More Corrán Ascents & Paddy's Weekend Killarney Adventure Race...

What an absolutely stupendous period of weather we have just had and nice timing too! On Saturday we guided a group of 3 Dublin lads to the summit of Ireland's highest on a day of beautiful blistering sunshine, light warm breezes and faultless cloudless skies.

Spectacular days like this one are all to rare at any time of the year never mind getting one in March but Saint Patrick's weekend it was and the luck of the Irish was with us for sure.

 

 

 

The lads turned up a little late to Cronin's and a tad worst for wear also to tell the truth after a wild night sampling the lively pubs of Killarney but this didn't slow them down or hold them back by any means and we had some great banter & craic as we climbed to the top of Ireland's highest via the Devil's Ladder.

The views from the top on such a stunning clear day were truly awe-inspiring and mind blowing and after a relaxing lunch break we again shouldered our light packs and descended by the outstanding Heavenly Gates track which leads across the steep and extremely airy North face of Corrán Tuathail itself before winding and meandering its way back to terra-firma and the valley floor. Leisurely made our way out the Hags Glen and finished a mighty day out guiding a great bunch of lads with coffees and cakes in Cronin's tea-room!!!!

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Later that very same evening I was back up the Hags Glen on a rescue with the MRT and here's a stunning full moon pic I was lucky to get on my way out.

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Sunday was another extremely busy day for us as not only did we have John guiding a group of 9 first timers to the top of Corrán Tuathail but we were also responsible for the Marshalling, First Aid and Safety of the spectacular mountain stage of the fantastic St Paddy's weekend Killarney Adventure Race...

 

 

The whole event passed off without incident and an absolutely wonderful morning was spent nestled in the wild and rugged depths of the stunning Black Valley and Cummeenduff Glen surrounded on all sides by the magnificent MacGillycuddy's Reeks mountains.

 

What a special place!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A truly superb event and really great to be involved once again.
Congrats and a MASSIVE well done to all participants, sponsors, supporters, to all the marshals, to Ollie and Catriona and ALL the crew at Elite Events and to each and everyone who contributed to making it yet another memorable and hugely exciting day.



 

From Winter days to warm Spring haze....

 Winter Skills and yet ANOTHER Curve Gully Ascent....

 It's been an absolutely a fantastic season of Winter Climbing and Mountaineering in the MacGillycuddy's Reeks which has allowed us run a few of our all too rare 1 day Winter Skills courses.  The latest one of these was yet again spent climbing the deep snow filled Curve Gully high on Corrán Tuathail with Zane from Cork and Aine who'd travelled down especially from Galway and was overjoyed that she did!!!

The day began showery enough but started brightening nicely as we made our way up to the first level underneath Corrán.

We spent a highly informative hour at the base of Curved learning lots of bits and bobs from Movement skills on snow, self-belay, self-arrest, Avalanche awareness, belaying using the rope alone as well as with a sling and krab, Constructing and using snow anchors such as buried axes and a Deadman Anchor.
Extremely cold with wind-chill making it feel well into the minus temps so didn't hang about here too long before heading up the gully and getting the blood flowing again. Topped out onto a cloudy summit in a strong biting cold wind within a few minutes it cleared for just long enough to grab a few impressive photos.

Descended easily down the Devils' Ladder and finished a great day with Coffee and Cake in Cronins' Tea-room.  

 



 

 

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                   Winter Climbing & Exploring high on Caher...

Headed to Coomloughra recently with Jan and Nigel to climb a 250mtr long snow gully running up the entire length of the North face of Caher.  My eyes had been drawn to this line just the previous day as I stood on the summit of Corrán Tuathail after topping out from Curve Gully on the forementioned skills course.

Slogged up the long approach to the impressive glen from the Hydro road in yucky drizzle and after grovelling up a few initial short but extremely steep wet, slimy and sloppy waterfall pitches we finally hit the snow line and though very soft and cruddy in the lower section, the top 100mtrs was truly superb and we topped out on the summit of a calm Wintery Caher just as the cloud cleared.

A fantastic adventurous day spent with great company exploring new ground.... 

 

The route called - "An Streapa" had its first ascent by Con Moriarty and Pat Falvey in 1990 and on its higher reaches we took a brand new "Left fork" to finish.  A cracking route which I doubt has had many re-ascents  but will definitely be back to climb it again when in better condition as I reckon the waterfall grovels would be peachy if iced up.
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 A wonderful day on An Stumpa and a Wild'n' Windy day guiding Corrán....

