One Winters Day |
| Date: 17 Feb 2008 Submitted by: Iain Miller Whilst the masses descended upon the mighty Fairhead, I took advantage of the Tropical climate (whilst it lasted) by visiting the neglected Aughnish Point on Cruit Island. Tried to bully a few willing participants in joining the fray but alas the dreaded lurgy and bouldering matters elswhere took presidence! Anyways the sun beat down and the wavewashed granite was warm to touch, in February, what a strange wee island we live on! The only way to avert the crisis was to invert the trusted and slightly modified Gri-Gri and bag a wee line or four. First up was the curving corner crack thingy (Grin) about 8 meters to the west of Man Reprobate, an excellent wee lead, poor gear, great rock and at Severe good value for calories burnt. Another abseil and ground anchors produced "Raging Waves," which takes the open book groove and bulging corner, just left of Grin, again at severe but a vast improvment on the protection front! Fully warmed up now and in the zone, so to speak, "Dementor" (Harry Potter Fan) took the steep hand crack further left of "Raging Waves" bit of a struggle, so VS 4b was the order of the day. Neptune was by now getting a tad tetchy so a quick scramble down to the base of the seaward slab, (just round the corner from the Brother Millars "Deep Sea Dangler") produced "Thrutch" an excellent wee unstylistic gruntfest up a wide right trending crack, half way up the route, DRENCHED Neptune was indeed unamused? The salty end to an excellent, if a little lonely, days activities! Lead soloing involves setting up bomber ground anchors and self belaying through an inverted Gri-Gri (chest to waist) whilst placing gear, no ethics are harmed and mucho fun is to be had. It's much the same as climbing with a second who is watching television whilst attending to belay duties. It's not big and it's not clever.....ehmm ok I'll get my coat. Self belief is everything: Limitation exists only in the minds of those who see it as an obstacle! |
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