the years although, as my standard was never as high as Jerry’s and I never had anywhere near the consistency of constant climbing, I never really noticed it or at least never attributed it to the different rock types. Beginning in Dalkey I got quite good there, leading and soloing lots of routes daily and even managing the odd E4 within my first year on rock. From there my first trip to Glendalough or the Burren stand out as humbling. Their totally different styles seemed way harder to me and I just assumed Dalkey grades were soft in comparison. Over time and through regular visits I gradually adapted and before leaving for Wales I had lead E5 at all these crags. It was the same with my introduction to Fairhead… HVS never felt so hard before but again after numerous visits I had managed a couple of E6’s there. The culture shock on arrival to the Clwyd limestone in the UK was more obvious though. I pretty much got nothing done for the first few years here before one day it finally clicked and this year I managed to tick my way merrily through a handful of grade 8 sports climbs. I had adapted.

It stands to reason then that a similar introduction phase should be due to take place about now on the longer more sustained European limestone routes of southern France and Spain. All of a sudden I am happy with what I’m feeling about my climbing at Ceuse and am enjoying being able to onsight the odd 7b+ and build up some stamina or more importantly begin exploring the ability to recover while on a route! The change in attitude from trying to squeeze in ticks to enjoying learning a new style has been refreshing. And not just for me but for Caroline aswell. After months of moving from project to project in the UK we’ve jumped at the opportunity of being able to do 10 new routes a day and not worry about redpointing. Caroline got a good base of grade 6 routes under her belt and onsighted a long 7a+ to the chains (before unexpectedly flying off, rope in hand about to clip the anchor! A real battle!) during the first two weeks of Team Ireland and also enjoyed playing on some of the crags better 7b+’s and 7c’s just to get an idea of what was to come for her later in the year. It’s our last climbing day of this trip to Ceuse and it’s going to be our sixth day on. During the last five days at the crag we’ve been warming up on 6a’s and 6b’s, climbing classic 7’s all throughout Berlin, Biography and Demilune sectors and finishing up with a good attempt each at something we find pumpy. On Monday I went up Ratman and Bouse de Douce, 8a+ and 8a in the Berlin sector just to try the moves. They both felt great but being honest I knew I didn’t have the time or desire to repeatedly go back on them for the ticks. They’ll be more fun as quick sends in a year or so when I’ve some fitness. Instead I put my draws in Makach Walou a brilliant pumpy 7c+ with no real hard moves. Placing the draws it felt super pumpy for me and I didn’t rate my chances of redpointing it before leaving for Spain but I reasoned that if my draws were in it it’d be more likely to give it another try and hence get to work on learning how to actively recover and depump while on a route. As it turns out it was Wednesday evening before I got back on it to give it my first redpoint attempt. I use redpoint loosely here because I had no real sequence I just knew I could get up it and that was enough. I surprised myself by climbing up above the 5th draw before getting lost and pumped out on the less positive edges below the 6th. Forcing myself upwards I crossed over and kept moving from edge to edge before falling off. Chuffed! I had gone for it and taken a lob whilst trying. Something I have little experience of to be honest and have always found a little difficult to do. Hanging on the rope I rested and then fought my way to the chains in one. Right then, I now had a sequence. Half an hour later came my second redpoint attempt (baring in mind it was our 5th consecutive day on!) with thin skin and tired arms I climbed past my highpoint, clipped the 6th and began to recover on the crimps above before coming off a greasy edge at the end of the hard climbing beside the final draw. I am chuffed. I thought this route was my anti-style and was making such quick and unexpected progress.

