Howlin Ridge

On Thursday Ped and I did Howlin Ridge. Got up early to avoid the worse of the heat but still got baked on the walk in. Racked up but didn't use rope or climbing shoes. It felt more like a scramble than a climb thought there was a few tricky sections.

Route finding is pretty easy there is pretty much a path. Took about 2hr15 including a lot of photoshoots en route.

Having done it in such beautiful conditions it seems like it would be shame to do it in shitty weather.

As for the grade, I would say Diff rather than VDiff.

For climbers it's a scramble. For scramblers it's a climb.

Muskrat Ramble

Went to back to Luggala with Andy on Saturday, started early so we were leaving as the day was really starting to heat up. Andy wanted an adventure and decided on Muskrat Ramble, the three star, three pitch HVS.

As we geared up a few midge lurked and I was worried but there was a decent breeze all day. Andy set off immediatly going off route as the guidebook start looked very dirty. He pulled quickly through some tricky climbing that didn't look that steep from the ground, an optical illusion, as it was steep and hard on the blunt end. The finish needed a good clean but overall decent pitch.

The belay was at this big oak tree and would be a great spot for a bivvy. The second pitch is the star. Steep and really really exposed. It made me feel like a beginner, nervous, overgripping and a little wobbly. Andy shot up it no hesitation. The same couldn't be said of me.

We belayed on the pine tree. Sensational spot, the rock dropping steeply beneath.

Andy decided on the last pitch of Crevasse Route rather than MR as it looked very dirty and probably isn't done very often. The start is a pretty hard, for VS, mantle onto a slab. I had trouble higher up, rushing a bit and getting all wrong handed.

We walked off and drank the beers Andy had stashed in the stream on the walk in. I was impressed with Andy's leading straight off the couch. The route felt hard and it appears that my goal of getting really solid on HVS is still a good bit off.

Oh and I spotted at least one very nice boulder problem.

Bouldering book title

Have been doing a decent bit of climbing but haven't blogged about it as I have been occuppied with finishing my bouldering book. It's pretty much done bar the cover and deciding on a title.

I have been trying to think of a good title for over a year now and I had hoped one would just fall out of the sky but it hasn't happened.

So I would like some help settling on one.

First some background on the book. It's bouldering how-to/instructional manual aimed at beginner and intermediate climbers. It's starts pretty basic and is focussed on movement and strategy rather than training. There are lots of great photo so it has a coffee table flavor - judge for yourself - see the photos below.

I think it's pretty comprehensive, it's not just a beginners book, so I don't want a title like "Bouldering for Beginners" or "Start Bouldering" (this was my working title for a while) as they suggest that experienced boulderers won't find anything to use to them.

I would like 'bouldering' in the title. I think this is important for search rankings and so on.

There are two options - just plain old bouldering with a subtitleor something bouldering or bouldering something.

I have tried to write down all the options. A lot of which are pretty chessy and generic. I'm open to left of field suggestions (for example I really like the title of "Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills").

The Bouldering Handbook

The Bouldering Manual

The Complete Guide to Bouldering

Complete Bouldering

Essential Bouldering

Learn Bouldering

Go Bouldering

Start Bouldering

Bouldering Basics

Bouldering Explained

Bouldering Uncovered

Bouldering Essentials

Bouldering for Beginners

Bouldering for Everyone

Bouldering: A guide for beginners and intermediates

Bouldering: How to

Already taken

Better Bouldering

Bouldering: Movement, Tactics and Problem Solving

Anyone have any opinions on any of the above titles?

Pine Tree Buttress

Top of the second pitch.

Haven't blogged for a while. Have been mostly climbing in the Quarry recently, either soloing about or bouldering. Years ago I have a few sessions on a nice little wall and I decided to get back on it, first I had a to beat a path to it, but I have had about 8 sessions on it now and am making progress, it's plumb vertical on tiny edges and pinches, it really the direct start to a route and I might need a rope for the upper section if I ever get there.

A very hungover Ped and I went and did Pine Tree Buttress on Luggala today. We parked at Piergates - first car parked there - and walked in along the road and then up the river. It's under an hour to the foot of the crag, and en route I found this really great 45 degree wall which has potential for three very nice, indoor style problems.

I had studied the old guide - I don't own the new one - and the photos from the new guide which can be found here. The old guide is appalling, it would be a miracle to correctly follow a route using it. The new topos are ok.

First pitch went grand, I kept going past the belay around the corner hoping to run a few pitches together. But once I got into the V groove the rope kept jamming so I had to belay. A short pitch up a wide crack lead up to the hollly tree below the steep wall. There is an interesting move off the belay stepping right, it took a few goes to figure out, I couldn't find an elegant solution so just got a high foot and pulled. Once over onto the slab I couldn't see any hint of a belay so pressed on up the slab. Clipped a stuck nut and made my way up the slab, it's nice, exposed and there are good holds. This is the best pitch. Got to the grassy ledge, belayed and brought Ped up. Turned out I belayed too far left but it was academic. Last pitch led to the tree, it was ok, I followed my nose and I think I kept to the intended line.

