Team Ireland

By the end of our first week in Ceuse a decent Irish squad had assembled. Neal and Naomi had been here 3 or 4 weeks, Caroline and Myself had a week under our belts, Andy and Carole had been cutting their teeth at Orpierre while camping at Ceuse for a few days before undertaking the walk in and Finally Kev arrived and wanted a good daily pump fest to provide some mileage and boost his trad stamina for the Autumn. It was great craic both at the campsite and crag. It was interesting to see the effect the different mindsets and agendas had on people’s daily routines. It was something I’d never really noticed before but then again I can’t remember being on a climbing trip with such a varied bunch of converging plans. Neal and Naomi were just passing their holiday midpoint and the drive to go home with some ticks and was clear. They had both been here before and knew what to expect so arrived with a game plan, a wish list and lots of focus. It was unfortunate that we hadn’t all arrived at the same time because I would have loved to be able to join in with their redpoint psyche but we just were not at the point of our visit yet. Caroline and myself arrived after a great few months on UK sports and a healthy redpoint head but 3 weeks of down time and relocating across Europe had taken its toll. We had no route fitness and Caroline had never been to Ceuse before so we needed mileage and lots of it to get use to the style of climbing and the length of the routes. Carole and Andy were at the beginning of their mega trip and just wanted to climb lots and relax. As a result of the different mental phases we ended up climbing with Kev, Carole and Andy more than with Neal and Naomi, only catching up with them occasionally as they whizzed back and forth across the crag to each of their respective projects. In the end I think I worked out best for us. I was able to just climb whatever anyone wanted and place the draws and in the process I clocked up a rake of routes and Caroline enjoyed building lots of easy mileage on the 6’s and 7’s while taking a much needed break from pushing herself. After two weeks or so Team Ireland had dwindled to just Caroline and Myself. Before everyone left we managed a visit to Orpierre and a day bouldering in Ailfroide where we met some more Irish by chance (Howard, Bridget and Niamh). After that we had two much needed rest days and the following day’s constant rain forced a third. In total we had been away from Ceuse for 6 days! With Fatigue no longer an issue and a promising weather forecast for the final week we could look forward to more climbing that tested our weaknesses with no pressure or expectation of success – I just need to climb on a different style of rock for a while and remember to try and learn what I can along the way. Bliss!

Ceuse

What can I say? The place is awesome! We arrived late in the middle of a thunder and lightening storm after a 12 hour drive and set up camp alongside Neal and Naomi who had been climbing there for a couple of weeks prior to our arrival. They were just getting into the peak of their redpointing after building up some route fitness and getting their Ceuse heads in gear. We knew we were in for a big change in styles but nothing could have prepared us for this. It was my third visit to the Mecca of climbing. My first being during 2003 when I had never been sports climbing before and could barely manage to climb anything. My second visit came during 2007 when Caroline flew off to Turkey to compete in the World Mountain Running Championships for Ireland. I met up with Sean and Kev Marnane and had 5 days climbing. I didn’t climb much but remember trying two 7c’s in Berlin Sector and made it to the top of both with multiple rests and falls – I had no fitness to redpoint anything at that stage but I remembered coming home from that visit feeling like those grades were possible for me with some fitness. This trip was Caroline’s first and the compulsory culture shock took place as per normal. Runouts combined with sustained climbing and the occasional thin technical section all acted to knock us out of whack and presented us with an almost diametrically opposite climbing challenge to what we had grown accustomed to in the UK. Dinbren’s 12 meter long, steep and powerful, crimp-fests were like the opposite end of the sports climbing spectrum to these 35 meter slow burners. No move felt hard compared to our old local but the combination of easy moves and constant steepness presented a new challenge – stamina as opposed to power endurance. Perfect training for a winter of climbing in the Costa Blanca in Spain! I’m expecting a serious smackdown but also some signs of slow progress and gains. Watch this space for more updates on how it goes.