Fairhead Meet, Great Craic Climbing !!

I finally made my first trip to the mighty Fairhead. I headed down to the annual Fairhead meet with Jon Smith (cheers for the lift dude) on the Friday night. We arrived at Ballycastle at dusk and grabbed a fish and chips for dinner before pitching our tents and sinking a couple of Guinness and chatting to folks around the camp fire and a gang from the Savage Craic Climbing Club. It was 26 degrees when we left Blessington, but surprisingly colder, cloudy and foggy when we got up North, ''So much for this supposed heatwave'' I thought to meself. I fell asleep in my tent hoping for better weather and I couldn't wait to wake up and check out the crag in the morning.

 

The weather on the Saturday turned out to be great and a day of climbing mayhem ensued, it's never a dull moment with the trad climbing, it had been way to long since the last time. The crag was gorgeous looking and the views to Rathlin Island and Scotland were breath taking and so was the climbing. I partnered up with Jon in the morning and he hopped on an E1 called Railroad for a 'warm up'. I didn't know what I was in for !! Jon is an old school routes climber, he knows all the tricks, he is savage at jamming, he cruised up the route jamming his way easily to the crux at a small roof and surmounted it with style ... I am a complete Fairhead and jamming newbie, I have only bouldered for the last few months, I haven't climbed at all in 2 and a half weeks, I am really confused, I get pumped out after 10 meters, I flail wildly, I fall consistently, I moan and I groan, and when I have finally grovelled my way to the top after about 20 takes I feel like I have lay down on a 'railroad' and been run over by a speeding freight train. I got a severe spanking !! My finger was still a little sore and my feet hadn't warmed up so my foot injury was acting up a bit too and I was totally defeated and really felt like I hadn't a hope of getting up any routes at all at this imposing crag.

 

I wanted to step the grades down a few notches so Diarmuid The Dragon partnered up with Jon and I headed off with Kev to climb the VS The Black Thief, a climb held in very high regard that Kev had been told was a must do route. I had learned a thing or two about jamming from the previous climb, especially how to jam my feet in the cracks instead of searching for smears as if I was on granite. Kev led the route and I seconded it. It was one of the most memorable climbs I have ever done, the moves were sweet, I was jamming and stemming the parallel cracks and really enjoying myself. My finger felt good and my foot too. Half way up I got pumped out my brains, I was in bits, but I wouldn't let go because I wanted to make amends for the E1 disaster earlier. I fought my way to the top, it was a stunning climb, I loved every second of it !! Even though I had only climbed two routes, they had taken a lot out of me and I could barely walk 

 back to the campsite.

There was a great gang down for the meet, on the Saturday night the lads from Tops Off For Power showed a few good climbing video shorts they had made during the year, I drank many Guinness and had a yap with loads of people I had just met or people I  hadn't seen for ages. I had a head on me when I woke up Sunday morning and I was just about to get out of my sleeping bag when I heard the rain starting, the weekend was unfortunately cut short and Jon and I packed up and headed home. I will deffo be making a return trip to Fairhead before the end of the summer ... but first I have to work hard to get my fitness back, because the climbing there is alien to me and hard, hard but immensely fun.