Meanwhile Caroline’s attention had been stolen by Saint Georges Picos, a mega classic 7a and somewhat of a rite of passage for Ceuse. It wasn’t the grade that appealed to her about this line it was its nasty difficulty that reacted with Caroline’s determination that got her hooked. As Kev said, “if she’d put that same amount of effort into any of the 7b+’s at the crag they’d have been ticked by now”. The route has an intense first 4 bolts providing the crux and after that takes a sparsely bolted line up an easing vertical wall. The first few moves are reachy and finger intensive, involving some stiff pulls with minimal and polished feet. On Saturday Caroline climbed the route first go after spending some time trying the start the week before with team Ireland. It was a real inspiration to watch someone dispatch their project in such a determined style. Crush mode! Was this really her first time at Ceuse? The route served its purpose well by forcing her to crank and also by ensuring a good head training session on the runout upper wall before the chain. After this everything was game-ball for Caroline as she had overcome her own personal challenge. Aside from climbing on all the 7a’s and b’s Caroline has been working a really nice 7b+ on lead. Tuesday evening with failing light Caroline made short work of the reachy crux for the first time and fought on to reach the decent rest before coming off near the top due to a combination of fading light, not having a robust sequence and not being able to see the footholds! Still though massive progress to be working at her previous best level on such a different style of climbing within such a short space of time.

Today will be our 6th and final day on at Ceuse for a while. Although I’d like to send the 7c+ I’m not too fussed as I feel like I’ve come on a lot in my three and a half weeks here and I now know what is possible for me during future visits. We’re going to walk up, warm up, try some more onsights and finish our trip off on some brilliant routes… School is in.

UK round up

Well it was so manic before leaving the UK that I haven’t written much at all this last month or so. It’s been probably my best time in the UK during the entire 6 years! Lots of friends and family visiting and great nights out, group meals and lots of fun days out on rock. The highlight definitely had to be the Irish invasion. Neal, Naomi, Niamh, Claire, Kev P, Sean and Kev M, Tricia, Daire and Grainne all came to visit and tear the crags up. Naomi, Niamh and Caroline in their 80’s retro gear, classic! It was brilliant catching up with everyone, especially those that I’ve not been out with in years. That night we ate a communal curry and hit the Wine bar for some spinney plate antics and general merriment.

Yes... even Rocky is pretending not to know them :o)

Climbing wise things started to taper off a bit towards our move and the weather began to show signs of weakness too. When I think back to ascents worthy of note only a few come up. Caroline kept bashing away at Bandits till the bitter end. Her best burn got her from the deck, up through the crux and above the 3rd clip before a foot slip spat her off. From there she lead it to the top. It’s a weird route to belay her on because the lower section is so obviously height dependant that I would say for Caroline it warrants it’s original grade of 7c. Either way the grade wasn’t what was motivating Caroline for this line – it was its climbing, its moves and its reputation as one of the most sought after lines at the crag. In the end the packing and bad weather prevented us from getting on it before leaving and it remains unsent despite my gut instinct knowing it was doable very soon.

I went back and repeated “Out of Body Experience” again after the loss of a large hold on the roof section after my second ascent. The start now feels like a much harder boulder problem for me and I have less doubt of it’s 8a status as a result – still a brilliant route and fun, fun, fun! I lead “Highway” again too as Vince was working it and I realised how blinkered I was to stay with a sequence I found nearly 3 years ago despite developing so much since then. I think I was making life difficult for myself! My original sequence felt 8a, Vince’s beta made it feel 7c! Lesson learned. Finally I left my very own little mark on Dinbren (other than a string of broken holds) by linking up two difficult sections of climbing to create a new line. “Elite Deviation” take in all the hard climbing of “Elite Syncopations” 8a before finishing up the crux section of “Bolt from the Blue” E6 6c (7c). This replaces the 7b finish of syncopations with something a little harder. Also the top half of the route is protected by 2 wires in the crack below the final roof adding a little spice to the mix. Although I feel the link is harder than the original I don’t feel it warrants 8a+ so I’m leaving it at 8a.

It has been such a productive 3 months of climbing that I feel I’ve passed a milestone in my climbing as we leave for Espana. I’ve sent every route I’ve really wanted and one or two I genuinely though were impossible for me to booth.

El Rincon, 8a(+)
Out of Body Experience, 8a (x2)
Elite Deviation, 8a
Elite Syncopations, 8a
Rivals, 7c+ (I’ve lead this twice - 8a after loss of good crimp?)
Highway, 7c+ (again!)
Rincon Orgasmatron, 7c+
Dyperspace, 7c
Extreme Ways, 7c
When Saturday comes, 7c

Chuffed! I’m going to miss Llangollen and Dinbren but moving onto bigger and better things. New places and faces are what it’s all about!

