Great Gully Ridge

Did Great Gully Ridge in Glenmalure today with James. Have wanted to do it for a good while and James suggested it instead of bouldering. Was cloudy and a bit dodgey looking on the drive down but it stayed dry, I even got a little sunburnt on my recedding hairline.

Walk in wasn't too bad a bit rough at the end but not long enough to tire badly on. James has done the route loads of times so he kindly left the choice bits for me.

The route is HS (4a,3c,4b,4a) 140m on the wiki. Which sounds about right to me. We did it in 5 pitches partly as we used a thin rope doubled so could only do 30m pitches and partly so I got the cruxes.

The first crux is the corner at the very start of the route, only really one move, then there is a good bit of easy ground to the middle crux which is a nice groove on a slab, followed by more scrambling to the third crux which is a steep pull up the corner with the peg.

(on the third crux is the groove with the old peg the standard way? There was a groove to the left that looked easier, it had a stuck cam on a white/grey sling at its base).

None of the cruxes where that hard usually just a few smeary steps with good handholds. All where very well protected.

We ambled up, not in a rush and abbed down.

It's a very nice route. Quite manageable, good fun. There is loads of tat and stuck gear on it, I suspect people are forced to back off it qutie often due to weather.