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Mon 21-May-2012

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Ryan McHenry, bridging on the first pitch of Streets of Fire.

Katie McGladdery, proving it's never to young to start, having fun on The Black Thief. Katie's only 8.

Danny Barrios-O'Neill on Candy Kisses at the 2011 Meet.

Anja Jones, loving the beaming sunhine here on Fireball on the 18 March 2012.

Marek Belototocky all the way from Slovakia topping out on Sandpiper.

Juraj Navratil seconding Blade Runner, after being led by Viliam Rentka.

Fair Head Climbing Meet 2012

For the third successive year Mountaineering Ireland will be hosting a climbing meet at Fair Head over the weekend of 1st-3rd June.  Last year’s event was a massive success with over 150 climbers showing up throughout the weekend.

The years Saturday night entertainment will be in the form of Scottish hotshot Greg Boswell.  He will be giving a slideshow and lecture in the now regular setting on farmer Sean’s barn!  As usual the slideshow will start when everyone is off the crag on the Saturday evening (usually around 11ish!).  Camping will be £5 per person per night.

For further information and details regarding the meet check out www.mountaineering.ie, or contact Paul Swail on paul.swail@mountaineering.ie.

Sean Villanueva at last years meet, high on Rathlin Wall on a new E7 (6c) - Once You Go Black You Never Go Back!

Saturday 19 May

Kevin Kilroy reports: Epic weekend. Flying blocks, people starting up the wrong route several times, was a proper Fair Head day. Good crowd up too from Dublin. Sean Marnane battled with Rusty Halo, Rust Halo won. Claire Sherridan and Ian Rea were up cruising too.

Saturday 12 May

Rónán Kernan reports: This weekend was busy. On Saturday I climbed with Phil Linten from Belfast, a Fair Head first timer, doing Stone Mad, Fireball and Simple Minds. Fireball and Simple Minds have quite a bit of bite! Also about were Reyer Van Gils (a Dutch climber living in Ballycastle for 4 months to climb!) and Julian Bell (an Australian street performer) who despatched Fáth mo Bhuartha, GBH and Cúchulainn with little effort! Kev Kilroy put up a new route at the small crag - Peas and Carrots, and John O'Hara and Benoit Dupasquier did what I'm sure is a rare repeat of Wagger Moon, John claiming the onsight after a bitter struggle! Also in evidence were Paul Swail and Andy Marshall tearing up the E3s on Rathlin wall in one pitch, and a pair of Dutch brothers teaching themselves to jam on the Prow's VS routes. Sounds like the word on Fair Head is out!

Kevin Kilroy reports: Just to a quick note to post in some info on a cool new line at the Small Crag named Peas n' Carrots. The route is an obvious groove/corner just right of Let the Children Play. Climbed onsite without any abseil inspection. It made me fight briefly and I thought it was impossible at first glance - Ingredients for a good time! Benoit did the second ascent with John O'Hara and they confirmed the grade and quality. The nut key placement is awesome!

Thursday 3 May

I was up at the 'head on Thursday 3 May with John McCune. He abbed in and cleaned Crusader an an amazing day with cloud inversions and mist that gave the White Lightening Amphitheatre a big wall kind of feel. I led the first pitch, 45m of excellent E1/2 jamming with an A4 size belay ledge. John took on the crux pitch which turned out to be somewhat of a sandbag - Tricky moves through an overhang lead to a hard traverse left into a hand-jam crack which turns into sustained laybacking - all in all about 12m without any face holds. Some slight aid required but one to come back to! I finished up the day with Equinox in one pitch, seemed more convenient than that awkward looking belay! Absolutely superb route.

Friday 27 April

John McCune reports: Hey folks, there's a wee photo from of Ryan McHenry bridging up the epic dust and green fest first pitch of Streets of Fire. Quality route none the less as the 3 stars suggests. 2nd pitch is a lot cleaner. It needs a stake at the top though. Like a few of the routes around there, there is no belay, had to pull up the ab rope, and use it to belay from blocks about 40m back. We also did Jolly Roger and Toby Jug. Gonna head up on Thursday, keen to try Crusader, will probably give it a quick clean on the ab, it looks immense!