Well spent another 2 days last week working in the Reeks and what a change in 24 hours. Friday was a gorgeous but cold day spent high up on the rocky pillar of Stumpa an tSaimh more commonly known as "The Hags Tooth" assisting a filming company with a shoot for an advertisement. Spent most of the day sitting high on the Tooth dressed in tan leather jacket and jeans while acting as a body double.   A truly stunning day in the mountains with little or no cloud and only a slight but extremely cold breeze. 

Saturday it was back to more normal stuff guiding 5 in high winds and side ways rain!!! Some extreme gusts down low had me worry for a while that we may not reach the top but we persevered none the less and winds actually decreased as we got higher and so Esther and Jimmy,our visiting honeymooning couple from Dallas Texas and Orla, Anthony and Bríd from Roscommon had a wild exciting ascent in at times "testing" conditions. 

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Spring has well and truly "Sprung"!!!

 

 

What an absolutely phenomenal day out in the Reeks yesterday guiding Siobhan and Vincent from Meath to the summit of Corrán Tuathail in tremendous long awaited sunshine.

 

 

 

Not even a single wisp of cloud in the sky and hard to believe that little over a week ago I was dressed for battle with axes and crampons and Winter climbing in these magnificent mountains with hands on fire with hot-aches and 4 days ago I was knocked to the ground and bruised by ferocious winds while tackling the same very route as todays!!!
Well that's Ireland for you....ALWAYS interesting 

We climbed via the Devils Ladder and had the summit all to ourselves before leisurely making our way back to Cronin's yard via the "Zig-Zags".

The gang had a wonderful & spectacular day and witnessed the Reeks in all their splendour and glory.
 

 

 

What an unbelievable day for a first time ascent of Irelands highest....Jammy feckers!!!

Our most recent goings on....

Headed out to the Reeks Mountains late on Saturday night with 3 good mates and spent an utterly incredible and truly invigorating 9 hours climbing under a sensational full moon on Corrán Tuathails snow & ice covered North Face!!!


Forecast was cold and settled with a wetter front sweeping in by the following afternoon and so we
departed the car from Lisleibane at 11:00pm with the aim of climbing through the night and hopefully ticking off 2 routes in super Winter condition - "Collins' Gully" and then the Super classic Ice & Snow climb - "An Cumar Dheis", more popularly known as "The Lick.
Made it up to the Heavenly Gates in great time and after dressing for battle we whacked ropeless up our first objective - "Collins' Gully", the steep firm snow slope ahead illuminated by the spectacular Moon above.
A phenomenal hour or so spent whooping and yahooing our way up this and after resting a short while high up at the Gullys end and deciding to leave the very summit until the next time around we carefully traversed East across the face to pick up the track that led us back to the Heavenly Gates once again.

After collecting our climbing rack and a rope we had left here earlier we then made our way back down to the Eagles Nest and slogged our way up to the next route of the night - "The Lick".

Took a nice break before commencing this climb with Brian boiling up a pot of snow on the stove he'd brought along and we each enjoyed a delicious mug of piping hot coffee and some tasty chocolate treats to reinvigorate our tiring bodies.
We roped up for this one though and again kicked and axed our way up this wondorous Ice climb of approx. 350Mtrs+ in length. 

Initial soft and cruddy snow soon improved and every kick of each cramponed boot and every whack of each axe was simply bliss!!!

We topped out practically at the summit cross at around 5am, an impressive 2 hours  after leaving from our coffee spot far far below. We descended slowly back down into the Hags Glen via an extremely deep snow filled Devils Ladder and exhaustingly walked and part staggered our way back to Lisleibane. After the short 5 minute drive we arrived back to my place at approx. 8:30am where Catherine treated our shattered bodies to a massive big Fry up, buttery toast and buckets of piping hot tea and coffee to help re-energise our now flagging souls.
An astounding and sensational night for sure and one that'll forever rank with the most memorable and very best :-)

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A MASSIVE thanks to all those who came along recently for the superb finale of our Winter Lecture series in Cork... 

 

 

 A really inspiring and highly entertaining talk by Nick Bullock telling mad tales of Winter climbing in Scotland, New Routes ,Hard repeats, Wafer thin Ice-Climbing in New England and an attempt at the unclimbed North face of "Chamlang" and his successful first ascent of "Hunku" both in Nepal.

