Wicklow coast

Guppy Travers

This was written on Saturday.

Took Paul Brennan on a secret preview tour of the bouldering I have been doing near Wicklow Town. I knew Paul would be particuarly keen to see it as he works in the Town. We went to the coves at Black Castle which is maybe the most tidal venue and also the shortest walk in. We arrived just as the tide was at its lowest. I hadn't been for a few weeks so I wasn't sure what the seepage would be like. Turned out the rock was as dry as I have seen it and the sand level were still very high.

We got down to business and warmed up on a nice traverse that had repelled me on previous occasions. Probably not the best thing to warm up on as its very pumpy. Did it after a few goes using a heel hook. I had originally thought it would go without needing a heel but alas no. Guppy Traverse 6a+.

Paul on the bump on his problem

We then moved on to the problem to the right. A nice lowball slap from a slopey ledge to small incut edges. Paul figured out a good - and quite cool - sequence which invovled going with the left and bumping again.

We flailed around a bit more doing a high start to the problem I call Bulk Purchase which wasn't half as hard as I thought it would be, very cool feature thought. We then tried to get into the bowl and rotate.

Paul putting his caving skills to use

Biker Cove line

Then nipped over to the next cove south which is Biker Cove. We tried the nice line up the overhanding wall, I had been starting from a set of nice incut edges and deadpointing up to the incut pocket with my right, Paul had more success with his left, we then tried to work out a sequence from the slopey ledge which is the obvious start point. We did a few of the moves and it will make a great problem when linked up.

Ever seen someone twistlock cross through on hand jams?

The slap move on the middle line

At this stage the tide was lapping the rocks and we went to check out the nice cave I call the room. There is a great diagonal break slashing its way across the roof which Paul got excited about hand jamming. There is a start on the left hand side and a start in the middle that slaps from a really nice slopey slot to the break. The left start is ok, a bit damp and awkward. Paul contrated on the middle start, which I could barely get off the ground on. To my surprise he got it after a few goes and then started to figure out the rest. He will get it linked next time, I though it would be a lot hard maybe 7b but it might come in around 6c+.

It was a good session and I think Paul liked the place. Going to sit on this post til I let the cat out of the bag.