From Wicklow with love.

When last night I suggested on our WhatsApp group a field trip to Glendalough it was just a loose idea that I hopped for to spark some interest.

To my great joy Sonja responded first and within couple of minutes we were setup to meet around 8.30am outside my place. Derek said he will make an effort with one of his other climbing buddies, but for later time in a day (midday or so).

Sonja with her German precision made it on time and we set out for the short drive to co. Wicklow.

It was truly amazing day today – one that can easily compete with best June summer days. We were both very excited to get some climbing done, and maybe meet up with Derek later on in a day.

We’ve arrived at almost empty car park few minutes after 9am, picked up the bags and set out.

The hike up the valley was pleasant as usual. I used to hate it the first few times I went out there, but now it learned to enjoy it (and it also  serves as a great warmup). For those who never been –  It’s around 1h at leisure pace from the car park to the Base Camp. The trail  leads next to the lake, via miner’s village, up until you see where the magic happens (most non climbers continue up the trail, we turn right at certain obvious point).

Since we only had 1 single 60m we decided to go search some adventures to Far West Buttress (It faces west behind the left edge of the Main Face [seen above])

 

We started at Expectancy Slab.This is the clean cracked slab on the right-hand side of Far West Buttress, where some of the most pleasant routes can be found. The only downside is the approach, which goes through some wet, steep and unpleasant terrain. It’s ok, but just need to be extra careful as it is very easy to slip.

We’ve started with some easier routes [I marked them on the photo below]

Me – EXPECTANCY *** 21m VD (3c) [RED]

Sonja – LASSITUDE * 21m VS (4b) [Yellow]

Then we moved to a route I’ve done last year with Pedro –

CRACKS ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN *** 38m VS (4c,4a,4c) [Blue]

This can be climbed in number of ways, one of which upgrades the grade to HVS 5a if Pitches 1 &2 are done together. Sonja started Pitch1 with tree belay, I took over and lead it to the top in one long push.
I did feel like HVS, but not sure if the book would agree.

Nonetheless it was a very nice route, and even though I had to rest on gear at one point (I’m not climbing that much lately and fitness isn’t there…), we both truly enjoyed it.

From there we moved abseiled from the top of Expectancy and moved to the East Side – Acorn Buttress for last quick climb of the day:

Sonja – PROVO * 18m VS (4c)

I climbed that many times before  (last time with P. on our last visit here in June) – it’s the usual opener to fantastic climbs of the East Wing’s Upper Tier.

And as for Derek – he never showed up, seems like his partner bailed on him…Oh well – maybe next time.

 

All the photos HERE.

Cake number 34.

It happens that beginning of September marks my birthday.

As a kid I wasn’t particularly looking forward to that day as it coincided with end of the summer and start of school. Obviously two most terrible things for most boys.

Now when I’m older and shifted my interest to more outdoorsy activities (from being a total nerd through my 20s),  summer’s end still kind of bothers me. ‘Luckily’ Irish weather is so unpredictable that even during the summer there might be no summer. The best receipt for good weather is… to just go out anyway. Or fly to southern Europe, which we actually will do next month (for climbing, obviously).

This years summer was busy (especially 2nd part of it). I didn’t even notice when September rolled on. I went on tons of adventures with Jirka, we spent an amazing week in Iceland and had our apartment ‘renovated’  for 3 weeks. So it was only last Friday we actually moved  back in home.

It was to my great surprise when on Saturday, out of nowhere some of my friends showed up  with this amazing cake (and some other gifts):

Combining my weakness to chocolate and climbing obsession was definitely a good idea! Thank you all, you know who you are :)

The cake was huge, so I brought half of it to the office today. It only took few minutes for my work ‘friends’ to show their true feelings towards me;)

Anyway, the cake was great success and everyone had a good time dismembering the sugar climbers body :).

The Northern Lights

I guess everyone knows what they are; not everybody seen them live. The ones who have, know that they look nothing like they’d imagine…

Hunting for them in the summer is like going rock climbing in the spring  – technically possible, sometimes you’ll get conditions and couple of climbs in, but most of the time it will be just a wet and cold disappointment.

The aurora season really starts in October so my expectations weren’t high. We still managed to see ‘something’ and capture something more though and I’m happy with it.

It took until after midnight for the first smudges to show up, they were really, really faint. Nothing like what you’d see on all posters advertising Aurora Tours.

 

To capture anything I had to set exposure to 10 seconds on F1.8 lens and 600 ISO (anything longer and stars would start trailing). I knew some post processing will also be required to bring out some colors.

The lights were mostly green, with some purples and reds. They showed up from different directions. We were mostly looking north, but being so much already, they often showed on the east and west horizons as well.

 

I guess to full experience this phenomenon we’ll have to come back in the winter during the season. Or maybe track the forecast and go to Donegal when conditions are super favorable.

During 2h we’ve spent waiting and looking up, I’ve taken maybe 30 photos, but without a tripod, remote shutter and limited choice of lenses, four photos are worth displaying. Still not bad for August. Some tips for hunting Aurora in Iceland:

1. Don’t have high hopes if you are hunting in August. Chances are you won’t see anything. Go in the winter if Northern Lights is one of the goals of your trip
2. Check http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/ for forecast often. White regions are good (no clouds), green are bad (clouds). Also solar activity number is important (we had 5-high the night we went out).
3. Check moon cycles – you really don’t want full moon (unless you know how to use it to your advantage) – it most likely will ruin the sky for you.
4. Bring that photo gear if you want to take photos. Tripod, fast lens (I used 50mm f1.8) and remote shutter are minimum. Leave that smartphone camera in the jacket.
5. Bring head-torch with red-light – don’t ruin your night vision – it takes 15-20mins for your eyes to adapt to darkness, and flashing bright LED of headlamp resets it every time.

Happy Hunting!