Pembroke

Last weekend we packed up the car and hit the road south, destination Pembroke. Despite the appalling weather forecasts we were psyched to get a trad break in and meet up with Neal and Naomi. I had a hunch that the weather Gods would smile on us and that all the forecast rain would fall further inland – I was right! 3 days of clear skies and dry rock were on the cards.

It felt good to be back on familiar ground – we’ve spent a lot of time down here during our years in the UK. But having not lead any trad lines since October I was feeling rusty and Caroline hadn’t lead on gear in well over a year. An easy introduction in Stennis sorted us out and then I ab’ed into have a look at a line I’ve wanted to do for years – Ghost Train, E7 6b. Immediately the rock didn’t inspire confidence and I decided to back clip the line on ab and toprope it. It was brilliantly steep the whole way and relied on 8 points of fixed protection in the form of threads. Two problems though, the rock was filthy and loose and the threads were ancient and creaky! The top peg was completely blown out and rusted and needed backing up by wires too. This felt like it hadn’t been done in a while. Surprisingly the climbing felt easy – despite the dirt and breaking holds. Climbing it wouldn’t be a problem but coming off due to a breaking foothold onto suspect threads would. I climbed it 3 times in all just for some mileage but in the end just couldn’t justify leading it in it’s current state – I would have just been doing it for the tick and not because it inspired or challenged me. Probably 7a+ or 7b climbing and safe all the way.

But it got me thinking a lot while I was climbing other routes. This whole trad thing… seems less about the climbing and more about placing the gear and deciding to trust loose rock. I was missing the physical challenge on these routes and not enjoying the slow pace and bravado associated with what are essentially piss easy climbs. Being honest I was a prime example of a climber playing to their strengths. When I started climbing I was fat and weak – so I climbed to my strengths – my head. When I was 17 I soloed some E4 slabs. Then I realised I was quite good at placing and trusting gear so I targeted technical lines around Dalkey and the Burren with definite cruxes and reliable protection. Eventually I built up the strength to climb steeper lines and could venture onto the sustained cracks of Mirror wall and Fair Head. This was when I began proper climbing. But even then I left the head’s cracks for the more technical and bold face climbs. I found the E6’s at Fairhead easier than the E3 cracks! All this time I avoided sports climbing and hard bouldering or at best treated it as a joke or bit of fun for a while – simply because I was too weak for it. I could just about manage the odd 7a sports route (if it suited me!). Well lately I am feeling more and more comfortable on sports climbs. I am loving the physical difficulty and the falls and the run-outs and the solid rock, small holds, steepness, diversity of the climbing, the power. And although the trad lines are feeling easy they’re not ringing my bells in the same way – I miss having to fight. And that’s where I think things have begun to change – the E7/8 I did in the pass last year was an eye opener. My first true headpoint. 7b+/c climbing in a ground fall position above psychological protection. It needed a sequence, it needed to be precise, conditions mattered and I needed to fight and stay in control of myself. But the rock quality was unquestionable so I could justify the climb through belief in myself – it was like a test of that belief. It’s easy to say “I would never let go” but until you’re somewhere where letting go has a serious consequence – how do you know? In Pembroke I resigned myself to having a fun weekend of climbing low to mid E-grades as I couldn’t justify leading anything harder with the prospect of loose rock. And I wasn’t prepared to devote much time into cleaning when there were others who wanted to climb and nothing that I really, really wanted to climb there. For now at least, trad is taking an enjoyable backseat in my priorities.

Onto Caroline. She was feeling rusty as hell on this trad sea cliff climbing. Double ropes, seconding, carrying a rack, setting up belays, etc… But by the third morning Caroline had adjusted well – her trad switch had been flicked and she warmed up with a onsight of a nice E1 on the White Tower near Mother Carey’s. Straight after that she was eyeing up a neighbouring E2. From the ground it looked spicy and as I had never done any of the routes down here I had no advice to give. Caroline started up off the belay ledge and after placing her first wire was up against a difficult move off an undercut. Making the high step up and span to the next edge meant she was totally committed and in an un-reversible position. Keeping calm and taking time to shake out Caroline managed to place two wires and a small cam and then ploughed on through high steps, smears and sidepulls to the sanctuary of a small detached flake and a sling runner. After that it was like watching a vertical sprint to the belay ledge – it was obvious that the intensity of our recent sports climbing was doing wonders for both Caroline’s endurance and route reading – she was climbing smoothly and with confidence – It’s a good place to be when you get there.

