26 Days to Launch

Less than 4 weeks till we open the doors of Awesome Walls Dublin - PSYCHED!!!

12 Months

In the past year the following has happened:

I got married to my beautiful wife and climbing partner Caroline

We changed career

Packed in two full time positions teaching in Spain

Returned to Ireland

Started a business

Turned 30!

Bought a van

Caroline gave birth to our beautiful baby girl – Matilda

Wow!

At the minute I’m busy being a dad, husband and project manager; overseeing the construction of Irelands largest climbing centre – Awesome Walls Dublin. The excitement I feel for this is HUGE as it’s the one thing I’ve always wanted to achieve and now it’s finally happening. The down side is that as a result of wanting to give 100% to the three roles mentioned above I’m finding it hard to fit in climbing myself – sanity comes from knowing it’s a phase and that it will pass. I know from experience that I come back stronger and more psyched than ever after periods of forced inactivity. That said, we’ve been on two trips out west to the Burren and by my second trad lead there I was back to leading E5 again and it felt easy enough. I feel like I’m lining up dominoes and that once things are finalised everything should click into place to allow for more training, a return to fitness and more time spent doing what I love – being outdoors on rock or running. Enough of the waffle!

Time for some goals:

I’m 86.7kg – jaysus! My fighting weight of 79kg seems a long way away. There is an easy first target, break under 80kg before Christmas.

I’ve been doing a bit of bouldering and would like to do the following boulders: Computer World and Leftism.

At this stage I just want to squeeze in some E5 and E6 onsights – some time spent headpointing something harder would be nice but I’d only be looking at really safe hard trad meaning they’ll be physical and I need to shape up for that kind of thing.

I want to start racing again – if I can even get back to 4 or 5 easy runs a week and keep it sustained I’d be happy for now.

Rock Aplenty

A few nice first ascents from Glenmalure in Wicklow. Happy with the arete. It feels quite highball and with one pad I took ages to commit to the top out. Climbs lovely though - similar difficulty to Choc Ice and Alison Curtis and harder than So it goes right so probably around 6C+ or in Irish terms 3 Apples, 2 Oranges, a bite of Banana and a Carrot stick for good measure. Shelter is a great problem too, easy but lovely movement. Worth throwing your pad under it enroute to the higher problems or on your way back to the car.

Exploring Wicklow

Yesterday I had a day off. No running, no work and no climbing. A chance to catch up with all the other stuff. It ended with us going for a walk in Glenmalure and me finding and cleaning a lovely little overhanging prow. Nice to find something as easy as this with a definite flow to the movement. Plus it’s steep, pathside and in a beautiful setting. Shelter, 6A. Sit start on undercut below the roof and climb the good edges along the lip leftwards to good finishing moves up the mini groove. Class!

The Robots

The Robots.

I dont like slabs. But this is a classic problem. Got me thinking what makes a classic problem? The movement feels good. The all-important setting. The texture and quality of the rock. The look of the line. The height. It keeps your interest. It allows progression to get you on the hook but won't succumb to thugery. It rewards understanding and strategy. And best of all, the crux is at the top and subtle enough to make you drop it a few times before the send. Magic!