A week in the Mournes

Last week seen me work 7 days straight on climbing courses.  I was very lucky with the weather all week.  I got to visit crags like Lower Cove, Pigeon, Spellack and Altnadue Quarry and climb routes such as Castrol R (E1), Falcon (HS), Gynacrat (HVS), Dot's Delight (HVS) and the Mourne classic Pillar Variant(S).  My clients were really keen to look at placing gear, building belays, lead climbing and belaying and multi pitch climbing.  Well by the end of the week they were both confidently leading S and there multi-pitch rope work was very slick.  It was really satisfying to see the progression people can make in just a week.

At the weekend I was working with a group from down South. On the Saturday 4 of them wanted to look at building belays and setting up at the top of the crag.  With the slightly dodgy forecast the decision was made to go to Altnadue Quarry. Not an amazing venue for climbing but really good for looking at the fundamentals involved with belay set ups, belaying and for group use.  We covered a lot and by the end of the day all 4 clients were working independently.  Nice one guys.

The group for Sunday were more advanced so Spellack was the venue.  After 20 minutes we were at the base of forest view buttress and the team were getting kitted up to start leading.  These guys wanted to look at more advanced techniques so we covered tying off a belay plate, escaping the system followed by counterbalance rescue and snatch rescue and the very useful skill of abseiling past a knot.  These are all very useful skills to know especially when venturing onto more committing cliffs in Ireland.

A special note should be made for Harry who had to be rescued because he got his rope stuck...............

For anyone interested in any type of climbing instruction just get in touch.  Quality is guaranteed!