Finishing off the weekend in a café with Neal, Naomi, Matt and Marsha was the perfect ending to a great weekend. I’m gonna have to climb a lot more with these guys before our move!!

Motivation

Getting my head round the fact that it’s alright to fail has been a long process. Learning to climb in Ireland is a unique experience and has left me (and maybe others) with some issues I needed to come to terms with before actually starting to climb near my limit (which I still don’t think I have done yet). Basically I always aimed to walk to the base of a route – rack up – and lead it onsight. Sometimes that worked and I’d be chuffed – sometimes I’d wimp out, get pumped, fall or rest on gear. If the latter happened I’d usually pull myself together and frigg my way to the top before my second would follow and we’d move on to another route, returning to the route a few weeks, months or years later to try and tidy up the loose end. The moves were never practiced or honed beyond the bare minimum it took to be able to pass them for the first time, whack in a wire above and continue to the top! Through sheer volume of miles on rock, this approach got me to the point where I had a string of E5’s and a few E6’s onsight under my belt – and every one was a cherished moment of luck and timing and I felt like I was climbing at my limit on each one. No bolts in Ireland meant that I approached sports climbing in the same mindset. No wonder clean 7a’s were such an achievement!

In 2007 I got seriously motivated to try and push myself on sports and set the target of redpointing an 8a. My previous best was 7b+ I think…. Maybe one or two dodgey 7c’s. It was only after I began to work something that I realised just how little time I had ever spent working moves on routes in the past! I tried an 8a – it felt impossible… impassable! I had to pull through whole sections of apparently holdless rock using the draws before eventually getting to the top, a pumped and useless wreck. Smack down! A few days later I returned to the crag to do a neighbouring E5 but after doing it and abseiling down the face the impossible 8a caught my eye again… it’s spell had been broken, it was familiar, I wanted to try it again,,,, just to get a second opinion. This time I managed all the moves but one! Such progress! Wow! 2 more visits and I had redpointed something that I genuinely thought was impossible – I was amazed! And I felt I could climb harder! On a trad parallel, earlier this year I began looking for a line that I could try and work before leading – something harder than E6. I picked Yukon II at Nesscliffe and E7 6b that just doesn’t stop till you top out – easiest move is probably 5c/6a and it was safe(ish). Same scenario again… first try felt desperate. Couldn’t imagine getting to a point of being able to lead it. Next visit I strung it together in two overlapping halves. Next visit I lead it as a warm-up with one fall. A few weeks later without planning it I lead it clean without any need for re-familiarising myself with it’s holds – I just knew I could! Then the summer of work and wet day’s off and doing nothing was followed by a winter of bouldering indoors and outside – all of a sudden I am thinking about Gritstone. The internet is full of reports of visiting Americans cleaning up all the grit testpieces. Compared against the prospect of bouldering on freezing cold crimps – big fat grit slopers just win every time! I’ve had one day out on them and have given in to my selfish impulses and given some time to what I want to do – try some classic E8’s and E7’s on a rope instead of onsighting a load of easier grade stuff (what is expected by my Irish trad beginnings). Surprising myself by linking 2 6c tech routes really quickly and man; the moves were sweet! Like bouldering on a rope but really, really good bouldering! Slopers, tension, gymnastic, dynamic…. Beautiful!

And now this… before christmas I read the following on Dave MacLeod’s blog:

“Committing yourself to climbing a route you cannot touch at present is a special experience that can change your life. Sure you, can dismiss this potential for an adventure because ‘it’s not an onsight’ or whatever you like. Some people will do this because they respond differently to the stimulus climbing gives, others because they are actually frightened they do not have the commitment but won’t admit this to themselves and others because they don’t follow the two rules of this type of adventure.The two rules are1. The chosen challenge has to be genuinely impossible at the time of choosing. If it’s too easy, it will leave you cold. Need numbers? Add four grades to your onsight level.2. Committing yourself means committing yourself. Not trying it and seeing how you get on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for quitting when it’s the correct conditions for doing so (see The Dip by S. Godin for advice on this), but most people just quit because they gave up. To underline this, feeling like you might not be able to do it is a necessary part of the plan, not the reason to abandon it. You must do the route, whatever it takes (bar cheating).”

