Free Soloing on Tory Island

Tory Island Rock Climbing

   And Sho, as the summer wears on with its usual mix of tropical and not so tropical days, the current to do list was crying out for attention. Quite near to the top of the list was a rather cunning plan to free solo the landward face route on Centre Stack just off the north face of Tory Island. (Tory Island guidebook is HERE)   

Centre Stack Film

   Centre Stack (more detail HERE) was first climbed in 2009 by Phillip "Chuck" Stevens and Martin Boner, they climbed the full stack height arete running up the sea ward face in two pitches. The second ascent of the stack was in 2011 when Wolfgang Schueller and my good self climbed the slightly intimidating looking landward arete at Severe.  It was then, in 2011, that a first thought that this route would make a superb free solo began to manifest itself.

   Free soloing is quite simply climbing without any ropes or other protection, so for most part a fall will potentially be terminal. The moral of the story is you can not fall, which in turn focuses the mind onto the present in a way that very few other activities ever could. Of course, it is not without a bit of concern that you endeavour to play out in this manner.

Overlooking the stack from the clifftops

   Once the decision to free solo the stack was made it was simply a case of waiting for the weather, tides and sea state to all play ball and once the planets have aligned in a suitably calm manner then the games begin.
   On the Sunday in question I caught the 11am ferry from Magheroarty on mainland Donegal and travelled the 14km out to Tory Island, this meant I had to be back on the cliff tops on mainland Tory by 5pm latest to catch the ferry home. I have found that time is the key to gauging progress in all activities where concern can overwhelm. For me it is a mini internal relief valve as I always have a cunning timescale in which pretty much each stage is double the length it realistically needs to be, a bit like John Cleese in the film Clockwise. It is also a case of ticking as many unknowns as is possible before they become a problem. The case of a sea stack on Tory Island the greatest unknowns are sea state and weather, especially the amount of sea motion in the channel between the stack and mainland Tory. This 50m sea passage is prone to monster seas as it is open to west to north seas and off course being 14km west of Ireland in the Atlantic it is never easy to gauge from the mainland of Donegal.    

The short paddle out

   Arrived on Tory at about 11.30am and after an audience with The King and Moira ni Gallagher I headed across the island and at this point I was moving as quick as I could. Up to this point it was only an educated guess as to whether the sea channel to the stack would be crossable or whether there was too much west to north sea on. Once overlooking the stack from the clifftops it was game on, a bit of northerly ripple in the sea below but nothing to stop the mighty dingy on its voyage of foolishness. 

Looking up the route

   A swift rigging of the 50m single from the clifftops to the storm beach below and I abseiled to the Tory mainland exit point on the house sized boulders below. It is only once the process has began that the sense of equilibrium can be achieved as it is all to easy to say, no i'm too scared and simply stop and return to the Tory Hotel to drink coffee with Moira.
   I inflated the dingy and made the short calm crossing to the base of the stack. Once at the base of the stack I decided to only take one of the 6om half ropes as weight and the overhanging start of the route made me feel a bit uneasy. This would also mean finding a second abseil point on the stack as a single 60 was going to mean two abseils from the summit back to sea level. This was a minor cause for concern but was vastly overshadowed by the weight of the second rope and the ever spiraling thoughts of falling.   

Climbing the route

   And Sho, I began to climb, the first move of the ground is the hardest and makes you commit to a bit of a lunge for a flat hold. Once you reach the hold you bring your feet up to a small stance and begin to feel sick as you are now committed at 5 ft off the ground, 30 ft above the sea, 100ft from mainland Tory at the base of a 45m stack and below a 50m sea cliff surrounding you from the Tory side, which in turn is 14 km west of the Donegal mainland. You are, off course totally alone having told no one where you are or what you are doing except "heading out to Tory."

   It is now, once you are committed to the climb that real mind games begin.

Standing on the summit of Centre Stack

   I climbed a couple more moves onto a good big sloping ledge, where Wolfgang took a belay on the first ascent, 7 years previous. From here I followed the easier angled cracks to a bulging overlap at about 25m above the sea. Climbing through this overhang is by far the most exposed part of the route and a couple of big easy moves on jugs takes you to a stance above the nose. Standing here was the moment I knew everything was going to be good, as the climbing above was nice Severe ground and I also now knew I could abseil in two pitches from the summit on the doubled 60m.   

