Fair Head
As I was helping Kevin Kilroy on a climbing session in the quarry we use for groups, he told me that he was going to Fair Head the following day and asked me if I wanted to join. Obviously you can't so no to such an offer, so after some last minute begging to get time off work we were heading towards Fair Head. After arriving, we met Michelle O’Loughlin, who would be climbing with us for the following days. We quickly got climbing after grabbing some grub, of course! We started the trip pretty full on, with Kevin ascending his new route Nobody Get Hurt (E4 6b**) - Which I got to photograph while hanging on the abseil rope, which made the trip amazing from the start! I also got to try to second the route (well second second). which made the ascent even more impressive. I took two or three attempts to do every more, falling off then getting back on, but persevering through. When I got close to the traverse, I took out the overhead gear and ended up taking a massive pendulum swing as I was falling. This put me way off route, so I had to resort to prusiking up the rope.
After this minor setback, we went back down to try another route, but as we were on our way down we got trapped in a torrential downpour, and were stuck under the only tree next to the crag! After some time we were able to make our way up, but this was "way up" was up the slippery descent gully which felt way sketchier than going up vertical rock we are used to.
From here we decided to have a look at Michelle's new route, which is a stunning E7 that takes the start of an existing route then goes on left into a crack. Michelle gave the route a quick go on top rope, climbing it super smoothly, and then Kevin gave it a quick top rope too. I said no a few times to the offer of trying the route, as I wasn't feeling too keen on prusiking 60 meters of rope, so eventually we retired to the vans for the evening. With a little fire log between the vans we enjoyed the light and warmth with some cold Guinness and an amazing supper.
The next morning we woke up in the middle of a rain cloud, which we did expect. So with a little bit of planning we decided to drive to a place where we'd get good enough signal to check the forecast, and if it looked like it would be clear for the following day, we planned to go to a cave nearby to do some bouldering. Thankfully, the forecast looked good for the following day, and that's exactly what we did.
After a little drive through the north coast country side we arrived to a little seaside village, at the very end of which lies a little cave made of conglomerate rock - which makes it known as 'the potato cave' (or 'Cushendun Caves', for those who might want to go!). We started warming up using the little chance we had: mostly dead hangs on different holds and push ups. Despite the warm up problem being my project for the day, and only being able to do one other problem, it was still an amazing day - although maybe not the wisest choice for myself, as I was already pumped from the day before. It would have probably been a better idea for me to rest a bit for the following day, but on a climbing trip there's no time for rest!
Just as we left for lunch, Kevin met some friends he had met whilst working in El Chorro, Spain, who joined us for some bouldering and invited us to their van for tea. It's funny how these things can happen! They were travelling around all of Europe in their van, and the one day we are in a little, local place, they happen to be there too! It was super interesting to hear all about their travels, and future plans. Their blog is also one you should definitely check out.
We then returned to Fair Head, for dinner, a fire, and some more Guinness before our last day.
The following morning we were woken up by Red Hot Chilli Peppers' new song (well at the time) Dark Necessities, which is never a bad thing to wake up to! This set the mood for the day. We quickly got up and ready for the day ahead... We were all super keen on trying to have a productive day of climbing, and it started with me climbing Black Thief (VS***) which is a really cool route, that has two different crack lines going up it. It's also an amazing opportunity when you have someone like Kevin belaying, giving tips and handy suggestions for my first Fair Head Lead. Unfortunately, Michelle decided to leave after my climb as she had a bad cold, although it was great of her to stay to take photos of my first lead here!
After this, Kevin took over the ropes for the next few climbs. We decided to stay in the 'Prow' area due to the weather, so the next climb was a long straight crack to a little face with nearly nothing on it, and then another crack. Kevin did the route in superb style as always, and again, as always, left me to struggle up it! I learned to crack climb on this route, then halfway up it I began learning to use points of aid. As you can see, there was a lot of firsts and learning on this trip. Who knew education could be this fun! This route was GBH (E3 6a***), and definitely deserves the name after what it did to my hands. They weren't in the best of shape at the start of the day, and after this route eight of my fingers were taped and plastered up. After this route, we went on to do two more and by that time I was definitely ready to call it quits - I've never experienced such fatigue after climbing. On the last route of the day, my arms were seizing up with cramps, with even cramps in my legs which made for an interesting last route, as I'm sure you can imagine.
By the time we were packing up after that climb we had been out for a solid 12 hours, so we were happy to return to the van, and turn the wheels towards Tollymore again after a successful trip to Fair Head.