He managed to re-confirm what I am beginning to feel myself. Everything I’ve tried so far (with the exception of the 8b at Dinbren, which I love and will need to invest some serious time into) has come together really quickly. So now I’m gonna bite the bullet and try and project something proper hard (for me at least). Going by Dave’s guideline of adding 4 grades onto your onsight means I should be looking at the E9 or E10 routes… Hmmm! By a coincidence I did find myself looking at a couple in Curbar the other week. “The Zone” E9 looks Awesome! As does “Knockin on heavens door” and obviously theres “Soul Doubt”, “Parthian shot” and “New Statesman” which I’ve always wanted to try ever since watching Neil Bently lead it in Hard Grit! Back home theres the Awesome work by Ricky to inspire… Tolerance, Divided Years, MushroomBoyz, Crystal Methods and the Complete Scream. In Dublin theres Ron’s Indecent Assault in Dalkey. Knowing how much easier routes feel after some invested time I’d like to try Ron’s again and see if it becomes feasible all of a sudden.
Anyway, I’m totally psyched to just try lots of hard routes and become a top-roping bastard for a while (well of anything E7 or harder…

While home for Christmas I managed an incredible 5 days out in Glendalough and one in the Mournes. I got to see what is the nicest piece of climbing I think I’ve ever seen come together in the form of “Leftism” on Big Jane. I tried all the moves but being fat and weak couldn’t link them… but they’re brilliant! It’s got me really psyched for bouldering! I want to apply the same project approach to something and beautiful as the climbing on that bloc… I just have to find something

Anyways, ramble over.... Happy New Year and heres to 2009… an awesome year ahead!

Point of contact?

I recently received an email from a good friend who I don’t get to see very often. If you asked me what makes this person such a good friend I probably wouldn’t be able to answer it very convincingly at all. Never hung out all that much, never lived together – I don’t know really, I just feel that I can talk to this person more openly than I can with most and I enjoy any and all contact I have with them (usually via email from all over the world). While reading the latest mail I had a realisation of sorts – I was reading away, taking it in, enjoying the picture being painted when it finished with the most simple but most profound two words – I’m happy. That’s the whole point of it! Keeping in touch I mean… that’s why I do it! I had never thought about it or realised this before but every time I read a mail from this (or any) person I was constantly weighing up the tone and situations in my head to decide if they were happy – kind of like wanting the good guy in the movie to win. I have always wanted things to be going great for them despite not being in any position to do anything about it if they were not... other than listening and trying to cheer them up. Well this time it was laid bare for me and I was chuffed! There it was – everythings honky-dorey and AOK. Great!

Awesome interview

This week i stumbled on an interview with Chris Sharma about his climbing and life in general - not having much other than a car in europe and a car in the states with a rack of draws, harness and rope in each and loads of mates around the world where he can crash for a while while he passes through en-route to his next project.... makes for some great reading

Check it out!

"There is something both graceful and barbaric in Sharma's climbing. He couples a child-like playfulness with ferocious grit that leaves even his peers in awe and the rest of us inspired to reach a little higher and hang on a little longer.


When you do hard routes, you have to try hard. They’re not easy routes. You have to give everything you have. You have to get totally animalistic. When you’re super pumped, I have to yell to bear down."

