STONECUTTERS GLEN

The Stonecutters Glen is the real name of that not so secret Area 52. And since it is not that secret anymore, here is a bit of information on what is there. Please note that the following is just an outline and I will prepare a more detailed information for the update of Dave Flanagan’s Bouldering guide to Ireland in the next few days.

ACCESS
Park at the same carpark than Lough Bray, two kilometres south of Glencree on the military road beside the small quarry. Go up to the top of the small quarry and walk through the bog toward the Sugarloaf. Lough Bray should be in your back and Glencree on your left. After 20mn you will reach the Stonecutters Glen. The first main boulders you should come across are the egg and the split boulder.

EGG BOULDER
The Egg is the first big boulder you should come across. It has a very recognisable roundish blank slab (project) and a nice problem on its north side (right side on picture) involving a tricky top out on a round top: The egg. On the smaller boulder below is good sit-start deapoint that takes a few tries to adjust: Bloody clawmarks.


SPLIT BOULDER

Mickey’s traverse is still a project: it's the low traverse that follows the very round lip leftward from the corner jug. Warning: skin grater. Too little to late is the traverse that follows the top on the right.

ARETE

Upper on the valley stand two nice boulders. There’s been blood is the excellent arete shown on the video. It involves finger jamming, dynamic slaping and a high enough finish. There's also an eliminate version using the arete only (project). The boulder below has two nice lines: Bert's rockover is the right hand side corner of the roundish slab. Gorillas in the mist is the right side of the arete. The start is reachy and definitly easier when you are tall.

THE STEM

Brutal overhanging arête. Definitly the hardest line in the Stonecutters Glen. Rif Raf is the hard deadpoint from a crimpy rail on the right hand side.

BIG SLAB

The Big triangle slab at the top end of the valley is definitly worth a visit. The left hand side is Rock it : From the big bottom step rock over the arete to reach a good break higher and top out.
Soledad is the excellent middle slab: Tricky start without footholds then up the various rails. The right hand side arete is much easier.

There is approximatly 25 lines developed in total. The lower part of the valley was not explored as it does not seem to be of much interest. 

Thanks to everyone involved in the cleaning:
Tim Chapman,
Mickey 'the Dude' Nicholson,
Bernie O’Rourke,
Dec Tormey
& Sean Walsh.

Text and Info by Pierre Fuentes

Dublin, March 2008.

Info on Albarracin

Here's a little bit of info on Albarracin because some people asked me about it recently (namely Al, Chris and Michael), so that's for you guys.

The pueblo (well let's say it's a small touristic town) is a very beautiful place and there is plenty to see and do on a wet day. It is located on a hill and controls a turn of the river/canyon, which is why it always was a perfect place for a fortress.

Flying: Valencia and Madrid are probably the closest airports, but I flew to Barcelona-Reus with some wannabe-cheap airline, and it took me 4 hours driving from there to Albarracin. Besides the bouldering is not exactly in Albarracin. Although I'm pretty sure you could take the bus from either Valencia or Barcelona, that country is all up and down and walking to the boulders would be long enough. I therefore strongly recommend a car.

Accomodation: I stayed in the hostel de los Palacios . It was cheap enough and very comfortable altogether. But they are plenty of various accomodation including a campsite: follow the direction Torres de Albarracin, passing Tramacastilla and Noguera till you reach a crossing with Bronchales on the right: follow that road and once you reach Bronchales, there's a sign for the camping Las Corralizas which stands a 1km away in the trees. It is nowhere near the bouldering though, so if you want to go real cheap, camp by the boulders, don't tell anyone and don't leave any dirt (although it seems to be a local custom). Otherwise you can find a lot of places on the town website.


Season: It's inland Spain, so forget about any summer trip, it's far too hot. But it's high in altitude and the winter is not good either, it gets snowy and bitterly cold. Best season: March to mai and September to November.

Touristic information here, including a very handy map giving you details about hostels, bars, restaurants, camping, museums and so on...


Online topos/guidebook here:
http://norop.es/albarracin/cabrerizo
and here:
www.scribd.com/doc/27998/Crokis-albarracin
(I have a copy anyway if that link does not work)

More bouldering info on the following websites:

• http://www.climb-europe.com/spain/albarracin.htm
• http://www.albarrablog.blogspot.com/
  

There's been blood.

Last summer having been what it has been, some of that free time has been used to clean new lines in various areas. In the not so secret " area 52 ", some of the boulders are now starting to receive ascents and I am currently trying to put some info together. Here’s a video of my favourite line so far, a nice overhanging arete with a finger jamming sit-start:

More Glendo off-track

The conditions were excellent for the bouldering meet in Glendalough Saturday morning. Although by lunchtime, the mist was upon us, we had enough time to get some climbing done. After a tough warm-up on Dec's Pyramid, we moved to The Cherry: 10 meters behind it stands a nice face with a very sloppy lip. I tried to find it a few weeks ago but without success. This definitely needs to be included in any info on Glendo. Declan Tormey and I had already done the sloppy traverse and the stand start straight up 3 or 4 years ago, but Tim Chapman pointed out a sit-start was done by Barry O'Dwyer and that really tickles your body tension (if you have any, because in my case, my bum didn't take off the ground). More pictures on Mark Hand's gallery. An excellent boulder altogether with good landing which is not that common in Glendo. We also decided to explore the other side of the river and manage to climb a couple of new lines on seriously sharp granite, but the weather changed and it was time for Crumble.