Some Scottish Winter Action!

(Paul)
I have now been over in Scotland for the last week.  It has been a mixture of work, play and hanging with the worlds best Alpinist.

I started this wee trip in the Glencoe valley.  I was out with Anthony and Emma for 2 days looking at skills they could use for long mountaineering days out on ridges and easy angles snow slopes.  We managed to make the most of the weather and high temps by finished with a great journey up the zip-zags on Gearr Aonach.

High on Central Buttress

Finishing up with those guys a text came in from Tom Great that the NW was in condition so 4 hrs later I arrived in Torridon psyched at the thought of climbing the super classic Central Buttress on Ben Eighe.  The 3 hr walk-in flew by chatting about stuff, lovely temps (maybe a bit to warm), blue sky and very little wind!  The central buttress was well covered in snow but with the rising temps we laughed that we could be climb quite a lot of mush.  In the end it was a mush-fest. I would probably give it Mush8 on a scale of 1-10.  The mush got the best of us and upward progress at the top was so slow that we sacked it and headed back down and out just before we lost the light. Oh and Ueli Steck was climbing beside us, the mush even slowed him down!

hip flask time - thank ECC!

The Seam - buried

The last few days have been spend climbing with Gary.  We managed a very enjoyable ascent of Dorsal Arete on Sunday. It is amazing how being optimistic can pay off because during the walk in it was as if someone was pouring water on us, it cleared while we were climbing at the 100mph winds were no where to be seen when we topped out in blue skies! A quick change of plan took us to the East and for the last 2 days and we have climbed in the Cairngorms (coire an t-sneachda). The place is totally buried but it does give some amazing neve but very little in the way of gear.  We have ticked the Seam and Doctors Choice over the last few days.

top of the seam

Hoping to head back into coire an t-sneachda tomorrow. Will get some pictures if I can!

Winter Frustration Abated

Blogging hasn't featured highly on my list of priorities. But the lure of Scottish winter climbing was making a very grumpy person even grumpier! So I made a very short trip to Scotland for one days climbing with John McDonald on Friday 7th Feb. With the difficult weather patterns this winter it was frustrating that an extended spell of reasonable weather coinciding with time off work was ever going to happen.

So sometimes you've just gotta take the chance.

We kipped in the back of Johns van with the promise of a decent weather forecast. It didn't feel too cold on awakening! Drizzle and no visibilty on the walk in and no Crag to be seen. We could have been on the moon instead of Stob Corrie nan Lochain, Glencoe.

The freezing level greeted us @700m and it started to feel like winter and also justify getting out of a warm sleeping bag!

With no one else about  we found our intended Route for the day Central Grooves VII 7 and an uber classic of Scottish winter climbing. As we climbed higher the clouds cleared and gave a wonderful day.

Was it worth it - to be back having breakfast the next morning at home, with having had a great day out in the hills with a great mate and climbed such a great line - Yeah!

For Paul & I the Scottish winter season will be kicking off and with the quantities of snow about it could be a very good for late season climbing. 

1st Pitch Central Grooves

John McD 1st Pitch

Final Pitch

The road ahead.............

 (Paul) Where do I start.........

Well I guess to start with I have been pretty slack on the blog front for well over the last 6 months.  Ian has pretty much been holding the fort with interest on both the blog at the website so I guess sitting here on a rainy Saturday afternoon in early February listening to some whack playlist on spotify I should put a few words together.

The book that will dictate life for the next 3 years!
All I need are a few more signatures...

Back in June 2013 life changed for the best and my lifelong ambition of becoming a IFMGA Guide became reality when a letter of acceptance arrived.   Having completed my rock and ski inductions along with 3 days of very enjoyable ski lessons and a 5 day European Avalanche School course I now have a reasonable understanding of the road ahead.  The road is going to be long, challenging, exciting and ultimately rewarding.

Climbing on this wall...

There is a huge time commitment needed to complete the scheme and this forced me to resign from my Youth Development role with Mountaineering Ireland that I have enjoyed for nearly the last 5 years.  MI has been a great association to work with and to see the changes over the last 5 years in how kids are supported in climbing has been amazing.  The MI job opened a huge amount of doors and they have been very supportive throughout.