Saturday 28 April

Oh my, what a day. Beaming sunshine and zero winds, although it was a tad nippy in the shade. Kevin Kilroy and Simon McCartney headed down for Cúchulainn, with Kevin leading all three pitches and declaring it an experience of a lifetime. Huge, huge exposure in the most amazing position, that big up in the sky feeling for sure. Dayle Smyth and I headed down for The Stoat first, with Dayle taking the crux pitch and the both of us agreeing that it was flipping nails! It's been a while since I've been up that and the crux is quite perplexing indeed, fancy chimneying with a dinky crimp to yard on, before a thank god jug after a few bizarre moves, then what seemed like forever of solid E2 climbing to the top. Thankfully the sun recharged our batteries, and I headed down for the beautiful Equinox in a oner. Bliss. After that Dayle, still briming with energy, did Talking Heads in a oner, dispatching it with ease. I wish that had been the case for me on the second, I had to work like a demon! Help! Meanwhile Patrick and Jeremy Colandairaj did Girona. Very surprising there were so few up for such a magnificant day, where is everyone?

Saturday 14 April

Rónán Kernan reports: Just a wee note about an awesome couple of days at the head a few guys from QUBMC just had. Yesterday, myself and John Begley climbed An Bealach Runda - some of the most fun I've had on a climb in ages, amazing chimneying! Bloody cold though with the north wind, lost feeling in my toes seconding the second pitch. Kev Kilroy and Tom Prebble climbed Toby Jug, April and Ocean Boulevard. Meanwhile, Owen Largey and Benoit Dupasquier climbed Aoife and then An Goban Saor - which they finished, but not until half past midnight, with head torches that kept turning off! Solid effort. Myself and John got to watch the helicopter rescue of a fisherman down amongst the boulders below the prow - interesting to watch. On the Sunday, there were quite a few at the prow, John climbed Fath mo Bhuartha and I did Marconi - class route and a hard crux. Tom and Kev were joined by Pete Reid on Sunday climbing the fantastic route The Brasser before heading to the small crag for Jungle Line and One Crack Mind. Can't beat Fair Head!

Wednesday 11 April

Calling all you honest climbers out there - Ian Rea recently left behind a couple of cams at the top of Ton le Gaoith at the small crag. He says it's like he's lost 2 dear friends, only they weren't friends; they were the even more expensive camalot variety. If you've come across them could you drop me a line so we can get them back to Ian. He'd be terribly pleased!

Sunday 25 March

Such a stunning day. The sun was shining and the breeze was actually so warm and pleasant! Dayle Smith, Simon McCartney and I made it up and we did Hurricane, Toby Jug and Dayle finished with The Brasser in a oner. Over beside us a Slovakia team were blitzing the place. Viliam Rentka, part of that group sent us in a few lines about their visit from Dublin over the weekend. The routes they did were: Hurricane, Sandpiper , Blade Runner, Jolly Roger, Toby Jug, Raglan Road, Blade Runner and Toby Jug. Now that's a sweet tick list for a few sure. They also climbed The Brasser on Saturday afternoon. Viliam says: Very nice route but difficult for the grade. My jamming technique isn't so good so I took a rest :) I'll try it again, definitely. We haven't climbed Doldrum but it is on our list, having No.6 Camalots it should be safe enough. It was perfect weekend for sure and we are looking forward to next one. Thanks Viliam for letting us use your abseil rope, nice one.

Saturday 24 March

Dayle Smith and Simon McCartney knocked out: Railroad, The Fence, Marconi, The Embankment and Fath Mo Bhuartha with Dayle ticking the E2 and E3. Nice one Dayle!

Monday 5 March

Just a wee note to remind everyone that the 2nd Ascent of the new revamped Doldrum is still up for grabs, which was re-climbed last year following the big rockfall and upgraded to E2(4c,5c,5a). Really recommend it to you if you can lay your hands on 2 friend 6's, which make it very safe, adventurous and an exciting puzzle to work out the crux.

Dayle Smyth, Simon McCartney, Anja Jones and Geoff Somerville loving the brilliant start to the season on 18 March. Despite the duckdowns, the base of the prow was a total sun trap.

If you've any other news old or new, email it in... Note the change of email address.