Went to Glenmalure yesterday to meet Lee from
Betaguides and his wife. On the drive down there was a few showers but the day turned out to be perfect summer bouldering conditions, sunny, very windy and dry. We first checkout Fraughan Rock. Lee repeated John's problem on the backside. Looks great slopey moves. (John did you submit this to the database?), Lee reckoned around 6b manteling the leftside of the dish. We then spent a good while working out the moves on a line just to the right of Cavailer Attitude. Lee dispatched this as well. Brilliant move from a sitstart on undercuts to the big just then up the slab using the sidepulls. Very technical and sequency, 6b/6c?
There was millions of massive Fraughan Berries around, I have never see so many.
We then headed up to Art's Lough. The walk looks worse than it is, it only takes around 15mins. We worked the moves on the steep problem on the lakesend of Ciaran's Boulder which Lee dispatched in short order. 6c+ maybe with quite a fingery crux at the start. Landing is a bit awkward but not too dangerous. Lastly we went up to the high plateau above (which is called Foxburrow in the brilliant
EastWest map). Lee flashed the slopey arete and the slab we tried last time and was very impressed by the large rock which I think we will call White Elelephant. There is a lot more quality bouldering to be done in this area if you are prepared to walk.
Nice one. Keen to head back up there when I get home. Where exactly is the big slab? Looks quality. What does it go at? Didn't spot it when myself and John were up last year. Though I do remember seeing some interesting looking stuff on the slope directly above the lake. The steep side of ciaran's boulder looks cool as well. John submitted the slopey rib problem alright, "Crowd Control" 6a+
ReplyDeleteThe big slab is on the plateau above Art's Lough up the steep slope. So he did, I don't know how I missed that. I'm going to post up a 4 page exerpt of the guide for this area to encourage people to check it out. There is lots of great new problems to be done here...
ReplyDeleteHeya Dave, looks like you got the right day for it! was down there on sunday funnily enough but it was wet and misty, was just hiking with friends with a bit of boulder hunting and fraughan berry gorging thrown in for good measure.
ReplyDeleteHad eyed up the ss to jug before, looks great, reckon there's scope for a ss to the arete directly to the left but looks hard, didnt make it to the arts lough boulders (hard to convince non climbers in the rain) but lees prob on the steep face and the white elephant look stunning, beautiful spot, feels so remote but like you say the walk in looks worse than it is, some great rock just waiting. will give you a shout when im heading down next, when are you free these days?
Yeah it was great weather. Did you see anything interesting on your walk? For Crowd Control you slapped up to the slopey ledge but where did you top out, you must of used the holds on the left for your feet at 6a+?
ReplyDeleteDo let me know next time you are going out, I'm pretty flexible these days.
Nah, didnt see much of interest really, was a late start and we were aiming to do lug but got turned by bad weather near the top, noticed that overhanging arete block you were playing on in that vid you made, looks cool, much potential? was still pretty far away at the time.
ReplyDeleteFor Crowd control yeah it felt slightly eliminate in that its way easier to topout to the left, but yeah when I did it, I topped out straight above the arete/scoop i guess, with my right hand on the ledge and my left hand on the sloping top, then i remember my left foot just smearing on some crumbly nothings just left of the best part of the arete to layback then just mantelling out, was the crux for me anyway as it was still very scrittly and dirty at the time.
Yeah will deffo give ya a shout when Im heading out, hopefully soon enough when I get rid of this cold!