...with these kids! Saul cruising Kleptomaniac (E3)
in the Burren, Co. Clare.

In her cage....

My understanding, beautiful and very supportive wife also landed on her feet in August 2013 when she got a new job that she completely loves.  Ellie had worked for 3 years in a position with a local outdoor company and her new role is quite different - it's great to see the career opportunities available for someone as motivated as her!  Well done wifey! We also have the best dog ever, make taking long periods of time away from home easier for Ellie!

My super cool wife and her super cool Mum!

Ricky and Carson hanging!

The road ahead is very exciting.  On the cards is a trip to America with good friends Mr Bell and the Hillerberg.  Just waiting on Epic TV to come good! We hope to go and climb as much as we can on El Cap. There should be plenty of good pictures and hopefully a bit of video footage as well! I also have a cheeky little trip to Spain with a few of the super strong and psyched young climbers I've been working with for the last few years.  We are hitting up Siurana and Margalef for some pocket and edge climbing!  This could well be my most exciting trip to date with this inspiring group of super-keen young and promising Irish climbers!  They are are growing up a bit, improving at an alarming rate and starting to crush stuff that I am falling off and not too far off Mr Bell! Ricky being well hooked up in the polish scene has got Ola Taistra on board for the trip; 4th woman to climb 8c+ and she has a wiki page - 'nuff said I guess!

The Stone King crushing at last weekend Rocfest 5.0.
Good skills on making the final wee dude!

Last weekend was a pretty nice way to finish off working with MI by taking a crew of kids over to Manchester for the Rocfest 5.0.  It is hugely rewarding to see the positive impact you can have on young people lives simply by introducing them to what some people would only see as climbing up some rock or plastic. The relationship that Climbing has helped me developed with this group of awesome people is so rewarding, I hope I inspire them half as much as they inspire me.  A wee hero of mine Carson Carnduff also made the final - in a few years time he has promised to take me up El Cap!










And so it is, a change of career, new direction and the realisation that life is too short to worry about other people's attitudes and opinions. I can not wait for the next few years ahead.  My diary is already totally full so I guess it could be a lot worse!

Still trying to bike, but the parts soon add up!

I will try my best to update the blog with the wee adventures that are up and coming!

 As DMM would say, CLIMB NOW (SKI) - WORK LATER...............

It is good just to have fun.

And the heart grows fonder...

Mountain biking has pretty much dominated my life for the past 25 years.  From being a kid doodling bikes on school books and scanning price lists in MBUK to years of talking bikes, racing, travelling, cleaning, fixing, coaching and obviously riding bikes it's pretty much been a constant obsession.  I may have had times when climbing and mountaineering took over for a bit and for a few months I might not have been able to name every new innovation available but basically it's been a constant theme.  There have been a fair few times in that two and a half decades when for reasons beyond my control I've been unable to ride a bike, usually because various parts of my body have been encased in plaster.  I've just come to the end of one such period, no plaster this time but the inability to use a thumb has meant that biking has been out of the question.

The frustrations have been the same as ever, the minute you forcibly can't do something the desire to do it multiplies exponentially.  For 6 weeks it seemed like new trails were appearing every day, everyone was out biking constantly and I was missing out on an incredibly unseasonable spell of dry weather (December, not January!).  In part each of these was true but not to the degree that my imagination would've had it.

So finally I decided it was time to swing a leg over my top tube again.  Partly because of some movement returning to my thumb and the pain dissipating but also because I had to get back to coaching at some point, it is part of my job and my kids need to eat!  It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that I was terrified.  What if I just couldn't grip?  What if I'd lost all my speed and reactions?  Luckily a great fun morning coaching with some super enthusiastic kids and their mums chilled me out and then an afternoon with the lads at Rostrevor mostly put my mind at ease.  I still can't grip very well, most noticeably in the fact that I can't really hang on to the bar and cover the back brake which makes things interesting!  There's nothing like forcibly riding with the death grip to make you hit lines!  The only other downside is that using my dropper post means taking my whole hand off the bar which slightly limits its usefulness.  Generally though I felt good and was able to hit the red/black combo loop pretty hard and fast.  In fact it didn't just feel good, it felt incredible!  I can't describe what a stoke it was to be back on the bike.  Even in Rostrevor with its relative ease there was still an amazing buzz to just finding a bit of flow and pedalling hard through the sections.  Absence definitely does make the heart grow fonder and sometimes it's worth spending some time away from what you love to get refreshed and psyched to do it more.  I just hope I don't have to spend any more time off the bike anytime soon!