The Toes of Balor

   Sea stack climbing is an extremely foolish activity in which the consequence of getting it wrong can be death. Free soloing sea stacks is a mind bending game in which each and every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Alas the odds are also heavily stacked in the sea stacks favour with hundred of good reasons why this is a bad idea. The equal and opposite side of this is the overcoming of primal fear and loathing that comes from meeting and facing the inner you, your most tricky opponent.   

      

Sail Rock. Donegal Rock Climbing

 And sho, as summer comes to an end it is most definitely time to catch up on the backlog of much neglected unedited U-tube films, footage, pictures blog posts and in general trying to document some of the 200 or so days out playing on Donegal's sea cliffs, sea stacks and mountains this year so far. It has been beyond an outstanding year but more of that in future posts.

 One of this years Unique Ascent trainee Fionnuala Donnelly spent the middle of the summer seeking vertical pleasure on the Donegal coastline. On a sunny Saturday morning we paid a visit to one of Donegal's older and more established climbing venues to make an ascent of the classic VS Roaring Forties.

Sail Rock Film

 Sail Rock is an outstanding 80m high quartzite slab in an excellent coastal location living in amongst the much poorer quality rock on the sea cliffs along the spectacular Slieve League coastline in the south west of Co Donegal for the free online guide click here to download.
 The Slieve League area of Co Donegal has changed dramatically in the last year or two with the new improved access roads and the massive visitor footfall that Slieve League and the Wild Atlantic Way brings this to this area, it is now possible to drive very close to the crag and save the carrying of a 100 metres static abseil rope from the old car park.
 To find Sail Rock from the Slieve League access road, from the road keep looking towards the sea was you walk/drive along the road until you see the clifftop watch tower then simply follow the path from the road down to the tower, Once at the tower the summit of Sail Rock is but 50 metres to your east.
 Access to the base of Sail Rock is by either an abseil or by a very steep and quite loose alpine scramble down the ridge on the opposite side of the basin to the face. The abseil down the face is by far the best way to reach the base of the face and the start of the routes. Alas as this was not our primary venue choice for today and there was a sea stack in Mayo still laugh at us from across the bay we did not have our 100 metre static with us and so a descent of the ridge it was by default. 

 It took about 25 steep loose minutes to gain the cauldron at the bottom of the routes. We descended the loose aréte until approx 40 metres above the sea and then did an easy 50 metre traverse into the top of the bason and pretty much the start of Mainmast.

Abseil down Sail Rock

Access Traverse

The Base of Sail Rock

Looking up Sail Rock

 Anyways on this occasion Fionnuala and my good self climbed Roaring Forties combined the first two pitches and savoured the last pitch especially the final 10 metre pull out onto the main face jugfest. 

 Looking down pitch 2

Topping Out

Ireland's Remote Places

 Spring has arrived in Donegal with a blast of glorious sunshine and without further ado Louise O' Connor and my good self made two swift visits to "Beyond the Ends of the Earth Crag." The first of these visits was on a day of uber bouncy south west seas running and alas the crag was taking green and white to walls and roof of the cave at the back of the crag. We abandoned any cunning plans and went and visited an old friend along the coast, "The Unforgiven" sea stack now has a new and slightly less emotional exit point. :-)
 The second visit to the crag resulted in equally bumpy sea conditions BUT seas were running from the west and allowed us to abseil into the cave at the back of the crag and climb a superb 40 meter high line traverse across the wall, all in glorious sunshine. "Exposure Explosion" is an excellent traverse line with superb juggy rock throughout the climb.  

Exposure Explosion film

 "Beyond the Ends of the Earth Crag" is surely a prime contender for the most remote rock climbing location on mainland Ireland. It sits approx 5 km from An Port road end and the walk in is along the wildest stretch of coast line in Ireland. I have been playing out on this area of coast since May 2008 and have made over 500 visits to the sea cliffs and sea stacks living along this coast, it really is an outstanding place to be. I have never failed to have fun on this coast in all my visits in fact it gets harder to leave and return to the real world on every visit.

DJ Locker Traverse film

 The above film shows the first visit to this remote sea cliff as Peter O' Toole joined in the nautical action for a 70 meter low level traverse above an equally tetchy ocean. The climbing on this route is of the same high quality as "Exposure Explosion," but being much closer to the sea it is prone to much more nautical action as the above film shows.

Glenlough Bay

Beyond The End's of the Earth

View from the crag

"Exposure Explosion" the route

Peter O' Toole on "DJ Locker Traverse"

 Louise O' Connor on "Exposure Explosion."

