Tick - The Nasty Bug

Who said that bouldering was not a dangerous activity?

Following a couple of fights with some tiny winny nasty dirty little bugs known as ticks, I have been looking for info and here is what I found: According to wikipedia, "tick is the common name for the small arachnids in superfamily Ixodoidea that, along with other mites, constitute the Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites (external parasites), living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and occasionally reptiles and amphibians. Ticks are important vectors of a number of diseases, including Lyme disease. According to Pliny the Elder, ticks are the foulest and nastiest creatures that be."

Sure we all heard about this. But what is less known is:

1. Because of climate change ticks have it better these days and there's more of them around, which means Lyme disease is actually more common. According to VHI healthcare, "there does not seem to be any great danger of contracting the disease from Irish deer. However, experts warn that the disease is gradually spreading to the most suitable habitats." So we are not all going to die right now, but we'd better get ready for when it happens.
2. Lyme disease is only one of the threats that ticks are carrying and it is part of a broader range of infectious diseases affecting the brain. Another bad guy that is now spreading from the east is the Tick Borne Encephalitis, aka TBE, a virus that attacks your nervous system and can result in serious meningitis, brain inflammation and eventually death. According to a not so recent article this guy kills about 5 people out of a 1000 in Europe, and for those who survive, life is not always back to normal (Tick-Borne Encephalopathies: Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention., Günther & Haglund, 2005) . Not a nice one huh?
3. Using greasy substances such as oil or vaseline is not actually helping. A long time ago my granny had taught me that the best way to get rid of a tick was to drown it in oil (olive oil or butter depending on which cuisine approach you are taking). Although this is true, this method is actually augmenting risk of infected materials being injected in to you: in other words, when drowning there's a fair chance that the bug will puke in your veins all the infectious crap it's got in him.
4. Ticks prefer French blood. Now this has not been proven, but if this was not true, how come then that I'm always the one who gets the bite when all my irish mates pinky butts remain perfectly untouched?

Anyway there is plenty of information available online and I strongly advise any boulderer who fancies a trip in the Wicklow mountains to read it. A good website to check for general info is the travel health tick alert. And for those who want the ultimate gear (yes, you who bougth a brush kit specially designed for bouldering projects, I am talking to you), you can get yourself an O'Tom hook.

So good luck to everyone, and as Metallica used to say: Kill 'em all!

Portrane - The Arch

I hope everyone enjoyed the good sunshine over the bank holiday. I spent the Monday afternoon in a crowded Portrane with Chris Rooney and Michael Duffy. Michael cleaned the upper part of the Arch, and gave it a good few attempts: he has worked out most of the moves to the high brown stone jug. What would make it an ultimate line would be a top out to the left, although this would require some good spotting and a few mats. Definitly one of the best lines in Ireland.

Bouldering in Galicia - O Granito galego

Bouldering at Pena Corneira, Galicia, Spain

Forget Hampy, it is too far. Forget Targassonne, it's too cold or too hot. The futur of European granite bouldering lays a few kilometers away from a town called Ourense in the south of the Galicia region, northwest of Spain: here, 15km of hills are covered with huge round granite boulders. There is so much there that you could spent your entire life climbing first ascents. The place just blew me away. It has it all. It is beautiful and quiet. The winter conditions are perfect even though you can climb there till the early summer.

Agrandir le plan

 

But first thing first, let's talk about Galicia. It is a country I love for lots of reasons. 

It is quite different from the spanish stereotype you may have in mind: Like the Irish, Galicians are Celts. Like the Irish, they're welcoming and hepfull. Like the Irish, they have their own music and their own language. And like the Irish, there is a fair amount of them on the other side of the Atlantic.But unlike the green people, Galicians know what matters in life: quality food, quality wine and taking the time to enjoy them.

So, what's the rock like? 

Imagine a granite so fine that it sometimes looks like grit. Although this not the case everywhere, it is definitly very enjoyable in the "developed" areas. I met there with Miguel Feijoo Fernández, one of the very few but dedicated locals. They climb only in the Pena Corneira itself - the tip of the hills range), where they have 4 sectors more or less "explored", the reason for this being that this is where the granite is the finest. But with all the work they have put in there, they are far from having it developed! Miguel is currently trying to organise a oudoor competition in Octobre, the reason for this being to open more problems.... It says it all.

Here is the usual info:
Best season: Autumn to Spring although the magic conditions occur most often in Octobre / Novembre.
Nearest airport: Santiago de Compostella (home of one of the most famous christian pilgrimage)
Language: they don't expect you to speak galician so you'll be fine if you speak spanish (you should be able to survive with english only though)
Accomodation: lots of hostels in Ourense, but you can camp in Pena Corneira, the place is a paradise.

More info available on Miguel blog.

There also a general blog about climbing in Galicia here. These guys have a forum, and some of them speak english.

More pictures here.

Mall Hill Video

The Wicklow cranking season is nearly over and with the longer and warmer days, boulderers will be back to good old Portrane. So as a conclusion of this winter’s posts, here is a video of Mall Hill. Yes I finally took the time to put these little videos together.

They are not as great as I hoped they would be, but I think they are good enough to show the quality of the bouldering in there. It only features the Dublin-Beauvais boulder on the left side of the hill and a couple of boulders in the forest: I have not recorded anything on the right side of the hill but maybe this is an opportunity for next year as there are some awesome lines there too.

I should also mention the climbers names: Michael “the Dude” Nicholson on the slab and “The small Matter of Up” (No Mikey, this was not a first ascent…) , Michael Duffy on “Piece de Resistance” (Michael, this is the only French name I could think of, so feel free to rename it) and Myself on “Living the dream” and “Coup d’Etat”.