Dalkey

Our first climbing stop in Ireland was Dalkey Quarry in south Dublin. This is an awesome venue and should be high on the list of places to visit for all climbers coming to Ireland. A sizable granite quarry originally used to provide rock for the nearby Dun Laoirigh harbour, the quarry now holds over 300 traditional lines from Easy to E7 with potential for much more. This is where I took my first climbing steps and I have spent probably far too much time on its lower grade classics throughout my years living in Dublin. Once I began to climb at other locations the quarry lost it’s appeal for a while as I had effectively climbed it out – there were no routes left for me at my grade. A few years later I spent some time working with youth groups in the quarry just before moving to North Wales and I began to see the quarry in a new light again – there was loads to go at! Now I see the quarry as a venue to go and spend some time on something hard. Unfortunately many of the better lines have seemed to fallen into a state of disrepair with vegetation reclaiming many of the less trafficked lines at an alarming rate. It is a sad situation but there are just not enough people climbing these lines to keep them in good nick.

View from the Quarry

One of the main problems with attempting some of the harder lines in the quarry is the fact that many rely on some element of fixed protection, usually in the form of pegs placed where no other protection will fit. The problem with this is that unlike bolts, the pegs are often placed in very thin cracks which act as drainage lines, exposing the pegs to more then their fair share of water – throw in the close proximity of the sea and you’ve got a recipe for corrosion. As many of the harder lines were first equipped over 15 years ago their protection is currently incomparable to its original state… yet the grades remain unchanged. Lets get one thing straight, Dalkey is not an ego-massaging venue, with a few exceptions it’s not home to many soft ticks.

One such line that I had tried over 3 years ago was CHOMOLUNGMA Sans Oxygen, which goes at something like E6/7 6c. Originally the line was vigorously cleaned and equipped with 5 pegs, some of which were cemented in place to add extra protection. The route forces a direct line up Dalkey’s largest expanse of overhanging rock and is a contender for the best line in the quarry in my opinion. Currently only 3 of the routes 5 original pegs remain and two of those can be bent by hand. Without the time or equipment to invest into overhauling the route I contented myself with toproping the route to act as a gauge for how I had progressed over the previous few years. Surprisingly the route felt great and not too difficult. After a few clean ascents on a very slack rope I began to lust after the lead and the tick – it could be lead entirely on natural pro but all of it would have to be placed below you as you climbed, as the gear would obscure the crucial hand holds needed. A lead on completely natural pro is a worthy goal for this line, removing the last 3 pegs. Unfortunately such an ascent will have to wait as 3 of the crux fingerlocks simply refused to dry out despite me spending 4 days out in the quarry waiting! No amount of chalking or sponging would pause the drip, drip, drip long enough for me to consider leading the route in it’s current state so I contented myself with the fact that it provided some good training and that I had repeatedly climbed it clean on a safety line despite the seepage.

The Rest before the final 6c sequence on CHOMOLUNGMA SANS O2

Another interesting hard line that I spent some time on while in the quarry was bitter aftertaste. This route has an interesting history… originally bolted, it breached the overhang left of tower ridge. Causing considerable interest, then controversy the bolts were eventually removed and it’s first ascentionist placed a single peg and then lead the route traditional style at E6 6a. Firstly, it’s not 6a… Infact it couldn’t even pretend to be 6a with powerful moves on small but positive crimps up an overhang with it’s only protection a fair bit below and some nasty looking angular ledges not to much further below that! This is a serious route, made more serious due to the fact that originally there was a thread near the lip of the overhang, which has now crumbled and disappeared – does this add to the difficulty? Maybe not, but the route has still to receive a repeat and I’m at the point where I may step out of the queue for it. In all honesty I think the bolts belonged in it. It is not a traditional climb, the style of the climbing the terrain it goes through… had the bolts remained it would have added something unique to the quarry and probably gone a considerable way towards removing the glass ceiling currently putting a cap on Irish climbing standards. Some lines should remain as hard trad testpieces – and some should be opened as sports lines allowing Irish people to experience hard SAFE climbing on home turf… The deciding factor should be the style of the climbing and the natural protection available. Currently the route remains there with it’s one peg and empty boltholes – seldom touched and wasted. After spending 4 days out in the quarry I came away from it wondering what the MCI or the climbers put back into the place? Is there money available for replacing fixed protection? If it was replaced would it spark interest in the great lines again? Who would be willing to put the time into doing it? I would and probably will once we move back home in the future. As it stands, climbing one of these hard lines in Dalkey requires a lot of time, effort and preparation… factors that actually add to the experience and make every hard ascent something special.

