Team Geared Up

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - I’m back from a very soggy Spain (yep, you read that right) after a small group from Ireland turned up for a week in Rodellar pulling on tufas. Unfortunately, said rain got in the way so we hit the road and made the most of the week in the Siurana region. Al Sarhan and Aoife Byrne are currently on a 6-month road-trip around all the crags of Europe (using Al’s encylopedia of crags - obtained from 10 years of collecting articles and guidebooks!) which was our excuse to visit Spain…. ;)

the definite highlight was Al though, who’s now running up 7b and +’s onsight pretty regularly and ticking off 7c-8a’s in 2-3 goes. Impressive stuff. Now that he’s been persuaded onto trying some 8b’s, it’ll be interesting to see what happens over the summer…..I’ll update as I hear news! Strength definitely isn’t the issue from what I saw so hopefully he gets his fitness dialled soon.

Anyway, other inspiring news was Eoin Lawless and Sean Marnane consolidating at 7a onsights. Impressive stuff! Sean looks like the mythical 7b on-sight could happen soon too……
Lots of others ( were making their return to sports climbing so it looks like they’ll all be climbing hard over the summer season. Stay tuned on that!

As for the weather, well after turning up in Siurana and checking out Margalef, we bumped into some individuals called Chris Sharma, Dani Andrada and Thomas Mrazek. Yep, it seems Costa Daurada region was the only place to climb! Crazy, early June and there’s still rain in Europe…..15 continuous days of rain in Siurana!

Image Credit:
#1: Al Sarhan on unknown 7c, Margalef, Spain
#2: Eoin Lawless working the moves on an unknown 7b+, Margalef, Spain. See that circular rainbow around the sun in the background? that means rain…..

- Neal :) -