First, an announcement: club time returns to Boulder World this Tuesday (21 July) from 7pm. Hope to see some of you there.
BCC 3rd Birthday BBQ
With things from a climbing perspective tentatively returning to some semblance of normality, we hosted the clubs 3rd birthday party (only 3 months late) at Henry’s cottage at the weekend. This time the weather golds smiled on us and we managed two days of a climbing and a BBQ uninterrupted by midge or rain.
On Saturday 8 club members took command of Pigeon Rock and made ascents of Castrol R, Yellow Brick Road, Pilalge Direct, Falcon, Faerie Flight, Class Distinction, and Nuclear Wheelbarrow. Rónán got revenge on Penny Black having been spat out by it 7 years ago and Kyle made an impressive attempt at the E5 X-Ray, coming undone on the last hard move. Methinks he’ll be back.
Spot the climbers
Kyle on X-Ray
Finishing up early(ish) we returned to the cottage only to find that the IMC group who had stayed there the week before had made the most of the good weather and continued with the renovations, replacing parts of the toilet, doing laundry and cleaning cupboards and fridges! Welcome back any time!
Lisa’s firepit was brought into service as a BBQ and we were joined by more club members who had been out walking in the hills. An evening of merriment ensued, with some members camping, some returning home and some spaced out in the cottage.
Terrible photo of the BBQ
The next day, despite our proximity to the crags, we made our way to Carrick Little for midday. The Annalong Valley is no so popular that there are 6 car parks in service at Carrick Little. Fortunately, Lower Cove was not busy save for Vicky and her friend Kyle (no relation to ‘our’ Kyle). With low wind, sunshine and good temperatures another excellent day of climbing ensued with classics Gynocrat, First Corner, Aristocrat, The Great Treacle Sponge Robbery and Maya being ticked off, and Kyle making an impressive and slightly harrowing ascent of the bold E4 Glass Onion which he enjoyed, he thinks.
Kyle on Glass Onion, Vicky about to rope solo Aristocrat, climbers from Dublin on Gynocrat, and Lisa supervising (photo: Jamie R)
All in all a great weekend and thanks to all for attending. Hopefully we’ll be able to do more of this in the coming while and start looking tot rips further afield again.
Rónán