Inishowen Rock Climbing

 The county of Donegal currently plays host to over 2800 rock climbs on pretty much every rock climbing medium that Ireland has to offer. From overhanging mudstone, multi-pitch mountain crags, uninhabited islands and off course, nearly 100 Sea Stacks, I tend to think of the rock climbing available in Donegal as Ireland in miniature. The Donegal on-line guide gives details of all these different climbing mediums and locations in 20 free PDF guidebook downloads, CLICK HERE.

 The peninsula of Inishowen in Northern Donegal is in rock climbing terms, Donegal in miniature, with a huge collection of climbs and locations around its coast. From the stack and sea cliffs at Leenan Head, the slabs, corners and cracks at the ever popular Malin Head (Ireland's most Northerly point) along the coast to Culdaff and down to Kinnego Bay. The current Inishowen climbing guidebook is available as a free PDF download CLICK HERE.

Dunaff Head rock climbing film

 Residing on the west coast of Inishowen lives the huge Dunaff Head, this headland is 210 meters at it's highest point and covers an area of approx. 4 square kilometers. Running along it's north face is a very impressive and slightly imposing sea cliff. Alas being a north facing cliff it sees very little direct sunlight and is thus very vegetated and is prone to feldspar leaching. It is in essence a huge wall of loose hairy sea cliff, very impressive to look at but alas not so impressive to climb.
 Living approx 200m out to sea from the base of this wall is a superb 50 meter high sea stack.

Inishowen Sea Stack

 And Sho, a swift E-mail from Sean and Julia, who were across in Donegal on a short break from London, it was descided a wee play out on the Dunaff Head sea stack would be a suitably adventurous activity.  

Julia on the storm beach

 Access to the stack from the surrounding cliff tops is an emotional affair, which involves descending the huge full crag height gully to the south of the stack. This 200 meter long gully descends steeply passing down through one 60m near vertical section below half height. We descended through this steep stepped section on a tensioned back rope using each other as anchors. This part of the gully was loose, wet and very overgrown in places and it was with a hint of relief we lowered down the final steepening and onto the boulder apron below.  

Sean at the base of the gully

 We continued to descend down the gully apron and the more we descended the larger the boulders became until we were approx 30 meters above the sea. Below us the boulders were more the size of houses and stacked in a way by Neptune that there was no easy way down to sea level. We made a very convoluted path through the boulders to a huge flat topped house sized boulder at approx 10 meters above sea level.
 A swift inflation of the wee dingy and one by one we made the 250 meter crossing to the sea level platforms at the seaward side of the stack. This is a very remote, isolated and committing place to be standing as stretching either side of us for at least a kilometer is the 200 meter high walls of Dunaff Head's north face. The sea had gone from being flat calm to a half meter swell from the North West and the winds were now blowing at 19 knots. A deep depression was moving in from the North West and with it an inch of rain was forecast for the following day.
 Due to our location and the height of the facing cliffs this stack does not get very much direct sunlight, especially in mid October, and so it was still very damp and very greasy. We worked our way around the sea level platforms and made to boat journey back to the bottom of the gully. Landing the boat was now a tad move complex as the boulder beach was now surrounded by slightly annoyed white water. A suitable harbour was found to the south and a short coastaleer later we were back at the base of the outstanding gully.  

Back on mainland Donegal

 An hour later we had re-ascended the gully and were standing on the clifftos once again overlooking the sea stack. As always nature has the last laugh as it had now been over 8 hours since we had left the car and this was the first time we had been in sunshine all day. It had of course been blazing sunshine on the summit of Dunaff the whole time we had been climbing. :-) It was at this point that the sun finally hit the stack. 

Re-ascending the gully

Evening Sun on Inishowen

Sea Stack Climbing

 And Sho, with more than a week of 20+ temperatures and blistering sunshine in Co Donegal it would have been rude not to go out and play as much as was humanly possible.
 A week of outstanding weather and we were off to Glenlough Bay, with a view to making an ascent of Tent Stack, alas Neptune was most definitely in the building. We arrived at the top of the cliff top descent gully in the bay to the sound of millions of tonnes of shingle being raised and lower on the beach 200m below. As we descended the gully the 16 foot surf coming into the bay in walls of Caribbean blue sea were absolutely outstanding to stand and watch, but alas we needed to cross them to gain our sea stack.
 Watch the short film below, as it shows just how outstanding Donegal's little known places are, it also shows the county looking very much like southern Spain.

