Sponsored post...Cotswold Outdoor and some words about climbing skiing and work!!

The last few weeks have been pretty mental with lots of work, a bit of play and friends coming and going.  Things have just settled down to give me a bit of time to relax and get prepared for the youth climbing trip I have organised to Spain next week.

Gynocrat in the rain!

March saw little change in the weather. It was pretty minging, wet and windy for most of it!  The occasional days that we were greeted with sunshine were few and far between. I guess to try and get trad climbing this time of the year you need to hit up the sunny sheltered sports.  Lower Cove is about the only cliff we have that ticks all the boxes, shame about the good hour walk-in! I had 2 very different days there back to back; the first one with my good pal Doc Crawley who was home for a few days just before Paddy's day, when I managed to drag myself up Pressure Point (E6) in near perfect conditions. The second I was in with Quinn Snr & Jnr climbing a few of the Mournes' classics.  It was pretty awesome to see Quinn Snr at nearly 70 years old climbing Gynocrat in the rain!  Them old skool dudes sure are hard as nails.

The simple life - we could get very used to it!

Having had a very busy last while with BMG training and work Ellie and I booked a wee trip over to Austria to see Stevie and Dik.  The plan was to ski but with the relative low altitude of the Tirol region and the lack of snow this season and super high temps we ending up doing as much climbing as we did skiing and not to mention eating lots of Lindt chocolate!  Do you think there would be a market for guiding in Austria? I sure do hope so!

Wall games to look at stable clipping positions

The last week of March was very busy running climbing training both site-specific and NGB (National Governing Body) qualifications through BOS - the Irish Training Board.  All of this work was based in Dublin so it gave me the chance to hit up Awesome Walls, Dublin for some training - they even gave me a couch to sleep on one night!

I also ran the first Climbing Wall Leading Award in Ireland.  Folk have been waiting for years for the CWLA to be introduced in Ireland.  It is a bolt on qualification for people who already hold the SPA or CWA and want to teach lead climbing indoors. Between myself and Rob Davis from Vertigo Outdoors we had 8 people on the course and ran it jointly.  This worked very well with both Rob and myself bouncing ideas off each other throughout the day. I think everyone on the course got a lot from the day. I will have some more CWLA dates on the site in the next few weeks.





Back on the climbing front (for myself) I managed to have an amazing day last week repeating one of the finest lines in the Mournes. We're All Learning (E7 6c) a steep slab with a crack that runs out at 3/4 height to give a tenuous, thoughtful sequence and interesting climbing - thankfully above some bomber gear that I picked up at Cotswold Outdoors (as the video will show you).  I originally tried the route in the winter but it was totally baltic and kinda gave up not being able to feel my fingers and with a freezing belayer (cheers Quinn). This time I was feeling more optimistic with blue skies, no wind and temperatures hovering at about 8 degrees.  After a play on a wee toppy and drying out the shady side of the crack I was keen to get onto the sharp end.  As you can see in the video this try didn't go so well.  I just didn't find my balance point, rushed it a bit and like in slow motion I was off!  Unfortunately the cold temps killed the battery on my phone so I wasn't able to get the ascent on video. Bit of a shame as I let out a massive 'psych whoop' when I got the finishing jug!



Yesterday I took a bit of a punt with the Hawk and Eamon and headed to the 'head'.  It was a cracking day - a tad on the chilly side but the banter made up for it!  Nice to get back up to Fair Head getting a bit of mileage in.  I did Jolly Roger in a oner and the Hawk ran up Toby jug - we then all ran away and drank some tea!

Eamon, Eddie and plenty of down on Toby Jug, Fair Head

Hope everyone is getting out and about. I will put some CWLA and CWA dates up for May and June in the next few weeks.  For now here is a little video of me taking some air time on my first attempt of We're All Learning!