This was the exciting Finale to another instalment of our inspiring Winter Lecture Series which is now already into it's 3rd year. Our highly successful series of evening lectures have in the past had a host of top climbers entertain and inspire with crazy tales of first ascents and vertical adventures from home and abroad...
Hosted in Association with U.C.C Mountaineering club these talks to date have raised over €2100 for Mountain Rescue and climbing related beneficiaries with this year proceeds going to the Kerry Mountain Rescue team

 Thanks to UCC Mountaineering club for their kind assistance in hosting the series and to all those who gifted us with some truly fantastic raffle prizes.

A BIG BIG THANK YOU TO :

 

Nigel Dixon of Alpine Sports

                                                        Kerry Outdoor Sports 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                    Cascade Designs in Midleton

 

 

 

 

Paul Innes of Core Outdoor Ireland
Thanks to ALL of you who came along, helped spread the word, supported and of course - enjoyed the series. We appreciate it

 
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2014 GETS OFF TO A BUSY START.....

 

Well after the initial disappointment of cancellations and rescheduling due to the atrocious stormy weather over the festive break, it at last settled down enough for us to finally get out for plenty of work and play!!!

We were blessed to have two chilly but extremely beautiful days for Intro Rock-Climbing courses in the wonderful Gap of Dunloe.

 

The first of these was for a group of three - Brendan and Bart from East Cork and Karl from Kilkenny, and the second was for two first time visitors to Ireland, Tim from South Africa and Meghan from Florida. Both were truly stunning & calm days with a lovely dusting of white visible on Cruách Mhór and the Reeks which peeked over the Western side of the valley across from us.

 Lots of subjects covered on both days, from Anchors to Belaying to Knots, Abseiling, Technique and lots more besides.

 

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Then we had a  fantastic turnout in UCC for Part 2 in our Winter Lecture Series.
A fascinating talk titled - "A Year Chasing Ice" by Irish Adventurer and Climber Mike O'Shea who told us all about The Ice Project.

We heard exciting and riveting tales of his amazing recent expeditions with other Irish Adventurer - Dr Clare O'Leary. Facing temperatures as low as minus fifty degrees centigrade and howling gales that confined him to his tent for days on end, Mikes personal crusade to cross all of the major icecaps of the world is certainly extreme. His talk covered their travels to the worlds largest lake - frozen Lake Baikal in Northern Russia , the rarely attempted North Patagonian Icecap and his almost fatal attempt on the North Pole as well as their upcoming re-attempt where he hopes of being the first Irish team to reach the pole by foot!!! 

 

 

A highly enjoyable evening and hugely successful fundraiser for this ambitious project.

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Mountain Skills Assessment.

 

Day 1 was a gorgeous day spent assisting on an assessment on the wonderful hills overlooking Glenbeigh and Lough Caragh.

Spent the first half of the day putting the gang through their paces while ticking off the summits, cols and saddles around Seefin Mtn and then the latter part of the day into sundown and night Nav on the hills located on the Southern side of the "Windy Gap", namely "Coolroe".

Absolutely spectacular views all around and especially of the snow topped Reeks beyond to the East and l was really looking forward to heading over that way for day 2.

 

 

 

Day 2 in comparison turned out to be an extremely cold, wet and downright miserable day, spent on Corrán Tuathail.
Stayed low-ish enough, only climbing as far as the "Eagles Nest" an elevation of approx. 500mtrs just above the snowline. Testing conditions and a good tough day to be covering Nav and movement on steep ground.
Had a quick lunch in the welcome shelter of the Emergency Hut while covering grid references etc before again braving it.
Plenty of snow falling as we descended from here via the Balcony and arrived back to Cronin's well and truly sodden!!!
Spent the evening frantically drying all the gear by the fire as the plan was to head up again solo in the morning for a bit of axe action before the warmer wet front swept through in the evening and stripped it all once again. 

                         

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Howl of a time alone on a Wintery Howling Ridge...

Well the forecast was for a warmer wet front to sweep through the Reeks in the evening and so with gear dried I headed off to Corrán Tuathail to grab some last bit of axe action before all the snow was gone.



With my MP3 to keep me company I made good time to the first level meeting and stopping for a chat with some past clients on my way in the Glen. As I was yet undecided which route to go for I made a last minute decision to strike for the Heavenly Gates and climb the magnificent Howling Ridge high up on the North face!!!

Quite a bit of snow on the route but extremely soft, powdery and unconsolidated and so I climbed ever so slowly, carefully and meticulously and topped out in just under 2 hours to the most sublime vista. Descended via the Zig-Zags and strolled out the Glen as the rain arrived. A truly spectacular and at times - testing day on the mighty Howlin' of Corrán Tuathail.

