DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Interesting news i think. Snow and Rock will be opening up a new shop in the Dundrum shopping centre this October. I haven’t ever had any dealing with Snow and rock as a company but from the looks of their website they seem to be very well run. Obviously having a lot of success so far in the UK. They will certainly shake up the market in Dublin id imagine. Location wise i think they have gotten it spot on. 53 Degrees North area little far out for people to visit without a car. But once your in the city centre you can be in Dundrum in 20mins on the dart is it?

The Superstore will have the full range of Snow+Rock’s snow sports and outdoor products including ski, snowboarding hardware and climbing equipment. The unit will be supported by a full ski and snowboard workshop. It will also be home to an Icebreaker ‘Touchlab’ concept store; a first for Southern Ireland.

Dion Taylor, Managing Director of Snow+Rock, said:

“We are very excited about our first retail outlet outside England. For many years we have been asked when we would open in Ireland and this is the culmination of that objective.

We are looking forward to working with the team at Dundrum and exposing our brand to a new audience. We want our customers to be excited by all the sports and leisure activities that we offer and to experience excellent customer service from passionate end users.”

-Eoinod-

CHICAGO, UNITED STATES (Team Geared Up) - Dave has posted a video of his recent time in Pembroke on his personal blog.

After dinner we packed the car to capacity and hit the road to Pembroke. Arriving at 2am we set up camp and got up at 8 for a full day on the rock. Warming up at St. Govans we swiftly dispatched half a dozen routes up to E4 between us and made our way to Huntsmans leap – the lads loved it! Straight in for the E6 onsights – damp holds saw the ladz slip off the cruxes of both Souls and Hunterkiller – lack of trad climbing resulted in me fluffing up the 6b crux slap on Minotaur!! Not too bad though as I was fairly happy with the move once I tried it again and it’s the sort of move you do mess up onsight – a reachey (for me!) blind slap to a hidden pocket.

Caroline finished up with a E2 lead in fine form before we went to check out The Big Issue, E9 6c. AWESOME! It was really weird to be climbing with some strong lads on a visit – they had no reason to not jump on these hard routes because they’d never heard or read about their reputation – the outlook really rubbed off on me [...] – Nico checked it for gear and then gave it a quick toprope – agreeing that it was 8a+ … he was psyched for the lead but the following morning it was chucking rain!! Noo!!

There are some great photos too.

-Robin.

(Image Credit: From Dave’s Flickr account. Check out that t-shirt :-)

Irish female ultra runner Helena Crossan has been in cracking form lately over a 100k! There’s no stopping her, most of us couldn’t do her splits over much shorter distances! From Athletics Ireland:

Helena Crossan, Ireland’s top female ultra athlete, had a very convincing win in the Night of Flanders 100km in Torhout, Belgium on Saturday. Crossan, the Donegal native, posted a world class 7:53:41 to demolish the race field. Her time was less than a minute outside her Irish record of 7:52:45, a time she set when finishing 10th at the World 100km last year. Torhout will host the 2010 World 100km.

And Richard Donovan is continuing his record breaking dart through the country at a rate of 3 marathons a day, in the hope of breaking the Mizen to Malin head record! With a bit of trouble with his knee on Day 2 he’s still motoring through Cloghan on his way to Longford on Day 3! Keep going Richard!

-Aisling-

Image of Richard Donovan from Run the Country.

The winning table looked a bit like this:

1st – Don Travers & Martin O’Hagan
2nd – Rick McKee & Davy Creighton
3rd – Billy Reed & Gerry Kingston
Female –
1st – Kate Cronin & Anna Cronin
2nd – Jennifer Watson & Andrea Harrower
3rd – Kate Hebblethwaite & Sadhbh NiHoGaln
Mixed –
1st – Melanie Earwaker & Niall Donovan
2nd – Phil & Valerie O’Neill
3rd – Simon Keating & Julie Murphy

You can read Tango and Cash’s account of it here.

Following on the same theme, and since T&C will be taking part with my friend Karen, next Saturday in Donegal sees the running of Adventure Ireland’s Donegal adventure race. The course is likely to be:

start on bike for 36k (including 13k off road) and can be cut to 25k. There will be an 8 to 10k trek with two alternative courses depending on navigation skills. A 16k bike ride will bring competitors back to the 8k kayak finish.

