Irish Bouldering News

Turns out I've been asked to write for a website. Its not the first time I'll have had something published, it'll be the third time, but this time it's a regular gig. Probably got a thumbs up from Neal in the background as Team Geared Up have asked me to write a weekly bouldering column - which I've agreed to do. I was beginning to wonder what I'll do with this once the year is up. Well now I know, I'll be writing for TGU and it all starts at the end of June.

I doubt it will focus exclusively on Irish bouldering because let face it there's not enough of us doing exciting enough stuff on a weekly basis but I do hope to have an Irish bias.

Competition Photos

As promised, although a week late, here are some photos of the competition in Galway. I apologise for the poor quality, my little camera isn't the best when in adrenalin shook hands. My wrist is still sore after the competition but nearly recovered, it should be alright for my trip to font (1 week to go!).


 



 

Bouldering Competition

The first round of the Irish Bouldering League was on Saturday in Galway City. This year the organisers have introduced a new scoring system (outlined here) and it was a great success. The basics of the system are that each problem has its A variant and its B variant, B being easier with additional holds but fewer points. Now this way you could try B, score points on it and then try the A variant and score more points. This really encouraged people to try all the problems as scoring points on B meant you had nothing to loose and everything to gain trying the A version. There was a good turn out on the day with over 100 competitors.

The problems themselves were excellent and I scored points on all of them. Personally I think it was the best IBL round I've been too. Sadly I injured myself again by spraining my wrist which scuppered my plans for going to Doolin the next day. This is a bit shit as I was looking forward to the meet in Doolin more than the competition. Still though, with my trip to Font set for three weeks time its better if a rest and heal so I can be in good shape, although my fitness will be affected. It’s been a couple of weeks since I was outdoors and I've only two weekends left to get out, well one actually: Myself and Jenny are spending next weekend at a luxury spa in Co Wexford. We have mud baths booked.

The IBL is an amateur competition so there were no guest star appearances from Dave Graham or anyone. Although the after competition slide-show did have an interesting movie staring Marcin Ostasz and his hula-hoop. It was ás gaeilge too, apparently.

I'll upload photos of the competition later.

Embrace the Web

Not much to write about this week. We had a bank holiday weekend here in Ireland but the only day I could get out was Sunday, and it rained. That's how it goes I suppose. I'm back training and trying to improve my finger strength but taking it easy as there's a competition on this weekend. I'm looking forward to it but I'm not giving it my all as Font awaits at the end of the month and would rather save myself for that. Still though, it should make for some good photos. Theres a meet planned for the next day in Doolin if the weather holds.

The Mountaineering Council of Ireland (M.C.I.) have an exciting new website, its about time too. The last one was really, really, really bad. Seriously, it looked like somebody's kid brother developed it using the MS-DOS editor or something; Think <blink></blink>. The all new http://www.mountaineering.ie has finally dragged Irish Mountain Sports kicking and screaming into the late 1990s. Internet un-savvyness is quite a common thing in Ireland, as a nation we really haven't embraced internet technologies. Seriously I only know of one person who teleworks. ONE! She's actually on the MCI commitee come to think of it :/

Injury and entertainment

I'm out injured after a spill on my bike and had college at the weekend so nothing happened bouldering or training wise. I'm back at the wall tomorrow for a few tentative problems to see how everything has healed. God bless Arnica is all I can say, that injury could have seen me out of action for a few weeks.

Just to keep you entertained here's Chris Webb Parsons climbing Wheel of Life (Font 8c+) in the Grampians, Australia. An incredibly long problem, this second ascent is a study of climbing in 3 dimensions.

Foolin' in Doolin

Spent Saturday afternoon in Doolin and got a good bit done this time. There's no photos but I might be able to salvage something from my previous trip. So I spent the first 40 minutes just wandering around looking at the different sectors. When I was about to start local climber Paul, who is originally from Dublin, turned up with his two dogs George and Rosín. Paul showed me around and we worked the problems together and tried a new line, FA going to Paul.

Doolin rock has been mentioned briefly before but I'll now elaborate. The rock in Doolin is mostly on small cliffs although there are some boulders. Its sharp due to weathering and has high friction. The cliffs themselves are mostly overhanging, probably about 3-4 metres high and pockmarked with cracks, pockets and breaks. Very sharp and fingery. One sector has problems going to about 7m, too high for me. There looks to be some really good slab problems too which I'll have a crack at next time I'm down.

The boulders themselves are good, they can be quite like the cliffs but at different angles. The tend not to be so sharp as they've been weathered by the sea instead of the elements. Most of them are big, probably weighing in at 20 tons+ and here's the thing: they change from year to year. Over the winter big storms roll in off the Atlantic moving the boulders around and bringing in new ones. Cool.  

A few more people turned up and sandwiches were munched much to George and Rosín's delight and we waffled for about an hour before I headed off. Jenny was at a conference in Limerick so we had a hotel room for the night. The next morning there was a spillage of orange juice at the breakfast bar, nothing spectacular, just some orange juice. However, the dude who was cleaning up cleaned the floor with his manky old grey stringy mop and then mopped the breakfast bar with it. How vile is that? I won't name the hotel for fear of legal action against this blog but I won't be staying there again.