Good Morning

Got out to Dalkey quarry yesterday morning for a while around the Ivy Chimney area. Its been quite a while since I climbed in the quarry, probably 2 or 3 months, and even longer since I bouldered. The quality of the problems surprised me - I don't remember them as being that good. Of course the day was fantastic, sunny, warm, clear blue sky and it was quiet. Really quiet. All I could hear were the occasional cries of 'Climb when ready' coming from people on routes and that's about it. It was so quiet I could listen to the bees buzzing amongst the gorse. A little robin was flitting about watching what I was doing (they're curious little birds). Its rare where I live to have quiet - it really was great. I love days like that.

Problem wise I got a couple of hours in before I was called away. The grades in Dalkey have me confused: are they Font or British grades? Might be a bit easy for British but I've never heard of Font 4c. The goals for the day consisted of two 6a problems. One is quite highball (its problem 4 in the new Dalkey guide if anybody is interested) and it's a brilliant fingery problem. I didn't send it but I'm close, I'm really close. Foot work is vital too, I'm tempted to say its delicate but considering how hard I had to pull it doesn't seem like an accurate description. The starting slab on Fang would be delicate, not this guy. My left forearm is still stiff. The other 6a I had a quick go at after the phone went calling me away. Just a quick scope of the problem really but it looks good. If you have access to Dalkey go, it seems there's a bit of a revival on considering the amount of chalk on the rock.

Sadly I don't have photos as I forgot my camera. But I'll include some photos from my recent trip to Doolin featuring the Cool Photo Display Thingy© as promised. They were taken over a couple of days. The problems weren't difficult and don't make for exciting photos, but the location was amazing. Just click on a photo to see it full size then click on the right or left side of the photo to scroll to the next one. The arrow keys on your keyboard work too. (If you're using Internet Explorer you may have to open a photo twice to get it to work)