Loving being back on a bike.  Even though it's freezing and lashing now!

Climbing Wall Award Training 29th & 30th March - Awesome Walls, Dublin

Climbing Wall Award Training - Awesome Walls Dublin

Hey All,

I have a Climbing Wall Award training course running over the weekend of 29th & 30 March at Awesome walls, Dublin.  I can take a maximum of 6 participants on the training course so to book a place drop me an email on paul@rockandrideoutdoors.com.  Full details available below!

So what is the Climbing Wall Award?

The Climbing Wall Award (CWA) is a national award for those who wish to supervise groups at climbing walls in Ireland and the UK.  The award consists of a training course which covers the essential skills to deliver safe, effective and enjoyable climbing sessions as well as an introduction to the coaching of climbing at a fundamental level.

Who is it for?

Climbers, coaches, scout leaders, instructors. Anyone that is interested in working in an indoor climbing wall!

We are lucky enough to be the first provider of this award in Ireland.  The course will be delivered through Paul Swail and under the Irish training board of BOS.

Paul has many years of instructional, coaching and climbing experience.  He has been lucky enough to introduce and coach some of the most talented youth in Ireland, climbing all over the world and constantly perform at a high level amongst Irish climbers.  Paul has previously worked on CWA's in the past and his enthusiasm is known to be very infectious!  He is a very active climber and his passion for climbing is very evident during his courses!

The 2-day Climbing Wall Award Training will take place at the Awesome Wall in Dublin.

The price for the course is €160 or £135. This includes entry into the Awesome Wall.

To book a place email Paul on paul@rockandrideoutdoors.com or phone on 00447793453278.

You will need to register with BOS and for full details on registration click here.

To find out more about the Climbing Wall Award you can watch this video -
http://vimeo.com/29478185.

A bit more about the award - http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1889

Injury - The Inevitable End Result

I'm injured... again.  For me there are two types of injury, ones that slow you down and cause discomfort and ones that stop you doing what you want to do, unfortunately this one is the latter.

I shouldn't be surprised really, after all riding mountain bikes fast in techy terrain invites crashes and crashes tend to lead to pain and injury!  Over the years MTB has seen me spend plenty of time in various hospitals.  As far as I can remember the current list is two broken wrists, one broken arm, broken hand, collarbone, leg, kneecap, two ribs, cracked elbow and hip and a couple of knockouts, one where I didn't wake up until I'd been in hospital for a while.  I can possibly add a broken thumb but I'm really hoping not.

The crash was pretty hilarious really, first run on an incredible new trail in Donard Woods I clipped a tree with my bars at full speed.  That sent me wider than planned on the next corner and my front wheel washed out and I flew OTB into a river.  My first reaction was to laugh, after all I was up to my elbows in water but then a familiar burning pain kicked in followed by a few minutes of swearing and annoyance.  I finished the trail sheepishly, quickly realising that my grip on the bars was weakening and a strange bulge was appearing on my thumb.  For once I did the right thing, headed home, took Ibuprofen and iced it for an hour.  The swelling went down and despite shooting pains and no movement at all I was confident all would be well in a week or so.

That was over a three weeks ago!  I have a small amount of movement back, I can almost grip a toothbrush but I definitely can't wrap my hand around a handlebar and hook my thumb under.  It's dawning on me that it may be worse than I thought.  Needless to say I'm gutted.  I was just starting to get back to speed and had survived a couple of other big crashes in the previous week which always breeds that sense of invincibility that adds a couple of mph when things get scary.  Now it looks like I'll be off the bike for a few more weeks, made all the more annoying by the dry trails I'm missing.  On the plus side it's only a thumb so I can at least still run and sit on a turbo trainer, on the downside, it's only a thumb which makes it more annoying that it's preventing me from actually biking.

