Team Geared Up

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND (Team Geared Up) - After what has been largely a disastrous summer for Irish climbing with a lot of rain, rain and more rain (as one friend put it with that amusing Irish curse, “the weather’s been sh&*e”), I thought I’d drag together whatever snippets I could accumulate from the climbing scene.

It seems everywhere bar the Burren has been frequented between rain showers this year. The Aran Islands finally seems to be getting some of the attention it deserves and Grainné O’Brien’s collection on Flickr shows some of the wilder routes that are possible there (photo above of Rob Whelan on The Roof (E4/5.12a), a roof climb on pre-placed protection through a crack in the roof). There have been a few more climbers out here however, and hopefully there might be some good news from the previous weekend of some new ascents so stay tuned on that.
Fair Head in Northern Ireland has also had some regular visits although it sounds like the weather has had a toll also. It seems most of the groups from Dublin have been limited in their success. Still though, as Niamh Burke’s photos on Picassa show, the weather was obviously glorious for a few days (see photo below also)! FairHeadclimber is reporting some ascents during July so it seems the Northern group have been lucky with some good days also. Ricky Bell, ever reliable for new routes, has climbed two new E7’s for example (see top of page for report)

in between all this, Ailladie.com, one of the reliable sites for news on the Burren’s climbing scene died a death a few weeks ago and will be missed. It looks like I’ve one less place to look for news and photos now. As for the sports climbing scene, it seems that most of the active climbers have been making the most of the European sports climbing with a few trips to Gorge du Tarn, Ceuse, Switzerland, Italy, etc. - pity there’s not enough bolts in Ireland to save the flight. [that's the sort of comment to stir up a hornet's nest in Ireland :)]. We’ve already posted on TGU about news of irish climbers abroad here, here and here.

As always, if there’s any news, make sure to contact me [ntesting @ gmail.com] with the info and I’ll do my best to post it!

- Neal :) -

(Image Credits: (top) Rob Whelan on The Roof, Aran Islands, Ireland. Photo by Grainné O’Brien
(bottom) Claire Comiskey on unknown route, Fair Head, Antrim, Ireland. Photo by Niamh Burke.)