Have you been keeping track of Avril and the Hunky Dory’s over at Primal Quest?? They’re now in tenth!! Go Avril! That photo above is from the Primal Quest site, apparently there was some white water to be had on Day 2…..probably better than tackling with bears.

-Aisling-

Image from Eco Primal Quest.

From June 23rd to 27th, Richard Donovan will attempt a record-breaking run from Mizen Head to Malin Head. Run the Country is a genuinely tough endurance challenge. It’s not a marathon per day or a marathon per month, but more than 3 full marathons day after day after day after day against the clock. After four-and-a-half days, Richard hopes to have completed the equivalent of 14 marathons to finish the 365-mile distance in a new record time.

Richard who is best know for being the first person in the world to run a marathon at both the North and South Poles, is doing this in aid of Camp Claddagh, an outreach group of the Chernobyl Children’s Project. The goal is to raise €45,000 to bring 46 children to Galway in July for recuperation from the contaminated zones of Belarus.

Richard has the kinda biography that must have other ultra runners pretty scared:

He has won the South Pole Marathon, the Inca Trail Marathon, the Everest Challenge Marathon, the Antarctic 100km and the Himalayan 100-Mile Stage Race. He has set Guinness World Records for long distance treadmill running and is the current Irish record holder for 100 miles. Richard additionally holds the Antarctic 100km record and the record for running from Malin Head to Mizen Head. He has also completed the gruelling Trans 333 across the Sahara Desert and accompanied a British soccer player across the Atacama Desert for a one-hour BBC documentary.

Richard has already run the reverse direction (3 years ago) from Malin Head to Mizen Head and holds the record for that route.
We’ll be following you and rooting for you all the way Richard as you set out tomorrow, best of luck!!

-Aisling-

Quotes and images from Run The Country.

The Turas was epic…a true amazing Journey, for me it was physically fantastic but the mental pressure - exhausting! My favourite parts of the Turas had to be with Con Moriarty on Bolus Head, watching the cyclists descend over the cliff face of the most westerly point in Europe looking over The Sceiligs. My rowing colleagues of South Kerry coxing teams from Killmacilogue Harbour to Sneem at Dawn. Cheering on Eoin Keith over Coomsathairn and on top of Mount Brandon and on his 3km swim as his team mate Marcel was attached by the Kerry Gannet!!. Also on top of Faill Ceoil with Con Moriarty, Our Medic Dr Jo and Volunteer Wayne, hanging out over that beautiful cliff face in the Gap of Dunloe. On the zipline with Mike O’Shea across Ballaghbeama, and most of all in the back kitchen with The Lucey of Gougane Barra drinking coffee and eating ham sandwiches at 3am waiting for teams to arrive. Central to all that was the amazing communities in West Cork and South Kerry who welcomed all the athletes and volunteers with much needed food and assistance.

This lot look like the could do with some of that “food and assistance”.

Cheers Valerie!

-Aisling-

-Aisling-

Photo belongs to Gerry Brady of the training day on the course.

Overnight there’s been a dramatic turn of events with Team Wilsa Helly Hansen, including Irishman Eoin Keith, taking the lead for a while. The current leaderboard shows Team Orion Health still in the lead.

Day four of The Turas was a day of enormous drama for the leading five teams as they interchanged positions, at some points so close to each other they were within touching. Starting with a boat row across Kenmare Bay at 5am, the first team off the water was Orion Health NZ, followed by Wilsa HellyHansen and New Zealand Adventure Sport. After grabbing a quick bite on the go, teams sped out of Sneem Hotel’s transition area onto bikes and the road towards the Cum Sathairn horseshoe.

While some of the Irish teams are not featuring in the main leaderboard, they appear to be continuing either the short course or just non comeptitively. Looking forward to the finish now!

-Aisling-

Images thanks to Valerie O’ Sullivan!
Qoute from the Turas.

9. Irish AR Denny
15. Midlands AR
–. Gaeilgoir (Non competitive)

-Aisling-

Thanks to Valerie for the photos!

Eoin I’ll try join you for a couple of miles along the way! Best of luck!

-Aisling-