The Short Span New Problem Database

Deadly! You can now register your irish first ascents online: Dave Flanagan has set up a New Problem Database on his Short Span website. I think we'll probably see some banter going on, but this has been a long time waited tool that should prove to be very handy in the future.

MALL HILL ROCKS!

Mall Hill is probably my favourite venue at the moment. I first climbed in there back in 2004; At the time a good bit of the forest was still standing and the place looked very different. Dave Flanagan, Diarmuid Smith and Ped Mc Mahon had given us a tour but we were not too impressed by the walking around the place. You first need to cross a river and although this is not a problem when you wear a good pair of rubber boots, you may find these same rubber boots very inefficient when it comes to walk up hill through the wet logs and the piles of pines branches left over by the forest exploitation. The only problem that really stunned me at that time, was the excellent “Living the dream”, in my humble opinion probably the second best Irish line in the 6 grade after Andy Robinson’s stunning “Shadow” in Lough Dan.

However I never came back to that problem, due to various reasons: the walk in, the travel distance and off course the usual unpredictable weather. Besides I was not even sure where the bloody line was. I did come back to Mall Hill the following year with Seamus Crowley, Dec Tormey and Kev Cooper. As some more of the forest had been cleared, new boulders had appeared: we climbed things like the “Chigaray arête” and the “Dublin-Beauvais” dyno. This latest boulder has a huge undercut slab and to the rear is a very round arête that looked quite attractive: this is probably the only project I kept thinking of in Mall Hill.

But after having spent most of this winter sessions in the Stonecutters Glen, I needed to come back to some well developed areas, that would involved less brushing and more climbing. So one of the latest weekends, I went back to Mall Hill with Michael Duffy and he showed me a good few lines that I did not know about: I am not going to give any names here, firstly because he did not give me any and also because I am not sure if they’re even recorded on Dave Flanagan’s guide. I came back to my round arête anyway, just to find that it was an eliminate with 3 various top outs. Without much surprise Michael sent two of them in no time, but I am foolishly still hoping that I will get the last one. He asked me to give it a French name, so I am proposing “Piece de Resistance”: it should suit it given the fact that it might keep one busy for a while. We also decided to check what was left of the forest, and there it was again: although it was too wet to climb it at that time, “Living the dream” was waiting silently hidden in the forest, 20m away from the path. I had forgotten how good that line looked like but I was psyched straight away.

I missed a good opportunity two weeks ago thanks to the good old Irish mist so this weekend I did not leave anything to chance: I came prepared with 3 mats and my old reliable mate Michael Nicholson as a spotter. We warmed up on what looked like an uncleaned line: after some serious brushing Mikey sent what he wanted to name “Kate Moss”. After having checked the guide, it seems that this line had already been climbed as it matches the description of “the small matter of up”, something which we find really hard to believe given the amount of cleaning that was required prior to any possible attempt. We then moved towards the goal of the day, and although I must admit I firstly felt nervous, I sent “Living the dream” in a couple of tries. So our attention turned to 2 other projects on the same boulder. The first one is “Strictly Ballroom”, a hard sit-start to some very slopey holds that link onto the traverse of the top of the boulder. This remains a project. However the other one gave up after a good few attempts. “Coup d’etat” is a hard deadpoint that can result in a high, funny but very safe fall if missed. This is probably what I like most about all these lines: unlike Glendalough, the landings are generally very safe.

Altogether Mall Hill is a beautiful place loaded with problems and projects. And the forest part is very enjoyable on a dry day, so I strongly recommend it to anyone who has not been there yet. And do not wait because I would not be surprised if next year the whole forest was cleared. I am currently putting some videos together which should be shortly be available here.

Updated bouldering guide to Ireland 2008

The Short Span Bouldering guide to Ireland 2008 - Version 3 has arrived!
Dave Flanagan has put a huge effort in it as this edition now contains over 1000 problems and takes less memory than the previous PDF guide.

The main addition is the popular Doolin, but it doesn't include the newly discovered Black Valley in Kerry. This should be updated more regularly in the next editions. Another area that Dave is planning to add in the next edition is the controversial Glendalough update.

More information on The Short Span website.

STONECUTTERS GLEN GUIDE

Bouldering in Stonecutters Glen, Co. Wicklow

The bouldering guide to the Stonecutters Glen is now available here.

As far as I know an onsight climb means you have never seen anyone on the route before, you have not heard any info or received any beta (which is hard these days giving the description you get in some guide books), you have clearly not toproped the route before or even inspected it with an absail. When you are climbing a route after having seen someone on it, it is called a Flash. A lead that you have actually worked out is a redpoint.

Now not so long ago (when I was still a sports climber, that is) an onsight was the base on which a grade was given. So if some route was given 7a, that meant onsighting it would mean that you would have climbed 7a, flashing it was 6c+, leading it was 6c and toproping it was 6b+. But this is sports climbing, I've been told the real trad thing is different.

Anyway when it comes to bouldering, these concepts become very subjectives, and grades are supposedly there as a pure technical info. How come then we are still arguing about adding a + between these 3 and 4 grades? Actually in some guide you can even find problems graded 4a+. And don't oppose me the "Vermine" example, I have also seen some V10+ in climbing magazines...

So anyway, I personnally think we should go back to the good old Font colour code, and I decided to give it a go. I can already ear some people saying "Hey, do you know that rockover problem in the Stonecutters? I think it 's definitly yellow, not blue!" You wish...

Anyway, any comments welcommed!

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/