DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Just received Great Outdoors email newsletter and it’s the announcement of their annual Canoe & Kayak Sale on April 12th @ 9:30am.

….the annual clear out of our demo fleet of kayaks and any other second hand boats we’ve picked up over the last season. Oh there are bargains to be had for sure!!
If that’s not enough there will be massive discounts off a large selection of Cag’s, PDF’s and Pants that, for some reason or another, have been discontinued for next season. Some of these items have been our top sellers for the past few years…..

Most importantly for anyone looking for watersports gear:

To notch the sale frenzy levels up a notch or two we’ve decided to offer all our customers a 15% discount off everything in the Watersports Department on the day. Remember it’s all for one day only, so get in early……..doors open 9.30 a.m. sharp.

I’ve finished up my scuba diving days for now, but even I’m tempted to call in ;)

- Neal :) -

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Last weekend saw an invasion, not from those Welsh rugger types, but in the form of 100+ climbers who descended on Dublin for the Irish Climbing Intervarsities. This year the competition was hosted by DCU, with the bouldering element taking place at their college wall and the leading section in Westwood Sports Centre in Clontarf.

The route setters certainly made things interesting for the first day by putting together some tough problems. The competition followed the format of the Irish Bouldering League but one problem broke from this by allowing as many tries as the competitors desired. This longer problem proved very popular, only seeing one clean ascent on the easier beginners version and another close miss on the advanced version. The day ended with good point separation between the females and with the points very close for the males with the leaders in Male A, Female A, Male B and Female B being John Orr, Joan Mulloy, Jason Slevin and Deirdre Cormican respectively.

The leading competition started a bit behind schedule, partly due to everyone feeling a little ropey (yes I did just say that!) after the mandatory night out in the Turks Head the night before. John Orr started the second day off with an impressive clean ascent of what turned out to be the hardest route for the day, a feat no one else would manage to achieve. Jane Gallwey missed the first day but after a great performance on her two leads pulled herself up into 3rd place in Female A. The four routes for the day were enjoyed by all, with many people eager for a second try once the competition finished. The two advanced categories top three were left with comfortable leads once the final scores were added up, with the beginners categories still being close.

After the first day QUBC were ahead in the overall club scores and on the second day they managed to slightly increase their lead to win the Irish Climbing Intervasities for the second year running. They received the first prize of a boulder mat along with the trophy/gravestone which I’m sure they’ll enjoy having to carry back up to Belfast, although there was some complaints from the members that had to carry it down on Friday.

Overall the competition was a success and everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves. We’re all looking forward to next year in Limerick! Of course none of this would have been possible without our sponsors Berghaus, Patagonia, Specsavers, Great Outdoors, 53 Degrees North and Brennan’s Bread. We would also like to thank all our route setters and our volunteers from Westwood Fitness Club who put in a lot of their own time to make this competition possible.

Of course no report would be complete without the results so I’ve added them below. The complete results are available here.
For anyone who was involved and wants to get involved in a discussion on the event, don’t forget TGU boards, or else hit the forum on said topic on climbing.ie!

• Male A - 1. John Orr (QUBC), Damien O’Sullivan (TCD), 3. Richie Sandes (DIT)
• Female A - 1. Joan Molloy (NUIG), 2. Mary Moloney (GMIT Castlebar), 3. Jane Gallwey (TCD)
• Male B - 1. Jason Slevin (QUBC), 2. Colm Shannon (UL), 3. Owen Largey (QUBC)
• Female B - 1. Deirdre Cormican (GMIT), 2. Jade O’Mahony (NUIG), 3.Barbara Bracko (DCU)”

- Stephen McGowan & Ailish Grennan -

(Image Credit: Jonathon Mullen & Nicole Quinn)

KILDARE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - For those looking for good articles on training advice, don’t forget to check out Irishclimbingcoaching’s site (which will be going through a re-design soon!). There’s some useful advice, especially in relation to setting your goals and focusing your training so it actually pays off when you get on rock!

For those starting to think about the upcoming summer season and it’s glorious weather, start focusing those thoughts with some good ideas:

1. Have some goals (makes it much easier to justify putting yourself through hardship at the wall)
2. focus your training on the type of climbing you’ll be doing
3. Positive thoughts!!!! (look at my optimism for the summer! also helps when it comes to training)

For anyone interested, there’s a bouldering masterclass being run at DCU’s wall this Sunday (9th March 2008). There’s still a few places left so if you’re interested, email irishclimbingcoaching@gmail.com

disclaimer: I am involved in IrishClimbingCoaching and it’s coaching courses. Please let me know whether you’d like some posts (or even guest posts) in relation to training up here on TGU!!!!!

Image Credit: Some of the members of the new climbing wall in Dublin getting a little excited with the prospect of a new training venue! Photo by author

- Neal :) -

A 100% volunteer operated 999/112 Emergency Service - Charity Number 10148

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - We’ve got to support the mountain rescue team local to most of the TGU bloggers. Gerry, Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue PRO has left a message in our forums asking for your support at their fund-raising drive in central Dublin on Saturday.

