As it is every year, some time in May Irish Mountaineering Club takes its new members for some multipitch adventures in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow. Since most of these newbies already spent few weeks with us on Thursday evenings in Dalkey Quarry, it was just formality to rely show them the ropes.
Most of them newbies were very good being able to follow the fantastic multipitch routes available at that crag. The ones that still needed some more practices stayed at lower Acorn Buttress and Expectancy slabs areas.
I got ‘assigned’ Sebastian and Monika, who followed me through four pitches of Prelude/Nightmare, a 2* VS up the main face.
Last week Del and I decided to go on an adventure to a lesser known (at least to me) Wicklow crag known as Glenmalure. Area is located some 30 extra minutes drive than Glendalough. You can read more about it here.
We’ve opted to climb it’s meg-aclassic: GREAT GULLY RIDGE ** 140m HS (4a,3c,4b,4a)
To me the most enjoyable part was the fact that due to it’s relative remoteness the place was pretty much empty.
As we approached there was only 1 pair of climbers high up on the route already, so we had the entire line just for ourselves.
Me on P1
I won’t get into too much detail on how the pitches went, just will say that if you ever decide on doing this route – if you start with pitch 1 and swap leads, you’ll end up with the nice ones (odd numbers).
Me Looking at P3
There are 2 ways to get off the route – abseiling is a possibility, since there are now fixed stations. We opted to walk around and back. One thing to keep in mind is that you will definitely have your feet wet if you decide to walk around. The terrain is boggy to say the least…
Since I enjoy documenting my climbing adventures (now as a proud member of the club, since I rejoined after few years of absence [I originally signed up around 2011]) and tend to take a lot of pictures I though that’s the list I could do to promote the club.
Now, since I don’t really wan’t to make my private blog to be the place of ‘official Club business’, for the events that I take part in that are part of the Club’s official schedule, I’ll just link these posts here (it mostly will be photos with some captions).
The first one is last Thursday’s Quarry night. It’s part of the New Member’s Program. “The goal of the introductory sessions is to give climbing instruction as well as help new members to get to know others and build up some contacts that should help them get out and about this summer and beyond.”
Since I myself am a product of this program, I’ve volunteered to server as a ‘mentor’ for this year’s New Starters (now, I’m not a professional in the field, but over last 7 years I’ve learned enough to be able ‘show the ropes’), a role that I really enjoy to be in (Over the years I’ve actually mentored a lot of interns and graduates at work [I’m in IT field] as well).
So, the last Thu: Nothing serious was climbed, as the main focus was put on getting new members used to the basic outdoors climbing skills that will help them survive next weekend’s final meeting in Glendalough.
Anyway, below is my inauguration post (all pictures taken by me).
m1c's place 