Dave MacLeod

I’ve always had a link to probably the most inspiring of the climbing sites on the web at the right of my blog… Dave MacLeod’s Blog. Well recently it’s been buzzing with news of his planned first ascent on live TV for the BBC. He’s got at least 3 new lines inspected and cleaned in Hells Lum in preparation for the big day ranging from E8 to a choppy E10.

Probably 6 years ago at this stage I had the luck to climb with this guy at an international meet held in Fairhead to promote new routing in Ireland and really showcase Irelands potential for hard trad climbing. Both Dave MacLeod and Cubby attended and as luck would have it … so did I. At the Time Dave was just beginning to make headlines over in Ireland. In a weird quirk I ended up sharing a dorm with both himself and Cubby (3 Daves), neither of which I knew anything about other than the fact that they were sound blokes and as keen as myself to climb at Fairhead. At the time although I had climbed some mid E-grades at my local crag I was basically a fat, weak HVS climber. During the course of the weekend I watched Dave Lead the Classic E5 of the Crag – Wall of Prey. This was the first time I had seen anyone climb an E5 and it stuck in my brain. Next he methodically abbed and inspected the line next to it – Above and beyond, E6 - before deciding it needed more cleaning than he had time to put into it and decided to try some other lines. It was great to see someone using a sensible approach to these lines and I think it left a mark on my climbing to this day.

Before the end of the visit Dave explored some of the impressive boulders at the base of the crag and I joined him – Curious. The first instinctive reaction of the Irish climbers with their Trad-or-Dead ethos would be to mock such ‘pebbling’ below the immaculate, multi-pitch cliffs – but in the company of a proven climber I guess I sensed I could get away with a bit of bouldering. Dave was sound – we had no pads so just took turns spotting and climbing – Dave sent some quality crimpy lines and I even made it up one or two aswell – what was obvious straight away was his love of the sport, something that he puts across very well on his blog. Since then I’ve grown as a climber and even returned to the head and climbed E6 myself – adopting a very similar approach to Dave’s during that meet. Without being reckless, inspecting the line and weighing the risks.

More recently I’ve taken inspiration from Dave’s training tips, articles and advice – He really does know his stuff and has an impressive string of ascents to prove what he says works. Since dedicating myself to loosing weight, running and finger boarding religiously I’ve seen huge gains even since February! 7b to 8a in 5 months! And I’m not stopping there… It’s just the beginning. I’m going back to the Emerald Isle for a couple of weeks and hope to visit and climb on all the Trad Crags that I learned to climb on years ago and I’m sure I’ll end up wanting some new line or other (there being at least half a dozen E6’s and 7’s permanently lodged in my brain, ripe for the reaping) I’m sure I’ll be giddy with excitement at leading some awesome route and will have to weight up the odds – hopefully realising where I’m at and where I want to be in a month, a year, 2 years... Whether or not I commit to any big leads will depend on how much within my current ability the route actually is. Thoughts that I’m sure MacLeod will be thinking this weekend before his live Climb Broadcast. All I can say is Best of Luck man!!

A bit of a weird post this – Before going to France I got a Mail from the usual suspect, Neal, something along the lines of “… so whats the plan for this trip? Going to go for loads of onsights or try something different and work something hard for a change?”. By the second day in the tarn after some 7b onsights those words were bouncing around my head like alarm bells! The Git! It wasn’t until we got back to North Wales that I eventually listened and hey presto – I ticked an awesome route and opened the gates for loads more like it – I have finally begun to learn how to redpoint and am supprised as to how rewarding it feels. Anyway – not the point of this post – Neal, the git, aka the usual suspect – he trained, by himself mostly, for a good year before heading south and sending his first 8a+. He took the initiative and got some rewards and all the while was sewing seeds of similar goals in my mind through conversations or emails – whatever! He’s a legend!