The team will be out looking for your support this Saturday 23rd of February on Grafton street from 09.00 till 18.00. Yes a long day as this is one of our main fund raising drive’s that we hold through the year. And it is vital so that we can collect much needed funds to keep the team out of the red. A lot of people are under the impression that because we are a 999/112 emergency service that we are paid and funded by the Government. We are a 40 strong team of unpaid volunteers on call 24/7, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

You can reply to Gerry here.

Their new website also has a Donate By PayPal button so it’s really easy to pay by credit card :-)

-Robin.

(Image Credit: Deputy Team Leader at the 2008 Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician exercise. Via dwmrt.ie)

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - “We can’t make your drinks” said the email…

Really appreciate the invite, we are heading out to climb Aconcagua tomorrow and back the middle of jan. –Ian

Damn - I’m jelous! The 2008 Irish Everest Expedition are off to South America on a training climb. In preparation for Everest they will climb 3 other mountains on 3 different continents, all in order to build a much need primary school in the Ugandan village of Kitandwe.

In the Spring of 2008 a small Irish team will take on Mt Everest. If either one of them reaches the summit they will become the youngest Irish male to reach the highest point on earth.

Bear Grylls you better watch out!

Follow their progress on Everest2008.ie. Lads - we’ll have a pint in your honour!

-Robin-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - Eoin & myself took my London flatmate out for a jaunt in Wicklow (Ireland) 3 weeks ago to give him a first taste of the mountains. We also took the opportunity to wind-test the Mountain 25 by The North Face. This tent has been everywhere with me, but not out of place in a photo of Everest South Col it has never yet maxed out in European ranges - this was the closest test it would face.

We left the carpark in Glendalough at 10pm in dry gusty conditions and pitched in the most exposed place possible on the very summit of Camaderry in gale force conditions at 1am with nothing but a very low peat hag to shelter the stove behind. Unfortunately most of the photos are from the morning but that night we got absolutely battered, shaken, pelted-apon, and the sky pretty much fell on us. The wind really hit the tent to a point where it was questioned would the poles potentially snap.

Nope. The tent held fast like a limpet to the ground. It never lost its shape. Above my head on the seam where the wind was driving the rain through in, I had a drip fall, but nothing much to worry about considering the conditions outside. I expect the silicon fly on the 2007 model would not have experienced this.

What a fantastic tent! Apart from getting this gear test in, the other advantages of sleeping on the summit of a mountain are the morning photos you can snap from the tent door!

You can view the Mountain 25 specs here, also note, a new 2007 model is available.

We also past some Irish MTB riders coming flying down off the Spink boardwalk at about 2pm on Sunday, I got some quick snaps - is this you? do you know them? Looked like a whole lot of fun!

(Photo Credits: All by the author, full Flickr gallery available)

Best of Luck to anyone running New York! Only 2 days to the big event. As we said before, heavy weight elite field heading there! Irishman Ronan Hartnett who ran Dublin in 2:45 is running again on Sunday along with brother Fergal, both fellow Clonliffe Harriers. Best of luck to them both, they’re great runners and all round great blokes! That’s Ronan above who I photographed at the finish area of Dublin last Monday!

And for your viewing next week: Deep Water;

The stunning true story of the fateful voyage of an amateur yachtsman who in 1968 enters the very first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race.

That’s Channel 4 this Monday at 9pm.

As for me this Sunday sees the running of the Dublin Senior Cross Country Championships. I’m not a fan of cross country so I find it hard to get motivated but hey there’s worse things in life……..

Have a good weekend!

-Aisling-

I took this cheeky picture of the eventual winner just before the start, ya see I just knew…..

And just to show my Team geared Up t-shirt is starting to get around:

-Aisling-

All photos are mine!

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - The Irish Association of Snowsports Instructors are running pre-selection training for the Level 1 Ski Instructor Award from October 5th to 24th at the Ski Club of Ireland dry slope, Kilternan, Co Dublin.

The pre-selection leads into a 3 day training weekend at the dry slope from the 27th to 29th October. Further details on this and all our courses please contact : www.iasisnowsports.ie

-Robin-

(Image Credit: IASIS Press Release)

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - The Wee Adventure Film Festival will be held in Dublin on 7th February 2008.

The Wee Adventure Film Festival is an amateur film festival that will show adventure sports films made by people who do adventure sports.

If you are into MTB, rockclimbing, free-running, kayaking, caving, skiing, parachuting, skate boarding, bouldering, BMX, surfing or any other adventure sports we invite you to participate in the Wee Adventure Film Festival by submitting a short film (up to 10 minutes long) to the festival. The best of these films will be shown at The Wee Adventure Film Festival 2008.

Hopefully we’ll have a submission ourselves.

-Robin-