Undeniably Glendo

Glendalough from the sky

The beauty of watching British TV crime series is that you get to see Wicklow, where they are actually shot.

Glendo Classics

Bouldering in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow

Glendalough

"In any online discussion about grades, and there have been many of these over the years, you can almost set your watch by the arrival of some pundit who will roll out the aged old cliche that there are only two grades that matter: those you can do, and (wait for it) those you can't! The corollary being that grades are unimportant. [...] Grades and grading arguments are in our blood, and people who say they don't care about them are simply not being honest."

These are the words of the North-Wales Bouldering Guru, Simon Panton.

I personally tend to avoid mentioning any grade on this blog, because most of the time they would simply be wrong. Not that I am questioning any one's ability to grade problems, but for some reason as soon as you put a figure on a problem you get criticised. Either the figure is too high and you are full of it, or it is too low and you are a sandbagging scumbag ( not to be mixed with a scum bagging sandbag).

However there was various discussions recently about grades in Glendalough and more generally in Ireland and Dave Flanagan suggested me a post including a list showing in descending order the Glendalough problems that I have done and consider to be classics. Obviously this is expressing my opinion, and only mine (you can start shooting, I'm ready). So here it is:

• Superstars of the BMX 7a+
• The Fin SS 7a+
• The Egg SS 7a+
• 2.4 Pascal SS 7a+
• Andy's Arete SS 7a
• BBE (standing start) 7a
• Road house and mingeback 7a
• The Nu Rails SS 6c
• Chillax SS 6c
  
• Barry's Problem SS 6c
• John's roof SS 6c
• San Miguel SS 6c
• Greg's Problem traverse 6c
• Chuppa Chups 6b
• Quality Control SS 6b
• Superswinger SS 6b
• The Plum 6b

To grade a boulder problem, here is what I personally think that a climber should take into consideration:

• climbing level: if you send a new 7a every day for breakfast, there is no way you can make a difference between a 5 and a 6a. For instance John Gaskins climbed "Away from the numbers" a few years ago, a problem that was probably a piece of cake for him. At that time he roughly estimated the grade to be 7a+. I do suspect it is harder and I don't think that climb has received many ascents since then.
• climbing style and diversity: having a 6a level should mean that you can climb any 6a. However it is never the case as we hardly have access to a diversity of rock, heights, angle, holds and landings. Most climbers rely on their local crag for obvious financial/time reasons and therefore they usually get spanked big time when they go and visit different climbing locations. This has a big impact on grading because it means we tend to specialise within the grade level, i.e. we find easy those Glendo hard moves we are used too, but we find the Font warm-ups very hard, leading us to think that their grades are messed up.
• Amount of tries/ascents: when getting a problem after a hundred tries you cannot properly grade it, because you feel that you have achieved something far beyond your usual climbing. Conversely a problem that you have done many times feels much easier because your body knows the job perfectly: Has anyone ever seen Barry O'Dwyer in Glendo? The guy stopped climbing for a year but I bet you he still warms up on the Egg.
• Conditions: That's a big one. Grades are floating with the wind, the temperature and the humidity. It might sound obvious but everything feels easier when conditions are perfect.
• Climber's morphology: Another obvious one. I am over 6 ft (longer reach but bigger leverage), my ape index is negative (good for foot locks, bad for mantel), I have big feet (good for smearing, bad for edging), and long spatulate fingers (perfect on slopers but painful on pockets). So for me the Fin should be easier than the egg. It is probably not the case for a short monkey with tiny feet and stumpy fingers. By the way my wife says I also have big soft lips but she does not want to share them.

About sharing and more Glendo off-track

Weather conditions were very mixed for the last bank holiday weekend: although the cold wind was keeping the rock at the perfect bouldering temperature, rain was also around...

On Saturday I got a text from Michael Duffy saying he was meeting Ricky Bell in the Cooley Mountains to check "one of the best lines in Ireland". This frightened me a bit as I thought the boys were on the trail of my latest secret spot. Oops, did I just say it? The fact is I do have a nice little spot in the Cooleys, but it does not have one of the best lines in Ireland, but at least 2 or 3 of them. No need to get excited though, this is just my very subjective opinion.

Talking about opinions, I already had got fairly paranoid when Dave Flanagan gave his own on first ascents back in June stating that "by saying nothing you are relequinshing your right to complain when someone does the 'first ascent' of your problem. " But I do share my discoveries and first ascents and the proof is my good mate Tim Chapman rung me that day asking if I had read Dave's article: "Do you think he knows about your new place?" The fact is I met a good few hill walkers around there and it's only a matter of time before climbers hear about it so let's start the sharing:



As for northies, it turned out that it was not what they were after. They were actually trying some serious line on one of the numerous outcrops that can be found in the Windy Gap. I had a quick walk around there before, but had never bothered checking that overhanging bit. I did not take any picture, but let's just say it is a high enough awesome looking slopey prow with what looks like a strenuous overhanging start. Unfortunatly the rain arrived and ruined the guys hopes as the upper slopers became damp. I would not be surprise if we hear about it soon though.

Sunday was another good discovery day. Again Michael Duffy texted us saying he was going to try a good looking roof crack he had spotted high in the scree. However after having spent a good time warming up and brushing the line, the few attempts he and Ron Browner gave it were far from enough to crack the line before the rain. In the meantime, I had met my old buddy Michael Nicholson who had decided to explore the surroundings. A good idea that was: he found a couple of huge caves, one of them containing one of Glendo's best problems. Not that it is particularly hard (Michael Duffy flashed the first ascent) but it has the good benefit of being sheltered from the rain, a quality that is not common among Glendo's problems... I am not talking about moisture here: by 5 o'clock all boulderers had fled the valley under lashing rain except for me, Kevin Griffin and Michael Duffy, who also had the taste of bringing lamps to light up the cave. The problem itself is a roof line, not too unsimilar to Chillax, but slightly harder. I suggested the name "Perma-dry" but Michael has probably come up with something better by now.

So, Dave, if you are reading this, here is a thought for your website: how about a database of perma-dry problems? I'll start: Perma-dry, 7a?, Glendo, in a cave high in the scree, 100m straight up above superstars of the BMX.

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.

Glendo off-track

Bouldering in Gendalough, Co. Wicklow

The last time I was in Glendalough, the conditions were not exactly what one would called dry and sticky. So we had a bit of a walk around and I tried to assemble a bit of information on undocumentated problems that I knew of.

So freshly squeezed before the bouldering meet, here is a PDF including the location of some cool lines like the excellent Roadhouse and Mindgeback nicely executed by Rob Hunter in the Pieces of Glendo video.

To get you motivated before the meet and for those who have not seen it yet, here is the video:




They are a few other ones on Trial World.