Got me to thinking about how much we’ve bounced off each others motivation over the years – it’s been cool. Before I went to Uni a friend introduced me to rock climbing out in Dalkey Quarry. One Day while out on our usual pilgrimage to the sunny side of the quarry be happened across this skinny half naked climber guy – catching some rays while waiting for his mates to arrive – he showed us how to do some impossible looking move at the beginning of a bouldery HVS (Ex-Ivy Wall), we try it, don’t have the co-ordination, fail and move on … that was McQuaid (Still hasn’t got a tan to this day!). A few weeks later I go to buy my first ever harness and rock shoes from the great outdoors in Dublin and who sells me them but… Neal. At this stage, me being an impressionable youth, he seems to know his stuff – he even knows about E2’s!!

Later that year I join DCU and straight away, it’s climbing club – who’s there only Neal and Rob and Andy – these 3 guys had been fueling each others climbing for the past year since they all joined the club together. Before long I was trying to keep up with the guys on rock and then there was 4 people bouncing off each others flow – it was a fairly rapid learning curve – I can still remember Andy’s face when I dogged my first E1 – He literally jumped up with Rack in hand and ran over to do it! Within a year of ever seeing rock I had soloed E4 6b and the lads had all been over to Spain and lead 7a! The guys were always stronger than me indoors and I was always a case of “no brains no headaches” outdoors so we were a good match.

Then for my first real taste of climbing Neal drove me around Europe for what seemed like years in 2003. Neal drove us to Ceuse, Verdon, Ailfroide, Font, Switzerland and Frankenjura. We hooked up with some Brilliant people and climbed our brains out. I don’t think we ever really came back… Now He’s still getting me in gear from feckin New Zealand! Legend! Now theres the little matter of trying to beat him to 8b… before we get the finger out and REALLY train :)

Being Driven round the Bend

I’ve only been driving around 3 years. My parents and grandparents never owned a car, growing up in Dublin we relied on cycle power or public transport. But since owning a car, and being a climber, I’ve probably clocked up a good 10 years worth of miles under my belt (all with people in the car – carpooling, the way ahead). Last week i began helping Caroline to get to grips with Driving. It’s really cool to see someone going through the learning process – and doing it well! Aside from the obvious pitfalls and lessons associated with learning to drive; as a passenger to a learning driver I’ve noticed that being in a ‘L plate’ car allows you to see the best and the worst qualities of the other motorists on the road. Its like an amplifier for peoples characters. Some drivers are soo considerate and patient, while others just aren’t. It’s cool to just sit back and take it all in as the passenger.

Cabin Fever

Friday evening the rain came again (had it ever left?). Aside from getting out on Saturday for a running session (a real teeth-rattler by the way!) and on Sunday for a good drenching on the hills (12 miles never felt so far before! Horizontal rain and sleet – 10 yards visibility – shorts, Inov8’s and a Nike jacket!) we didn’t leave the house as a result of the rain and some fast approaching deadlines for both Caroline’s and my own, Uni course. I think Friday’s taste of the Limestone added to my frustration coz I was going berserk! The training board got a good hammering and I messed around with the camera a bit but other than that we just read, highlighted and typed.

A few positive things did come out of it though – it was the last straw – I decided I’m not working the summer, I’m going to take a loan out and climb, run, train and sleep for 2 months uninterrupted (hitting as many UK, European and Irish Crags and races along the was as possible) – also I got some good training in both on and off the wall.

Oh, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean – nuf said

Rodge…

How remiss of me?! I never mentioned much about the best concert I have ever witnessed! Rodger Waters: Dark Side of the Moon. Monday I was so stressed about my impending interview that I almost didn’t go to see the gig! Man I am glad I did – An awesome visual and auditory experience completely throwing my mental timeline all over the shop between songs. Many of the Pink Floyd tracks were played around my house as I was growing up by my Dad – certain albums reserved for lazy summer Sundays spent pottering around the house – other tracks for wild winter evenings being whipped into an excited frenzy by the weather and the music – others tines that were always played as I slept – this music has been engrained into me since Day one and yet before this concert I have had only the slightest inkling of the power behind it. I cant really say much more – there was spacemen, lasers, explosions, flames, Giant Flying Anti-War Pigs, comics of travelling with mates to foreign countries, film sequences capturing the mundane 9-5 that made me want to pack it all in and go and live in a cave and climb in nature, Drugs, depression, growth, and the feeling that everyone there felt the same one some small level.

Musically it was impressive – perfect – fantastic. This was Rock!

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