Glenlough Bay Film

Descent Gully to Glenlough Beach

Raised Shingle Storm Beach

Sea Stack Summit view

Glenlough Bay

 The following day, it was a return to An Port for a wee look at Berg Stack and as the previous day the seas were ramping 16 footers from the West. It took a wee bit of nautical guile to circumnavigate the outlaying skerries to allow safe passage to the Berg stack. Once we all arrived at the base of the stack it all became a bit overheated as the "oven effect" was on full pelt in the mid-day sun. We ascended "Mayday, Mayday," up the landward face and with an airy top out onto the huge wedge summit to a perfect sea breeze and pounding white water around us and around all the outer skerries and islands. It would have been easy to sit all day watching the sea.                                  

Berg Stack, An Port

Colm & Christine on Berg Stack Summit

 The following day it was once more back to An Port, this time for a wee look at the mighty Cnoc na Mara.
 It is difficult to put into words the journey up Cnoc na Mara as it is a truly outstanding 100m high sea stack. It's landward arete is a classic 150m long mountaineering/coastaleering journey. The climbing is never hard but is very exposed and there is a wee bit of thought required to the rope work and "getting back down." 
 Thankfully Neptune was in a much better mood and we made the paddle to and from the stack without too much drama! :-)
 The short film below shows the exposed nature of this very spacial sea stack climb. :-) 

Sea Stack Climbing Film

Cnoc na Mara

The Entrance to Shambhala

The Paddle out to the Sea Stack

Holly abandoned on the Cnoc na Mara

Summit Ridge

Looking up, Pitch 4

The 2nd Abseil to sea Level

Donegal Island Adventure

 An Sho, with many cunning plans for a wee bit of an adventure over the May Bank holiday weekend, the weather gods were having it large with a spot of low cloud and a hint of wind as the annual Climbfest, kicked off on Cruit Island. There was an excellent turn out with climbers travelling from all over the country to attend. A new wall got developed with routes from VS to E2 and several other new lines recorded on the existing crags of Golfers Crag and Farmhouse Buttress. Once again excellent work by Alan Tees and his team on another well organised Climbfest weekend.

Tyrolean Traverse Film

Donegal Climbfest

Climbfest Camp Fire

 On the Monday of the Climbfest as the crowds were beginning to thin in the low laying crowd an altogether smaller team of International players donned the thermals and went in search of vertical pleasure. A team of five from Singapore, and two teams of two from Omagh and Dublin went to play. We split into two sides with one side taking to the sea and the other trying to avoid it. :-) One Side heading to Traderg wall and descended to sea level where Neptune was very much in attendance and with a modicum of white watered rage we made a team ascent of "4 April Fools."

 Alas by this time the sea was by now bouncing proper and so we headed to Albatross Zawn to the shelter from Neptunes Ire. The Albatross Zawn provided excellent sheltered rock with all players getting up several routes and Princess Katy taking the yellow jersey on her ascent of a VS jamming crack as the sun came out.

Happy Ladies

Cruit Island rock Climbing

Donegal Sea Kayaking

Cruit Island Rock Climbing

Rope Coiling Lessons

Rock Climbing in the Sun

Topping out in the Sun

Cruit Camp Fire

  The morning after the day before and a rapid turn around in the weather, all hill walking plans were abandoned to favour of a Tyrolean Traverse across the Albatross Zawn. 

 "A Tyrolean Traverse is a method of crossing through free space between two high points on a rope without a hanging cart or cart equivalent." to quote Wikipedia.

 The rigging for the a Tyrolean especially one that spans a 50m+ stretch of sea takes a wee while to set up and involves a lot of prior planning if you wish to avoid swimming. :-) An hour or so later and 14 independent anchors, 100m of semi-static, 120m of dynamic, 20+ HMS karabiners and an assortment of softwear, our creation was ready for airtime and so John Mallon and myself took flight to test the fear factor of the beast.  

 It was now the turn of our international climbing team and so one by one everyone took flight across the zawn. This was a most excellent way to finish a four day stay on Cruit island. 

 This two day adventure holiday was organised in conjunction with Mark, Donna & John of 4 Elements NI 

Tyrolean Traverse

Mid Air Acrobatics

The Exit Point

Tyrolean Across the Zawn

Cruit Island Tyrolean Traverse