Monday, February 15, 2010

Dalkey Quarry bouldering

I'm trying to decide how much of the quarry bouldering to have in the guide. In the latest web edition of the guide I have a photo topo for Ivy Wall and the Traverse Wall in the West Quarry. Ivy Wall is definitely going to get in. Not sure about the traverse wall, is there any need to spell out the problem there, they are pretty obvious and not that popular.

I could detail every problem in the quarry, the Dalkey route guide has quite a bit more detailed bouldering, but I'm not sure it makes sense. Firstly the bouldering in Dalkey isn't very good, secondly I'm not sure if anyone would use it much (locals or visitors).

Maybe an option would be to put the full definitive guide on the web and just feature Ivy Wall in the guide?

15 comments:

  1. I wouldn't waste any of my time / resources on Dalkey. Not that it is a bad Area, I'm sure there's lots of great trad routes in there, but it's just not worth being in a bouldering guide me think.
    It's a bit like Salibury crag, Agassiz Rock or Wolf crag in John's guidebook: I checked these spots because they were in the guide and then I wondered why he put them in the guide...

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  2. I would just stick highlites in, then do an expanded dalkey guide on the web. I'd probably do simmilar with portrane.

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  3. Thats what I'd be afraid of Pierre, that their inclusion in the guide would be seen as an indication that they are worthwhile bouldering areas.

    Controversal Tim. Where in Portrane would you omit? And why? Surprised to hear you say this.

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  4. I just think it's more worthy of a brief overview. I think it's inclusion in the guide could lead people to belive it's off really high quality and not just someware to head on a warm summers evening. It suffers from sepeage and is so tide dependent it can be a nightmare. It's not that I belive bits should be left out but I don't think it should be over sold. Just but the good or great problems in not the ones were the rock comes away in your hands or is another eliminate. It's like when the 2 girls from Austria came over 2 summers ago they had planned to spend a day there! Mental.

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  5. Paul emailed me the following as he couldn't post up here for some reason

    "Ivy Chimney obviously deserves inclusion as does that little slab problem up by the steps IMO (Jeremy's problem I think, quality). What about the mini routes that can be bouldered/highballed? Some of them are quite good e.g. Pilaster, Cruise Arete, Solitary Confinement, Voltas Vortic Vector, duffy's arete left of hoochie coochie couloir? Might be of interest to visiting climbers in dublin. Just my €0.02"

    I replied thus - "I suppose a list of routes that could be bouldered might be no harm, it wouldn't exactly take up much space but it would require reference to the route guidebook one way or the other so there would be no point going into much detail..."

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  6. Tim I will address the topic of Portrane in another post. I haven't been there often or recently my self so don't really feel like I can comment at the moment.

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  7. I'd leave people to make up there own minds about routes than can be bouldered out as every one has different takes on it. A list of routes that are already covered in a route guide seems unneccassary. Paul loves dalkey so in my opinon might be slightly biased.get 10 people to meet up there and have a go at a trial then take the concensus. I still think exspanede pdf would surffice.

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  8. I have to agree about portrane. The guide makes it look like one of the best places to go with a huge amount of problems, but its shite. Dalkey is not a bouldering venue and should'nt recieve much coverage.

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  9. Yep I agree about Portrane as well. Except that unlike Dalkey it's a great place for training. But no more than Dalkey does it deserve a page in your guidebook Dave.

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  10. How about this. Put all the area that you are thinking of using and break them down for example in Dalkey: Ivy Chimney, Traverse Wall, (according to the climbing guide) Base Camp & Kids Sliding Slab.
    everyone votes on these area
    Ivy end up a 3.5
    Traverse end up a 2.5
    the other two end up a 1
    you take the areas heights rating as the over all rating (in above Dalkey end up a 3.5 area) but still add the rate for the areas in Dalkey.
    This means the areas with the best bouldering can be easily seen and the need for just mentioning a grade 1 area means to a visitor not really worth the walk

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  11. I disagree:
    1. The vast majority of climbers know Dalkey, but very few know the Polldoo Glen so your system won't be representative.
    2. I highly doubt that climbers can actually evaluate how good a bouldering spot is.
    When you ask people to vote, you get the Xfactor.

    Dave's guide should be about what Dave knows, and I think we can all agree that very few have visited all the places he has (I haven't but maybe you have Simon?)

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  12. Not a chance i have been everywhere, I am only new to this...
    to be honest I wasnt even going to vote because it would not have been my place to judge it was just a suggestion of a way to rate areas worthy of interest.
    would a rating system work based on daves suggestions then so you still get the chance to see if the area is worth a visit but it is more of a standardized system but who knows dave might love crack problems so anywhere with lots of crack gets all 5s so that wont work either.....

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  13. The thing about voting Simon is - its come up before with prosals for a proglem grade voting system like bleau.info - that you get very small sample spaces which can easily be distorted so on one hand you lose the consistency of a single opinion but don't get a consensus opinion either. Plus they are loads of work to set up. The approach I favour is to indicate in the text the quality of a place, the guidebook authors euphemism of choice is usually "a venue for locals" steer clear.

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  14. I think the reasons to visit a place, the type of climbing, the quantity and quality etc should/will be quite clearly laid out in the introduction to a place. This should for the most part counter the problem of "over-recording" of problems in a place like Portrane.

    Of course this will be quite subjective to dave's tastes but as with any guide you have to rely on the guide writer to balance that out.

    On the topic of Dalkey I'd say just Ivy Wall is worth a photo/topo. In terms of putting a full dalkey guide online would that be as part of a whole online guide(?) or would it be
    a stand alone guide to dalkey online which would be a little counter-productive.

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