So what's the point of this blog?  To let myself share my self pity?  Well yes!  But not only that.  There are plenty of times when I can't really be arsed to head out, getting changed, filling Camelbaks, getting wet and cold, the washing, the cleaning etc etc all seems too much.  As ever though, the minute you can't do something, the degree to which you want to do it magnifies massively.  I never regret going biking, even when I break bikes or bones, right now I really regret the times I've decided not to head out.  Go ride your bikes people and crack a smile for me...

Paul falling off his bike... on a road by the look of it!

MBL Pilot Course - Feeling the Pressure!

I've been delivering the Cycling Ireland/Coaching Ireland MBLA Trail Cycle Leader course for a few years now with great success in training the guides and coaches of the future.  It's the industry standard introductory level leadership course qualifying guides to lead groups of up to 8 people on terrain below 600m and within 30 minutes of getting help.  As good as the TCL is, there has been a growing demand for an advanced level qualification without the limitations on remoteness and terrain from both existing guides and from myself too.  As such, Cycling Ireland tasked me with writing the new qualification and getting it to match all the Coaching Ireland 'Advanced' qualification criteria.  Not an easy task!

Luckily, the framework for the course already existed and I was able to use the excellent Scottish Cycling Mountain Bike Leader syllabus as a guide.  Taking that course and improving and advancing it to the levels demanded by Coaching Ireland took many weeks of design, session planning, meetings, conference calls and practice until finally a couple of weeks ago I was ready to deliver an observed pilot.

I must admit that it was a lot more daunting than I'd anticipated actually delivering the course.  I'm well used to teaching and coaching with all types of people but with 4 candidates on one side of me and a panel of 4 observers made up of my tutoring peers and representatives from Coaching Ireland and Cycling Ireland on the other, I did feel a bit sandwiched in the middle.  I'll openly admit to being a bit of a perfectionist and so although it was a pilot course I put myself under great pressure to deliver a polished finished article.

Did it work?

Largely yes it did!  The timings need a tweak and there are a couple of suggestions from Coaching Ireland on content and also around firm pre-requisites in terms of the personal skills of participants but essentially it was a great success.  Therefore, I'm anticipating that Rock and Ride will be offering the new Cycling Ireland MBL course from early 2014.

The course is a step up and away from the Scottish Cycling MBL course with a greater emphasis on personal ability and coaching without losing any of the essential leadership aspects.  It definitely focuses on developing leaders who are not only safe to operate in remote mountainous areas but are also able to offer the detailed one to one coaching skills that really add value to a clients experiences.  For Cycling and Coaching Ireland, leadership and coaching have to be viewed as one interlinked entity and I totally agree.  The idea of a leader who doesn't coach seems ridiculous and unrealistic to me, if you can't teach somebody how to ride a bike properly then how can you safely lead them on a mountain biking session?

A good MBL standard fix on the pilot MBL training!

 Who is the new MBL course for?

- Existing TCL holders who have used that award extensively and to its limits.
- Coaches and guides that want to legally and safely operate in highly technical terrain.
- Guides that want to operate abroad in the mountains (it will be internationally recognised so can be used to guide in mountainous regions throughout Europe, except France!).
- Highly skilled guides who want to be recognised as being amongst an elite group at the pinnacle of their profession.

The assessment is going to be deliberately very tough, physically and technically in order to ensure that only the very best can gain the qualification.  Criteria for the assessment are obviously discussed in depth during the training course.  Pre-requisites for training include the ability to ride highly technical terrain confidently and confidence inspiringly and perform skills such as bunny hops, riding drop-offs and step ups and pumping.  If you can't do these things then you are recommended to attend an Intermediate Skills course a few months prior to the MBL course.

Cost will be around £165 for training and £90 for assessment.  Contact ian@rockandrideoutdoors.com for more details.