Top of last pitch (our fourth) of Pine Tree Buttress.

Midway I had to place some gear so that Ped could take me off so that he could shit.

The midway ledge is cool, sat around there is the sun for a while, I had planned to do a route called Temptation, but backed off it as it was dirty and I couldn't really see the line. Ended up scrambling up some Diff, walked over the top of Fancy and down the ridge to the car.

PTB wasn't as good as I was expecting for a three star route. The long pitch up the slab was pretty good. The belays are nice eyries with good views but the rest of the climbing was a little indistinct. So was underwhelmed. Would of loved to do one of the classic on the Main Face but need a little more leading under my belt. Next time.

Cover for new book: 2

Thanks everyone for the feedback, it's much appreciated. There seems to be strong support for the black background with the simplest layout being preffered. Based on the comments I have made two different front and back covers, a single shot and a multiple one. I shall add them to another post now. I have added a poll on the Irish Climber's facebook group  to see if I can get a wider range of opinions...

Feedback welcome...

Cover for new book

I'm working on the cover of my new book about bouldering. Would be great if people voted for the cover they think is best, would be great if they left their reasons as well.

Let me know (use the "Add new idea" button) if you like some aspects of one and some of another. Also let me know if you dislike them all or have any other suggestions....

Also it would be great if you let me know if you like one back cover (left hand page) over another.

powered by tricider

See large version of each cover below.

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Electonic climbing guides

Yesterday Mountaineering Ireland released their Donegal Rock Climbing App. This is the first such guide to Ireland, and represents a big step for a large organisation like MI.

The original plan was to release a print guide, but that was shelved relatively recently. At this point the guide was already years late. But this isn't unusual for an MI guide (and it's probably fair to say any volunteer produced guidebook).

I spent a good bit of time thinking about the pros and cons of electronic guides when I was deciding what to do once the print copies of Bouldering Ireland ran out. In the end I settled for a downloadable PDF as (1) it was easy for me to generate from my existing InDesign files (2) it can be printed and viewed on any electronic device. A possible downside is that it can be easily shared, but I felt the risk/consequence of this were low, as climbers are a decent lot and the cost price was low.

So some pros and cons of the Donegal Rock Climbing App format:

Pros

• Cheap to produce Printing books can get expensive, having said that MI tend to do reasonably large runs so their unit cost should be pretty low (especially relative to the retail price of their guide - €25). Either way they have to stump up thousands in cash upfront and the less popular books may take a decade to sell out (if they ever do). So producing an electronic guide means they don't have large upfront costs, well maybe they do, I don't know many people who would code an App like this for free, but lets assume even if they did pay a developer, it's still a lot cheaper than printing.
• Cheap to buy The App costs €7 which is a lot less than the €25 the previous edition of the Donegal guide cost. This isn't, however, a like for like comparison as the App is contains 1000 selected routes, while the guide was definitive (I don't know off hand how many routes it contained). Also Iain Miller (www.uniqueascent.ie), the editor of the App, has made available PDFs of the definitive guides for free on his website (surely they should be on the MI site? Who owns them?). This begs the question why wasn't the App made available for free, or a nominal cost?
• Can be easily updated An App can be quickly and easily updated to correct mistakes or add new routes.
• Doesn't block the release of a paper guide in future As there isn't a huge pile of books sitting in MI offices, the option is open in future to release a paper guide.
• An electronic guide can do a lot of things a paper one can't Maybe this is the big reason. A smartphone knows where you are, it can display charts, you can search it, there is effectively infinite space for photos, you could intergrate voting or feedback etc.

Cons

• Most people won't be able to use it I looked up some smartphone stats for Ireland (check out the very useful www.thinkwithgoogle.com/mobileplanet). In 2012 43% of the population had a smartphone. 39% of those run iOS, on which the App works (there are plans for Android version in the future). So just over 16% of climbers (assuming their smartphone habits are the same as the general population which could go either way I suppose) will be able to use this guide.
• Smartphones aren't reliable They aren't waterproof, and it would hurt to drop one in the sea. My battery doesn't last much longer than a day, so if I was camping without a means to charge it I could be stuck after a day or two.
• No legacy This is an alternative take of the pro "Can be easily updated". Paper guides exist long after they are made redunant by a new edition, while electronic guide are simply overwritten, the old version ceasing to exist. This means we lose the guide as a historical document, a representation of a particular place at a particular time. This is a pity I think. And while the wait between paper guides is often long, it caused a build up of excitement and a new wave of development and interest in an area often follows in the wake of a new guidebook. 

My take is that I would of like to see a different approach. A print select guide, with plenty of great photos and interesting asides, with downloadable PDFs (and/or print on demand books) of the more esoteric areas.

What do people think?