Mall Hill

Spent 2 days in Mall Hill this week. Was good.

Doolin/Toit le Cul de Clare

Was in Doolin for a few days, weather was woeful, very windy and rainy. The climbing was soaked. It wasn't really possible to get down to the ledges even at low tide as there was a big sea running.

On the way home we called into Toit le Cul de Clare in east Clare. It was soaking as well. Didn't have high hopes, it didn't look too bad I suppose. Not great though. Have to wonder how Pierre found the place, it really is in the middle of nowhere. Anyone ever been?

Donegal

Headed up on a solo mission to Donegal. With the ambitious plan of visiting every area in the county (bar Polldoo). I fell at the last hurdle as I wasn't able to find Rubinoid Point. The directions in the guide are woeful, you would be very lucky to find them using it. Those directions have been around for 5 years, just goes to show either that no one tries to go there. After wasting time searching for a while I head to Dunaff Bay on the other side of Inishowen, its a really nice spot. Lovely wave washed granite that is smooth but still has some bite. Loads to do there. I was very pleasantly surprised. Didn't have time to go to Fanad Head which is a few km across the water but a massive drive away.

Had curry chips in the Chineser in Bunbeg - best I have ever had.

Spent all of the next day wandering around in the pissing rain looking at wet rock. Then in the evening did the long drive to Malin Beg. Drove over Glengesh Pass on what must be the steepest road in Ireland. After a diversion causeed by a landslide I arrived in Malin Beg. It felt like the end of the world. The hostel owner said it would take over 3 hours to drive from Malin Beg in the south west to Culdaff in the north east.

The weather was better in the morning, checked out Malin Beg, thought it was pretty limited to be honest. Then went on to Muckros Head which was wet and wavy, checked out some of the bouldering that had been previously documented, I thought it looked shite. Rock was sharp I suppose the lines where ok. Miles of this sort of thing on Inishmore. Maybe some of the stuff under the cliff proper is better.

White Bog

John and I hit the White Bog in the Cooleys last Saturday. We expected sun but got mist and very strong winds instead. John got stuck into the harder problems while I got stuck into some Turkish Delight. I found the lines good but the rock is very sharp. Too sharp for me. Legged it up to Windy Gap (it wasn't) to take a few shots only for my camera to run out of juice. Met two mates of John's from Belfast up there.

Some pretty heavily brushed rock. Really shows up on the dark gabbro.

Google Street view - stop the car

Google street view Ireland went live yesterday and its incredible. I assumed it would only cover main roads in cities but that is defintely not the case, its seems like almost every little boreen in the country is covered. This is going to make finding new boulders a hell of a lot easier. Stop the car!

http://maps.google.ie/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Dublin,+County+Fingal&ll=51.736809,-9.758263&spn=0,0.076818&z=14&layer=c&cbll=51.723206,-9.757772&panoid=kQiQjbkMAOinLKZ3deCe5A&cbp=13,226.78,,0,-17.5

Check this for starters. Comment if you find any nice looking rocks.

Wet day in Wicklow

Forecast was too dodge to drive to any of the place I need to go so I went down to Wicklow. Wandered around Annalecka in the pissing rain wondering where it all went wrong. Looked at the two white boulders visible from the parking spot. 6 foot high. Wandered around on the Brockagh Ridge cause it was too early to go home and i hadn't never really been up there and that means that there is a huge boulder field up there - at least thats now it is in my head. There isn't. There are a few boulders but they were far away. Some day. Took a nice panorame of th Glendasan bouldering. Would be a shot worth taking on a sunny day. Which mean I have to go back.

Slieve Binnian

Last week braved the walk in finally. Was a good forecast and it turned out very nice. Still windy though but its pretty exposed up there.
Did the loop from Carrick Little to South Tor to North Tor. Advantage of this is that it gets the uphill out of the way in one sharp shock. Took us 1 hour 20 mins. Not racing but not spacing either. South Tor is good has a few really nice problems. North Tor is great there is loads. We didn't even get time to try everything we wanted. In fact there was whole boulders we didn't even get a chance to check out. The rock is nice. Not Mall Hill nice but good rough granite. Has a good few pockets, its an big coarse grain. There is an ad on UTV starring Ricky and Craig on North Tor doing real climbing. They got a helicopter up the lazy cunts.

There will be loads of info in the guide about the Mournes bouldering. Yes the walkins are tough but its worth it.