 

A WHITE CHRISTMAS...

First post of the New Year and we would like to wish  all a very Happy and Adrenaline filled New Year.

We send a huge message of thanks and appreciation to everyone who has walked & climbed with us, helped and supported us, to all our friends and to all who have taken an interest & followed our page and exploits during 2013.

Here's to a fun filled, happy and safe 2014 !!!



Yet another storm is raging outside as has been the weather pattern of the last two weeks, but it hasn't been ALL bad.

Far from it in fact!!!

 

Dec 22nd:

With childminder sorted I departed from home at the foot of the snow covered Reeks at around 2pm with only one route in mind - the grade I/II Curve Gully on Corrán Tuathail.

A decent dumping of snow last night had made the mountains look VERY impressive indeed and it had been a while since I'd climbed this superb route to the top, so with axe, crampons and nice flask of hot juice all packed I drove the short distance to Lisleibane with Lily, our SARDA mountain Rescue dog and struck off into the Glen wired up with my MP3.

A truly spectacular few hours spent in the most stunning of scenery. Quite decent conditions in the gully itself with good firm turf, knee deep snow and surprising amounts of ice formed!!!

 

Topped out at 5pm and due to the reflection from the snow it was still bright enough to take a summit pic.

Descended via the Devils Ladder by headtorch and home by 7 nicely satisfied!!!!

 

 

Dec 26th, St Stephens Day:

 

Well by the time I returned to Cronin's Yard in the late afternoon it was absolutely blowing a gale and lashing down which made this days double ascent of Curved Gully on Corrán Tuathail taste all the sweeter.
Headed into a magnificent Wintery Hags Glen this morning with the hope of burning off some of the Christmas day indulgences and also in the hope of grabbing the last of some Wintery climbing before it all disappeared in the forecasted deluge.
Great to see lots and lots of people out and about with many heading up the usual suspects such as O'Sheas and of course the "Ladder".
I headed for the line less travelled, the Classic "Curve Gully" and had superb sport on my own - kicking and whacking up quite decent ice and snow to the summit of Ireland's highest. Met a friend at the top and as he too was keen for a bit of sport we carefully descended the snow filled "Central Gully" and after traversing across to the start of "Curved" I enjoyed its icy delights once again as we blissfully climbed this gem and topped out with beaming smiles.
Descended this time via the Ladder and arrived back to Cronin's as the forecasted storm arrived.

 I was contacted the following day by a local newspaper - The Kerryman who saw some pics of this ascent on Facebook and interviewed me and printed a small piece regarding this ascent..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dec 28th:

 

Managed to grab yet another superb day climbing my flavour of the week - "Curve Gully" on Corrán Tuathail.
Had fantastic day climbing this icy snow filled gem with a mate who'd driven down this morn from Dublin and my best mate Mick from Cork who was home for Christmas visiting from London.
Plenty of good ice and great snow made it a hugely enjoyable day with great company...Had so much fun that again we descended a snow filled "Central Gully" and re-climbed "Curved" a second time!!!

 

A FANTASTIC START TO OUR WINTER LECTURE SERIES AND A MEMORABLE DAY ON HOWLING RIDGE...

We finally kicked off our much awaited 3rd Winter Lecture Series on Wednesday night with an impressive crowd attending the Boole Theatre in Cork to hear the renowned Mountaineer, Author and Broadcaster Stephen Venables. A hugely inspiring and impressive talk by Stephen titled "Mountains of the Seven Continents" - A lifetime of climbing adventures and first ascents. 

 

When Stephen led a sailing-climbing expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula this year he finally achieved his dream of climbing on all seven continents. In this talk he included highlights from over forty years climbing around the world, from the Eiger to Everest, Tierra del Fuego to Uganda, the Hindu Kush to the Southern Alps, Namibia to the Rockies. Stunning photos and riveting tales of a lifetime of amazing climbing Adventures.

 

 

As is now the norm at our lectures, we finished with our traditional raffle with some fantastic prizes helping raise even more funds for this years beneficiary - Kerry Mountain Rescue Team. 

 

I wish to extend a massive, warm and heartfelt thanks to all of those who donated brilliant prizes and of course to everyone who came along on the night and helped to make it such a huge success. 

(Click on the links below each logo to view more info.)

