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.

New(ish) Area - Wicklow Coast

Over the summer I've been climbing a good bit on the cliffs south of Wicklow Town. The cliffs stretch from just south of the Town past the lighthouse to Brittas Bay. The rock is schist I think and varies from very nice smooth rock at the bottom of the coves to horrible sharp choss at the top of the cliffs.

The area is similar in style to Portrane but not as extensive. At the moment anyway.

Its tidal and prone to seepage so it can be hard to predict when it is in very dry condition.

I'm definitely not the first to climb here but the bouldering has never been documented before. The guide contains about 40 problems a lot of which haven't yet been climbed - as far as I know, this is a bit unusual, normally areas only get documented when they are climbed out. But rather than keep it secret until I had climbed everything I could - which could take years - I thought it would be better to put it out there so anyone could fill in the gaps. The summer is the season for bouldering and it's nearly over so if I left it much later it would be no good to anyone til next year.


All I ask is that people let me know if they do new stuff so I can keep the guide up to date.

Download it here

Updated Cave topo

Gravity Climbing Centre

Who's excited about Gravity?
Seeing as I haven't climbing indoors for a few years and its miles from my house I'm not particularly. Having said this I think it will probably have a profound impact on the irish bouldering scene, probably serving as a HQ of sorts. The impact of the co-ops is plain to see. Plenty of people getting out regularly, all friends. At least it seems to be, I spend most of my climbing time solo.

Will there be a defection from the co-ops to Gravity? Will Gravity kill the co-ops? It would be a pity if it did but its probably an inevitable step. Maybe the pity is that the co-ops didn't spring up 10 years ago.

I just looked through their website and I noticed that they haven't explicitly said that it will be a bouldering wall - as opposed to a roped wall. I'm assuming it is bouldering only. I wonder how this will go down with the non-climbing masses?

I look forward to checking it out. I hope that they will host a round of the IBL. Be interested to hear the prices.

Glenmalure

The plan was to go into the North Prision so Lee could show me around but we where told "under no circumstances" could that happen. Instead we drove around Lug to Glenmalure. The day which had been looking like rain got warmer and sunnier and stiller. Tried everything on the excellent Ballinafushogue Boulder but were repelled by hot rock and midge. Great boulder, plenty of climbing on it.

We then headed further down the road and scrambled up the north side of the hill to check out a roof we spotted. It turned out very nice. Steep and about 9foot to the first lip. Lee did 2 problems on it. Both with fairly involved topouts. There is an amazing project - similar but much better than Switch in The Scalp - to be done. Crimp, very steep, body tension finished with a slap to the slopey lip (you can see the line it take up the wall beside Lee's left foot).

There is more to be done up here.  This only doing new stuff thing is going pretty well.

Frustration

So near yet so far.

3 days on Camaderry

Wandered around the slopes of Camaderry on Thursday. Came back on Friday with Ped and Diarmuid and our camping stuff.  Walked up from the hotel via the zigzags opposite the IMC hut and along the broad ridge leading to Camaderry East. Camped on the ridge and had a fire. Next day made out way back to the car via the mining village in Glendasan.  We climbed a few new problems. There is plenty of rock up there but not a huge amount of bouldering.

I did this arete. Pretty straighforward. 

Dropping into the cliffs on Saturday morning.

The rounded slab. There is another line on edges up the right hand side.

Ped trying the crack. Harder than it looks, the finish would need a good clean.

Diarmuid on the blank finish to the best line we found.

Another view of the line. The SS has nice moves on great slopers.

Ped after laybacking the crack.

The line of holds is clearly visible here. Ped flashed a line to the right of the rib.

Diarmuid climbed the slab on this boulder. I also cleaned the arete on the other side but it was a bit too hard for us