Glendo Round-Up

We have been having a great run of dry weather lately, a little too hot and humid, however semi-decent conditions can be found early in the morning shade and so I have been nipping down to Glendalough with whoever wants to tag along with me, falling off projects 99 percent of the time, getting some mileage in and having a laugh in the process.

I had a day in the good valley with J, it was his last day of the summer before going back to school, we warmed up, got some mileage in and went up the path for a session on Chillax 6C. Jamie finds all the moves O.K except for thr tricky heel hook which was giving him grief, I used my old pig ignorant sequence of dyno and campus to avoid the heel faffery, after I did it again I began working Chillax Left 7A.  On another day in the valley I went down with Pat, we climbed a bit around the path area and had an aul chat before Pat had to go home and I settled into a solo session on The Cherry 7A, I made a little progress completing the cross through move to the pinch, holding the pinch and twisting my body around and into position for the second move, a big powerhouse of a move to a decent crimp, its the only move I have left to figure out before I'll be trying the problem from the bottom up, really psyched for this one and hoping for more progress on the weekend.

The triangular pinch hold in the roof of The Cherry 7A

Jamie, Eoin and meself had a sweet session on Saturday, the sun was splitting the stones and we warmed up nice and slow enjoying Glendo classic 6a's such as Beachball and the slopey arete close by with no name, there was over 20 boulderers out and about, I reckon this will be a very busy season in Glendalough with all the new boulderers being created in the climber factories; Gravity Center and Awesome Walls. Eoin had a great day and was delighted to send his project Howard's Roof 6B, once he figured out how to stlye the technical foot jams he fought his way through the slopers and turned the lip of the roof for glory, Jamie got Howard's Roof too. I finished the day with a great work session on Chillax Left and I figured out a sequence and made it three quarters the way through the problem from the bottom.

Eoin jammin' it up on Howard's Roof 6B

Adam on Beachball 6A

The fine weather just kept on comin' and I went back again with Adam and Eugene on the Sunday with plans to get back on Chillax Left but it was WAY too hot to boulder so I had a laugh bringing the lads around to have a go on some classics, lazing around and dishing out beta to help them up the problems. Adam had no skin left at the end of a great day of mileage ticking loadsa 6a's and also getting up Howard's Roof too, Eugine had a ball topping out loads 5+'s, falling off 6a's and he had a good battle in the Glendalough Chimney Problem 5+

Eugine wedging himself securley in The Chimney

Adam on the nice pathside slopey 6A arete

With the blazing heat on the sunday I figured it would be better tactics to wait until Monday morning to try Chillax Left again, when I could siege the problem with better skin and cooler temps. I stashed the mats on the Sunday and made it to the boulders Monday morn to find my project in the shade and ready to go. I gave it my best shot for two hours before running out of steam, it was a good session and felt like a real workout, I was getting within 2 moves of the jug before an easy top out, something wasn't feeling right though and I decided that the next time I would have to tinker a little with my sequence to see if I could make it go a little easier for me ...

Adam, Squirrely, Eugene