  

OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY



 



ONLINE OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT

OUTDOOR RETAILER





CLIMBING EQUIPMENT

 

 

OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER

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The lecture took place on Wednesday evening and so we had the day to kill before we needed to drive up to Cork in the late afternoon. The previous day had been one of continuous torrential downpours and as we had initially planned to head rock climbing in the Gap of Dunloe, the chances now were that the crags and cliffs would be too wet and greasy and so we changed plans. Stephen was totally game for a day in the wild Kerry mountains and so we decided on a route to the top of Ireland's highest - Corrán Tuathail, by the all time Classic "Howling Ridge". We ate a hearty breakfast washed down with plenty of stimulating fresh coffee, packed the ruc-sacs and drove the short distance to the parking and approach area at Lisleibane

 

Wind was still gusting quite strong as we shouldered our packs and began the trek into the beautiful Hags Glen. Not another soul to be seen. Cloud was down to the 800 metre mark but the rock underfoot actually drying quite well which wasn't a surprise really considering the strength of the flippin' wind!!! We made great time to the start of the Ridge, a lofty perch high up on the North Face known as the "Heavenly Gates". We adorned helmets and harnesses as well as much needed extra warm layers and gloves as the wind was not only exceptionally strong but was now bitingly cold too!

 

 

 

I had brought a rope and rack with me just in case, but at this point I was really unsure whether a climber of Stephen Venables stature and experience would want to rope up and pitch a route which could almost be described as a straightforward scramble!?!? We said we would play it by ear, scramble the easiest bottom section and rope up if need be near the top. Well the rope remained packed away and we enjoyed the most fantastic hour or so climbing on superb bone-dry sandstone with the wind doing a plenty of "Howlin" all around us. We moved quickly and pretty soon we topped out on a wild'n'windy summit and after a taking a few snaps we headed off again across another jagged arete, this time our objective being Ireland's 2nd highest . Still, we never met another soul and it almost felt  like we had the Mountains to ourselves. The wind was still blowing strong and so great care was required while scrambling the crest of this airy ridge leading us onto Binn Chaorach.

 

 

 

 

 

I was luv'n it!!! Stephen had long been an idol of mine ever since I'd read his book - "A Slender Thread" many years ago. It tells the epic tale of his first ascent and subsequent near death fall, plummeting  300 feet after an abseil point failed on descent after doing the first ascent of a Himalayan giant called "Panch Chuili V". As we stopped to relax and take in our surroundings I noticed Stephen massaging his knee a little and when I probed if it was troubling him he reminded me of that epic tale by simply referring to a condition he suffered nowadays called "Panch Chuili knee"!!! I was not only in the presence of a true mountaineering great but also having the pleasure of spending a day climbing in the mountains with him and showing him some of the wonderful delights of the MacGillycuddy's Reeks of the Kingdom of Kerry

 

We descended back down again to the Hags Glen via the long "Stumpa an tSaimh" (Hags Tooth ridge) and rested awhile underneath the mighty rock tower known as "The Tooth" (An Stumpa). While relaxing and chatting here I pointed out Joss Lynams 1953 rock route on this impressive pinnacle called the "Wedding March".

As-well as our Winter Lecture in Cork, the following evening Stephen would also be the guest speaker in Dublin for Mountaineering Ireland at their annual lecture in memory of Joss Lynam, whose contribution to Irish climbing and walking spanned 60 years until his death in 2011. Stephen would be the 3rd recipient of the "Lynam Medal", an award set up in Joss's honour in recognition of ones contribution to climbing and notable Mountaineering achievements.


We leisurely made our way back out the lovely Hags Glen and after driving the short spin back to the house we grabbed a quick bite to eat before we then headed to Cork for the evening talk. Legs and bodies felt weary and tired but the one and a half hour drive gave us a nice chance to relax a little before the busy evening of meeting and greeting at the evening lecture in UCC. A highly entertaining evening and a hugely inspiring and entertaining talk by a really fantastic speaker and true gentleman Mr Stephen Venables.

It was a real pleasure and honour to meet and climb with him and a great memory of Howling Ridge I will have forever... 

 

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Next up in our series is Irish Adventurer Mike O Shea who will be telling tales of his amazing recent expeditions. Facing temperatures as low as minus fifty degrees centigrade and howling gales that confined him to his tent for days on end, Mikes personal crusade to cross all of the major icecaps of the world is certainly extreme. His talk will cover his travels to the worlds largest lake , frozen Lake Baikal in Northern Russia , the rarely attempted North Patagonian Icecap and his almost fatal attempt on the North Pole.